A report examining racism towards Indigenous Australians found one fifth of all complaints contained reference to the failed voice to parliament referendum, in what authors say was one of the nation’s “darker moments”.
The report, titled If You Don’t Think Racism Exists Come Take a Walk With Us, was released on Thursday. Undertaken by the University of Technology Sydney’s Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research and the National Justice Project, it is the second annual report about racism targeting First Nations people and is based on 453 validated reports of racism made to the Call it Out register in the 12 months to 20 March 2024.
It examined the ways in which racism and discrimination exist in Australia, as well as the impact of the October 2023 referendum – where 60% of Australians voted against the proposed Indigenous voice to parliament.
Prof Lindon Coombes, the guest author of the report, said racist views were“emboldened” during the referendum, with racist abuse and harmful and derogatory language being spread online and in person.
“One of our darker moments in this regard was the 2023 referendum. There can be no genuine discussion on the voice referendum without discussing the impact of racism, both throughout the campaign and in its aftermath,” Coombes wrote.
The report said that many noted “the lead-up to the Referendum and the outcome of the vote had facilitated the normalisation of racism”.
“The filters are off – it almost feels like it is okay to be racist.”
The analysis found the most common forms of racism were stereotyping (23%) and discrimination (15%), followed by hate speech (13%) and non-recognition of cultural rights (11%).
Aggressively racist behaviour – including physical violence, verbal abuse, hate speech, threats, intimidation, bullying and damage to property – made up 35% of reports.
Most reports were made by witnesses (67%), the analysis found, while just over a quarter (28%) were made by the First Nations people who directly experienced it. The remainder were made by friends and or relatives.
The report found that nearly one in five of the reports specifically mentioned the voice or the referendum.
One example detailed a 12-year-old boy’s experience in a group chat with his classmates, with comments reported including: “ur a monkey”; “no wonder why everyone voted no”; “at least I have a voice”; “Proud to be the one who stole ur land”; and “Why are u talking i thought everyone voted no for u to not have a voice.”
Another example was of non-Indigenous supporters of the voice receiving racist mail, such as “vote no” material referring to Indigenous people as “stone-age degenerates” and encouraging “all Abo’s to commit suicide”.
Others reported seeing racist graffiti outside their homes or in public places, or signs supporting the voice being torn down. Others detailed how Aboriginal people were accosted in public places, in their homes, or teased or bullied at school.
The analysis found racism was most likely to take place online and in the media (32% of reports), followed by public places (13%) and in the workplace (12%).
Reports of racism both online and within the media were 20% higher in the period leading up to the referendum, compared with the project’s previous report, which covered 2022-2023. There was however a 14% drop in reports of in-person racism.
The report said traditional and social media became “key avenues for the expression of derogatory and racist views of First Nations people” via distressing articles, commentary and comments on social media.
Examples included “anti-voice hate mail, white supremacist graffiti, and vigilantism inciting violence against young and adult Aboriginal people”. The report cited public posts from an online space focused on Alice Springs which said “shoot them like animals” or “run them over with cars”.
Anti-Indigenous sentiment and racist attitudes in the workplace, including by supervisors, were also reported. Others reported concerns about their workplace after raising a lack of diversity policies and negative attitudes to an acknowledgment of country, or the refusal to acknowledge concerns about 26 January.
Examples of institutional racism made up 15% of all reports, with a number of reports detailing the experiences of Indigenous people in healthcare settings, education, law and media.
One mother made a report after she and her unborn baby were marked high risk because of their Aboriginality at a prenatal check-up at the local doctor’s clinic. She said this was particularly distressing because of the relationship between the healthcare system and child protection and police. “I feel instantly tense … I need to ensure I am strong and not struggling and everything is perfect to avoid unwanted attention,” she wrote.
The report also acknowledged the trauma and impact of racism on Indigenous people, with many who submitted to the Call it Out project speaking of feeling the psychological and physical impacts of racism.
• Help for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is available on 13YARN on 13 92 76.
