It's a simple way the Canberra Raiders halfback is keeping the language of his Mununjali people alive.

Fogarty's making his long-awaited Raiders debut in the NRL Indigenous Round - up against the Parramatta Eels at Canberra Stadium on Sunday.

He'll be one of five Indigenous players amongst the Green Machine side - along with Sebastian Kris, Adam Elliott, Xavier Savage and Jack Wighton - with the club boasting more than 30 from their juniors through to their seniors.

Fogarty says it's massively important to have so many Indigenous players pulling on the Raiders' jersey this weekend.

And he hopes to inspire the next generation of Indigenous Raiders to come through and wear the jersey with pride.

Those five Raiders will be represented by their tribes' totem animals - the lyre bird, goanna, emu, wedgetail eagle and the crocodile.

For Fogarty, every time he sees a wedgetail soaring over head, he knows he's being watched over and protected.

Just as he watches over his young family. A young family he's teaching his culture and traditions to.

The 28-year-old's become a leader - not just on the football field, where he was the Gold Coast captain before moving to Canberra, but also off it.

His local library in Beaudesert reached out to him to become an ambassador when they were putting together a book, Jarjum Gurema, of his local language.

It's that language Fogarty's helping keep alive every night.

"In our culture a lot of stuff gets lost through generations and one of my cousins is very big on getting the language back up and running within our schools and community," he said.

"We've got a little dictionary with a couple of words and the good thing about having someone to teach you the words is every night when I'm at home I tell my little ones to say, 'Goodnight love' in our language back home, which is really cool."

With his father coming from the Torres Strait Islands, Kris has two totems - the crocodile and the dugong.

Interestingly, while they're considered sacred, the dugong's also considered a delicacy - with Kris likening it to a steak soaked in saltwater.

While he was born in Queensland, his ancestral roots also extend to New Zealand through his mother.

Both his parents thought it was important for him to be connected to his family an all sides - making him proud of all his background.

That's on show for everyone to see whenever he scores a try and performs his now trademark dance.

He's desperate to perform it on Sunday and would love his Indigenous teammates to join in.

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"It's a very popular dance in Torres Strait, everyone knows it," Kris said.

"My first year of NRL, 2019, my dad and my uncles asked me to do it, and I did it and everyone went crazy back home.

"So I thought I'd stick with it and make them all proud."

Unfortunately, the Raiders' Indigenous players were unable to have much input into this year's jersey because of COVID-19.

The Raiders relocated to the Gold Coast for the final eight rounds of the 2021 NRL season and couldn't meet to discuss it during that time.

But that won't be the case for next year's jersey with plans already underway.

"Unluckily we were in the Gold Coast hub so we missed out on that," Kris said.

"They had a deadline on it and we couldn't really meet and talk about it.

"However, we've already started planning next year's jersey so we'll have more of an input.

"These are really nice, with our totems, these are good jerseys, but we feel it's better if we have more of a connection with what's being made."

NRL ROUND 12

Sunday: Canberra Raiders v Parramatta Eels at Canberra Stadium, 4.05pm.

Raiders squad: 1. Xavier Savage, 2. Nick Cotric, 3. Jarrod Croker (c), 4. Matt Timoko, 5. Jordan Rapana, 6. Jack Wighton, 7. Jamal Fogarty, 8. Josh Papalii, 9. Zac Woolford, 10. Joe Tapine, 11. Hudson Young, 12. Elliott Whitehead (c), 13. Adam Elliott. Interchange: 14. Tom Starling, 15. Ryan Sutton, 16. Sebastian Kris, 17. Corey Horsburgh. Reserves: 18. Brad Schneider, 19. Harry Rushton, 20. James Schiller, 21. Corey Harawira-Naera 22. Trey Mooney, 23. Emre Guler, 24. Matt Frawley.

Eels squad: 1. Clinton Gutherson (c), 2. Waqa Blake, 3. Viliami Penisini, 4. Tom Opacic, 5. Bailey Simonsson, 6. Dylan Brown, 7. Mitchell Moses, 8. Reagan Campbell-Gillard, 9. Reed Mahoney, 10. Junior Paulo, 11. Shaun Lane, 12. Marata Niukore, 13. Isaiah Papali'i. Interchange: 14. Makahesi Makatoa, 15. Ryan Matterson, 16. Oregon Kaufusi, 17. Nathan Brown. Interchange: 18. Bryce Cartwright, 19. Jakob Arthur, 20. Mitch Rein, 21. Hayze Perham, 22. Sean Russell, 23. Ky Rodwell, 24. Maika Sivo.

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