Silent protest at State of Origin delivers message loud and clear

Indigenous footballers have stood their ground, not uttering a word of the national anthem during last night’s State of Origin.

From left, Blues players Latrell Mitchell, Josh Addo-Carr, Cody Walker and, on the right, Payne Haas remain silent while Damien Cook sings the anthem. Picture: Getty Images

Indigenous footballers have stood their ground, not uttering a word of the national anthem during last night’s opening State of Origin match in Brisbane.

NSW’s Cody Walker, Latrell Mitchell and Josh Addo-Carr, and Queensland’s Will Chambers and Dane Gagai were silent as players and fans sang the anthem at Suncorp­ Stadium.

Maroons players Josh Papalii, Kalyn Ponga and the Blues’ Payne Haas also appeared not to sing. Those protesting believe the ­anthem and the words “young and free” are disrespectful, given the 60,000 years of indigenous cultur­e in Australia.

Walker has been outspoken on the issue since the Indigenous All Stars side he captained first chose not to sing the anthem at a match in Melbourne in February.

Walker said he was not comfortabl­e singing the anthem because “it just brings back so many memories from what’s happen­ed and I think everyone in Australia needs to get together and work something out”.

Parallels have been drawn ­between the indigenous campaign and that of American footballer Colin Kaepernick, who in 2016 knelt during the US national ­anthem in protest against racial injustice.

Indigenous rugby league legend Johnathan Thurston said that while he commended the players for doing something they strongly believed in, he would have sung the anthem had he been playing last night.

“It is a tough one but I would still sing it because I was very proud of my family’s military history­. But in saying that, I think it’s great they have taken a stance,” he said.

With the words “young and free” being the cause for protest, some have floated the idea of changing the line to “strong and free”.

Liberal MP Craig Kelly threw his support behind the alternative yesterday, saying: “If these gentlemen said (they) would be happy to sing the national anthem with changing that one word, I think a lot of Australians would sit down and they would say, ‘OK, let’s change that word’.”

Labor’s Tanya Plibersek yesterday tweeted: “I love singing the national anthem, and I sing it with pride. But if we can make a small change to recognise our country’s incredible 60,000+ years of ­continuous culture, then let’s just do it.”

The Minister for Indigenous Australians, Ken Wyatt, has previous­ly said he did not support changing the anthem.