New research from the Australian National University (ANU) has found that everyday discrimination could be contributing to up to half of the burden of psychological distress among Indigenous Australians.
The study found that eliminating everyday discrimination could halve the burden of psychological distress among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults.
Professor Ray Lovett, who co-authored the study, said the findings revealed that racism was "real and common" and had substantial impacts on Indigenous Australians.
"If we think about racial discrimination, that equates to 74,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, where all their high psychological distress could be attributable," he said.
Just over 10,000 First Nations adults took part in the Mayi Kuwayu study — a national study with wide-ranging submissions from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders about their experiences.
The study was broken down into eight different types of interpersonal racial discrimination in everyday settings, which included everyday interactions with other people, such as being treated with less respect than others or being bothered by police unfairly.
Just over two-thirds of respondents reported that they had these particular experiences of discrimination.
Professor Lovett, who is a Ngiyampaa/Wongaibon man, said the results were unsurprising.
"As an Aboriginal person these experiences that we ask about in the Mayi Kuwayu study, a lot of them resonate to me and my family in terms of our history and also what we experience on a day-to-day basis," he said.
"The day-to-day exposures – or things that happen to us – it is not even a structural racism that we see embedded in some of our institutions."
Racism 'heavy burden'
Professor Lovett said the findings showed that eliminating racism between Australians would "go a long way" to closing the gap between Indigenous people who experience discrimination and non-Indigenous people who did not.
"We take the difference in high psychological distress in the non-Indigenous population and Indigenous population and looked at how much the gap would decrease if we removed racism as [an] explainer of that gap," he said.
"We found a 50 per cent closing of the gap if we were able to remove racism as a factor – so that is huge."
The Mayi Kuwayu study findings discovered that 30 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults experienced high or very high psychological distress, compared to 13 per cent of non-Indigenous adults
Professor Lovett found no other reason but racism for psychological distress levels to be different between non-Indigenous and Indigenous people.
"There is no biological reason so when we think those inequities," he said.
"We really do need to think about racism and its heavy burden on people."
'Very confronting'
Another co-author of the study, Kungarakan/Iwaidja man, Professor Tom Calma, said he was also not surprised by its results.
"It is very confronting, and, as an Aboriginal person myself, I have experienced racism," he said.
"In the line of my work I hear stories very regularly about the lack of services, the lack of respect, being treated differently, not to be considered as a peer in workplaces and in service areas."
Professor Calma said the numbers revealed by the study were even more distressing when the wider picture was considered.
"We know that almost 50 per cent of people have a personal experience [with racism] and that is just in a confrontation with others," he said.
"There is a clear need for support for those who have experienced interpersonal discrimination and racism.
"If we could wave a magic wand and get rid of racism tomorrow, we would still see the lasting damage it has caused."
Professor Lovett believes the study shows a number of different supports are needed for First Nation's people.
"We need those social and emotional supports to match the burden to distress and what is contributing to mental health," he said.
"We need changes to individual behaviour, and this needs to occur alongside structural change.
"All those who have benefited from colonisation have a role to play, and all action needs to be guided by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples."
