Our club is proud to wear the artwork commissioned by Nina Ross, who is a proud Aboriginal woman with connections to Anaiwan and Dunghutti areas of NSW while currently living and working on the lands of the Wonnarua Nation. "Thunder on Country" is worn by all players in our club during matches held over Reconciliation Round in the Maitland & District Cricket Association.

 

At the top of the artwork are suns moving across the sky on long hot summer days. Underneath are animal tracks moving across the land while under that show the movement of the mud crabs scurrying across the wetlands of Shortland on Awabakal Country. The lightening of the "Thornton Thunder" Cricket Club flashes with a grey background. To the left is a large concentric circle *in shades of blue showing the home games on Country with community. To the right are paths of animal tracks bordering the design of travelling symbols to represent the team travelling to away games.

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The mountain symbol on the left represents Mount Sugarloaf on Awabakal Country and the mountain next to it is Mount Yengo on Wonnarua Country. The layers shown on each mountain are the thousands of years they have been standing watching over their Lands with constellations of stars that have lit up the night sky for time immemorial. Behind these are insects buzzing and humming and doing their thing in the local flora of native bushland and gum trees.

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In the middle of the composition show people, men, women and children travelling to watch and support the players. The many many white dots forming circular motions is the tides and flow of the "Coquun" which is the Hunter River in Wonnarua language. This is the life source of abundant food and trade for the Wonnarua people and the neighbouring Nations. In traditional times it flowed strong and was so wide you couldn't cross in some places. It was full of fat fish and sea life and land animals would come and graze and drink from it too in harmony with the First Custodians of the land.

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The larger footprints underneath show the players in the team walking on the Land and feeling it's strength under their feet. To the right is a larger yellow concentric circle. This shows the 11 cricket players working together as a close community to achieve their goals and build relationships that support each player's strengths.

The red strip across the composition shows the tracks of the Wedge-tailed Eagle. The spiritual totem and Creator Spirit of Kawal for the Wonnarua people and Birabahn the Awabakal people.

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In the bottom left we see the marshes of the Shortland Wetlands on Awabakal Country. These wetlands were full of sealift for the First Nations people to meet and trade with and over the sky would be so many birds in flight the sun couldn't be seen.

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On the bottom right are all the fish swimming along the Awabakal coastline.