The Marquette men’s basketball players will look a bit different to fans on Nov. 30, donning a vibrant turquoise jersey and warmup shirt instead of their typical navy and gold.
The shirts that the Golden Eagles will wear at the end of the month coincide with Nike’s N7 initiative to honor Native traditions and raise money for Indigenous youth sports.
“While this shirt beautifully connects to N7 programming, the relationship Native Peoples have with the world all year long shouldn’t be forgotten beyond the month of November,” Jacqueline Schram, director of public affairs and special assistant for Native American affairs, said in an email.
Beyond the basketball court, there is a much greater backstory to the creation of these shirts.
Marquette alumna Danielle Barrett, Arts ’24, had the opportunity to design Marquette’s Nike N7 shirt for 2024 with the help of Alexandra Gambacorta, Arts ’18, Educational Preparedness Program instructor.
Barrett said she was approached by Schram, who asked her to take charge of the project.
“They wanted someone local and indigenous to design the shirt,” Barrett said. “[Schram] thought of me and offered it to me about a year ago.”
Gambacorta, who has known Barrett since her first year of college, said getting involved with the shirt design project was an opportunity to highlight Barrett and the work she has done across campus, as well as the work of organizations like the Native American Student Association and the Marquette Indigeneity Lab who Gambacorta believes are “being the difference.”
“This was really about her talking about her culture, background and history,” Gambacorta said. “It was just a really cool process to be able to work with her and hear her ideas, see how she incorporated her own family history in the design and learn a little bit more about her in the process.”
T-shirts with the same turquoise hue and yellow geometric pattern that the men’s basketball team will wear have been displayed front and center for purchase at the Marquette Spirit Shop since Nov. 1, the date marking the beginning of Native American Heritage Month.
Barrett described the feeling of seeing her photo and design on display at the spirit shop as surreal. She said it took seeing the setup in person for it to hit her that it was official.
“To have the display front and center as a focal point when anyone walks into the Spirit Shop is important because it requires you to stop, read and look at what is on display,” Gambacorta said. “I think it’s just a way to interrupt and to make people pause, slow down and acknowledge this sort of history that they might not know about.”
Regarding the game at Fiserv Forum on Nov. 30, where thousands of fans will see her shirt on display, Barrett said she is humbled by the opportunity.
“It’s a gratifying feeling to see the efforts that I’ve put in being shown,” Barrett said. “It makes me very happy to see that awareness for my people and my culture is being advocated for, not just for me, but also from the school in a way that I as a singular person could not do without the school’s publicity and networking.”
Highlighting the N7 shirt at a men’s basketball game is a way to bring awareness to Marquette’s Native students, faculty, staff and student athletes, Gambacorta said. She hopes the turquoise color causes viewers to ask what the jerseys represent and do research.
Gambacorta also mentioned the enduring racism Native students, community members and fans experience at Marquette basketball games that she thinks is not talked about enough. She said this racism comes from the era of the university’s old mascot icon that stereotypes Native Peoples.
“MU basketball fans still wear Marquette ‘Warrior’ gear and chant racial slurs at the games,” Gambacorta said in an email. “This also comes out of horrific lack of education around Native history around the country, erasure narratives and the history of colonization.”
Barrett said her shirt is also a reminder that people do not always have to look Indigenous in the way they are portrayed in stereotypical history books. She said no tribe is the same, and they are complex in their cultures.
“Our people are here, and we’re not a historical people,” Barrett said. “With the lack of historical education that we have in the U.S., oftentimes there’s stereotypes or microaggressions that are put onto us just because people aren’t knowledgeable.”
Barrett wants to continue to advocate for youth and Indigenous incoming students at Marquette who may not see any public figures that look like them.
“Just because you look different doesn’t mean you can’t also be successful to the extent where you’re famous, you’re an actor, athlete, doctor, lawyer, whatever it may be,” Barrett said.
Partial proceeds from the Nike N7 shirt go to support the Native American Student Association, which works to bring awareness and holds events to help the community understand Native history.
While designing each element of shirt, Barrett made sure to take inspiration from her tribe, family and Native culture.
Geometric tribal beading and shapes
Barrett said the yellow triangles on the N7 shirt come from the geometric beading of her tribe, which resides on flat land.
“Different tribes have different elements of beading,” Barrett said. “Some are more floral than others, and some, like my tribe, are more geometrical depending on what parts of the environment or symbols are culturally important to that group.”
The star was taken from Barrett’s tribe’s flag with seven points for seven clans. She said it also stands for the Seven Generations, a common philosophy in Native culture.
“You act in accordance with showing respect for seven generations before you, as well as making sure that there’s a sustainable life for the seven generations behind you,” Barrett said.
Past, present and future
The front of the shirt shows yellow arrows pointing out, as well as arrows pointing into negative space, both of which design choices Barrett said are important.
The arrows pointed out are inspired by Marquette in the center of the design, Barrett said. She explained that they represent students, alumni and incoming students from the past, present and future who are going spend time at Marquette and go out and “be the difference” after graduation.
Barrett said the arrows pointing toward the negative space reflect everything the university has done for her and other students, and the design shows respect.
Braids and boarding schools
The back of the shirt is symbolic of a braid, for Barrett’s tribe being longhair and typically having their hair braided, twisted or worn long.
“Braids are symbolic to more than one cultural tribe,” Barrett said. “It’s just kind of a unanimous symbol for Native people that we cherish, as well as it looks like an exclamation point with the N7 on the bottom, exclaiming the whole purpose of the shirt.”
The back side also represents the children who were forcefully taken from their homes into boarding schools and forced to cut their hair and not embrace their culture. Barrett said she wants to raise awareness of this history as it becomes more well-known.
“As Native people, we have always been here,” Schram said in an email. “We haven’t forgotten this long history, but many others have.”
Ribbon shirt stripes
Barrett said the three stripes on the front represent ribbon shirts, which typically have stripes across the top of men’s shirts and along the bottom of women’s ankle-length skirts. She described them as being like graphic tees, in the way that they are a form of personal representation of culture.
Family ties
Barret explained how part of the shirt was inspired by her father, a dancer whose beadwork she often admired. She said her father also picked the final design that she submitted to be voted on, which ended up being the design that was selected to represent Marquette for their 2024 N7 initiative.
This story was written by Mia Thurow. She can be reached at [email protected].
