Race & Racism

Today (June 7th) marks the final day of the Yoorrook Justice Commission hearings investigating injustices in housing, health, education and economic life for First Nations peoples in Victoria. These hearings are providing space for First Nations peoples’ to give evidence in a larger act of Truth-telling, to acknowledge and hold account the institutions that contribute to genocidal and discriminatory practices. But, Sissy Austin writes, we can not be selective of which genocides we choose to be outraged over.

The Yoorrook Justice Commission has been travelling across Victoria as part of its work to put the true history of the state since colonisation on the public record. The Commission has heard from thousands of First Peoples during the truth telling process – the first of its kind in Australia. Commissioner Maggie Walter shares one of the testimonies being presented today, from a First Nations man named Jarvis. Commissioner Walter has shared this with his permission.

So-called Australia has a long history of white voices being the ones who speak on First Nations stories, and how we’re represented. Thankfully, Blak voices have been emerging in academia and literature, and more stories are being told our way. These Blak voices are especially important now, Darby Jones writes, in the wake of a failed referendum, where 60% of the nation expressed their desire for our silence.

Nathan Booth was reported missing in July 2019, and after months of inaction from the police, his body was found in December that year, in the Murrumbidgee. After five years of waiting, the inquest into Nathan’s death is continuing this week. Yesterday Nathan’s family made a statement, which we have published with their permission.

Readers please be advised this article mentions harm against Aboriginal people, deaths in custody, names of people who have passed away, and racist terminology. In…

Life – Black life – does not stop once the article is written and the words are published.

NB: I’ve been sitting on this draft article since last year just slowly fine tuning both the article and my thinking on the subject, but…

“Too Many Coppas, Not enough Justice” A protest chant heard annually on Jan 26 and regularly through the year whenever the police do their acts…

This time of year can be triggering for mob. In 2024, after a lost referendum has resulted in a rise of racist calls against all…

In this current climate where white reality is apparently the baseline and all things mob-related is seen as an act of hostility, Luke Pearson writes of the accountability that needs to come with cultural education.

Dr Eugenia Flynn writes about the health system and it's lack of ability to see our [Mob] lives and deaths as anything other than numbers.

Adjunct Professor Phillip Mills of the Kulkalgal Nation, explores the importance of prioritising sovereignty over equity for Indigenous peoples’ survival.

Arrernte writer Celeste Liddle speaks up about the racism, targeted and racialised bullying she has endured, concluding that Australia has little hope of ever eradicating the extreme racism of fascists.

Since Stan Grant announced he is stepping away from the media, we've seen First Nations journalists tell their own stories of racism and discrimination in the workplace and a lack of support when attacked by racist trolls. This is nothing new, Bizzi Lavelle writes. She explores what has been happening in media and social media with First Nations people, some that don't make the news.

Cheryl Axleby, Co-Chair of Change the Record writes of the crisis of the overrepresentation of First Nations children in incarceration. We need to raise the age of criminal responsibility.

The coverage on the Rolfe trial could make a reader question who is the one really being judged – the deceased or the police officer standing trial?

When white Australians became ‘just Australians’, they could keep the land and power without being reminded of how they were attained.

Decolonising an organisation must be intentional, resourced and based on ethical, moral and legal motivations for workplaces to learn and apply respectful ways of ensuring Indigenous self-determination and institution-wide responsibility.