"You have to wonder if [his] issue is not with Buckley, but with himself maybe the apology should be [Lumumba] to Buckley, and not the other way round. This is my real stuff, and the club's been fantastic in supporting me and protecting me and they've tried to do that.". "This is my personal experience and I have to do this in the public eye and it's really tough," Lumumba told reporters. Sport, religion and family: Who is incoming AFL boss Andrew Dillon? Back when Lumumba was only highlighting societal problems in the abstract, reporters called him "worldly", "deep thinking", "level-headed" and "well liked". "We're all on a journey to do the best we can, but I think our history is pretty strong. Lumumba's non-attendance at the next day's training session ensured non-selection for the club's Friday-night clash with Carlton. 'We're not a mean-spirited club, we're not a racist club. What was Lumumba's confrontation of the club's culture if not that? Lumumba says. He also freed himself from distractions, investing financially and philosophically in his training and recovery, significantly improving his performance. We listen to stories about ripped jeans and low-level joshing and we ask: is that racism? Today, he uses a one-word description of himself: African. Collingwood great Tony Shaw demanded Lumumba be ruled out of contention for the following game due to his impertinence. A lot of the criticism came with a sneering tone. Will it change Collingwood and the AFL? But when Lumumba went there, you could sense the room raising a collective eyebrow. [29][30] He was also made the ambassador to the Dalai Lama's visit to Australia in June 2011.[31]. Yet in the blink of an eye, Lumumba's profound connection was a public humiliation. I've been racially discriminated against in the US in ways that I hadn't in Australia, and I'm still adjusting to the racism here. Former Collingwood FC player, Heritier Lumumba, has described watching a press conference of club leaders responding to an unofficially released report into culture inside the organisation as . Well never really know what its like. When I did media, they'd say 'you can talk about this, you can't talk about that', and I'd basically promote the image of the AFL and the football club. This needs to be urgently addressed within the AFL industry.". Lumumba says he was three months into life as an AFL player when the racist jokes began on training grounds, in locker rooms and anywhere else that Collingwood players gathered en masse. [16], Lumumba's accounts of racism were rejected by former coach Mick Malthouse, Buckley and McGuire, but they were affirmed by a number of players including Chris Dawes, Brent Macaffer, Leon Davis, Andrew Krakouer, Chris Egan and Shae McNamara. Grant pressed a copy of Eduardo Galeano's Open Veins of Latin America into Lumumba's hands and later wrote in The Age: "The highly paid image-makers project the AFL as a broad, enlightened church, free of the bigotry of the past. Distant from Collingwood and the AFL, far removed from whatever sense of home he once felt in Australia, Lumumba now lives in South Los Angeles. But, really, it is like any other corporate environment in pursuit of a singular aim, and therefore unable to accommodate anyone who dares to step outside its rigid parameters. "I knew that I had to do it," Lumumba says. There's enough stress you have to deal with playing a game that requires so much of you physically. He calls it his "go along to get along" phase. In one game, an opponent called Lumumba a "f***ing Golliwog" but he didn't feel confident enough to report the abuse. It's rhythmic. It came at considerable cost. [9], In 2017, the documentary Fair Game was released about Heritier's life and his stories of racism while playing professional football. The standouts were SBS journalist Ahmed Yussuf, who could empathise from his own experiences as an African-Australian; Jo Chandler, for her sincerity and for not coming from the sports world; and the late Trevor Grant, by then an ex-football journalist. As a player, he made strides as the type of team-first, lockdown defender his first coach Mick Malthouse cherished. At Buckley's urging, Collingwood of 2012-13 operated under the Leading Teams model of organisational change, a key pillar of which is to "call out" bad behaviours. He arrived at Collingwood's training facility, spotted TV reporters and knew why they were there. "Instead they've doubled down on their denials and attacks. However, it is now very clear to me, that he and I have fundamental differences in our understanding of what racism/white supremacy is, and how it should be effectively dealt with. Now emotions reached boiling point anger expressed in a cacophony of dissent. Hard-working and athletically gifted, Lumumba shadowed his teammate and early football mentor Nathan Buckley, developing habits that would eventually make him the hardest trainer at Collingwood. In telling his story, former Collingwood premiership player Hritier Lumumba hammered home how far Australian rules still has to go in talking about race and class. Indeed, for years, every time Lumumba would air his grievances, my flinch reaction was always the same: Heritier, you need to let this go. Club staff continued to confide in him about their difficulties with the homophobia around them, including an offensive poster allegedly made by a player and hung in a common area. After all, their courageous stands intersected and bore similar hallmarks: proud black men highlighting uncomfortable truths and paying a monumental price. [Lumumba's] capacity to speak his mind with stunning clarity is so rare in football that it struggles to deal with it.". And its harder and more complicated when were dealing with casual racism; with entrenched attitudes, with an accumulation of indignities and sleights. Lumumba had a year to run on his Collingwood contract at that point. For those projecting Collingwood's public front, and a titillated media, it has become an obsession. You could almost hear them snickering into their napkins: turn it up Harry, or whatever it is you call yourself now, this is the Copeland Trophy, not the United Nations. He was desperate for both to end. Some are drawn there by the unmistakable sound of traditional drums. The resultant front page article seemed like something quirky on a slow news day all the better with news from AFL headquarters that chief executive Andrew Demetriou had escalated the request to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. "Every roll call it was difficult for the teachers to pronounce my name. Lumumba blew the whistle on Collingwood for 'systemic' racism, sparking an investigation and subsequent allegations of racial discrimination within the club. Even when he wrote articles for Guardian Australia, or published lengthy Twitter threads, I couldnt shake a certain scepticism. Two hundred metres away, a 33-year-old man and his wife anxiously peered out their window, their one-year-old son playing with a toy truck. [4] In 2009, he came 4th in the Copeland Trophy. ", Yet McLachlan also cast doubt on Lumumba's mental health: "With respect to Collingwood I know Tanya [Hosch, AFL's general manager of inclusion and social policy] has met with Hritier this issue is really about where he's at, and his state of mind and his welfare. "[Lumumba] needs to pull his head in," began one excoriation. His response to the hyper-masculinity and white monoculture informing Collingwood's playing group was to disappear in the off-season and travel through the Americas, the Caribbean and the African continent, connecting with their people and cultures, forever wanting more. As Greg Baum wrote in The Age yesterday, in Lumumbas voice, there is the remnant of real affection. He'd devoured Obama's memoir, Dreams From My Father, and been struck by his and Obama's common experiences. Deflect attention away from the underlying problem by evoking the 'crazy black' stereotype.". In this country, and in football, we pride ourselves on our self-deprecation. Another bought a black dog and named it after Lumumba. "It's a Kikongo word for leadership.". His issues with Collingwood and Nathan Buckley seem unresolvable but there are other voices emerging. Seven months earlier, during the AFL's Indigenous round, a 13-year-old Collingwood supporter had labelled Sydney's Indigenous champion Adam Goodes an "ape", sparking a national furore that was exacerbated when McGuire made his immortally offensive joke, likening Goodes to King Kong. It was how I got away from the suffocation of the world I was in.". When Fair Game was released in 2017, The Age ran an article portraying a culture of fragile egos and moral cowardice. But that stuff is easy. In June, it was announced that Lumumba's time at Collingwood would finally be subjected to something more rigorous than media analysis a 'review' commissioned by Collingwood itself and carried out by Eualeyai/Kamillaroi woman Larissa Behrendt, professor of law and director of research at the Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning at the University of Technology Sydney. We celebrate what they bring to our game. And he commanded respect. "I reluctantly, initially, accepted it, but then I later came to embrace it and in the embracing of the name I think it symbolised an assimilation into a culture that never really was able to accept me," he said. Soon after McGuire's comments on Goodes landed with a calamitous thud, Lumumba tweeted: "It doesn't matter if you are a school teacher, a doctor or even the president of football club I will not tolerate racism, nor should we as a society. He was one of the few people in football, and surely the only one at Collingwood, to stand up to Eddie McGuire. "What makes you so special?". Out of respect for First Nations people, I call it 'So-called Australia'. Hritier Lumumba made us feel uncomfortable, and from that we have much to learn His issues with Collingwood and Nathan Buckley seem unresolvable but there are other voices emerging Jonathan Horn. "I began to understand that I belonged to a global people," Lumumba says. He said that Collingwood coach, Nathan Buckley, told him to back off his accusations because it would throw the club president, Eddie McGuire, "under the bus". He didnt play by our rules. Watching from afar, Lumumba thought of Collingwood's common refrain after Fair Game's release, when key figures always claimed to be "reaching out" to him. He was an "infectious character", a "role model", "a leader", and that highest of compliments in the Melbourne footy world: a "great bloke". I know that if the Collingwood Football Club is to go to the next level as a football club, it must stand on the right side of history. Nathan Buckley's full response to Heritier Lumumba | SEN Breakfast SEN Sports 20.7K subscribers Subscribe 169 Share 18K views 10 months ago Nathan Buckley responds to Heritier Lumumba's. After words of warning to Buckley and other leaders, he stood before the team and finally tore off the scab, sharing his personal history, explaining his discomfiture with not only the racist joking but the homophobic use of terms like "poofter", "f****t" and "homo". They have been taught since early childhood that black people are inferior, which is why they consistently reinforce damaging stereotypes of us.". In the last week, Lumumba released audio of heated conversations he had with Buckley back in 2014. To me, Eddie's comments are reflective of common attitudes that we as a society face.". We met a fierce man determined to maintain his connection to his ancestors, a man who at first tried to assimilate, who was then put in the too-hard basket, and who was finally actively briefed against by his former club. Lumumba's cultural origins start within a Quilombo community called Jongo Bassan da Serrinha, situated in Madureira, Rio's North zone. "Between playing samba in those early years, spending time in Footscray's version of 'Little Africa', as well as frequenting black spaces created by Melbourne's African diaspora, I formed a quilombo. "[22], Lumumba was born to a Afro-Brazilian mother and a Congolese-Angolan father in Rio de Janeiro, and moved to Perth, Western Australia when he was 3 years old. He "preached to his teammates" with his "histrionics and screaming matches", and an "individualism" that was "hijacking the club agenda". "As previously outlined, the club will be sharing publicly the findings of the report but until such time as it can do so will not be making further comment.". In June, Mr McGuire said the investigation would be done "forensically but we're not looking to prosecute". "His name is Yala," Lumumba says. "Drums sit at the intersection of the physical and spiritual worlds," Lumumba says. In rooms full of white footballers, white coaches and white journalists, who stared blankly or snickered when Lumumba held up a mirror to prejudices long accepted as part and parcel of the hairy-chested AFL culture prejudices he says were ingrained at Collingwood. Its harder and more complicated when were dealing with the most powerful president and most prominent media figure in the game. The Roman Empire was certainly an equal opportunity oppressor. It also featured in Buckley's conditional support amid the "Lez" furore, after Lumumba's impromptu press conference: "We are a 'side by side' club that provides for all individuals so long as those individuals are prepared to be side by side with the club," Buckley told reporters. Later, he would hear the same words from the mouths of club staff. He was elevated to the senior list for season 2007. Two LAPD squad cars were set alight and burned. 'Over the course of an hour, we answered every question but in my opening I got it wrong. In many ways and its an indictment on the rest of the country football has led the way on this issue. Lumumba had secured the fifth in what would end up eight consecutive top-10 finishes in the club best and fairest award, but he was still labelled "the poster boy for Collingwood's decline". [23] He was raised by his Australian stepfather and was 19 years old when he was reunited with his father, after spending 13 years apart. By June 26, Lumumba had reached his limit. En 2015, en marge des guerres civiles syrienne et irakienne, confronte une vague de rfugis sans prcdent ayant afect ses tats membres d'une manire trs ingale l'Union europenne a propos un systme obligatoire de quotas de rpartition des rfugis dans l'ensemble du territoire communautaire. "We were being trained to give direct and immediate feedback to players and coaches around actions and behaviours that were in conflict with our values," Lumumba says. "They are sacred for their power to establish a direct connection to our ancestors. In December 2013, Lumumba didn't change his name, he corrected it. Former Australian Rules footballer Hritier Lumumba is suing his former club and league over racism he says he endured in his playing career. It wasnt your typical football profile. He was living on the other side of the world. I felt this profound connection," Lumumba says. At first, the thing he enjoyed most about living in Collingwood was looking up at the Fitzroy commission flats he'd lived in as a young refugee. "The police have a well-documented history of brutally targeting black and brown people here. 4-min read. 'We have decided as a club that this fight against racism and discrimination is where we want to be. Others look on in silence. To @iamlumumba I am truly, unequivocally sorry. "He means so much to black people because he fought and sacrificed for us. "Most people who reported on my life were ill-equipped. "Within that paradigm, being black combined with challenging the pre-existing culture would have meant really going against the grain. In October, 2014, when Lumumba made his final appearance as a Collingwood player at the club's Copeland Trophy presentation, much was made of a "bizarre" speech he gave about the true meaning of his name "the prince, the one who will hold the last laugh, and is gifted". Back then, Lumumba kept it in a scrapbook with many like it, reinforcing that his childhood dream was coming true. Your mates come first. "I read the words 'BLACK LIVES MATTER', surrounding me at every angle imaginable, and my mind turned to my family in the Democratic Republic of Congo," Hritier Lumumba says. Mr Lumumba, 33, played in the Australian Football. The story became a running gag. For Lumumba, there was no let-up. During my career, I was aware of many cases of overuse and dependency by players throughout the league, which is highly dangerous." I spent time looking into science-based research on the compound psilocybin (derived from 'magic mushrooms'). Since his debut in 2005, he achieved All-Australian honours and won an AFL premiership, playing mostly as a half back. In 2020, the Do Better report proved that CFC had still failed to meet the minimum legal requirements for human rights protection in a workplace." By his second season, he says the dehumanising "Chimp" nickname took hold. Theres nothing to be gained from any of this. I've spoken to some people and I've found different things, the nuances that I had no idea [about]. But his silent discomfort continued. He said Collingwood's failure to address issues had a 'severe impact' on his wellbeing. Privately, the pair were pressured into playing, as Krakouer later admitted: "I was urged by the coaches to fly to Brisbane and play against my wishes, because I was told it would be seen as a statement against Eddie and the club.". "I was born on the sacred indigenous lands of the Guarani, in a quaint little hospital that sits on top of a former harbour area, which was built as a port for the arrival of enslaved Africans," Lumumba says. [8] He retired from AFL football in December. When he said the last line, Lumumba knew the opposite was true. And the media has gone on being receptive. The president regularly touched on these themes on breakfast radio, and no one batted an eyelid. Impressed by Lumumba's passion, Hatzoglou forwarded the email to AFL colleagues, but it was leaked to Herald Sun chief football writer Mike Sheahan, who was soon on the phone to a startled Lumumba. Certain layers of context are essential to understanding how Lumumba's confrontation of McGuire led to his exile from Collingwood and estrangement from the game. This service may include material from Agence France-Presse (AFP), APTN, Reuters, AAP, CNN and the BBC World Service which is copyright and cannot be reproduced. All rights reserved. Is climate change killing Australian wine? His mental health was questioned. By the end of 2011, every Collingwood player was entering another paradigm: after narrowly missing back-to-back flags, Malthouse honoured his agreement to a coaching succession plan and reluctantly handed the reins to Buckley. But couldn't Eade and Shaw also have concluded the opposite? "We come from the same people, and it feels like I'm with family here. , updated He said he had faced a "culture of racist jokes and ideas" at the club. Following an indiscreet press conference "I get the impression that everyone thinks he's a basket case," the coach said at one point he was hailed by the football press for "a Buckley masterclass". 2023 BBC. He spoke of the importance of community, of the Great Depression, of identity, of standing on the right side of history. Former AFL player Heritier Lumumba has shared further recordings of himself in conversation with former coach Nathan Buckley. A black AFL star and his former Collingwood teammate have traded online insults after he was accused of inventing his own racist nickname. For years, Collingwood hoped, or assumed, that Hritier Lumumba would simply go away. Former Collingwood star Hritier Lumumba now lives in South Los Angeles, where he's surrounded by black culture and thought. "A large percentage of African-Americans descend from the Kongo Kingdom," he says. There was a time when he told himself it wasn't his job to educate people. Lumumba's contentment in that exile says much. Read about our approach to external linking. Six days later, in another team meeting, a crass joke was made by a member of the coaching staff about one of Lumumba's teammates looking like a lesbian. You can't. 61. Only once could he coax a group of teammates down Smith Street, with its hodgepodge of dive bars and art galleries. Theres always a new hero, a new villain, a new outrage. Mr Lumumba was the AFL's first multicultural ambassador from 2006-2013, and said his experience improved after joining Melbourne Football Club in 2014. Its foundations are rooted in the ongoing genocide of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and the persistent lie of terra nullius. "Given the club's inability to come clean, and the way it has attempted to publicly and privately attack my reputation, I cannot accept this 'integrity' process has been proposed in good faith.". 902. Heritier Lumumba and ex-Collingwood teammate get into heated online dispute | Daily Mail Online AFL star who blew the whistle on Collingwood 'racism' gets into heated online dispute with Magpies. Charlotte Karp For Daily Mail Australia In the streets of Collingwood. Journalists who had once welcomed his openness now sneered at Lumumba's "broken family", simultaneously prying for their darkest secrets. Nathan Buckley remains confused by what Heritier Lumumba wants to achieve in the Collingwood premiership player's long-running dispute with his former AFL club. Hritier Lumumba is a former AFL footballer. The United States of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor is no African-American's idea of utopia. Lumumba refused to toe the line. It was clear that their sole intention was to protect their brand.". Buckley, meanwhile, "emerged from a firestorm looking like the only calm, measured man in the room". "Things that happen inside the Westpac Centre stay inside the Westpac Centre and probably we've been too open in the past," McGuire told Fox Footy. "This is the only way forward," he told himself. It's a long way removed from his school days in Perth, when few could be bothered learning his name. It meant all things 'team': solidarity, fraternity, supporting your mate. It produced the kind of form that would eventually secure him another top-five finish in the club's best and fairest award. Imbued with greater purpose and committed to finally drawing a line in the sand, he returned to Collingwood and began his most intense and transformative pre-season training regime yet. "It was a refuge for me while I was playing football in those early years," Lumumba says. He is portrayed as an outcast.". n football, the dogs bark, and the caravan moves on. But we can listen. He all of a sudden 10 years later wants to be a humanitarian (sic),' he said of Lumumba. Days earlier, the world had watched George Floyd take his last breaths. He went to school at Rossmoyne Primary from 1994 to 1999 and then Rossmoyne Senior High School. [5], Lumumba made his Melbourne debut in round 1, 2015, against Gold Coast, in what was also his 200th AFL game. In December 2013, he changed his surname back to "Lumumba" and discontinued the use of the nickname "Harry", citing his journey of decolonisation as the reason for the change. As in five of the previous six years, his peers elected him to Collingwood's 2013 leadership group. He was a unique figure in the game, unafraid of standing apart. "It was only after the documentary that they attempted to make contact. 'Despite the nickname being overtly racist, unfortunately, it was not the worst facet of the interpersonal racism that I encountered during my 10 years at CFC.'. 'It was not systemic racism, as such, we just didn't have the processes to deal with it that we do now. That was the 2014 confrontation that was identified as the final broken pillar in Lumumba's 199-game, 10-year career with the Magpies, a career built on strong foundations and during which he became a premiership player, an all-Australian and a long-serving member of the club's leadership group. Publicly, McGuire accepted the criticism. Collingwood did all it could. (Supplied: Renae Wootson/Milan Wiley) Help keep family & friends informed by sharing this article abc.net.au/news/heritier-lumumba-strength-in-african-culture-collingwood-afl/12820942 [7] Despite being cleared to train by Melbourne doctors, he did not return to pre-season training in November after being advised to retire by several specialists. At times in the last decade, Hritier Lumumba has been bracketed with Adam Goodes. Now Lumumba was "erratic", "disgruntled", "troubled", "bizarre", "outspoken", "fragile", "rogue", a "sook" and a "destabilising influence" with "serious issues". I will respect it.". In 2006 he showed more improvement and was elevated to the senior list again during the year, this time due to the absence of Sean Rusling, playing a total of nine games. I should have believed you. He ripped down the poster and reported it to the club. 'The report clearly states that during Eddie's tenure as CFC president, the club's racism resulted in ''profound and enduring harm'' to many individuals, families, & communities. Their prejudices and biases expose others to major harm. Hritier Lumumba. "The club is defensive and angry," Caroline Wilson wrote. The Sunday Age article announcing his arrival began: "Harry O'Brien could have been playing soccer for Brazil. "A name is an affirmation that is repeated consistently. Lumumba, however, returned fire at the laid-back response delivered by McGuire following the report's findings. Pies football strategist Rodney Eade declared: "The club is bigger than any individual. When Lumumba was 23, Malthouse labelled him a "future captain". We learn, we strive to get better. Mr Lumumba has declined to engage in Collingwood's internal investigation, saying the club should not be investigated by its own officials. What stock should be placed in the moralising of men whose idea of fun was to call their colleagues poofters, homos, slaves and chimps? Yet Lumumba's experiences have been corroborated by six of his teammates. [24] He supported the Essendon Bombers as a child, with his family owning a pet dog named Sheedy after the long-time Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy. You've just got to keep going forward with it.". "The person who is being hated at the moment is actually Eddie," Buckley told reporters. The pair convened on Fox Footy's AFL360, Lumumba talking passionately about casual racism, and the distinction between direct and indirect racism insidious abuses often "hidden under larrikinism" in Australia, by which some might have read Collingwood.