Protecting our kids: Confronting and challenging racism after 26 January

Our 29 January event explored the impacts of racism on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.

This webinar focused on how racism impacts on the health and wellbeing of our children and what’s needed to protect their futures, highlighting how Aboriginal-led and community-driven solutions can address racism and strengthen communities.

This event was deliberately scheduled following 26 January: a date that remains deeply painful for many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, marking invasion, dispossession, and continued injustice. It is often accompanied by heightened racist rhetoric, public debate, and harm. In this context, it is critical for us to come together to discuss racism and further understand its impacts on children, ensuring that we will play a role in challenging narratives that perpetuate harm and injustice.

The webinar provided a space for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous allies to come together in solidarity, in reflection after 26 January, and to consider meaningful actions that challenge racism and support change.

Throughout the webinar, we heard from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders, researchers and community advocates who shared their knowledge and lived experience, and who held space for honest conversations about racism, its impacts on children, and the collective action needed to create safer, more just futures.

Presenters

Panel – Researching Racism: health impacts on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children

• Professor Naomi Priest, ANU
• Professor Cath Chamberlain, University of Melbourne
• Professor Lindon Coombes, Director, Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research
• Beck Lewis, Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research
• Jamie Everingham, Research Coordinator, Racism and Allyship in Aboriginal Youth Spaces (RAAYS)
• Bec Gillis, Racism and Allyship in Aboriginal Youth Spaces (RAAYS)
  

Keynote address

• Natalie Lewis, Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Commissioner
  

Panel – Strong Kids, Strong Communities: grassroots action against racism

• Eddie Betts, Founder, Eddie Betts Foundation
• Adam Briggs, Chair, Adam Briggs Foundation
• Apryl Day, Founding Executive Officer, Dhadjowa Foundation
• Aunty Elaine Magias, Kaurna Elder

Impact of racism on children

The event coincided with the publication of a Lowitja Institute position paper, Racism and the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children: the need for targeted policy interventions to protect the health and wellbeing of our future generations.

This paper highlights the ongoing and pervasive nature of racism in Australia and the ways systemic racism continues to be experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, but particularly our children, and calls for urgent action to supporting local, community-led responses and driving systemic reform to protect and promote the wellbeing of our children.