Open Letter | 2021

Dear Reader,
We write to you in a time of increasing awareness about the severity of racial violence and white supremacy.

2020 was tough for Black, Indigenous, People of Colour folk around the world, but have you ever thought about how lucky we are to be living in a time where the global nature of racialized oppression is popularly discussed and ruthlessly unpicked? At the Australian National University, we are a community of young people whose formative years are marked by irreversible change. Young people above-all have the capacity for dynamism, red-hot critical thought, and endurance. Paramount to positive social change is this energetic resolve to carry the momentum of 2020 into 2021 and beyond.

At the heart of the Collective on Anti-Racism (COAR) is the determination to work towards changing our fates in the face of systemic racial violence and oppression. We are unfazed by the global movement towards slacktivism and refuse to fall prey to the vivid ignorance that permeates our society. Here in our Canberra bubble, it is easy to pretend that we remain untouched by global systems of oppression, and even turn a blind eye to the perpetual coloniality that is embedded in our own communities. But as any Person of Colour who lives here can tell you, no one is protected by the veneer of small-town tranquillity

Our Journey
COAR was nurtured on the stolen lands of Ngunnawal and Ngambri country, to evolve the work of its predecessor campaign Are You Racist ANU?. In 2020, for the first time ever at ANU, we witnessed an anti-racism campaign being run by BIPOC students for BIPOC students. The campaign was created with the sole intention of dismantling the imperialist white-supremacist capitalist cis-heteropatriarchy that denies our people of the joy and community we so desperately yearn for. It was an initiative that was created with the vision of instilling the cultural impact of Black Lives Matter within a movement against racism without our own university.


Our Revolution
With the dawn of 2021, COAR returns twelve strong, with the very same desire to contribute in our own way to a global effort and to direct our budding awareness into meaningful growth. We remain concerned about the lack of action taken by the ANU against racism and white supremacy entrenched in our university. We believe studies pursued at this university centre whiteness and Western epistemologies and perpetuate the never-ending coloniality of empire.

In response, we are working together to imagine an anti-racist learning hub where we will nourish our appetite for anti-racist thought and decolonial theory. We believe collective education lies at the heart of collective liberation and hope to weaponise the power of knowledge to drive forth social change.

Much like its predecessor, COAR aims to empower Black, Indigenous Person Of Colour students to speak their truth in order to dismantle white supremacy within the ANU.

At the heart of our collective lies the joy of being unapologetically ourselves. We refuse to remain silent any longer, and stand firmly against white supremacy, imperialism, heteronormativity, cis-normativity, patriarchy and neoliberal capitalism. As we continue to nurture our minds and soothe our spirits, we dream of a community that will bring together dedicated minds who carry forth our legacy of learning together and creating opportunities for others to learn with us.

We will continue to amplify the experiences Black, Indigenous and People of Colour students, whilst acknowledging the tremendous work done by our Indigenous and First Nations activists leaders that paved the way for our own activism. Our experiences and fight against the empire is secondary to the work carried out by our Indigenous community. This is why, we hope to work in collaboration with, and ancillary to our Indigenous folk.

Our Plans
COAR is open to all those who have an interest in anti-racism and decolonisation. Over the next few weeks we will release our Manifesto which will provide more information on our how we plan to create a principled space, embody our ethos, instil wisdom through an anti-racist syllabus which will become the backbone of our collective.

If you wish to join COAR, come visit us at Market Day and sign up below to receive more information. Despite the urgency of our vision, our collective receives very little funding. This is why we hope to charge our members a membership fee of $5. If you find yourself in a low or no income situation, you have the opportunity to waive your membership fee. You can still engage with our resources and projects as a non-member but membership entitles you to joining our portfolio committees and avoid paying for tickets to our events. Your membership fees will help us keep this website running, run events that nourish our community, and pay our collaborators for their emotional labour.

We leave you with the hope of creating a community where BIPOC can heal, learn, love, and grow freely. To the first-years-of-colour: when you feel intimidated by these grand institutions, and the confidence exuded by people stands in stark contrast with the discomfort that you feel. Fitting in means erasing your difference. One of your most valuable assets as a thinker is the singular perspective that your difference affords you. Speak Your Truth.

In Love and Solidarity,
Collective on Anti-Racism (COAR)


February 8th 2021 · Written by Maleika Twisk and Niroshnee Ranjan on behalf of the Collective on Anti-Racism