A new campaign has been launched to draw attention to subtle racism experienced by Indigenous Australians and the ongoing effects it can have on their mental health.
The television campaign devised by mental health organisation BeyondBlue aims to highlight how everyday acts of discrimination, such as jokes, glances and throwaway remarks, can lead to distress, depression and anxiety among Indigenous Australians.
BeyondBlue’s chief executive Georgie Harman said the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community are a priority group for the organisation and the campaign had been on the agenda for some time.
“Our job is to raise awareness for anxiety, depression and suicide, we know that the rate of distress amongst Aboriginal people is three times higher than the rest of us and the the rate of suicide is on average two-and-a-half times higher,” she said.
Ms Harman said they hope the campaign will make people stop and think about their behaviour.
“Stop, check your behaviour, if you’re doing it – don’t. And if you see your mates doing it, call them up on it,” she said.
“This is happening, we need to draw attention to it and we need to call it.”
Indigenous Northern Territory senator Nova Perris has thrown her support behind the campaign.
“The fact of the matter is racism is very in real in Australia, hopefully this makes Australia stand up and realise how hurtful it is,” she said.
“We are all Australians and Aboriginal people have suffered systemic policies throughout the years which makes us feel invaluable, invisible and worthless in this county.
“When you look at the high rates of suicide in Aboriginal people and [compared to] non-Indigenous Australians, the difference is just overwhelming.”
Senator Peris said the suicide rate among Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory was five times higher than the average in Australia.
“It’s something that needs to be done and it’s fantastic that BeyondBlue are taking the lead on it and bringing out a national campaign against it,” she said.
“It’s that systemic racism that has been so confronting in Australia, and people are doing it when they don’t realise how hurtful it is and it’s because Aboriginal people have been typecast and stereotyped over the years.”