Protecting our kids: Confronting and challenging racism after 26 January

Graphic for event Protecting our kids: Confronting and challenging racism after 26 January, 9am-12pm AEDT 29/01/2026 online

When

to

Why

Join us for our upcoming online event exploring the impacts of racism on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.

This webinar event will focus on how racism impacts on the health and wellbeing of our children and what’s needed to protect their futures, highlighting how Aboriginal-led and community-driven solutions can address racism and strengthen communities.

Register online. Once you register you will receive a confirmation email and a Zoom link closer to the date.

This event is deliberately scheduled following 26 January: a date that remains deeply painful for many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, marking invasion, dispossession, and continued injustice. It is often accompanied by heightened racist rhetoric, public debate, and harm. In this context, it is critical for us to come together to discuss racism and further understand its impacts on children, ensuring that we will play a role in challenging narratives that perpetuate harm and injustice.

The webinar will provide a space for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous allies to come together in solidarity, in reflection after 26 January, and to consider meaningful actions that challenge racism and support change.

Throughout the webinar, we will hear from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders, researchers and community advocates who will share their knowledge and lived experience, and who will hold space for honest conversations about racism, its impacts on children, and the collective action needed to create safer, more just futures.

Impact of racism on children

The event coincides with the publication of a Lowitja Institute position paper, Racism and the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children: the need for targeted policy interventions to protect the health and wellbeing of our future generations.

This paper highlights the ongoing and pervasive nature of racism in Australia and the ways systemic racism continues to be experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, but particularly our children, and calls for urgent action to supporting local, community-led responses and driving systemic reform to protect and promote the wellbeing of our children.

Speakers

Shelley Ware – Facilitator

PANEL: Researching Racism: Health Impacts on Aboriginal Children

  • Professor Naomi Priest, ANU
  • Professor Cath Chamberlain, University of Melbourne
  • Professor Lindon Coombes, Director, Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research
  • Jamie Everingham, Research Coordinator, Racism and Allyship in Aboriginal Youth Spaces (RAAYS)
  • Bec Gillis, Racism and Allyship in Aboriginal Youth Spaces (RAAYS)

Keynote Address

Natalie Lewis, Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Commissioner

PANEL: Strong Kids, Strong Communities: Grassroots Action Against Racism

  • Eddie Betts, Eddie Betts Foundation
  • Adam Briggs
  • Apryl Day, Founding Executive Officer, Dhadjowa Foundation
  • Aunty Elaine Magias, Kaurna Elder

Register now

Register online. Once you register you will receive a confirmation email and a Zoom link closer to the date.

Contact

The Lowitja Institute
[email protected]
lowitja.org.au
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Photo: Grandmother and granddaughter, Yuendumu, Northern Territory. (Shutterstock)

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