Orange is well known for holding NAIDOC Week celebrations in October when the weather warms up but for Kurt Behan, every week is a celebration of culture.
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The Orange United Warriors veteran was proudly modelling the club's slick Indigenous jersey at Wade Park ahead of their match against rivals Molong Bulls on Saturday, July 6.
Behan said reconciliation was at the heart of the Warriors.
"Our club is all about reconciliation," he said.
"So for us, Indigenous round probably is every week but it's always nice to mix it up with a special jersey throughout the year.
"It's nice to be able to engage the community."
![Kurt Behan and Dan Lamb model the Orange United Warriors 2024 Indigenous jersey. Picture by Dominic Unwin Kurt Behan and Dan Lamb model the Orange United Warriors 2024 Indigenous jersey. Picture by Dominic Unwin](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/131358433/de8ba637-fb0a-4d51-b43c-defe251aa1a9.JPG/r263_88_4676_3154_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Community invited to celebrate culture
Warriors players were subject to an alleged racial slur during their game against Canowindra Tigers on Sunday with NSWRL launching an investigation.
President Dan Lamb previously said the incident would not ruin Saturday's celebration.
While the official Woodbridge Cup Indigenous round is July 13-14, Warriors players wanted the chance to mark the event in front of a home crowd.
Uncle Dale Carr will perform a Welcome to Country and a smoking ceremony in addition to some traditional dancers.
Warriors players will don a one-off jersey, heavily inspired by the 2023 NRL Indigenous All-Stars design.
Behan said he would love to see as many people from as many cultural backgrounds head down to Wade Park.
"It's fairly obvious who we are as a club, we're a family orientated club," he said.
"We've got a large population of Aboriginal players within our club but we've also got a lot of non-Aboriginal players within our club as well.
"We'd love to see anyone from the community come down."
Warriors face off against Molong in all three grades.
The league tag team ended Tigers' unbeaten run on Sunday and could jump into the top four if they beat the fifth-placed Bullettes.
For the first grade side, Behan admitted it was essentially do-or-die with the team sitting 10th and three points outside the top eight.
"It's huge, we have to win," he said.
"We don't get any second chances I don't think after this week, I think every game for us from here on in is pretty much do or die.
"We might be able to drop one or two if we're lucky, but there's only four or five games left.
"Molong, they're going alright. They're probably a little dark horse I think at the moment, they're silently getting a few wins on the trot.
"I think we'll put on a bit of a show."