Giants star Zac Williams keen to send Black Lives Matter message of solidarity
What Zac Williams thought was normal life growing up in Narrandera, he can now see was racism.
What Zac Williams thought was normal life growing up in Narrandera, he can now see was racism.
The GWS Giants star was a teenage prodigy in the Riverina town and innocently thought that the cold shoulder he copped from older non-indigenous men was because he was the young kid killing them on the field.
Now he recognises it was likely motivated by something more sinister.
Williams is one of the AFL’s prominent indigenous role models and has combined with North Melbourne’s Jed Anderson to co-ordinate a Black Lives Matter statement by the two teams at Giants Stadium on Sunday, which he believes will send an important message of solidarity to the wider community.
Raised by a protective single mother, Williams says he was largely shielded from racism as a kid, but as a 25-year-old looking back, he sees now that life in a small country town wasn’t necessarily always what it seemed.
“Once I think back on it I did see people look at me sideways or if I was at the supermarket, if I needed to ask for help or something, you get ignored,” Williams said.
“I was 15 years old and I was killing grown men playing senior footy and they frowned upon you because you were a young indigenous kid. All I wanted to do was just play football so I didn’t even notice all these people being racist towards me.
“I had a strong mother and I had a pretty big family and a big support group that if they heard anything in terms of racism towards myself or any other black person in Narrandera, it did fire up quite a bit. I saw a lot of indigenous boys growing up who were older than me who went through some tough times in terms of fighting with the non-indigenous community and fighting with the police.
“Now I’m a bit older and I look back on these times, and you think, ‘oh, yep, holy shit, that was racism that was happening to me’. But I didn’t really think about it too much when I was a kid, like I do now.”
Like Sydney Swans star Isaac Heeney, Williams grew up in a rugby league household.
The only time they watch the AFL even now, is when he’s playing.
Williams is a Parramatta fan and shares the same barber as Eels star Mitchell Moses in Balmain. They share tips and experiences in between haircuts.
The GWS whiz kid, who Giants’ godfather Kevin Sheedy regards as a son, returns from an off-season injury against North Melbourne this weekend and is eager to continue the breakthrough form he showed under pressure in last year’s preliminary final, when his team needed him most in the absence of Toby Greene.
Williams doesn’t share the same profile as other indigenous AFL stars in Sydney like Adam Goodes and Lance Franklin, but his impact on young boys in western Sydney has been significant.
“You hear these stories (about what people have gone through) and it cuts you deep inside. It gets you fired up and you just feel you have to do something about it,” Williams said. “It’s a very ugly part of society, racism, and you don’t want to see your people, or people of colour having to go through these tough times just because of the colour of their skin.
“It’s only for the better that we try and educate those that don’t understand and don’t see the racism in Australia.”
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