Ki te whaiao, ki te ao Mārama
Racism toward ethnic Tangata Tiriti is
prevalent in Aotearoa. Ethnic Tangata Tiriti
experience racism in diverse ways, some
of which have been outlined in previous
Commission reports. Ethnic Tangata Tiriti
who experience racism face barriers
that lead to the persistence of inequities
between ethnic groups. These experiences
include, but are not limited to, social and
economic inequities; differing health
and life expectancies; discrimination in
employment including a persistent ethnic
pay gap; and harassment and violence
both on and offline.
We provide a brief account of some of
the Commission’s work in this area in this
Appendix. For further information about our
work on racism, please visit: https://www.
hrc.co.nz/our-work/social-inclusion/
The Commission’s report Drivers of migrant
New Zealanders’ experiences of racism
(2021) found that while there was no
single driver for racism, it is entrenched
within institutions, society and individuals.
Drivers identified by participants included
colonisation, fear, ignorance, white
privilege, racial supremacy and negative
bias and stereotyping. Participants’
experiences of racism consisted of
institutional, interpersonal, and internalised
racism across all sectors including health,
housing, employment, societal connections,
education and justice. Migrant New
Zealanders identified barriers to acquiring
employment, lack of pathways to residency,
harassment and violence, and a multitude
of other negative social and economic
consequences of racism.xxvi
The Commission’s 2021 report Racism
and xenophobia experiences in Aotearoa
New Zealand during COVID-19: A focus on
Chinese and Asian communities highlighted
race discrimination. Findings from the
report evidenced that Chinese and Asian
Te Kāhui Tika Tangata
communities experience substantial
racism from prejudice and online negative
comments and abuse. While racism and
xenophobia are not new to Aotearoa,
COVID-19 exacerbated discrimination for
Chinese and Asian communities.xxvii
In July 2020 the Commission launched
two anti-racism campaigns in response to
ongoing concerns about racism. ‘Racism is
No Joke’ was launched to raise awareness
of online racism, bullying and harassment
toward Chinese and Asian communities
as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The
‘Give Nothing to Racism’ campaign was
also launched, which featured the Voice of
Racism website. This phase of the campaign
aimed to raise awareness of racist
behaviours and the harms they cause.
In 2019 the Commission published the
report It Happened Here: reports of race
and religious hate crime 2004-2012. In
the wake of the March 15 terrorist attacks
on the Christchurch masjidain, this report
brought together Commission monitoring
of racially and religiously motivated crime
over an eight-year period. While only
the ‘tip of the iceberg’ the compilation of
over 100 incidents – including murder and
kidnapping, serious assault, threatening
and disorderly behaviour, abuse, deliberate
damage to property and desecration of
sacred sites – reveals that the Christchurch
attack was far from an isolated incident. The
report repeated the Commission’s longstanding call for authorities to gather this
information on a systematic basis, including
the number of complaints, prosecutions
and convictions for race, religious and
other forms of hate crime. The incidents
were recorded between 2004 and 2012 in
the Commission’s Annual Review of Race
Relations, led by previous Race Relations
Commissioners, Joris de Bres and Dame
Susan Devoy. xxviii
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