Black Lives Matter: Solidarity Between Indigenous and Chinese Australians?

Abstract

The Black Lives Matter rallies across Australia in 2020 drew wide attention to Indigenous deaths in custody, calling forth racial justice to right the wrongs of continuing colonization. However, many may have missed the rare, if not fortuitous, presence of Chinese Australians at the rallies and the heated discussions within the Chinese community on social media. Little recognition of the cross-cultural contact between Chinese and Indigenous peoples points to a blind spot vis-à-vis Australia’s race and ethnic relations, a schism that needs bridging if community-wide social cohesion and reconciliation is to be realized. The key question is: why do Indigenous-Chinese relationships remain unrecognized and misunderstood by the mainstream society? In an attempt to tackle this question, this essay will look into the under-reported participation of Chinese individuals and organizations at the Australian BLM rallies and provide a critical consideration of the mixed attitudes within the Chinese community over the rallies in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. By exploring the understated support and camaraderie, as well as fractures and frictions, of the ongoing relationships between Indigenous and Chinese Australians, this essay examines the conceptual, historical and transnational factors that render the recognition of their interrelations difficult in contemporary Australia. It brings together otherwise disparate issues, including the conceptual divide between race and ethnicity, segregation history, identity politics, and transnational racism. It links cyber discussion within the Chinese community in Australia with the discourse of race in China, so as to chart the transnational connectivity of racial discourses and racism against cultural others in the era of social media. In so doing, the essay will offer new insights into Indigenous-Chinese interrelations in culturally diverse Australia.