Jewish research helps kickstart first Indigenous race hate register

The First Nations community uses the ECAJ annual antisemitism report as a model to develop its own database of black hate incidents

WHEN AN INDIGENOUS community leader asked George Newhouse for advice about how to combat race hate, the prominent human rights lawyer turned to a research innovation by the Jewish community for inspiration.

“I recalled that the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) releases a report on antisemitic incidents each year,” Newhouse told The Jewish Independent, “but that no one was compiling a report on race hate incidents against First Nation’s peoples.

“I spoke to the powers that be at Jumbunna institute and we approached the organisation behind Islamophobia.com.au and they were keen to help…. and the rest is history,” said Newhouse, who is an Adjunct Professor and co-founder of and principal solicitor of the National Justice Project.

Fast forward to this week, when the NCP announced the development of a national online reporting tool, Call It Out, Australia’s first Indigenous-led racism register for First Nations Peoples, which will allow people to report experiences of interpersonal and institutional racism.

Newhouse told The Jewish Independent the idea for the First Nations Racism Register came from complaints I received from Kalgoorlie Aboriginal community members following the death of Elijah Doughty in 2016.

“Elijah was run down by a non-indigenous man who mistakenly thought Elijah had stolen his motorbike. I was sickened by that event and the overt racism which Kalgoorlie Aboriginal community members were being subjected to.

“It is incredible that after 230 years of colonisation no one has collected data on First Nations race hate events and reported on it,” Newhouse said. “The Jewish community does it, the Muslim community does it and so do the Chinese in Australia, but this is a first.

Call It Out was developed by the Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research (Jumbunna Research) in collaboration with the National Justice Project; the project also received substantial technical support from the Big Smoke media.