Gympie students to help form honour guard at Broncos v Storm game at Suncorp Stadium

Gympie students involved in the Beyond the Broncos Girls Academy will help form a guard of honour tonight when the Broncos run out to take on the Melbourne Storm at Suncorp Stadium.

James Nash student Freedom Fischer was selected to paint a pair of David Mead's boots for the NRL's 2021 Indigenous Round. She is pictured with Nash Beyond the Broncos coordinator, Trina McCauley.

The Brisbane Broncos called on some talented Gympie Beyond the Broncos Girls Academy students to paint players football boots for the NRL’s 2021 Indigenous Round.

Each with their own story, the boots were inspired by the students’ culture and identity, and tell a story of people coming together.

More than 20 students took part in the painting process, with boots reaching as far as Cunnamulla in Queensland and Lismore in New South Wales.

From James Nash, Laurel Scammell was given the opportunity to paint Tyson Gamble's boots and Freedom Fischer was selected to paint a pair of David Mead's boots.

Titled Making A Memory, Freedom spoke about the strong connection she felt with country and wanting to incorporate Mead’s heritage into her piece.

James Nash student Laurel Scammell was selected to paint a pair of Tyson Gamble's boots for the NRL's 2021 Indigenous Round. She is pictured with Nash Beyond the Broncos coordinator, Trina McCauley.

“David is from Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea, so his mob’s traditional art style and history are completely different from my mob’s, the Gunggarri People, from Mitchell. In order to do the artwork for his boots, which represented him I needed to find out about his history and his people," Freedom said.

"I spent some time researching and learning about the Papua New Guinean art styles and the meaning behind them before I started forming a proper idea.

"I knew from the start that I wanted to design the boots to not just represent him, but to also represent his team. So in the final design there is not only Papua New Guinea colours and traditional art, but also Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander colours and artistic designs".

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The Beyond the Broncos artists will form a guard of honour as the team runs out to take on the Melbourne Storm tonight, Thursday, May 27.

A James Nash spokesman said, “We're very proud of Laurel and Freedom for their beautiful designs”.

You can also see the players receive their boots here: https://www.broncos.com.au/news/2021/05/26/boots-with-meaning-players-react-to-their-new-boots/