Ki te whaiao, ki te ao Mārama The impact of racism Many Ethnic Tangata Tiriti partipants shared their experiences of interpersonal and institutional racism and its negative impacts on them and their communities. One described an experience of interpersonal racism and, like several others, commented on the lack of bystander intervention: A year before March 15, my family and I were shopping at a mall. This Pākehā woman came up and started harassing us. She really started harassing my 17-year-old brother. There were a lot of people around. Nobody stepped in. Everyone watched. It made me angry. Another participant focused on systems: I’m talking about racist systems. This notion that the world we live in is made up of systems is real not a fantasy. Everything that makes up modern life involves a series of systems: the government, your job, the grocery store, the dairy …. Back when the British Crown agents came and set up the systems of the country, the systems were literally designed (look at the buildings, roads, the Parliamentary system …) to benefit and privilege their own – to the literal death, ruin and later marginalisation of Māori. Participants discussed the need for equity to achieve better outcomes. They identified that “discrimination and racism were … key pain points undermining equity and belonging across every system”. Some commented on the need for a human rights approach to eliminating racism, including “opportunities to engage in human rights dialogue and for agencies to carry out human rights due diligence”. Participants spoke about wanting acceptance and a sense of belonging. For these participants, their vision of a racism-free Aotearoa meant they would be considered ‘normal’ and Pākehā or Te Kāhui Tika Tangata European worldviews would no longer be the default. Many spoke about the benefits of eliminating racism for improved intergenerational wellbeing and a sense of hope for future generations. One commented: Less racism would give me less anxiety and more confidence to increase my participation and potential as a citizen and become a more active member of my community. This would not only enhance my life and my family’s prospects but also be beneficial to my wider community. Some participants stated that the burden of dealing with racism often fell to those most affected by it. A participant noted that they were “often told brown students need to be more resilient” and this placed a burden on these students because “we can’t call out racism at the moment and we need to acknowledge that”. Even those who identified as coming from the dominant group acknowledged the impact of racism: The worldview that dominates at the moment is so detrimental to collective wellbeing. And when collective wellbeing suffers, so does individual wellbeing. I physically feel the hurt that racism causes in my body. Nothing like to the extent that Māori and other BIPOC feel it, but even that little bit is enough for me to know that a racismfree Aotearoa would feel so much lighter and more loving and expansive. Participants identified that a key part of eliminating racism was improving public awareness and understanding of racism: “we need to have a unified common agreed understanding on what ‘racism’ is.” This included recognising antisemitism and islamophobia as forms of racism rather than religious intolerance, “not something that needs to be separated from other 68