Educate yourself

Racial Equity Tools

Arts and Culture section of a wider library of 2000+ links, research, resources and curricula aimed at empowering change in people, organisations and systems.

The site divides resources into ‘Fundamentals’ (concepts, data, lists and tips), ‘Plan’ (examining issues and planning), ‘Act’ (identifying strategies and communicating), ‘Evaluate’ (evaluating progress and results), ‘Connect’ and ‘Curricula’.

17 Books To Read If You Want To Support Blak Voices

Recommending fiction and nonfiction reading list of books by First Nations Australians.

Structural Racism

Document defining terms such as 'structural racism', 'white supremacy', along with exercises in recognising power, privilege and manifestations of racism.

Helping Students Explore Their Privileged Identities

Tips for educators on supporting people through self-exploration of a privileged identity.

'Educators are likely to encounter resistance when asking students to undertake this kind of self-examination. But faculty can find ways to help students move beyond fear and defensiveness.'

Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color

Paper by the lawyer and scholar who introduced the theory of intersectionality, which describes the way overlapping identities relate to systemic structures of oppression, in this case gender and race and their affect on violence against women of colour.

'Because of their intersectional identity as both women and people of color within discourses that are shaped to respond to one or the other, the interests and experiences of women of color are frequently marginalized within both.'

UNESCO - Diversity of Cultural Expressions - 5 Principles in Australian Arts

UNESCO's Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expression is a legally-binding international agreement that ensures artists, cultural professionals, practitioners and citizens worldwide can create, produce, disseminate and enjoy a broad range of cultural goods, services and activities. Australia became a signatory in 2009.

This short film offers five principles and case study examples that nurture the diversity of cultural expressions.

NCACL Cultural Diversity Database

The National Centre for Australian Children's Literature has a free database of children's books featuring culturally diverse characters, focusing on knowledge and understanding of both similarities and differences.

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack

Influential article identifying ways racism benefits white people each day, with a checklist of 50 items, for example:

'I can be pretty sure that if I ask to talk to the "person in charge", I will be facing a person of my race'

'If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven't been singled out because of my race.'

'I can easily buy posters, post-cards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys and children's magazines featuring people of my race.'

Cultural appropriation tipsheet

This tipsheet (focusing primarily about Halloween) provides a very good framework for understanding cultural appropriation.

Art Against Racism

Art Against Racism is a virtual arts exhibition which aims to lift up the tremendous array of creative works made in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. In doing so, project organizers hope that the exhibition will serve as an archive of the national artistic response to this historic moment.

Words at Work: CaLD or CaRM?

In this guide, Diversity Council Australia offer insight into the differences between the terms 'culturally and linguistically diverse' (CaLD) and 'culturally and racially marginalised' (CaRM), explaining why it is important to build racial literacy.

Oppression: A Museum Primer

This blog post unpacks the issue of oppression, highlighting ways that people can learn, grow and participate in the movements to end oppression including in museums.

The Pro-Equity Glossary

The Pro-Equity Glossary is a collaborative vocabulary of keywords and terms that consists of over 100 commonly-used and emergent terms in relation to intersectional justice.

Racism key terms

This glossary from the Australian Human Rights Commission explores key terms that can help us to engage in meaningful conversations about racism, and strengthen our understanding of how race shapes society.

Dear White Screen Industry…

In this article for ScreenHub, Katrina Irawati Graham writes that championing diversity without dismantling institutional racism is like putting up a 'safe to dive' sign without doing any work to deepen the pool.

Workplace Racism Survey by People of Colour in Publishing and Latinx in Publishing

A survey from 2018 'gauging the extent to which BIPOC book publishing employees experienced racism in the workplace. The survey was open to any professional currently or previously employed by a book publisher in the U.S.'

According to the authors 'The survey included a range of questions that allowed us to collect information about the breadth and depth of microaggressions and racism that BIPOC experience in the workplace, and the impact this has on our work. Participants were instructed

Anti-Colonial Research Library

Created by researchers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), the Anti-Colonial Research Library was created to be used as a research and teaching tool for knowledge democracy. It holds a collection of open-access articles and books, websites, and YouTube videos on Indigenous and anti-colonial research methodologies.

What is white supremacy culture?

This website provides an overview of what white supremacy is, as well as various resources on white supremacy from different authors and thinkers.

Decolonisation and Anti-Racism

This Library provides resources for anti-racist learning, teaching and research. It introduces decolonisation in a higher education and library context.

Decolonising glossary

This is a working document attempting to identify and understand the different ways and places in which decolonising work is taking place.

Decolonising museums

This library is a collection of resources to support and inspire decolonial practice in museums.

Furore sparked by Jamie Oliver children's book cultural appropriation opens wider debate

An article describing how another novel written by a UK author has been withdrawn as publishers and booksellers grapple with the issues of First Nations culture and history as plot points.