Key Points
- The Greens want Harmony Week to be replaced with Anti-racism Week.
- Its anti-racism spokesperson says Harmony Week does not help Australia expose and tackle racism.
- But the government says it helps people reflect on what can be done to stamp out the problem.
Harmony Week is "superficial" and "white-washed", according to the Greens, who have called on the federal government to rename it Anti-racism Week.
Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi has written to Immigration, Citizenship, and Multicultural Affairs Minister Andrew Giles, saying that it is marked with "tokenistic cultural celebrations" and should instead focus on "real action against tackling racism".
"Replacing Harmony Week with Anti-Racism Week will open up space for meaningful action to expose and address racism, and show people what real respect means and what a genuinely equal and diverse society should look like," the letter from Faruqi, who is the Greens' anti-racism spokesperson, reads.
Faruqi also called on Labor to establish an anti-racism Cabinet portfolio.
What is Harmony Week?
For decades, the international community has marked the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on 21 March. Australia did too, until 1999 when then-Liberal prime minister John Howard introduced Harmony Day.
Then in 2019, Harmony Week was introduced under then-Liberal prime minister Scott Morrison.
The week has been maintained under Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. But last year, Giles announced that 21 March would again be known as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination rather than Harmony Day.
"Does Minister Giles really want to continue this legacy of whitewashing racism?," Faruqi, referring to Harmony Week, said in a statement.
Immigration, Citizenship, and Multicultural Affairs Minister Andrew Giles says multiculturalism is "one of Australia's greatest strengths". Source: AAP / Mick Tsikas
Running from 18 to 24 March this year, it says people can wear orange to show support, or attend or host a Harmony Week event.
Events listed on the website include, among others, morning teas, lunches, and performances.
'Tokenistic' gestures
Faruqi, who also wrote to Giles with criticisms of Harmony Day last year, said the week "hides structural racism behind tokenistic gestures".
"What we really need is to expose and tackle it," she said.
She said organisations, parliament, and the Australian Public Service could use the week to provide anti-racism training.
"This Labor government is still insisting on hollow gestures of celebrating diversity," she said.
"We should be joining the rest of the world and having the sometimes difficult conversations about the harmful impacts of racism and responding to it.
"Harmony Week’s superficial celebrations ignore the lived reality of racism for so many people of colour and First Nations people in this country."
Mehreen Faruqi says Harmony Day does not help Australia expose and tackle racism. Source: AAP / Mick Tsikas
He said multiculturalism was "one of Australia's greatest strengths" and that is must be "underpinned by a zero tolerance approach to racism".
"This week provides all of us with an occasion to celebrate our vibrant multiculturalism and reflect on how each of us, and more of us, can do more to help stamp out racism in our communities," Giles said.
He also said — which will explore the experience of migrants and potential improvements to the ways they are integrated into Australia — would be released "in the near future". The Home Affairs website states the report is expected to be finalised at the end of March.
The federal government has also tasked the Australian Human Rights Commission with developing a national anti-racism strategy, which is expected to be completed by June, 2026.
Others have also been critical of "Harmony" celebrations.
Ahead of the federal government ditching Harmony Day last year, Andrew Jakubowicz, emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Technology Sydney, said the brand had been "detrimental".
He said Australia had avoided developing institutional research into racism and discrimination, and failed to hold societal conversations to combat these.
Gamilaraay educator and founder and CEO of IndigenousX, Luke Pearson, agreed, saying racism was "rife" in Australia and won't be eliminated if we don't talk about it.
