The Australian Olympic Committee’s Indigenous liaison officer, Kyle Vander-Kuyp, says he was “blindsided” to learn colleague and fellow Olympian Danny Morseu had hidden assault charges against him for almost two years.
The AOC on Monday night announced it had “removed” the former Olympic basketballer as deputy chair of its Indigenous Advisory Committee, after learning he had been found guilty of one count of assault occasioning bodily harm to a woman he punched in the head repeatedly in June 2022.
Danny Morseu, pictured in 2007, has been sentenced to 18 months in jail.Credit: Karleen Williams
The 66-year-old from Thursday Island, who was the first Torres Strait Islander to represent Australia at the Olympics, in Moscow in 1980, was last week sentenced to 18 months in prison, suspended after four months.
An AOC spokesperson said the national federation only learnt of the charges through last week’s media coverage of Morseu’s trial at Cairns District Court.
“This is a very serious offence – a criminal offence,” Paris 2024 chef de mission Anna Meares said on Tuesday in Melbourne, where she announced Australia’s Olympic taekwondo team. “Abuse against anyone, and abuse against women, is just not tolerated. And as soon as the AOC was informed, Danny was removed from his position on the Indigenous Advisory Committee as a result.
Anna Meares and Kyle Vander-Kuyp with newly selected Olympic taekwondo athlete Stacey Hymer on Tuesday.Credit: Getty
“They [the AOC] weren’t made aware until these charges went to court. It’s a shock. It’s a real shock. And a disappointment, of course. And the trauma associated not just in a physical sense, but well past that is noted.”
Morseu, an NBL Hall of Famer who also played for Australia at the 1984 Games and won NBL titles with the Brisbane Bullets and the St Kilda Saints, has acted as a mentor to his nephews, Patty Mills and Nathan Jawai, along with other Indigenous Australians.
He also worked closely with former Olympic hurdler Vander-Kuyp, another member of the AOC’s Indigenous Advisory Committee and one of Meares’ deputy chefs de mission for Paris.
“It’s definitely been a big shock,” Vander-Kuyp, a Worimi and Yuin man, told the Herald and The Age on Tuesday. “Just disappointed and shocked, and a bit blindsided that this has happened.
Danny Morseu and Lindsay Gaze at Melbourne Airport in 1978.Credit: The Age
“We had no idea. [I’ve] been working alongside Danny for the last four years on the advisory committee, achieving lots of great things. The AOC’s commitment to the Indigenous Advisory Committee has been amazing.
“And I take our roles as very privileged to be in a position to finally be at the table and be giving advice and guiding not only the AOC, but all the Australian sports that are doing more in the Indigenous space and the reconciliation journey. It’s finally in people’s minds, and it’s been all my lifetime waiting for those opportunities to sit at a table, to have a voice. We talk about the referendum and having a Voice, but the AOC’s had us as a voice for four years.
“I’m still processing what’s happened, but I also take it seriously. I only just have to look at the news – domestic violence in Indigenous communities is not good. It has to be tackled. So I don’t condone it. And it’s not just Indigenous, it’s violence against anyone. Violence against women.
“I’ve got a daughter, and my partner is from a remote community in Queensland. You have to stop it, do something about it, but also focus on the positives. And there’s so many more great opportunities for Indigenous Australians. That’s the lens I look through. Any Indigenous Australians who have made the Olympics, I want them to be elevated. I don’t want this to take the focus off the great things we’re doing.”
Such work was evidenced at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics through First Nations artwork at the athletes’ village, along with a map of all the language groups. They were embraced by the whole team and will be returning in Paris, along with yarning circles and uniforms featuring Indigenous designs.
Asked how she felt to discover Morseu’s charges retrospectively, having worked with him over the two years since charges were laid, Meares said: “Well, you don’t know what you don’t know, do you? And it’s one thing to ask; it’s another thing to tell. And if you don’t know, you just don’t know.
“You operate as best you can in those capacities until you do have the awareness and the information, and you act as quickly as you can in response to that, which is obviously what my role is going to be at Games time.”
