Melbourne Storm is honouring and celebrating seven of the different cultures including Tonga in its NRL playing group, with its 2023 multicultural t-shirt.

Seven artists were commissioned to contribute to the design, which represents Australia’s indigenous people, the people of Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, Cook Islands and Maori.

Ivoni Taula was the artist for Tonga.

Storm CEO Justin Rodski said today that it’s a unique design, which has been well received by players, members and fans and also features each player’s name and their Storm playing number.

“The artists involved did some amazing work in honouring each of the seven cultures.”

The 2023 Storm players represented by the cultures in the multicultural t-shirt include Nelson Asofa- Solomona, Jahrome Hughes, Will Warbrick, Jayden Nikorima, Reimis Smith, Jack Howarth, Joe Chan (Maori); Xavier Coates and Justin Olam (PNG), Jordan Grant and Reimis Smith (Indigenous), Tepai Moeroa (Cook Islands), Tui Kamikamica (Fiji), Dean Ieremia, Aaron Pene, Sua Fa’alogo and Young Tonumaipea (Samoa) and George Jennings and Eli Katoa (Tonga).

Meanwhile, the t-shirt made its first appearance on-field warm-up prior to the multicultural round match against the Gold Coast Titans on Saturday. It was worn again by their  NRL squad at training on Tuesday, and wil be worn in the warm-up to the match against Wests Tigers, at AAMI Park on 24 March.

Multicultural Round is an annual celebration of the diverse cultural backgrounds that make up the rugby league community.

It is the first themed round of the NRL Telstra Premiership season with a central message, Stronger Together - recognising, respecting and celebrating diverse cultural heritage at all levels of the game.

In the NRL, players represent 63 different national heritages, with almost a third of players (29%) born outside Australia and half (51%) having at least one parent born overseas. Forty-five percent of players identify as Pasifika, while ten percent identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander.

Contributing artists

TONGA: Ivoni Taula

MAORI: Martina Taiawa

SAMOA: Anthony Sofe

FIJI: Sereana Suguturaga - brother Ratu

PNG: Benjamin Laho

INDIGENOUS: Shanai Kellett

COOK ISLANDS: James Henry