Sani Townson is standing on a platform, arms outstretched at an angle above his head. He is a wedge-tailed eagle, and the kids in front of him are too. “Five, six, five, six, seven, eight,” he says with all the instructive pizzazz of a lead choreographer tasked with teaching more than 200 school students to dance in formation.
After weeks of rehearsals, the birds are flying in unison. Next to them, another set of young dancers are slithering like snakes. Further afield, turtles are ducking and diving as one. There are also goannas and sharks and stingrays, and praying mantes and ringtail possums. They are the real-life totems of eight Brisbane Broncos NRL and NRLW players, as depicted on this year’s Indigenous round jersey.
