This International Day for the Elimination of Racism (21 March) and Harmony Week in Australia (15 to 21 March), we’re inviting professional footballers to join us in preventing and responding to racism.
Football influences how people think, feel and act and there’s plenty that we can do together to help eliminate racism, whether it’s through our clubs or in our communities. To make this really count, it’s important that we look beyond the annual events and focus on what’s possible every day.
In this article, we’ll take a step back to understand why these significant days and anniversaries exist and then explore how you can help to eliminate racial discrimination throughout the year.
We’ll take you through:
- The origins of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
- How Australia’s Harmony Week emerged from this international commemoration
- Inspirational examples of how Australia’s professional footballers are helping
- Ways for players and clubs to get involved
- How to reach out
What is the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination?
On 21 March 1960 in apartheid South Africa, thousands of peaceful protesters called for the end of ‘pass laws’. This apartheid system forced Black South Africans to carry an internal passport, which meant that they could not travel freely within the country. That day, the police opened fire and 69 protesters were killed, with hundreds more injured.
This would become known as the Sharpeville massacre.
Six years later, the United Nations officially named 21 March as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. In 1979, the United Nations began a week of solidarity with people struggling against racism and racial discrimination, starting on 21 March each year. For the last 60 years, the day and week has been commemorated around the world with events and action to eliminate racism in all forms.
What is Harmony Week?
In Australia, the focus has shifted from what can be confronting yet necessary – eliminating racism – to a time for celebrating diversity, known as Harmony Week.
We are the only country in the world that has renamed and shifted the focus of the anniversary. Australia’s Harmony Week is held from Saturday 15 to Friday 21 March. In Victoria, this is also known as Cultural Diversity Week.
Harmony Day was introduced in Australia in 1999 following a government-commissioned study on racism. Since then, 21 March has become a time when people around Australia celebrate their cultures and belonging in schools, workplaces and communities. Making a stand against racism has become buried on this anniversary.
As the Australian Human Rights Commission says in factsheets on how ‘harmony’ hides structural and systemic racism:
“Moving from the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to ‘Harmony Day’ and ‘Harmony Week’ prevents a deeper understanding of the need to eliminate racism and the harms it causes.”
This needs to be called out and many individuals, organisations and communities are shifting their narrative. With the influence of sport on Australian society and the need to eliminate racial discrimination in Australia and internationally, these significant days and anniversaries are an opportunity for footballers to drive change.
Australian footballers and the PFA have been actively working with Reflect Forward for the last three years – this is also a time to celebrate our collective impact.
How Australian professional footballers are helping to eliminate racism
During Harmony Week and on the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, we can celebrate progress and shine a light on the ongoing challenges and work ahead. However, it is only one week and one day respectively – and action is needed throughout the year.
Australia’s professional footballers are helping in so many ways. This includes:
- Being a part of the Courageous Conversations for Change series, featuring Bernie Ibini and Rhys Williams, Emma Ilijoski and Allira Toby, and Ben Halloran and Kusini Yengi.
- Andrew Redmayne, Nikolai Topor-Stanley and Kyah Simon talking about their experiences of racism in sport. Their discussions were incorporated into school lesson plans and have reached 26,000+ Australian students in 121 schools.
- Becoming a Reflect Forward Ambassador, like Kyah Simon from the Matildas and Sydney FC. Kyah has contributed to further educational materials for young Australians and worked with Reflect Forward and the Australian Sports Commission to create course materials for community coaches, umpires, participants and volunteers, to help them deal with incidents of racism in the moments they occur.
- Wearing a Reflect Forward armband at matches – some professional clubs have worn the armband since the start of the 2024/25 season.
Ways for players and clubs to get involved
Hopefully you’re feeling clearer on the meaning of the day and week, more confident to talk about it all with others and inspired by footballers around Australia. Perhaps you’re even wondering how you can be a part of preventing and responding to racism through the year. We’re excited to have sparked your interest!
There’s so much that you can do. Some ideas will take more time while others will take less, but still be incredibly impactful. It’s important to find the right fit for you – every action counts.
Invite us to work with your football club
We’re all about meeting you where you’re at. You could help by inviting Reflect Forward to work with you through:
- Holding a ‘lunch and learn’ with your team.
- Talking with you and your teammates about your experiences, aspirations for being a part of the movement and how to make this a reality.
- Coaching you and your teammates longer-term on how to use your voices to fight racism.
- Training your team, staff and volunteers in how to prevent and respond to racism – from short workshops, half-day workshops and longer-term training, online or face-to-face. Talk to us about how we can customise training to best meet your needs.
- Collaborating with your club to deliver an anti-racism campaign.
Work with schools and communities
Every school term, Reflect Forward delivers workshops in primary schools and high schools to raise racial literacy and confidence in preventing and responding to racism. So far, we’ve worked with:
- 200+ schools
- 30,000+ students
- 5,000+ staff and teachers
- 1,000+ leaders
And we’re just getting started!
To take this impact further, we’d love for you and your club to visit schools with us to help inspire students. There are lots of ways to do this, we can work with you to find the right fit.
You and your teammates might like to be a speaker or join a panel discussion at special events and assemblies. Another way to get involved is to co-facilitate training for students with us.
Or, you could invite students to your club, training or match day for educational experiences that we can deliver with you.
If you can’t visit in person, giveaways for schools are also a tremendous help. This could include signed jerseys, posters and photographs. We’ve seen students in awe of items like these from their sporting heroes. Schools display these items proudly, which helps students to remember their time with Reflect Forward long after we’re gone!
Get involved
Reach out to organise a meeting and discuss how we can collaborate:
- Club enquiries: Jamal Elsheikh, Reflect Forward at jamal@reflectforward.org
- Player enquiries: Julius Ross, PFA at julius@pfa.net.au
