ASSOCIATE Professor Carmen Parter is using her own personal experiences of workplace and societal racism to call on Australia’s health sector to do better and combat all forms of racism in all of Australia’s health systems. 

During her keynote address at the recent Dental Board of Australia (DBA) Conference, Prof Parter challenged delegates there to push through being uncomfortable and to have the tough conversations that are needed to tackle all forms of racism in their workplaces. 

“Racism makes us sick,” Prof Parter said. “And believe us when we speak about racism,” she said. 

Professor Parter, a Darumbal and Juru and South Sea Islander woman, is the first Indigenous person on the board of the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra). 

The DBA invited Prof Parter to speak about her experiences to help eradicate racism in dental professions and wider. 

Prof Parter spoke of the invisibility of racism due to the dominance of ‘whiteness’. 

“You must do critical thinking…