Collingwood director Jodie Sizer ‘sorry’ about racism

A Collingwood board member has issued an emotional apology to former player Heritier Lumumba, as the club recruits an expert advisory committee to implement anti-racism reform.

Magpies director Jodie Sizer. Picture: Getty Images

One of Collingwood’s board members has issued an emotional apology to former player Heritier Lumumba, as the club recruits an expert advisory committee to implement anti-racism reform following this week’s damning report on the club’s internal culture.

Board member and Djap Wurrung/Gunditjmara woman Jodie Sizer said hearing about the experience of Lumumba at the club caused her pain and she wanted to apologise for his treatment.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“As a person of colour I can’t tell you the many instances of ­racism that I’ve experienced and my family has experienced.

“I have seen the hurt, and when I hear him speak it aches from within for me … and that clashing of responsibility that I have as a ­director of an organisation to serve in the best interest of all our people and to think the events of the past have had an impact on him. I’m sorry to have got to a ­decade later to hear that pain is still there.”

A report leaked earlier in the week found Collingwood suffered from systemic racism — and while it did not investigate Lumumba’s claims, it substantiated his long-held account of a racist culture at the club.

The 2010 All Australian has consistently said he suffered casual racism when he played for Collingwood and was given the nickname “chimp”. An apology to victims of Collingwood’s racism signed by 150 Collingwood footballers and netballers was shared on social media by current players, including captain Scott Pendlebury, on Thursday.

Lumumba said he believed the apology was sincere but said the players were not responsible for the systemic racism from which he and others suffered at the club. “Now what I am saying is the more severe form of racism, which is systemic, needs to be addressed and the people that need to address it are the leaders of the football club,” he told the ABC.

“As the report states, the people who are responsible for the systemic failings of the club is the club’s board and club’s leadership, and up until today we have not seen any accountability from them whatsoever.”

Lumumba said he hadn’t asked for an apology, just an acknowledgment of what had happened. Former Collingwood player Shae McNamara says he was warmly welcomed when he arrived in Melbourne in 2009 but it wasn’t long before he became disturbed by the treatment of Lumumba.

“I heard a joke about slaves,” he said. “Obviously I heard ‘chimp’ many times and I called it out right away when I heard it.”

Heritier Lumumba. Picture: Sarah Reed

McNamara said Lumumba began voicing his criticism only in his last couple of seasons at Collingwood because he wanted to fit in at the club.

“You don’t want to ruffle feathers. You want to feel safe. He was hearing these jokes. But he didn’t feel safe enough to stay ‘stop it’,” McNamara said.

“No one can understand that pressure, or that trauma.”

Lumumba declined to be interviewed but his lawyer Rhea Dillon said the club had yet to put a concrete proposal to her client, saying he was not prepared to sit down with a club that wasn’t ready to confront their past. “It has always been our client’s position that he will be ready to talk to Collingwood once they released the report and the Club has ackn­owledged their responsibility,” she said. “Instead, the report was leaked and the club have so far ­refused to show any accountability for the historical racism suffered by our client.”

Ms Sizer said the Do Better report provided a way forward for Collingwood, adding that the board hoped to announce as early as next week an expert committee on racism and discrimination to oversee the implementation of all the report’s 18 recommendations.

The PwC Indigenous Consulting co-founder said the committee overseeing reform would consist of stakeholders from “all corners of multicultural Australia” but the board and Collingwood CEO Mark Anderson would ultimately be accountable for its success.