Paul Ralph, founding member and current CEO of KARI, gives his thoughts on the Rabbitohs 2017 Indigenous Jersey.
KARI is Australia's largest Indigenous foster care agency and a long-time partner of the South Sydney Rabbitohs. Paul is a proud Aboriginal man with family connections from both the North Coast and South Coast of NSW. For the past 35 years he has lived in Gandangara Country, South West Sydney.
KARI features on the chest of the Indigenous jersey to be worn during Sunday's clash with the Penrith Panthers.
"I love it. I think it's spectacular," said Paul Ralph.
"We're on that jersey. Here we are a very, very proud Aboriginal service out there on that jersey as well. The feedback I've got is 'we love it' and that's fantastic.
"We've got six or seven players playing in this team who are Indigenous and that's a wonderful thing to have and I know those players will be playing very hard for their communities, the Club and all those people they support."
The Rabbitohs Indigenous round coincides with NAIDOC week and is a celebration of the Club's strong connection to the Australian Indigenous community.
"[It's about] sending those very positive messages about the greatness of Aboriginal people and what we do in regards to supporting Australia moving forward and highlighting all our successes," said Mr Ralph.
"It's also a good opportunity for us to talk about our relationship with South Sydney and also Souths Cares because together we've been doing some great work across many communities.
"We wanted to be very selective about who we partner up with and South Sydney is the premier Rugby League Club that really do get involved in the right things that we think are important. That is that community work that we all love to do."
