AFL 2021: Collingwood Magpies’ racist behaviour must be held accountable, says Leon Davis

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Leon Davis wants Collingwood to understand. He wants them to listen and learn, to hear the hard truths of what it was really like to be an Indigenous Collingwood player.

He wants his club and his old teammates - many still close friends - to understand how it was that he, the club’s Indigenous games record holder, nearly walked away from the Magpies and the game itself, multiple times during his decorated 225-game career.

He wants the club to hear directly from him and others harmed by their experiences at the Magpies, about how they felt and why they hurt.

Otherwise, any apology from Collingwood for their racist past will be meaningless. It must, says Davis, be based on a foundation of truth telling.

Having spent 12 years at the club, Davis’ voice is powerful and full of conviction as he says that if Collingwood rush to move forward they will leave the issue of systemic racism unresolved.

“For them to apologise but still believe [they] have done nothing wrong, the apology doesn’t mean shit. It doesn’t hold at all because you don’t understand first and foremost what you are apologising for,” Davis said.

“Before we can move forward you have to deal with what has happened in the past. The foundation is not there yet to move forward from my point of view.”

On Wednesday the Collingwood coach and Davis’ former teammate and captain Nathan Buckley made a first important step when he admitted his dismissal of Heritier Lumumba’s complaints about racism had been the type of systemic racism the Do Better report described.

The change in tone, compared to the club’s initial response, heartened Davis but it was a step, nowhere near the journey’s conclusion.

Davis, a proud Balardong Whadjuk Yuat Yamatji man, is not just speaking of Collingwood, but also of Australia.

He can’t disentangle the two – much of his club’s responses, he feels, stem from a society-wide ignorance of the history of genocide of Australia’s First Nations people.

The 39-year-old has a unique appreciation of life at Collingwood. He arrived at the club in 1999 and played more games for Collingwood than any other Indigenous player, before deciding to move back to Perth in 2011 with two All-Australian honours and a premiership medal.

He knows the Collingwood Football Club intimately. He knows its painful failings and despite his experiences, he has an abiding passion for the club and the friends he made there. He wants to be part of the solution and the education of players and people, but only once the club comes to terms with its past.

It’s recently become clear a racist moment almost ended Davis’ career before it began. Early in his first season teammates filled out an AFL Record pocket profile under Davis’ name with racially offensive answers and left it sitting on his bag next to his locker.

Davis was furious and betrayed. That night his parents Trevor and Nancy insisted he pack his bags and head back to Northam outside Perth. Twenty years later, he still prefers not to detail the actual phrases but says they were the predictable racial stereotypes of Indigenous people in Australia at the time dressed up as humour.

“I was an 18-year-old kid that had just left my comfort zone and everything I knew [and I was] excited to be playing AFL football [despite] the stigma of the club and reputation of the club and then that happens,” Davis said.

Davis in action for the Pies in the 2011 grand final.

Davis in action for the Pies in the 2011 grand final.Credit:Paul Rovere

Mick Malthouse, his coach at the time, immediately intervened, satisfying Davis and his family that he had a future there. Malthouse left the playing group in no doubt where he stood. The offending players were dressed down which led, unbeknownst to the coaching staff, to Davis feeling excluded by the players in the next few months.

“After that incident I felt like I was the one being punished because I was ostracised, I was left out of the group in the months after that,” he said.

The 39-year-old points out that eventually he would develop strong friendships with several teammates who quietly stuck by him. He doubts he would have stayed at the club without them.

But the incident left its mark on him, as many in Davis’ community in Perth had already challenged him about his destination after he was drafted to Collingwood.

“Why are you going to that racist club?” they’d ask.

Davis was forced to wonder if they were right.

“All of a sudden I am drafted to Collingwood and I am there doing training at Victoria Park and kicking the ball around the MCG and all these places I have only ever seen on TV and to finally be there and for that to happen was definitely a kick in the guts,” Davis said.

“It stopped me in my tracks to contemplate and think about [the fact] there is no escape from it.”

He stayed, however, because playing AFL was his childhood dream and he knew if he went home he would draw the same tired criticism about Indigenous players not being committed or tough enough.

Malthouse told his family he had the youngster’s back and he had zero tolerance of racism. Then new president Eddie McGuire backed him too, which was why subsequent events surrounding the president would so bitterly disappoint Davis.

This was his first taste of trying to fit in as an outsider both at Collingwood and in Melbourne. He describes his daily routine of leaving the house as putting on his “armour” to face the world without betraying weakness. It was only once he got home he could relax.

There were more incidents on the public record such as when Rex Hunt vilified Davis on radio in 2005 that went to mediation, with Essendon champion Michael Long riding side-saddle in support of Davis. Hunt apologised but Davis then had to deal with death threats and racist correspondence from “fans” who blamed him for the furore and wanted him to leave the club.

But most of the regular occurrences, big and small, stayed out of the headlines and just became something Davis dealt with in his understated manner.

“I am proud to say I stayed at the club after things had happened and educated people along the way but just to say that it wasn’t tough and I did not retire a couple of times throughout my career that no one knows about because of it [is untrue],” Davis said.

“It’s something that is difficult to deal with and it builds up and builds up and it is a big weight on your shoulders.”

His close friends, white teammates, were supportive but could never really appreciate the pain of racism.

“As much as you can be close mates with people that are not people of colour and they can witness and see bullshit things happen to you [they] still they don’t feel it and know what it is like,” he said.

“There are a lot of guys that played at the Collingwood footy club that are champion blokes, it is unfortunate they are caught up in this.“

He admits disappointment for the teammates who are unjustly included under a racist banner but adds with conviction: “There is a bigger issue at hand.”

Heritier Lumumba with Leon Davis in 2011. It was Lumumba’s allegations of racism that prompted the Do Better report.

Heritier Lumumba with Leon Davis in 2011. It was Lumumba’s allegations of racism that prompted the Do Better report.Credit:Paul Rovere

LEON Davis never heard Heritier Lumumba called chimp.

He says there was a reason the players did not use the nickname when he was around.

“They knew it wrong and if they mentioned in front of me then there would be repercussions,” Davis said.

He doesn’t know nor care if Lumumba was part of giving himself the racist nickname, of perpetuating the nickname or not. To him it’s irrelevant.

“You can put any spin you want on it but it’s wrong. It’s just wrong, it’s outright wrong. Even if Lumumba said it was all right, it’s wrong, it’s just wrong,” Davis said.

“You can’t excuse it. You can’t say, ‘He said it was all right’ - nah, nah, it’s wrong.

“It’s something a lot of people get caught up on. He said it was all right to say it. Nah, nah but it’s wrong. It doesn’t matter how you spin it or word it is just wrong.”

Leon Davis with his one-year-old son Wirin. He wants future generations to not have to suffer from racism.

Leon Davis with his one-year-old son Wirin. He wants future generations to not have to suffer from racism.Credit:Nicole Cleary

He still feels disappointment that he was not a stronger support for Lumumba in his time at Collingwood but there is no doubting it now. He says others don’t have the right to determine how those subject to racism should respond.

“The general gist now is people just want to move forward but to do that would be a great injustice, a great disrespect to our ancestors and what they went through.

“People are quick to move forward and brush it aside because they are not educated and they don’t have the tools to deal with this issue and deal with it the right way and actually move forward.”

It’s why his own uncomfortable truths and Lumumba’s experience, and that of Andrew Krakouer and others need to be aired he said.

A strong advocate for First Nations people, Davis says Collingwood are a microcosm of a wider societal problem and their struggles to address their own issue signal a wider problem Australia has in recognising its past.

“The truth telling process is very, very important, to sit down and express how I felt, express how I feel, explain instances that happened and be a lot more detailed in the truth telling process; then everyone knows what they are apologising for,” Davis said.

LEON DAVIS ON ...

Unconscious bias in action
“Something I have copped in the media and have been very vocal about is the fact you get labelled as a good role model for the Indigenous community ... I haven’t heard once anyone say ‘oh. Gary Ablett is a great role model for the white kids’.”

Nathan Buckley, Collingwood captain 1999-2007, coach 2012-present
“Bucks, along with the playing group, administration staff and club just weren’t educated appropriately at the time to deal with this issue. Fast forward 22 years, we are here having the same discussion in regards to the same issue of racism. At the time it was really difficult feeling alone in an environment like that hardly having any support.”

Eddie McGuire (club president 1998-2021, media personality)
“I think there is a lot of heat put on the fact he had to step down. There is no denying what he did for Collingwood to turn the club around ... and done so much for the game. That is something anyone would be proud of. But in saying that a lot of people are missing the point completely just focusing on that. As per usual people forgot those other incidents and people don’t like to mention them because to them it’s nothing.

“The fact he has done what he has done for so long and he has made mistake after mistake after mistake, to have that personal relationship with him and do the work at the club I have done over the years and educate people there and always be there to give him advice, it is very disappointing and hurtful that time after time after time you see that same attitude, ‘Oh it was just a joke’.”

Abolish the date, don’t change it
“You can change the date [of Australia Day] but you are still celebrating settlement. There is a lot of great stuff about this country and it is a great country to be in and grow up in but this change the date people just don’t know why we are upset. Educate yourself on what actually happened to my people, our people, when settlement started. Have a look. You have got the Prime Minister coming out saying there was no slavery in Australia. Well do your homework. And that is coming from the top what hope have we got?

“You can fully understand why people like Ed, like the bosses of the AFL, why they are so uneducated when you have got the Prime Minister standing there in 2020 saying there was no slavery in Australia. That day represents the start of the genocide, of the government trying to kill off and kill out Aboriginal people of this country.

“That is what that date represents to us and everyone wants to have a barbecue and get on the piss and celebrate it but for us that is what they are celebrating?”