Tracy Westerman used to love having conversations over Twitter.
As an expert in Aboriginal mental health, suicide prevention and cultural competency, Dr Westerman, a Nyamal woman from the Pilbara region of Western Australia, uses her platform to post messages of psychological strength.
But she has stopped looking at her own Twitter feed and employed someone else to read the comments.
She believes the past six months have been particularly brutal for Indigenous people online and the hate directed at journalist Stan Grant mirrors the abuse of former football champion Adam Goodes.
The veteran media figure, a Wiradjuri man and a former war correspondent, has taken indefinite leave from the ABC after being racially mocked and abused online.
In 2015, Goodes was booed every time he was near the ball.
While Dr Westerman finds the relentless online trolling from rabid racists – and possibly bots – hurtful and confronting, it’s having to justify and continually “prove” her experience of racism to non-Indigenous people she finds the most exhausting.
“I just accept that I’ll experience racism on most given days,” she told AAP.
One concern Dr Westerman and other experts have is that any discussion about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people brings racists out from under their rocks to spew abuse.
“It actually talks to the extent to which there is this tidal wave of abuse that has been directed at Aboriginal people at the moment,” she said.
“I’ve never seen anything like it before, it’s quite horrific.”
Australian Race Discrimination Commissioner Chin Tan warned that focusing the Indigenous voice debate on race emboldened racists and exposed First Nations people to abuse.
The eSafety Commission is so concerned that it has launched extra support services for Indigenous people.
“For those who witness abuse, regardless of who the target may be, we encourage you to be an ‘upstander’, rather than a bystander,” eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said.
First Nations people are twice as likely to be the subject of hate speech online compared with the national average.
Indigenous children are three times as likely to encounter such abuse.
At the time of Goodes’ abuse, some people justified the racist commentary – saying they just didn’t like the way he played and describing him as a sook.
“The denial of racism is so deep-seated that Aboriginal people have to expend so much energy convincing people that they have experienced abuse and trauma,” Dr Westerman said.
She added there were parallels in the way Grant and Goodes had been treated by the public, their employers and their industries.
“We have this uncomfortableness with the depth and extent of racism in this country.
“And the naming of it is something that is incredibly difficult, for some reason.”
Dr Westerman said often when First Nations people draw attention to racism, they were told by non-Indigenous people that their experiences weren’t real or that they should just get over it.
“It’s like national victim gaslighting,” she said.
“And all you’re seeing and hearing is, ‘Stop, we know what’s wrong with you, it doesn’t exist, just get on with it, you’re just a whinger.’
“So of course what happens is Aboriginal people put up with an enormous amount of racism before they say anything and that means that they’ve spent most of their lives feeling like they matter less.”
In the lead up to the referendum, the eSafety Commissioner is working with Australian government agencies to remove harmful online abuse.
The government has allocated extra $10 million in funding for Indigenous mental health services ahead of the national vote.
Aboriginal Counselling Services 0410 539 905
Australian Associated Press