Southern Footy League brings in Aboriginal elder to help investigation into racial slurs
An Aboriginal elder will be invited to help the Southern Football League investigate the awful racial slurs that stopped a game on the weekend.
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The Southern Football League will ask an Aboriginal elder to help map a way forward as part of an investigation into local football’s darkest day after spectators racially abused players during a match on Saturday.
Port Noarlunga’s Ian Milera and teammate Elijah Satala were subjected to racial taunts from Flagstaff Hill fans in the final quarter of the game.
Milera said it was “one of the worst days” endured on the footy field.
SFL president Craig Warman said on Tuesday the league would approach an Aboriginal elder to join an investigation panel which would then go through statements from both clubs before making a decision on a potential penalty for the spectators involved.
Warman said both the spectator and the players would have an opportunity to air their side of the incident within the next week.
Warman said the spectators involved could “possibly” be banned from attending another SFL game this season.
“We will hopefully have an Aboriginal elder as part of the adjudication panel to sort this matter out,” Warman said.
“We have to wait for the clubs to get all the people they know about to give statements to then present to us, so it might take a little bit of time.
“But we want to get it done ASAP.
“Anyone who has committed an offence can be liable to a penalty.
“But I’m not going to hold an investigation committee until I’ve got all the facts in front of me so we can make an informed determination.”
Warman said the league had a racial vilification policy in place allowing clubs to make a formal complaint to the SFL if an incident had occurred and it would be investigated by a panel.
He said that policy had worked well with very few incidents occurring in the past few years and was reluctant to introduce security at every minor round game.
“We prefer clubs to handle things in house,” Warman said.
“It’s been very well self-managed up until this date and at the end of the day, the process seems to work.”
Indigenous footballers came together on Monday to stand against the racism after spectators abused players during a match on Saturday between Port Noarlunga and Flagstaff Hill.
The match was stopped for about five minutes midway through the last quarter when officials and other fans intervened in an attempt to stop the abuse, directed mainly at Ian Milera and teammate Elijah Satala.
Another Indigenous Port Noarlunga player, who asked not to be named, said some people from the crowd targeted Aboriginal players with offensive and deeply personal insults, which The Messenger has decided not to repeat in full.
He said a group of spectators taunted the players with racist comments such as “look at him … typical black fella and look at those black fella moves”.
“We were 10 goals down in the last quarter and they still wouldn’t let up,” he said.
“Some of the other words I don’t want to repeat, they were horrible and very offensive.’’
Tauondi Aboriginal College Cultural trainer and assessor Vicki Hartman said it was disappointing to hear local footballers were racially vilified.
Ms Hartman, a Ngarrindjeri woman, leads a program designed to bring about an understanding of Aboriginal culture, society and values in relation to contemporary society.
She encouraged football clubs to engage in cultural awareness training to help educate people on how to stamp out racism.
“Any organisation or sporting team that wants to access cultural training, we are quite happy to work with,” Ms Hartman said.
“For these young ones, it affects their mental health knowing there’s still people out there who are being ignorant and uneducated.
“We are out here to play footy and we are out there because we love it and enjoy the game.
“It shows (the racism) a lack of empathy and a lack of education.”
Port Noarlunga’s Ben Stokes was saddened to hear his teammates and friends were racially abused.
“I am a bit older than these guys, I’m 35, but I experienced this when I was 15 years old,” Stokes said.
“We are in the year 2020 and I can’t believe this is still happening and these young fellas have to put up with it.”