Anthony Mundine has said he will never stand for the national anthem again, in protest at discrimination against Indigenous Australians.
The champion boxer and former rugby league player called for NRL and AFL players to take a knee during Advance Australia Fair at this weekend’s grand finals.
The campaign was sparked by a video produced for the popular culture website Junkee by the Indigenous activist Paul Gorrie calling for AFL players to boycott the national anthem, “a representation of our colonial history”.
Gorrie had been inspired by the San Francisco 49ers player Colin Kaepernick taking a knee during the national anthem in protest of racism against black Americans.
Mundine shared the Junkee clip on Facebook on Thursday, adding: “Been saying this for years!”
“All players aboriginal & non aboriginal should boycott the anthem & start changing Australia’s ignorant mentality.
“Lets move forward together yo.”
At a press conference at his Redfern gym in Sydney on Friday afternoon, Mundine said he wanted to draw attention to the oppression of Indigenous Australians, and called on Indigenous players in particular to boycott the national anthem.
“If they’re proud Aboriginal men and not conditioned to think like the system wanted them to think, anyone that’s proud like that, they’re gonna take a knee, they’re not gonna sing the words, they’re gonna do something in order to keep their dignity, their integrity.”
Mundine said he would like to see fans in the stands follow suit, and urged them to “do [their] research” about Australia’s violent colonial history.
“Indigenous Australia, we cop it already. We should be the richest people in the country, but we ain’t. We’re the poorest.”
He said he wanted to see the anthem changed as Advance Australia Fair represented Australia’s “dark past”.
“Put it this way, I will never stand for it again, until they change it.”
Advance Australia Fair was written in the late 19th century, but did not become the official national anthem until it replaced God Save The Queen in 1984.
The prime minister told 3AW radio earlier on Friday that the NRL and AFL grand finals made it “a weekend where everyone comes together”.
“Everyone should sing and everyone should be proud about our country and the fact that we can come together with sport.”
Turnbull said sport was “a really wonderful inclusive institution in Australia”.
“It divides us in the sense that we support different teams, but only in a pretty good-natured way, but above all it pulls us together.”
Mundine said that was what the prime minister was “supposed to say”. He said he would consider going into politics after his boxing career was over, perhaps forming his own party.
“In order to make change you need powerful people with big-ass kahunas to step in and not be persuaded by the system ... I would like maybe one day to do that.”
Mundine was visibly frustrated with a non-Indigenous journalist who said opposing the Australian flag and the national anthem was only symbolic.
“Well, obviously, they’re just words to you. It’s just a flag to you. But to me, and someone else of colour or Indigenous background that have grown up on the streets and constantly been pulled over by police, judged ... not been given a fair go – there’s so many things.
“You can’t understand them because you’ve never experienced it.”
The former NRL players Larry Corowa and Joe Williams have supported the call to boycott the anthem.
But the Sydney Swans’ Lance Franklin, the only Indigenous player in the AFL grand final, said there was “no chance” he would follow Mundine’s advice, Fairfax Media reported.
“Personally I think it’s pretty stupid really,” he said. “It’s the Australian national anthem. It’s a part of our sport, our history.”
