Davis and Krakouer return to Collingwood

[Big T]

[MatthewBoydFanClub]

Really happy to hear this news to have them back in the fold. I don’t think there’s ever going to be resolution over Lumumber, but to me this is the next best thing.

[thesoretoothsayer]

[Mr Miyagi]

[PyreneesPie]

This is just fantastic news in all respects. 👏

Truly gladdens the heart to think that these two incredible indigenous players
will now have an even greater positive impact upon the club. 👍

[Bruce Gonsalves]

From what I heard, Geoff Browne spent a week with Leon at Portland where Leon was playing footy around 4 weeks ago. He was able to convince Leon the Club had changed and wanted Leon and Andy back.

I don't believe Geoff will travel to California.

[Mr Miyagi]

I’m imagining Browne standing outside Leon’s place holding a boom box over his head to serenade him, like John Cusack 😂

[uuuuu..... The LoneSTAR]

[thesoretoothsayer]

[Ronnie McKeowns boots]

[Ronnie McKeowns boots]

[Jezza]

A good story.

Glad that Leon and Andrew have been able to reconcile with the club.

[CaptainSnooze]

I might have missed it, but the media coverage of this significant appointment was next to nothing. Especially when compared to when Lumumba has sent out a new Twitter outburst.

[LaurieHolden]

Leon Davis says restorative justice and wholesale changes helped him return to Collingwood

Glenn McFarlane December 1, 2022 - 8:30PM
News Corp Australia Sports Newsroom
Sauce :
https://www.codesports.com.au/afl/leon-davis-says-restorative-justice-and-wholesale-changes-helped-him-return-to-collingwood/news-story/c1d86f09384ced5b4aee66e4f76d6fed


Collingwood’s longest-serving indigenous star Leon Davis says the Magpies have taken “a huge step forward” as the club enact the next phase of its anti-racism initiatives that he hopes one day will see Heritier Lumumba return.

As Collingwood president Jeff Browne revealed he would reach out to Lumumba on a trip to Los Angeles early next year and vice-president Jodie Sizer urged the AFL Commission to show greater leadership on the issue of racism, Davis said the cultural change he had seen at the club in recent times had been significant.

Almost two years on from the tabling of the Do Better report, Davis and Collingwood are hoping their recent examples of Truth-Telling and restorative justice can provide an example for the rest of the AFL competition – and the community.

“The Collingwood Football Club has shown real courage to sit in the space that not too many like to sit in,” Davis told the Herald Sun.

“It is a huge step forward for a football club with a history that they have got and a reputation and stain that they have held for a long time.

“For them to make those changes and make that shift, that has really laid part of the foundations for me to return to the club.

“But we still have so much more work to do.”

Davis, Lumumba and Andrew Krakouer cut all ties with the Magpies in April, saying “nothing has changed” following allegations of systemic racism at the club.

But Davis and Krakouer agreed to return in July to help the club’s quest to build a more culturally safe environment and now work with the Magpies on a full-time and part-time basis.

Davis, who played 225 games for the Magpies from 2000 to 2011, is in regular communication with 2010 premiership hero Lumumba, who remains estranged from Collingwood.

“There is no way we could be in this position now without the work that he (Lumumba) did,” Davis said.

“We’ve got his support to be back at the club and he (Lumumba) has never closed the door on returning one day.

“I don’t think I would ever let him do that. It is something that when he is ready, we would love to see him back. He is a true brother of mine.”

Browne hopes to speak with Lumumba early next year.

“The way of welcoming him back to our club is to show the progress we have made,” Browne said.

“Words are cheap, but we have got some rubber on the road now.

“I have got a trip to Los Angeles in the next few months, and I will certainly be looking him up and taking him through not the things we said we would do, but the things we have done.”

Collingwood has implemented all 18 recommendations of the Do Better report after engaging a 13-person expert advisory group.

It also incorporated an anti-racism message as part of the club’s values, engaged a Truth-Telling framework which Davis and Krakouer led recently, and created a whistleblower policy.

Browne said: “In my heart, I believe this is so critically important. We have learnt so much along the way about how important this is and how awakening it can be to us.

“This has opened up another side to me. I said to someone (recently), if we never won another game at Collingwood, I would actually leave this club a better person.

He said the principle of restorative justice had played a key role in the healing.

“The overriding guidance principle is to eliminate racism from our club,” he said. “The way you do that is to listen to stories from the past and to learn from those to make sure they are not repeated.

“Do Better means ‘Do More’ for us now.”

Vice-president Sizer – who is one of 11 First Nations people currently at Collingwood – has played a significant role in the process.

Now she wants the club to help further educate the football world and the wider community.

“If you saw in the (Do Better) report, it says of racism that it is not something that just happens within a club, it reflects the streets and the schools and the workplaces,” Sizer said.

“We, as one of 18 (AFL) clubs, can lead by example, but also need to look at the AFL Commission as a whole, I think there has been a substantial lack of leadership in vision.”

“We are really eager to share the findings of the work we have done. We have put in place steps to ensure it (racism) never happens again, and we want to make sure the Collingwood family is safe for people for generations to come.”

Davis recently took his parents Nancy and Trevor through the club for the first time since his premature retirement after the 2011 season.

“There was some stuff they (his parents) kept from me personally (about what happened at Collingwood during his playing career),” Davis said.

“To open up and have those discussions with them, that is the stuff we deal with as First Nations people all of our lives, on an almost every day basis.

“For them to see the changes that have been made was important.

“I’ve been on this journey all my life, I can’t turn it off, We walk in the footsteps of our ancestors, they laid the foundations and it is only right that we continue to build on that foundation and we are doing our part.”

“There is no finish to this. I won’t see the end result, this is something that will keep going after I am gone.”

[Mr Miyagi]

Great to see. As much as I dislike Jeff Bezos, his “it’s always day one” philosophy would work brilliantly with the Do Better changes. We can make some progress then get complacent thinking “gee we’ve come a long way, it’s day 488 now, we can relax now.” No. With stamping out racism and being better, it’s always day one.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2017/04/21/what-is-jeff-bezos-day-1-philosophy/amp/