“It Doesn’t Represent Me”: Indigenous NRL Star Cody Walker On National Anthem Controversy
Controversy erupted on Friday after a number of players in the Indigenous All Stars team appeared not to sing the national anthem.
Indigenous rugby star Cody Walker has responded to controversy over the singing of the national anthem at the annual NRL All Stars match in Melbourne on Friday evening, saying he doesn’t feel comfortable with the song and that “it doesn’t represent myself and my family”.
The game at AAMI Park saw a team of Indigenous players take on an all-Maori side from New Zealand, with a pre-game ceremony featuring an Indigenous war cry as well as the haka. But it was the singing of the national anthem that caused a firestorm on social media, after TV footage appeared to show a number of the Australian players staying silent during the song.
It comes after a number of prominent ex-players including Anthony Mundine and Joe Williams called on current players to boycott the anthem, with Mundine describing it last year as “a white supremacist song”.
Asked during the post-game press conference whether he felt comfortable with the anthem, Walker replied “to be honest, no”.
“It just brings back so many memories of what’s happened [in Australia’s history],” he said.
“It sort of doesn’t represent myself and my family.”
“I don’t have an answer, but we as a group need to come together, as a country need to come together, and make some sort of decision together,” he added.
Indigenous All Stars coach Laurie Daley backed his team’s captain, saying it was “a discussion worth having, and I think it will happen”.
“I think for us tonight it’s probably not the right arena to discuss it,” Daley said. “But it is an issue that Australia is facing, and I’m sure tonight will be one of the reasons why we have a discussion going forward about what we do.”
In an opinion piece published on NRL.com this morning, Mal Meninga, head coach of the Australian national team, said it was time to have a referendum on the national anthem, writing that “if we have a national anthem that offends our Indigenous people, let’s see what all of Australia thinks”.
“Australia is a multicultural society so it should be a multicultural anthem.”