5. Participants’ experiences of racism 5.1. Institutionalised racism17 Interviewed providers, all tauiwi and Māori, and two of three Pākehā focus groups described numerous experiences of institutional and systemic racism across various wellbeing domains. 5.1.1. Civic engagement and governance Participants shared examples of organisations pushing back on initiatives that were seen to ‘privilege’ non-Pākehā groups, inadequate provider funding assessment criteria and processes, superficial recognition of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, institutional policies and processes skewed in favour of dominant cultures, a lack of diverse leadership/governance across organisations and exclusion/minimisation of Māori and ethnic minorities from decision-making. History shows our systems are structured, our organisations are built in a Western way…obvious racism…We don't even know it's there. From a political structure, with our education, health, it's pretty much built in. (European migrant focus group) Who makes the rules? It's important, the level of participation for Asians and minorities. If not, if we keep silent, then that will be a problem later on. If you don't speak for yourself, who will speak for you? (Chinese focus group) Some also noted ignorance and a lack of willingness to change within governance structures. Others acknowledged attempts within some organisations and systems to include diverse representation as well as consult and engage with diverse communities – although in some cases this was described as ‘doing to or doing for’ rather than ‘doing with’. At our highest levels it’s been particularly disgusting recently especially when you have Judith Collins saying you can’t balance diversity and competence. You’re literally saying that brown people are incompetent. How can we deny that racism exists when at our highest levels we have racist shit like that coming out of people? (Te Ika ā Māui Māori focus group) We got a lot of applications after [mosque attack] wanting to support Muslim communities. For me it's like, you want to support those communities, but what's happening with them supporting themselves? What about working in partnership? You 17 Differential access to goods, services and opportunities, normalised, inherited disadvantage, inequities in access to quality living standards, unequal access to power and historical injustices (Jones, 2000) www.malatest-intl.com Drivers of racism – March 2021 49