The call for the Critical Race Theory to be added to the Australian curriculum
I’d like to share a quote from a reading I was assigned from one of my classes in week one of the semester:
“After 200 years of colonisation and immigration, it has become commonplace to describe Australia as a ‘multicultural’ society. Yet perhaps it could be more properly characterised as a society with a multicultural population, regulated and governed by a monocultural power structure.”
This was incredibly refreshing to read. As a current law student, you notice very quickly that race is often an afterthought. At best, discussions about race, Australia’s settler legal system, and the experience of Indigenous Australians, are topics that are shelved for one seminar under ‘Native Title’ in a 12-week class on Property Law.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Critical race theory (CRT) is an academic framework that is not part of the Australian curriculum. First coined in the 1970s by American theorists, CRT is an academic theory built around the assumption that racism is not just an issue of individual biases and prejudices, but is something that has been embedded throughout society and its institutions. Disappointingly, CRT has become a highly charged and politicised issue. Earlier this year, the Australian Senate voted in support of a motion calling on the federal government to reject CRT from the national curriculum.
This is why the class I’m taking, ‘Race and the Legal Profession’, feels so radical. For the first time in my legal education, I feel like there is a space where my peers and I can discuss, without judgement, our experiences of race and the law. We’re able to discuss topics like the failings of the current legal profession and institutions we are in, and the ways that we see change. Part of me is grateful that I have this space. Another part of me wonders why something as fundamental as understanding the systemic nature of racism isn’t taught to everyone. CRT shouldn’t just be embedded in legal education. Now more than ever, it is important the historical and ongoing legacies of colonialism and racial disparities are discussed in the Australian curriculum.
- Isabella
