Courageous Conversations About Race Workshops

25 and 26 March 2013

Fifty Deakin staff members and students attended 'Courageous Conversations about Race' workshops at the Geelong and Burwood campuses to mark Harmony Week in March 2013.

Conducted by Malcolm Fialho, Senior Diversity Officer and race expert at the University of Western Australia, these interactive workshops were critical in raising racial consciousness, examining concepts of 'whiteness' and 'privilege' that contribute to race-based inequity and power differentials, and paving the way for deeper conversations about race and action within Deakin.

This activity provides staff with greater cultural competency to work with students from diverse backgrounds.

It also aligns with the University’s LIVE the Future implementation plan – to deepen our understanding of cultural diversity, cultural complexities and sensitivities and racism, in order to:

• enhance engagement
• better support people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds
• enrich the student and staff experience. 

Workshop synopsis

The Courageous Conversations About Race workshop uses a combination of experiential narratives/stories and values-based exercises within a race privilege conceptual framework to promote a deeper, more active and sustained engagement with the issues of cultural diversity, racism and community harmony. The process meaningfully engages, sustains and deepens the race dialogue at multiple levels.

There are three key conceptual elements underpinning the Courageous Conversations About Race model:

• surfacing the 'indiscussable' and having an honest conversation about race in contemporary Australia – both the 'safer' demographics as well as the more 'challenging' racial power divide and, in a university context, the racial achievement gap
• understanding that the combination of 'whiteness' and 'privilege' contributes directly to race-based inequity and power differentials
• utilising the above insights to drive social and cultural transformation within personal and professional areas of responsibility – essentially, the practical application of the Substantive Equality Principles.

Harmony Day

Harmony Day, 21 March, marks the anniversary of the United Nations ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racism, of which Australia is a signatory. Harmony Day is an opportunity to acknowledge and appreciate the cultural diversity of our community. Deakin is also in the process of joining the Australian Human Rights Commission’s National Anti-Racism Campaign.