Participants at Shooting Stars’ Laverton site are now the proud owners of their unique team name and dress design, that incorporates indigenous elements to communicate a bright future.
The LA Kungkas (Laverton Girls).
The LA Kungkas’ team dress design.
As Shooting Stars’ Premier Partner, the Gold Industry Group were delighted to witness the program’s expansion in the Western Australian Goldfields region last year, with the launch of the Laverton site, following a successful Term 4 trial. Laverton is located 957 km north east of Perth, and 124 km north east of fellow Shooting Stars site in Leonora.
Since opening in September 2019, Shooting Stars’ Laverton site has targeted 25 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander girls from Years 3-10 at Laverton District High School.
Naming their netball team and designing a unique netball dress is a significant part of establishing a new Shooting Stars site, and the participants rose to the challenge, working together to decide on a name and create a design for the dress.
Their chosen name LA Kungka’s means Laverton Girls, and the participants will don their stunning new dress designs this term.
The participants described their chosen design, explaining the meanings behind each element.
“Our dress represents us as women from our community working together. The blue represents our eternal blue sky, the black represents our people, and the orange and yellow colours represent the desert sun of the Goldfields.”
We look forward to seeing the LA Kungka's shooting goals both in classroom and on the court in 2020.
Given Laverton’s proximity to the Leonora site means participants from both locations have a chance to interact, and Shooting Stars’ Program Coordinators the chance to enjoy each other’s support and the valuable opportunity to collaborate. The Laverton girls have enjoyed sport and especially a scratch netball match held against their Leonora sisters. To date, both sites have experienced excursions together and are learning about volunteering and working together to achieve great things.
The Laverton site was also visited by WA Treasurer, Ben Wyatt MLA, who presented the girls with Gold Industry Group gold netballs.
The Gold Industry Group is proud to support netball in Western Australia, as the Principal Partner of Netball WA, Principal Partner of West Coast Fever and Premier Partner of Shooting Stars; thanks to members Gold Fields, Northern Star Resources, Saracen Mineral Holdings, Newcrest Mining, St Barbara Limited, Newmont Australia, AngloGold Ashanti Australia, Gold Road Resources, Ramelius Resources and The Perth Mint.