A New Racism Register Lets First Nations People Report Discrimination On Their Own Terms

A new register has been launched on Monday to let First Nations people report instances of racism and discrimination.

Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe became the first person to submit to Call It Out, coinciding with International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. She recalled being racially profiled last year at Canberra Airport and never receiving an apology from either the airport or airline.

“Nobody should have to deal with that, and the register is an important tool to tell the truth about the racism we experience in this country,” she said to The Age. “I’d love to see the evidence it logs used to make this country, our Country, a safer place for our people.”

The first Indigenous-led racism register is a joint venture between the National Justice Project and Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research, and was inspired by similar report systems established by Jewish and Muslim groups in Australia.

Individual reports collected are analysed and collated into an annual report to help raise awareness and drive systematic change, with the intention to “collect information on racism, including how it is experienced, how often it is occurring, and the impact it is having on people”.

According to the Australian Human Rights Commission complaint statistics from 2020-21, six percent of overall complainants identified as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, with 20 percent of their complaints falling into racial discrimination categories.

Meanwhile, a survey from Monash University last year found that nearly 50 percent of respondents had experienced major discrimination in the past two years — from being unfairly denied a job or promotion, to being dissuaded from education opportunities. It follows a report the year prior that just under 60 percent of Indigenous Australians have experienced racism in the workplace.

“First Nations people’s experience of racism and discrimination is deeply rooted in the history of the invasion of this country, but the true nature and extent of what First Nations peoples experience day to day is still largely unseen and unheard by the Australian public,” said University of Technology Sydney Professor Larissa Behrendt to the newspaper.

“Anti-discrimination law has strict and difficult criteria to meet and this register was designed with the aim to raise awareness and highlight elements of racism that the legal system fails to protect against.”