Is this the year we celebrate harmony or acknowledge racism exists and we need to do something about it?

At the beginning of this year I had planned on sending out a newsletter to all our supporters, however with fires raging out of control it did not seem like the right moment. This led up to and included the debate of the celebration of genocide, “Australia Day.” It is unfathomable that we continue to have a national day of "celebration" to highlight our racism and therefore did not feel that this was the right moment to take up the space of First Nations people.

Today may also not be the right moment as we are facing the coronavirus epidemic, which has disproportionate impacts on the people most vulnerable. The impacts go further than physical health. We are seeing it play out right in front of our eyes how racism continues to rear its ugly, normalised head. We have seen acts of individual racism, which are played out because systemic racism is well and truly alive. Yet, we choose to deny the existence of racism.

How about this Sunday, where we will be marking the one year anniversary that an Australian white supremacist murdered and terrorised 51 Muslim people performing prayer in Christchurch? Will we continue to deny the ongoing role of racism in our society? 

As we approach the 21st of March 2020 we should be seeing true leadership to acknowledge that harmony cannot exist without the elimination of racism. Thus, instead of celebrating this idealism of community harmony can we first acknowledge that the 21st March marks the UN day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and look at what we can do to eliminate racism? Only then we can really start celebrating harmony. 

This year we spent a lot of time to look at our own anti-racist practices and the focus of the projects and purpose of our social enterprise, Our Race. What is our role to be a leader in anti-racism?

When we started with this work a few years ago we had such optimism that through cultural diversity and anti-racism training and support services we could play a key role in reducing racism and increasing anti-racism action. We were encouraged by big organisations waving around their diversity and inclusion agendas, plans and strategies.

We were also encouraged by our experiences of delivering a cultural diversity and anti-racism training program to thousands of government staff across the country. Evidence, including independent academic research suggested that we were on the right path. But rather than take this as a given we have looked more closely at our work and others across the sector. 

We have paid particular attention to our own practices and experiences engaging with organisations, communities and individuals. We learnt quickly (but not quickly enough) that many organisations and institutions we engaged with were not focused on improving diversity as the right thing to do but rather to serve their own interests. We also saw that they did not take a genuine anti-racism stance. Instead racism has been silenced behind their D&I agendas, plans and strategies with the additional celebrations of performing cultural diversity.

We acknowledge that it is very difficult to change these organisation's practices but we can change our own by better understanding our complicity in upholding the silencing and perpetuation of racism. And as such we have asked these questions:

1.    Has the work we have conducted contributed to racism or anti-racism?

2.    By working with certain organisations are we just assisting them in ticking boxes and therefore protecting racial inequality practice?

These are difficult questions to ask and often we answer them by coming up with many justifications, one of which is if we don’t do it someone else will.

We have made a conscious decision that these justifications are not sufficient and as a result we feel that our work, like many others in this field, has started from the wrong place. Many anti-racism practices are focussed on the majoritarian (mainly white) audience’s perspective, rather than those who really understand racism, those who experience it. 

Stories, likewise, have placed a disproportionate burden on those who experience racism to perform for the majoritarian audience. 

By doing this, are we actually perpetuating racist colonialist tropes? Are we reinforcing the power relationships of racism and colonisation? As a result, are we serving the interests of the white majority rather than improving the interests for racial equality?

These questions have allowed us, both through the PhD project my name is on, and Our Race to investigate the broader structures and impacts of storytelling on those who are racialised and dehumanised. The research is still in its early stages, however there is sufficient evidence for us to take a different approach to anti-racism and storytelling. Consequently, we have shifted our focus from working on anti-racism projects with storytelling towards projects with anti-racism storytelling. 

In taking this approach, we are designing workshops which we will pilot in Sydney only a few days after the UN Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and another a few weeks later in Shepparton. These workshops are aimed at individuals and organisations who want to take an ethical approach to storytelling. It is for those who see the need to flip the power of the narrative whereby the storyteller is at the top, rather than the bottom. This means going beyond mainstream western formulas of storytelling and providing a space for First Nations People and People of Colour to create their stories without conditions set upon them. 

We are excited by the opportunities that we have been provided from grassroots organisations who see that we have a duty of care in the creation and sharing of stories. If you, as an individual or an organisation, would like to come on this journey with us please get in touch so we can flip the power of stories together. We acknowledge that the representation in stories is important, however it is through direction where the true power of the story lies. 

Now taking it back to the title, is this the year we celebrate harmony or the year we acknowledge racism exists and we do something about it?

You have probably already organised your harmony day event but why not make sure the stories you share do not just add to the dress, cook and perform for white people actions? These stories can ask questions of why we do not have harmony, starting with the role of Harmony Day, racial silencing.

There is #noharmonyinracism