Pies coach admits response was ‘form of systemic racism’

Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley says he was unintentionally guilty of a form of systemic racism in being dismissive of Heritier Lumumba’s experience and claims about the club.

Buckley admitted he regretted his demeanour in a 2017 press conference when answering questions about the premiership player’s claims about the club, saying it was the type of moment the recent Do Better report was talking about when discussing a culture of systemic racism at the club.

The Collingwood coach and former long-term captain of the club said the Do Better report had been ‘‘well overdue’’ and shone an important light on behaviours at Collingwood, which he admitted had for too long denied a voice to those who felt marginalised, vilified or diminished.

‘‘There was a presser when I look back in 2017 and it was dismissive and I needed to be better than that,’’ Buckley said in an interview with the AFL website.

‘‘What I now understand is that is a form of systemic racism, the dismissing and denial of experience is not a direct act, but in many ways it reinforces the pain and trauma that Heritier felt and that [other former players] Andrew [Krakouer] and Leon [Davis] have spoken about. It’s feeling like they don’t have a voice and they don’t have somewhere to go and that’s the systemic aspect of it.

‘‘When you reflect on that you [think], ‘OK, how can we do this better?’ Because you’ve got to be aware and conscious of it, and there’s a lot of listening [to] and learning [from] that needs to take place from the people that have felt for a long time that they don’t have a voice.

‘‘I feel like we’ve taken pretty good strides as a club.’’

He added: ‘‘We don’t want people to ever feel like they’re diminished or vilified or seen as less than in our environment.’’

In a candid interview with the AFL website, Buckley said it was ‘‘long overdue for us to acknowledge this [past] and to acknowledge the experiences of some of the people in our environment and the fact that we need to improve’’.

He said when players and staff read the report, the first question was to ask: what systemic racism really meant ‘‘and what have we been a part of and what work is there to do’’?

He was pleased the club had committed to all 18 recommendations in the report and had already convened an expert panel to oversee the recommendations.

‘‘There was a big part of, ‘What does this actually say about us? What do we need to learn? What do we need to listen to? What do we need to acknowledge to be better?’ ’’ he said when asked what the players’ response had been.

‘‘There was an element of, ‘OK, what does this mean for us?’ even if you’re a young player at the club, if you’re a senior leader, if you’re a staff member, even myself. Where do we go from here? There was a lot of questions, a lot of conversations, and those conversations are the right ones to have. It’s about the experiences of those that feel like they have been marginalised and discriminated against and felt lesser in the environment and that’s over a long period of time.’’

Buckley said the issue was about him, or others of a privileged white background, being open to listening to those whose had been vilified.