Harmony Week could be changed to Anti-Racism Week, if a campaign launched by the Greens is successful in tackling what they say is nothing but a “tokenistic” gesture.
This year, Harmony Week runs from March 18 – 24, and is promoted as a week celebrating Australian multiculturalism.
However, Australian Greens spokesperson for Anti-Racism Mehreen Faruqi has written to Multicultural Affairs Minister Andrew Giles calling for the week to be rebranded, saying that the celebration is “hollow” in its current form.
“I write to urge you to rename Harmony Week to Anti-Racism Week and shift its focus from tokenistic cultural celebrations to real action on tackling racism,” she said in the letter.
“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.”
She went on to say that continuing to mark Harmony Week “sidelined” its purpose of recognising and eliminating racism. Given the rhetoric around things such as the Ramadam night markets and the failure of last year’s Voice To Parliament referendum, it’s clear Australia still has a way to go.
It wouldn’t be the first time the Harmony Week celebrations have undergone a name change. In 1999, then-Prime Minister John Howard replaced the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination with “Harmony Day”, which was then expanded to Harmony Week in 2019.
However, Faruqi told PEDESTRIAN.TV that none of this goes far enough, adding that Harmony Week simply “hides structural racism behind tokenistic gestures”.
“Harmony Week’s superficial celebrations ignore the lived reality of racism for so many people of colour and First Nations people in this country,” she said.
She also said that such a change wasn’t unrealistic, pointing to the government ditching Harmony Day last year after a successful campaign by the Greens.
“The next step is to get rid of Harmony Week and Australia’s racism blindspot with it,” she said.
“It’s time for an honest reckoning with white privilege and systemic racism, rather than tokenistic celebrations of skin deep multiculturalism.”
Minister Andrew Giles Responds
Giles told P.TV that multiculturalism must be “underpinned by a zero tolerance approach to racism”.
“Every year, thousands of Australians celebrate Harmony Week, culminating in the International Day of the Elimination of Racial Discrimination,” he said.
“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.
“With the release of the Multicultural Framework Review in the near future, the Albanese Labor Government is working to ensure that no matter where you’re born or the language you speak, everyone in Australia feels as though they belong.”
