Racism

National advocacy organisation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights, ANTaR, today expressed outrage at the publication of a racist cartoon in the Australian newspaper.

Bill Leak's cartoon relates to the Royal Commission into the shocking treatment of children in the Northern Territory juvenile justice system, and depicts an Aboriginal father drinking alcohol who doesn’t know the name of his son who is being held by a police officer.

ANTaR National Director Andrew Meehan said that the cartoon demeans Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and will cause enormous hurt after what has been a traumatic time for many First Peoples following the frightening footage of mistreatment of young Aboriginal people shown on Four Corners last week. 

ANTaR welcomes the Government and the Australian Human Rights Commission’s commitment to the development and implementation of such a national anti-racism strategy. In this brief submission, we focus on a number of successful initiatives that have been used to prevent or reduce racism at the individual, community and institutional/ systemic level. We believe that any strategy to prevent and reduce racism must challenge popular myths by identifying and addressing the various forms and manifestations of racism that exist at all levels of society.  Such a campaign must move the discussion of racism beyond ‘accusations or denials of individual racism’/