Nicky WinmarPrint Page

The sculpture commemorates Australian Rules footballer, Neil Elvis "Nicky" Winmar. The statue recognises the significant contribution of Aboriginal Australians to Aussie Rules.

The statue immortalises the moment Winmar lifted his St Kilda jumper, pointed at his torso and declared ‘I’m black and I’m proud’ during a match against Collingwood in 1993. The moment led to the introduction of the AFL anti-vilification rule; and how it has endured as a symbol of Aboriginal pride, and equality in Australian sport.

Nicky Winmar is an Aboriginal Noongar man who grew up on the Pingelly Reserve, 154 kilometres east of Perth, and came to Perth in 1983 as a 17-year-old to play for South Fremantle before being recruited by the St Kilda Club in Melbourne in 1987.

 In a twelve-season career with St Kilda, Winmar won the club's best and fairest award, the Trevor Barker Award, in 1989 and 1995 and was also twice named in the All-Australian team.  He left St Kilda at the end of the 1998 season and was drafted by the Western Bulldogs, playing one further season in the AFL before retiring at the end of the 1999 season.

Having represented Western Australia in eight interstate matches, Winmar was named in St Kilda's Team of the Century in 2003 and was inducted into the West Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2009.  He was the first Aboriginal footballer to play 200 games in the AFL and was named in the Indigenous Team of the Century in 2005.

He was involved in several incidents of racial vilification during his career and a photograph of Winmar responding to one such incident during the 1993 season has been described as one of the most memorable images in Australian sporting history.  The photograph taken by Wayne Lubley was the basis for the design of the sculpture.

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