LADbible’s global advocacy campaign, ‘Unheard’, brings together a spectrum of organisations who fight racial injustice in Australia.
The campaign will take advantage of LADbible’s audience of over five hundred million globally and thirteen million locally to give a voice to people who have suffered racist attacks, and have in many cases had their experiences ignored or invalidated.
LADbible is the world’s largest social media publisher and will direct its audience to support petitions, donations and volunteer programs from its partners. This will take place through a custom platform that was built to encourage the public to learn about issues and engage in constructive conversation.
The UNHEARD campaign’s partners include:
- National Justice Project
- Human Rights Commission: ‘Racism. It Stops With Me’
- National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services
- The Refugee Council of Australia
- Asian Australian Alliance
- Islamophobia Register Australia
- Deadly Connections Community and Justice Services
- All Together Now
- Change.org
- The African Collective United
- African Women Australia
According to campaign partner the Human Rights Commission eighty six percent of Australians support action to tackle racism.
Joe Summers, LADbible Australia’s General Manager said the campaign is a direct response to public calls in 2020 for better coverage of the racial injustice that happens in Australia.
“Last year it became abundantly clear that racism is sadly an issue that is deeply felt in many Australian communities, but the experience of racist abuse frequently gets brushed under the carpet.”
“As a social media publisher with a global reach of over half a billion we are grateful for the opportunity to contribute to righting that wrong. LADbible Australia is responding to the call to arms with a campaign that aims to dismantle racial injustice by amplifying the voices of the unheard.”
The UNHEARD campaign hub provides an interactive map displaying real-life stories and a range of resources including books, films and podcasts. It also includes a user submission portal so Australians can share their experiences.
“Freedom of Speech is not accessible to all, if it favours the rich and powerful. That is why UNHEARD is so important. It provides a voice to our clients to enable them to speak truth to power. UNHEARD provides the victims of state-sanctioned violence and discrimination with a platform for them to expose the misconduct of our governments and their bureaucracies and to demand justice and accountability for the violence and suffering to which they have been subjected,” said George Newhouse, Director of the National Justice Project.
“Too often, decision-makers choose to fold their arms and look away. But through the campaign, the families who have lost loved ones to racial injustice, and the women, men, and children who have suffered mistreatment while held in the government’s custody, will be heard.”
Deena Yak, Director of Community Engagement, Refugee Council of Australia, said, “Hearing the untold stories of people with the lived experience gives us the purpose to continue our core work in the promotion and development of humane, lawful and constructive policies towards refugees and people seeking asylum.”
“Partnering with LADbible’s UNHEARD Campaign has given us the platform to shed light and speak about the injustices refugees and people seeking asylum face everyday. This is an opportunity to empower the Australian public to act.”
LADbible has also engaged Dr Kamran Ahmed, psychiatrist, to provide advice to Australians on how to have healthy conversations about racism.
