Australian Human Rights Commission Respect at Uni Interim Report December 2024 Acknowledgements The Australian Human Rights Commission (the Commission) acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the land, sea, waterways and sky throughout Australia and pays respect to First Nations Elders past and present. The Commission recognises the ongoing strength and leadership of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in leading anti-racism efforts since colonisation. The Commission acknowledges the vast emotional and intellectual labour of community members, particularly those with lived experiences of racism, who shared their experiences in universities. The Commission acknowledges and thanks the Advisory Committee, the Senior Officers Working Group and all those who have engaged with the Commission to contribute to this work. Note on terminology and content The Commission recognises that labels or terminology can be both empowering and limiting for individuals and communities. The terms First Nations, Indigenous and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples are used interchangeably in this Report. The Commission acknowledges that definitions of these terms vary and that community members may not identify with these terms. The Commission uses ‘negatively racialised’ to refer to communities who experience the harms and traumas of racialisation. The Commission does not use ‘negatively racialised’ to define or identify individuals or communities. Rather, it is used to highlight how racism operates by racialising various groups of people negatively to maintain the dominance of groups racialised as white and how people who are negatively racialised experience inequity due to false and disproved biological beliefs in race. Occasionally, the Commission uses the term ‘multicultural’ to describe the diverse range of communities of non-Indigenous people who experience racism, as it is generally adopted by governments, sectors and some community members. The Commission acknowledges, however, that many individuals and communities may not identify with the term. The Commission supports the rights of all individuals to express their identities on their own terms. 5