The need for qualitative data Participants in the scoping process for a national anti-racism framework highlighted the importance of qualitative data, in addition to quantitative data, to better understand experiences of racism, their gravity, and importantly, to give voice to experiences that are routinely silenced. Consultation participants and those who made submissions advised the Commission that the lack of such data has been a main challenge in health equity and a significant impediment to understanding experiences of racial discrimination in the operation of the justice system, when it comes to engagement with legal support, the court system, and judges. Unlike quantitative data, which can furnish a stark and decontextualised picture of their subject matter, qualitative data articulates embodied experiences by giving voice to those who have lived them. For those experiencing racial discrimination and violence, the deficit focus of statistics and aggregated numbers are insufficient in rendering a meaningful portrait of their lives and experiences of racism, let alone informing a policy framework that serves their needs, interests, and priorities.41 This is not to negate the role of quantitative data, but rather, to acknowledge that ‘accepting numerical reality is not the same as accepting the validity of the picture they represent or the policy settings that invariably emerge from these statistics’. 42 Quantitative data have been described as being weaponised against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and other negatively racialised communities, and have tended to paint those who are negatively racialised, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in particular, ‘into a bleak corner of humanity’.43 A qualitative methodology can resist the creation of racist narratives by centring the words and experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and other negatively racialised communities. In doing so, this methodology can move away from disconnected descriptions of racism, and towards an analysis of the diverse meanings and languages of racism used by those who experience it.44 In this way, qualitative data can and should be used to shape quantitative studies by gauging people in a ’full, relational sense’45 and, as a result, ‘mak[ing] the world visible‘46 – for instance, the Commission heard about how qualitative studies might help understand changing experiences or understandings of racism over time. Furthermore, in spotlighting words and experiences, a qualitative methodology has the potential to promote a more sustainable, ethical, and relational approach to advancing new knowledge – one that respects personal autonomy, as well as the political and intellectual authority of those taking part in research. In the context of racial discrimination, this is a methodology that can recognise how the voices spotlighted are often ones marginalised or silenced by white knowledge and research paradigms. 47 National Anti-Racism Framework Scoping Report 2022 | 96