Objects of Substance – Interform Netball Shields

BGGS Netball 1944-1977 (English Oak)

Netball, or women’s ‘Basket Ball’—spelled in this manner and as it was originally known, has been part of the Australian women’s sporting landscape for more than 120 years. The game was adapted from American schoolteacher James Naismith’s five-a-side basketball game. As with many 19th- century activities, women and girls wanted to be athletic but were originally hindered by fashion and social opinion. Netball, as we know it, evolved from women looking for solutions to their restrictions to participation in this new sport by adapting the rules. The first adaptation was made by American