Young Redfern All Blacks players have helped turn their journeys through Gadigal Country into a large-scale public artwork, guided by a former club junior who became an elite athlete and Aboriginal artist.
Through Their Eyes was co-created by junior players during workshops led by Worimi and Bundjalung artist Taleena Simon. Footprints, travel symbols, and dotted patterns trace the players’ journeys, landmarks, and experiences. The finished piece is now installed on construction hoardings along Link Road in Zetland as part of the City of Sydney’s Creative Hoardings collection.
Mapping youth perspectives
The artwork centres the experiences of the club’s younger generation rather than its senior teams or sporting achievements. During collective workshops, players used traditional symbols and visual patterns to represent the places that shape their daily lives in inner Sydney.
Simon brought a deep personal connection to the process, having grown up around Redfern and Glebe while playing junior rugby league for the Redfern All Blacks. She later represented NSW in rugby league, played for the Sydney Roosters in the NRLW, and competed in Australia’s national rugby sevens program. Introduced to art by her father, James P. Simon, she built a creative practice centered on identity and culture.
Eight decades of history
Formed in 1944, the Redfern All Blacks joined the South Sydney Junior Rugby League as Australia’s longest-running all-Aboriginal rugby league club. Historic State Library of NSW photographs record the side drawing large crowds at Redfern Oval as early as 1946.
Heritage records highlight the club as a pivotal meeting ground for First Nations people relocating to the city, fostering community, identity, and belonging. Redfern Oval quickly became an anchor for the local Indigenous sporting community. The club was also one of seven founding teams at the inaugural Koori Rugby League Knockout at Camdenville Oval in 1971—a tournament established to expand opportunities for Indigenous players and unite communities. Across generations, the club has continued running junior and senior programs while developing pathways to elite levels of the sport.
From club roots to the streetscape
Through Their Eyes joins eight works selected for the latest Creative Hoardings series. Under the Council initiative, developer sites in high-pedestrian areas must cloak construction hoardings with licensed works by living Australian artists or site-relevant historical imagery. Developers may commission bespoke pieces or select from licensed Council works spanning themes of wildlife, Country, botany, and identity.
More than 80 years after the original All Blacks took to Redfern Oval, the club’s newest generation is extending that visual narrative into the wider urban landscape.
Published 22-Sept-2026
