A new research program launched on Monday aims to give First Nations people a platform where they can record their experiences of racism in everyday life.
The register asks Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to anonymously log such incidents in order to build a better understanding of the scale of racial intolerance in Australia.
The Jumbunna Institute, an Indigenous research centre at the University of Technology Sydney, hopes to use the data to develop targeted policy ideas to combat racism.
"It really is a response to having so many First Nations people come to us with terrible stories of experiencing racism... and not having an appropriate formal place for those complaints to be heard," said Larissa Behrendt, Distinguished Professor at the Jumbunna Institute.
Speaking to NITV News, Eualeyai/Kamillaroi woman Professor Behrendt said that existing avenues for pursuing claims of racism were legalistic, and too narrowly defined, leading to the belief that experiences of racism are vastly under-reported.
"So what we're hoping to do is to find a place where people can tell their stories," she said.
Distinguished Professor at the Jumbunna Institute UTS, Larissa Behrendt. Source: NITV
"And over time... it will give us a snapshot about diversity of experiences to racism, its many manifestations.
"It will allow us to perhaps highlight areas where racism is occurring a lot, which will allow us to better target education programs there."
The register is based on existing models in use by Muslim and Jewish communities to track and record discrimination, and which have already seen successes.
A recent report based on data collected by the Islamophobia Register Australia found that Muslims in Australia experienced a surge of discrimination after the Christchurch massacre.
Ms Behrendt hopes to amass similar data about First Nations experiences.
"It might be that there are a range of incidences around the way Aboriginal children are being treated at school, or it could be something in the workplace, it could be something online," she said.
"It allows for us to see where there might be a clustering of experiences. But it will also be a platform through which people can tell their individual story confidentially and anonymously, depending on what people want to do."
The Jumbunna Institute intends to turn the data into a yearly report, with the inaugural report due in a year's time.
"That will be a kind of snapshot of what we've seen over that previous year that will allow us to fill in some gaps with the other forms of reporting through more formal mechanisms," said Professor Behrendt.
The launch of the register coincides with the International Day for the Elimination of Racism, and has already had one high-profile participant: Greens senator and Gunnai-Gunditjmara woman Lidia Thorpe, who submitted an alleged instance of racial profiling at an airport to the register.
“Nobody should have to deal with that and the register is an important tool to tell the truth about the racism we experience in this country," Ms Thorpe told Nine Newspapers.
"I’d love to see the evidence it logs used to make this country, our Country, a safer place for our people."
