A 30-year-old Aussie Rules football player named Nicky Winmar faced with a vengeful crowd that was hurling racial epithets, spit and drink cans at him on a bright Melbourne afternoon.

The Aboriginal man gestured at his skin while lifting his shirt and yelled, “I’m black, and I’m proud to be black.”

The sporting history of Australia would be written on that Saturday afternoon at Victoria Park. There was a lot of anticipation that it would alter the Australian Football League (AFL), which had been ignoring the pervasive bigotry.

But three decades later, the league is once again at the centre of a racism controversy.

Last month, an iconic gesture made by Mr. Winmar was imitated by an Aboriginal player, Jamarra Ugle-Hagan, just days after he too had been racially disparaged by a match spectator and the target of a barrage of internet abuse.

This week, four Indigenous players reported encountering racist comments online, casting a shadow over the AFL’s efforts to commemorate Mr. Winmar’s stance on racism on its 30th anniversary.

Such mistreatment is just the most recent in a string of racist scandals that have rocked the AFL, raising concerns about the culture of the game.

“I’ve begun something”

Racism was pervasive at Australian sporting events in 1993.

However, Mr. Winmar and Gilbert McAdam, a teammate of his from St. Kilda, were subjected to such severe abuse from rival supporters on that particular day that Mr. McAdam’s father had to leave the stadium in tears.

“The threats and abuse were really horrific… solely on my skin tone, which I had no control over, Mr. Winmar tells the BBC.

“It was simply painful… I just wanted to play good football, that’s all.

He claims that his action was a “spontaneous” reaction born of exasperation and was not anything he had foreseen would cause a stir.

However, when someone asked me the following day whether I had read the paper, I said, “Oh god, I’ve started something now.”

The moment Wayne Ludbey’s camera shutter snapped, he was well aware of how important the occasion was.

The Melbourne newspaper The Age’s front page featuring the image caused a stir throughout Australia when the editor battled against his all-white newsroom to get it there.

But he thinks that many people at the time missed the genuine meaning of the moment.

Mr. Winmar believed his career was in jeopardy if he continued to speak out because many Australians, including his own colleagues, didn’t understand his reaction, according to Mr. Ludbey.

Gilbert and Nicky were advised by the club not to bring their personal issues into the club because there was “no support,” he claimed.

However, according to sports management expert Lionel Frost, that incident was a “turning point” for athletes from varied cultural backgrounds who felt empowered to speak out against racial taunts from onlookers and their peers.

Within two years, the AFL established the first player’s code of conduct in the nation prohibiting racial vilification.

“On the pitch, I’d be very confident in saying the game has changed because of the code of conduct, and because of what Nicky Winmar did,” adds Mr Frost.

But off the pitch, amid clubhouses, viewing areas and commentary booths, opponents assert that not enough has changed.

making the game still “nowhere near safe.”

Generations of players continue to experience harassment

Giants of the game today have discussed how racism, as well as the AFL’s and the media’s response, drove them out of the sport.

One of the most decorated AFL players in history, Adam Goodes, called out a racial slur by a young spectator in 2013.

But in the years that followed, particularly in 2014 when he was named Australian of the Year and speaking out against racism, he received criticism from commentators and constant jeers from crowds instead of support.

He stated he was “heartbroken” by the way he was treated. In 2015, he took an early retirement.

AFL veteran Eddie Betts, who in 2016 had a banana thrown at him from the grandstand, has also admitted that he might not have retired in 2021 if he hadn’t endured weekly racial abuse over the course of his 17-year career.

The attacks don’t just target Native American players. African-Australian players have also been singled out for criticism in recent seasons, along with a Muslim player of Lebanese heritage who was labelled a “terrorist” by a spectator.

Sports historian Matthew Klugman claims that the AFL is still “nowhere close” to becoming a secure environment for athletes from varied ethnic backgrounds.

But remarks made about First Nations players, which frequently have colonial connotations, are especially venomous and nasty. They still happen frequently.

When the violence continues, healing is exceedingly difficult, according to Dr. Klugman.

Look for remedies

The AFL is the richest and most popular professional competition in Australia. It has emphasised numerous times that it is working to end racism in sports.

The current abuse has been referred to as “abhorrent” by Gillon McLachlan, the league’s president since 2014.

This week, he said that “this has to stop,” acknowledging that he was frustrated. “I’m just tired of saying the words I have,” the speaker said.

But it’s unclear what the league’s policy is on how to handle offenders. The AFL has also acknowledged that it is difficult to track down perpetrators, particularly online.

According to media reports, a small number of people have had their club membership cancelled or been given match suspensions.

The National Rugby League, a rival code, has appeared to commit to harder measures. Anyone who makes racial slurs or threats towards players will be reported to the police, it has been stated.

But AFL detractors claim that it has adopted a largely tokenistic strategy. They have demanded stronger penalties, such as lifetime bans for offenders, and there are appeals for white players to take the lead in raising awareness of the problem.

“I’ve had enough. When will a stance be visible? The former star player, Mr. Betts, stated this week on Fox Sports.

“The tactic just doesn’t appear to be working… It just keeps happening every year,” Mr. Ludbey continues.

Many believe that the club level needs to address the culture as well.

Two of the league’s most successful teams have been charged with racist behaviour just in the last two years.

A 2021 investigation on the wealthy Collingwood club discovered “systemic racism” in the organisation.

This is the same team whose supporters taunted Mr. Winmar racially on that day in 1993 and Mr. Goodes once more in 2013.

A former player’s lawsuit against Collingwood in 2020 served as the catalyst for the probe. Héritier Lumumba, who is of Brazilian and Congolese-Angolan descent, claimed that after reporting racist occurrences, his teammates dubbed him “chimp” and shunned him.

Similar claims of bullying of Aboriginal players by top coaching personnel were discovered during a probe into another club, Hawthorn, last year.

The senior club officials involved deny that the players were secluded from their families, urged to break up with their partners, and, in the case of one player, told to terminate a pregnancy.

The disclosures triggered larger requests for an investigation into racism in all of sport, including those from the players’ association and even politicians.

You constantly have these terrible racial spot fires, said Dr. Klugman.

“Some form of independent truth telling, led by Indigenous peoples and not controlled by the league, is essential in terms of creating the possibilities of healing and justice,” the author claims.

The AFL is making an effort, but Mr. Winmar feels more needs to be done. He praises the leadership of current players like the young, 21-year-old Mr. Ugle-Hagan.

But he is aware of the cost of such lobbying and is quite angry that players are still bearing it after all these years.

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