Reviewing the AFL’s Vilification Laws: Rule 35, Reconciliation and Racial Harmony in Australian Football (Sport in the Global Society – Contemporary Perspectives)

This book is the outcome of an Australian Research Council (ARC)-funded project titled Assessing the Australian Football League’s Racial and Religious Vilification Laws to Promote Community Harmony, Multiculturalism and Reconciliation, which investigated the impact of the Australian Football League’s anti-vilification policy since its introduction in 1995. With key stakeholders the Australian Football League, the AFL Players’ Association and the Office of Multicultural Affairs (previously the Victorian Multicultural Commission), the book gauges the attitudes and perspectives of players and coaches in the AFL regarding Rule 35, the code’s anti-vilification rule. The overarching themes of multiculturalism, reconciliation and social harmony in the AFL workplace have been the guiding ideals that we examined and analysed. The outcomes from the research vectors look at and engage with key issues about race, diversity and difference as it pertains to the elite AFL code, but also looks at the ongoing international conversation as it pertains to these themes in sport.

This book was previously published as a special issue of Sport in Society.

Sean Gorman is a Senior Research Fellow at the Curtin University, Perth, Australia, who specialises in Australian Indigenous Studies. He has studied and worked in the Indigenous Studies field for 20 years and is affiliated with both the Centre for Aboriginal Studies and Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA). His latest book Legends: The AFL Indigenous Team of the Century is a collection of life stories of the indigenous players chosen by an expert AFL panel spanning the years from 1904 to 2004. Gorman’s work draws on social history, sports history, local history, memoir and memory, and gives insight and voice to contemporary indigenous society and people.

Dean Lusher is a lecturer at Swinburne University, Hawthorn, Australia, and is a social network analyst with expertise in the application of statistical models for social networks. He recently co-edited Exponential Random Graph Models for Social Networks: Theory, Methods and Applications (2013).

Keir Reeves is a professor and the Director of the Collaborative Research Centre for Australian History at Federation University Australia. His current research concentrates on cultural heritage, regional development and history. He is also committed to exploring how these trajectories can be applied to regional development policy to ensure viable communities in regional settings particularly in central Victoria. He recently co-edited Battlefield Events: Landscape, Commemoration and Heritage (2015).