Maroons digging stick: A token of connection

Resilience, commitment, selflessness and respect are the values the Harvey Norman Queensland Maroons are holding dear going into Women's State of Origin Game I at Suncorp Stadium on Thursday.

Tracey Harbour - a mother-of-five, wife, elder and artisan - joined the Maroons in camp earlier in the year to speak about the importance of connection and resilience and presented the side with a digging stick.

A token of connection. A token of resilience.

Maroons coach Tahnee Norris said the digging stick was an important piece for her side moving forward, noting players were selected from different BMD Premiership teams and all played for different NRLW teams.

"It's important to understand what it means to be a Queenslander, what it means to play rugby league at this level, and what Origin means... it is so special," Norris said.

"They can play for Broncos, Cowboys... but what it means to be a Queenslander in Origin, it's massive. To get the three games this year and to be able to create history is huge."

Norris said the digging stick was a token that connected her team to each other and to the state.

"Wanted to go back to connection with country but also get the girls to understand the Indigenous journey throughout Queensland and tie that into our journey in women's rugby league in Queensland," Norris said.

"(Harbour) took us through a full journey of her family and what they've gone through on the land and tied it back into what we're going through as women rugby league players. She drew the parallels with what they've gone through and what we've gone through in the women's game.

"The key values we have with the Queensland team, she actually tied into those without knowing what the values were."

Norris said respect and resilience were "the really big ones" and the digging stick was a token of these.

"It's really unique," Norris said.

"They wanted to give us something from their land, from her property... so they went searching on their property for something they thought was going to be a part of history. Really special actually. Gave me goosebumps when they were talking about it.

"Comes back to a tree on their land. It's the most resilient tree; drought resilient, just lasts through everything, really hardened. They use it to dig for food. And they actually use it as a protection thing. It's a woman's stick. A man can't use it; it's a female token. 

"They brought it in and described what it was all about and how it related back to this tree, which was a really important piece of country for them and how resilient this tree is.

"We actually got everyone - all of the girls in the room plus the former players like myself, Jo Barrett and Sarah Walker - to put our thumb prints, painted, on it.

"Everyone has their thumb print on the stick and they connected them all with the dots. Her son connected them all. It's a piece of history for us; a legacy piece that continues on... every single person who is new to our team gets to put their thumb print on this."

Norris said it was special for the digging stick to come about in a history-making year for the Maroons, playing at Suncorp Stadium for the first time in Game I and playing three games for the first time.

"It's a history-making year," Norris said, adding captain Ali Brigginshaw would carry the stick out at Suncorp Stadium ahead of Game I.