Pitcha Makin Fellas: Join the club

Love it or hate it, Australian Rules Football is an important part of our history and culture. Join the club is characterised by the irreverent humour that is a hallmark of the Pitcha Makin Fellas’ work and is both a celebration and a criticism of Australia’s favourite sport. A playful series of trading-card-style portraits parodies the hypermasculine world of footy and criticises the power imbalances that stem from the corporatisation of the game. The Fellas also address the importance of footy in bringing regional communities together and acknowledge the work the AFL have undertaken to increase Indigenous participation and leadership in the game. The Pitcha Makin Fellas are an art collective based in Ballarat, Victoria. They are Koorie artists and writers whose ancestries hail from different language groups across Australia. They are passionate about culture and community and create vibrant expressions of their personal histories through painting and storytelling. Since forming in 2013, the Fellas have been included in numerous group and solo exhibitions and their work is represented in public and private collections. They regularly lead community and school-based projects and workshops and have worked on diverse projects including for the Koorie Heritage Trust, Melbourne Museum and White Night (Melbourne and Ballarat) and the Ballarat International Foto Biennale. They are currently undertaking a studio residency as Adjunct Research Fellas at Federation University Australia, Ballarat.