Lesa Scholl
29 November 2024
Faith leaders hope the Australian Human Rights Commission’s new plan to tackle ingrained racism will promote justice for First Nations and marginalised communities.
The AHRC launched its National Anti-Racism Framework this week, following several years of community consultation.
The framework was designed to serve as a community-centred approach to eliminating racism.
Aboriginal Christian Leader Brooke Prentis said it was important that the strategy was calling for truth-telling.
She was hopeful that the framework would hold people accountable for racism.
“As Aboriginal peoples, we know that truth-telling will bring healing, and not just for Aboriginal people, but for non-indigenous peoples, too,” she said.
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Ms Prentis called for a national truth-telling commission where every Australian would pause to understand our shared history.
She called for the nation to listen to one another with love and compassion.
“That’s what I see is missing, even within the church,” she said.
One of the key recommendations of the framework was to implement the findings from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
Ms Prentis noted the importance of this recommendation and said that Aboriginal people are dying preventable deaths in state-run systems.
She said that this was an integral matter for the healing not just of Aboriginal peoples but for all peoples to create a better Australia.
Priest-in-Charge at Hume Anglican parish Reverend Dr Satvasheela Pandhare called for a dedicated campaign on anti-racism in the diocese that can be our statement to the public.
“We can’t fix such a strong issue in one go,” Dr Pandhare said. She called for more focus on employment diversity and attention to the divisions of power in educational settings.
She said there was a subtle acceptance of whiteness in leadership.
Race Discrimination Commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman presented the framework with its 63 recommendations to the federal parliament on Wednesday.
“Racism diminishes a person’s sense of self and corrodes one’s soul. In doing so, it corrodes the soul of our nation,” he said.
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Diversity Australia chief executive Steven Asnicar said that church organisations need to lead from the front on anti-racism.
“It can’t be left to government or to individuals to run it,” he said.
Mr Asnicar observed that Australia was behind the times in the anti-racism space, with many other countries already establishing human rights acts.
The framework is one piece of a bigger picture, Mr Asnicar said. “We now need to start talking in terms of evoking a Human Rights Act, which will then actively support that new strategy.”
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