Institutional racism against Indigenous peoples in the Australian civil justice system: a call for justice and accountability

This paper exposes endemic racial discrimination against Indigenous peoples within the Australian civil justice system—a critically under-researched area akin to, but overshadowed by, the spotlight on racial prejudices within the criminal justice system. We demonstrate, through case studies and examples, that Indigenous peoples’ experiences of civil racial injustice are commonplace, yet these experiences, and ensuing complaints, are minimised and silenced. The result is that racial discrimination against Indigenous peoples in civil matters remain invisible, unactioned, unchallenged and unremedied by the settler-colonial state. The lack of academic research in this area compounds the problem resulting in an absence of data about the impact, extent and depth of Indigenous civil injustice. Using a rights-based approach, informed by Critical Race Theory, we demonstrate how these forms of discrimination block the realisation of Indigenous peoples’ human rights and undermine the notion that everyone is equal before the law. Our paper is a call for justice, reform and governmental accountability for this insidious form of injustice and discrimination against Indigenous peoples which continues unseen and unabated.