Hawthorn have renamed Waverley Park ‘Bunjil Bagora’ to help honour Indigenous culture

Hawthorn has made a big statement by retiring the name Waverley and adopting an Indigenous name for its home base. Here’s why the Hawks made the move.

Hawthorn has renamed its Waverley Park training base ‘Bunjil Bagora’ to help honour Indigenous culture and reconciliation in Australia.

News Corp can reveal the club from Monday will only refer to its headquarters as ‘Bunjil Bagora’ meaning ‘Home of the Hawk’.

The Hawks have become the first AFL club to use indigenous language to name its training facility in time for the first day of pre-season training on Monday.

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New coach Sam Mitchell will officially take charge as the first-to-fourth year players pull the boots on to help kick-start a new era for the brown and gold.

The new training base name is a significant step for a club which had three of the greatest indigenous players in the game’s history in Lance Franklin, Cyril Rioli and Shaun Burgoyne as well as premiership player Chance Bateman over the past two decades.

‘Bunjil Bagora’ comes from the Wurundjeri Woiwurrung language and was gifted to the club by Senior Elder Aunty Joy Murphy.

Hawthorn Chief Executive Justin Reeves in front of the newly named Bunjil Bagora. Photo: Matthew McLeish

Chief executive Justin Reeves said it was a proud moment for the club as the Hawks were “committed to celebrating the cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people”.

“By giving our training facility an Indigenous name we are making a real statement about what our commitment looks like,” Reeves said.

“We are in a privileged position as a footy club.

“And we have a unique ability to use that power of football to provide opportunities for the broader community to engage with and further their understanding of the cultures of First Nations people.”

Bunjil (a wedge-tailed eagle or eaglehawk) is known as the ancestral creator spirit and is regarded as majestic, swift and fierce.

Bagora can be translated as a cultural place and represents a rich and surviving land.

Reeves urged all Hawthorn members and fans to embrace the new name.

“This something we are really proud of and we want people to say we are going to ‘Bunjil Bagora’ to go to training,” Reeves said.

“We are having a board meeting next Monday and that will be held at Bunjil Bagora. That’s our home.

“And we are the first club to do it, which is fantastic.”

The Hawks have erected new signage to rename its headquarters thanks to cleaning partners Sanifect.

The club from Monday will only refer to its headquarters as ‘Bunjil Bagora’ meaning ‘Home of the Hawk’. Picture: AAP Image

Reeves said it was an exciting time for the club as it prepares to begin preseason training and take pick No. 5 to Wednesday night’s national AFL draft.

Among the leading targets for Hawthorn‘s pick is jet midfielder Josh Ward.

“It’s a new chapter for Hawthorn,” Reeves said.

“We want to improve and develop our younger players. We know what we have got to do, we have made that pretty clear, and we are invested in that work over the next few years.

“We are going to the draft, we have got some really talented young kids we have recruited over the last two or three years that we want to see develop.

“So for us at the moment it is all about bringing in talent and developing it for our next period of success.”

Reeves said Mitchell has impressed as head coach in his work in the off-season.

“Anyone who knows Sam knows how keen he is so he is completely invested, and he has a new coaching team around him with a fresh group of players, and we are really excited about that,” he said.

Originally published as Hawthorn have renamed Waverley Park ‘Bunjil Bagora’ to help honour Indigenous culture