Race Discrimination Commissioner gathers insights from CMY’s anti-racism work
On Tuesday 9 July, CMY staff met with Race Discrimination Commissioner, Giridharan Sivaraman at our Carlton office. Mr. Sivaraman has been the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Race Discrimination Commissioner since March 2024.
Mr. Sivaraman reached out to gain insights on how CMY’s work is addressing racism, and the challenges and barriers multicultural young people face.
Six areas of concern were covered in the discussion and were addressed by senior leaders and CMY staff members from specific teams: education, sport, youth justice, Maori and Pasifika and South Sudanese young people and their families and regional and rural young people,
The Commissioner heard from CMY CEO Carmel Guerra OAM, and many other staff and senior leadership from CMY.
The important takeaways from this discussion were:
- Students tend to mistrust schools and teachers due to racist incidents being downplayed or ignored. Schools should utilise the Schools Standing Up To Racism resources to promote the voices of young students as experts and ensure the compounding issues of inequality in schools aren’t furthered by discrimination.
- Racism is a significant issue in Victorian community sport and there is urgent need for ongoing anti-racism strategies in the sports sector. This approach is spearheaded by the Tackling Racism initiative that CMSport is current leading, in partnership with seven State Sporting Associations.
- The critical importance of programs like Le Mana Pasifika and the South Sudanese Community Support Groups (CSG). Young people from Pasifika and African backgrounds face systemic racism daily, especially when it comes to education, the justice system, and employment. Programs like Le Mana and the CSG work closely with young people, their family and community, schools and police to end inequality in these facets.
- Staff from CMY’s regional programs in Ballarat and Gippsland have received reports from young people experiencing an increase in racist incidents at school, in public and at sports clubs. CMY’s Youth Advisory Groups can address this uptick in discriminatory incidents by advising, guiding and co-designing programs and services in these areas.
CMY’s Carmel Guerra said – “Addressing racism is multifaceted and includes approaches that listen to young people’s experience whilst building the capacity of mainstream services to better work with young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds and their families. Only when we acknowledge the endemic nature of racism and the inequity and impact on multicultural young people can we truly find holistic collective solutions.”
Commissioner Giri said – “There is much that other states and territories can learn from CMY particularly in systemically addressing racism through programs like CMSport, Schools Standing up to Racism training, having a regional presence and a deep focus on those most affected such as Pasifika and African young people and their communities.“