By Peter Ryan
Collingwood premiership player Heritier Lumumba says the release of the ‘Do Better’ report has “elevated the conversation” around racism in football, however no one is in any position to congratulate themselves as real change is yet to happen.
The 34-year-old described the report, which found that systemic racism existed within Collingwood, as a “major milestone” but said it was important to keep pushing for change as he remained sceptical that the game’s leaders were genuinely committed to combating prejudice.
Heritier Lumumba. Credit: Fairfax Media
“The report was a major milestone ... it has definitely elevated the conversation, that is one thing you can’t you can’t deny,” Lumumba said in an Instagram Live conversation with federal senator Lidia Thorpe.
“It has changed football forever ... We can keeping putting the pressure on because that is what it is going to take for change to happen, but I think that we will see, and we are seeing, progress being made.”
Collingwood announced this week they had appointed 12 people to sit on an expert panel, which will report to the Magpies board and a strategic adviser in helping the club implement the 18 recommendations from the Do Better report. Current players and past players have made public apologies to anyone who felt discriminated against.
Lumumba said such steps forward were not reason enough, however, for anyone to be comfortable about the situation and Collingwood was far from the only organisation where systemic racism existed.
“Quite often a lot of people want to sit there and pat themselves on the back for certain things but it is easy to pat yourself on the back when you are not the one that has a foot on your throat,” Lumumba said.
He said he was grateful other players had come forward to convey their experiences with the co-authors of the report, saying the Magpies should welcome people talking about their time at the club.
However, he told Thorpe he doubted many of the industry’s leaders really valued anti-racism with last year’s vaccination debacle, which saw the AFL making an immediate public apology, an indication that systemic issues remained.