The Guardian Australia: Indigenous Australians Share the Racist Messages Flooding Their Inboxes
On a quiet afternoon Natasha Wanganeen replayed a voice message in her Facebook Messenger inbox australia has published the recording in which a man threatens sexual violence and uses explicitly racist slurs. What began as occasional hostile comments has, she says, become a daily torrent: “Disgusting abuse, ” she told interviewers. “I got a voice message saying he was gonna rape me … and if my ancestors come back, he’ll kill them again. ”
What did Australia hear in the message to Natasha Wanganeen?
The voice memo landed in Wanganeen’s inbox in 2020. In the recording a man calls her a “fucking filthy abo whore, ” threatens sexual assault and asserts that Australia is “white people’s land now. ” Wanganeen, who identifies as Kaurna, Narungga and Ngarrindjeri, says the barrage has continued: in the past six months she has been called a “black cunt” and a “cancer on society. ” Her experience is presented as an extreme example among a cluster of accounts from high-profile First Nations people who say online abuse is frequent and worsening, with many noting a marked uptick in violent rhetoric since the failed voice to parliament referendum in 2023.
How widespread is online racism against First Nations people, and what evidence exists?
Research and community reporting point to consistent volumes of racist incidents. The Jumbunna Institute at the University of Technology Sydney established the Call It Out register in 2022 to collect reports of racist incidents experienced by or witnessed toward First Nations people. The register consistently receives about 500 reports a year, a mix of first-hand and witness accounts. Dr Fiona Allison, associate professor at the Jumbunna Institute, warns that online hate can have “real world implications. ” She highlights disturbing content documented in submissions: “There’s so much in the report that comes through about some pretty hideous online threats of violence, including [threatening] the killing of young people who are seen to be offenders. ” She adds that people are reporting sightings of KKK symbols, references to KKK ideology and to lynchings of First Nations people online, making it difficult for those targeted to distinguish threats likely to be acted upon from the endless stream of abusive content.
What is the parliamentary inquiry looking at and who is involved?
The federal government has launched a parliamentary inquiry into racism, hate and violence directed toward First Nations people. The referral from the minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy, asks the Joint Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs to examine the nature, prevalence and impact of racism; the role of online platforms in spreading and amplifying incidents; ideological extremism and law enforcement responses; and reporting and redress mechanisms. McCarthy said she was “very concerned about the increase [of] online hatred and racism” after an alleged attempted terror attack in Perth and an attack on Melbourne’s Camp Sovereignty by neo‑Nazis left communities “feeling scared and angry. ” She emphasized that the inquiry will ensure families and communities can have their say and that “their experiences will be heard by the parliament. ”
Victorian Labor senator Jana Stewart, who will chair the inquiry, described the inquiry as a response to both high‑profile public incidents and the everyday racism experienced by First Nations people: “These are just three incidents that have made the media, ” she said, pointing to refusals of service, discrimination in workplaces and racism on sporting fields as part of the broader pattern. Submissions to the inquiry are open; they will close on 1 May and findings are to be tabled in September.
The inquiry aims to translate accounts like Wanganeen’s into evidence the parliament can act on. Communities and organisations are being encouraged to make submissions and to propose solutions for how the Australian parliament might address rising online hatred and systemic racism.
Back in Wanganeen’s living room the voice memo remains on her phone, an aural reminder of the threats that slip from anonymous accounts into real lives. The parliamentary process offers a forum for those messages and the systematic evidence gathered by the Jumbunna Institute to be placed before lawmakers, but whether that leads to concrete change is the question many Indigenous people say they hope will be answered. australia’s coverage has helped make individual experiences visible in that process, even as communities wait to see what the inquiry will deliver.
