Harmony is a Goal. But It’s Not Where We Start.
Today is the 21st of March. In Australia, most people know it as Harmony Day — a celebration of cultural diversity, inclusion and community, marked by orange, events and well-meaning social posts.
But today is also the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. And those two framings are not the same thing.
One asks us to celebrate. The other asks us to confront.
At Zest, we work in people and culture every day — across hospitality, food and beverage, sport, retail, tech and creative start ups, not-for-profits and more. We’ve learned, sometimes uncomfortably, that the most important work in this space never starts from a place of comfort. It starts from honesty.
What this day actually marks
On 21 March 1960, Police in Sharpeville, South Africa, opened fire on a peaceful crowd of 7,000 people protesting apartheid’s Pass Laws — laws that required Black South Africans to carry identification at all times or face arrest. Sixty-nine people were killed. One hundred and eighty were injured.
The United Nations marked this date as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in recognition of that massacre and the ongoing global fight against systemic racism. Australia ratified the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in 1975, giving us our first national racial discrimination law.
In 1999, Australia renamed the day Harmony Day.
The Australian Human Rights Commission has been direct about what that change did: it made people more comfortable, but it made the actual work harder. Talking about harmony doesn’t require anyone to examine anything. Talking about the elimination of racial discrimination does.
Why this matters at work
Systemic racism isn’t just a government policy problem or a historical one. It lives in organisations. In who gets hired, who gets promoted, whose ideas get heard in a meeting, whose complaints get taken seriously — and whose don’t.
A 2018 study by the Australian Human Rights Commission found that only 5% of the 2,490 people in Australia’s most senior roles were from non-European backgrounds. That’s not an accident. It’s the result of accumulated systems, practices and norms — many never examined, because examining them is uncomfortable.
Most leaders don’t intend to create unequal workplaces. But intention isn’t the same as impact. Systemic inequity doesn’t require anyone to be racist. It only requires that we don’t look closely enough at the systems we’ve built.
When the goal is harmony — when keeping things comfortable is the priority — it becomes harder to ask the questions that actually create change. Who isn’t in the room? Why not? What does our hiring data show? What happens when someone raises a concern about how they’ve been treated?
Inclusion isn’t a feeling. It’s a practice.
Psychological safety — the idea that people can speak up and bring their full authentic selves to work without fear — has rightly gained a lot of traction. But it can’t coexist with an environment where certain conversations are off the table. When talking about race, or calling out a biased process, is seen as upsetting the harmony. Genuinely inclusive workplaces, like those of so many of our clients, look different:
- They examine hiring and promotion data — not just for gender, but for cultural background, First Nations representation and language background
- They train leaders in how to have the conversations that feel hard, not just what to do
- They create real channels for people to raise concerns about discrimination — and take those concerns seriously
- They audit their policies for unintended bias, not just overt discrimination
- They listen to the people in their organisation who experience these things, rather than assuming leadership has the full picture
None of this is comfortable. All of it is necessary.
Where to start
If you’re a leader wondering what to actually do today, here are some honest first steps:
- Look at your data. Who is in your organisation at every level? Where are the gaps?
- Listen before you act. Talk to people, particularly those from underrepresented backgrounds, about their experience. Really listen.
- Examine your systems. Hiring, performance reviews, promotion decisions. Where might bias be operating, even unintentionally?
- Have the conversations you’ve been avoiding. With your team, your Board, yourself.
- Learn more. The Racism. It Stops With Me campaign is a practical starting point at any stage of this journey.
Today we acknowledge IDERD — because the name matters, and because the work requires more than harmony. It requires honesty.
People experience is complex. We’re here to help you do it well.
At Zest People Solutions, we work with organisations across industries to build workplaces that are high-performing and genuinely fair. Get in touch: hello@zestpeople.com.au