Being Aboriginal, Yuin [pronounced “You-en”] hip-hop artist Nooky is used to racism.
These unpleasant experiences started from a young age.
He believes racist attitudes towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been embedded in the Australian psyche since European settlement.
Racism is an ongoing experience for 97 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people surveyed in a Victorian study by The Lowitja Institute.
It’s a situation beyondblue is trying to address in the Invisible Discriminator campaign launched last year.
Belinda Duarte was part of the advisory committee.
Belinda Duarte is a descendant of the Wotjobaluk [pronounced “Wot-Joe-Ba-Luk] people in Victoria with Celtic and Polish origins.
She works for Culture is Life, an organisation which supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth in suicide prevention.
One of the many factors of youth suicide among Indigenous Australians is racism.
She says people can sometimes unknowingly make racist remarks based on ignorance.
Andrew Meehan heads ANTaR, an independent national network working in support of rights and respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
He agrees that the high prevalence of racism faced by First Peoples is based on a lack of knowledge from the wider society.
The 2016 State of Reconciliation in Australia report shows that only 30 per cent of non-Indigenous Australians socialise with First Peoples whilst one in three Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had experienced verbal racial abuse in the six months before the survey.
Andrew Meehan says many non-Indigenous Australians find it hard to accept the historical accounts of massacre, dispossession and stolen generations.
Now in his mid-twenties, Nooky says racist experiences used to anger him but nowadays he’s found a way to turn that around.
Both Nooky and Belinda Duarte encourage people to call out against any kind of racist behaviour.
And Nooky is challenging racism though his music.