A smoking ceremony opened the club’s first Junior Indigenous Round.

FREMANTLE Cockburn Hockey Club held its first Junior Indigenous Round in Lakelands last weekend to commemorate Reconciliation Week.

The inaugural event took place in the break between the morning junior hockey games and the afternoon games, offering a range of activities for the public to participate in.

A Welcome to Country kicked off the event at 9.30am, followed by a smoking ceremony and a didgeridoo performance by Kookaburra Man and Uncle Ken Hayward alongside dancer Malachi.

Tasting plates of kangaroo, emu and crocodile were provided as well as a raffle and a number of art activities like sand painting.

“All of our junior players wore fantastic, strikingly designed shirts by our local Indigenous member Terri Golding from Clontarf Aboriginal College,” says junior social co-ordinator Mark Evans.

“We were very excited about celebrating our Indigenous culture with our juniors.”

The president of Hocky WA attended and due to the fantastic turn out, Fremantle Cockburn Hockey Club will now run the event annually.