Last week we launched our fundraiser to support the work of Australian Netball Diamond 105, Sharon Finnan-White and her First Nations Academy of Excellence.
Thank you to everyone who has purchased a sticker pack and badge.
You can still grab a limited edition sticker pack for just $10 including postage in Australia.
And you can include a badge with your stick pack for $15 including postage in Australia.
FNAE is a unique program designed to support young Indigenous netballers, and in time Indigenous athletes from other sports, from regional and remote communities across Australia.
These stickers were designed in collaboration with Sharon’s FNAE participants and the Blackroo Industries design team. Sharon asked her netballers to share what the academy and netball means to them and they came up with some incredibly moving words and designs.
Star graphic designer Kel Rowe was able to then find inspiration from these pieces and make digital art for our limited edition stickers and badge.
Thank you Kel for working with us to bring all these ideas together to create these!
You can see all the designs from the FNAE netballers on our website.
These designs really show you just how much impact Sharon is having and we know with some more support, Sharon can continue to grow FNAE and bring more First Nations athletes into the great game of netball and empower more Deadly Diamonds.
Murri fan’s Matildas diary
We have a special piece to share with you all in this edition of the Siren Summer Series! We are thrilled to share a piece by the awesome Ellen van Neerven!
Ellen is an award-winning author, editor and educator of Mununjali (Yugambeh language group) and Dutch heritage. Their latest book, Personal Score: Sport, Culture, Identity weaves history, memoir, journalism and poetry.
In this piece, Ellen reflects on the Matildas matches in the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in a beautifully written and poetic fan diary.
Join us for the next Siren Summer Book Club?
We had a blast at our first Siren Summer Book Club last week with the awesome Fiona Crawford discussing her book, The Matilda Effect. Thanks to everyone who joined us online for a chat!
We’re excited to announce our next book will be Ellen van Neerven’s Personal Score: Sport, Culture, Identity! So if you enjoyed Ellen’s piece in this issue, you will love Personal Score!
The next book club will be online in late January. We will confirm the date and time soon but wanted to give you time to get your hands on the book and start reading.
We’re looking forward to this one! Happy holiday reading everyone!
The latest from the Siren Sport x ABC Sport partnership
Continuing our campaign to support the work of Sharon Finnan-White and her First Nations Academy of Excellence, you can read more about the program in this story for ABC Sport that Siren co-founder Kasey Symons wrote as part of our Siren Sport x ABC Sport partnership.
Congratulations to Siren co-founders Kasey Symons and Alison Smirnoff!
Siren co-founders Kasey Symons and Alison Smirnoff have been awarded a 23/24 Michael Gordon Fellowship from the Melbourne Press Club!
This fellowship will support the team to travel to Townsville to do more storytelling around Sharon Finnan-White’s FNAE, the community she’s building and the stories of the athletes in the academy.
We’re thrilled the Melbourne Press Club supports this storytelling as we’re keen to do as much as possible to help Sharon change the game for First Nations netball.
As you can see from this issue, Sharon’s journey is one we’re passionate about so while we continue to help with as much storytelling as we can, if you’re in a position to, be sure to grab some stickers to help us fundraise!
Siren is now on Patreon!
Thanks to those wonderful people who have joined our Patreon – we very much appreciate your support!
The work that we do at Siren…
commissioning and paying writers and content creators
running the Emerging Sports Writer Program
supporting writers to get their work published on ABC Sport
working hard to create opportunity and build community demands
…demands time and money.
The support of the Siren community has facilitated that work and helped support those commissions and opportunities and we can’t thank you enough.
You can become a Patron of Siren today and help us continue to challenge the status quo of sports media.