ABSTRACT
For at least 20 years, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, leaders, educators and mental health workers have been calling on governments, institutions, professional bodies, educators and practitioners to embrace culturally appropriate methodologies of practice in order to address the significant social and health disparities experienced by Indigenous peoples. The British occupied Australia in 1788, and subsequently land was wrested from Indigenous peoples. Scholars have described this as one of the greatest appropriations of land in world history. Racism operates at multiple levels in society in both overt and covert ways. Individual racism can be manifest as personal attacks towards members of a marginalised group; crossing a road to avoid contact, or standing on public transport rather than taking a vacant seat next to a member of the marginalised group; or any number of other everyday actions. Institutional racism does not necessarily involve explicit exclusion and denial of access as was practised during the apartheid era in South Africa.
