With National Reconciliation Week fast approaching, a university, an international retailer and an advocacy group have joined forces to stamp out negative attitudes towards Indigenous Australians.

The RESPECT campaign, spearheaded by The Body Shop, Sydney's University of Technology and Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation, is about encouraging all Australians to understand the hardships Indigenous people continue to face.

Watch online: Respect

Have Your Say: How can campaigns like RESPECT bridge the gap between black and white Australians?

"When people say 'Aboriginal people are like this or like that'... I think: 'Well, I'm not, my family are not, the people that I know are not; they're all hardworkers, and they work for their money'. You get all these stereotypes", says the University of Technology's Aunty Joan Tranter.

Living Black cadet journalist Shaun White went along to the launch of RESPECT to find out how this campaign is trying to bridge the gap in understanding between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

TRANSCRIPT

In the lead-up to National Reconciliation Week, a new campaign to unite Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians has been launched in Sydney. A university, an international retailer and the Indigenous advocacy group have joined forces, as SBS cadet Shaun White reports.

VOICEOVER: The students at the University of Technology Sydney affectionately call her Aunty Joan. After 12 years at the university, Aunty Joan has seen strong friendships form between non-Indigenous and Indigenous students. But as a nation, the Wakka Wakka woman says we still have a long way to go.

JOAN TRANTER, UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY: When people say Aboriginal people are like this or like that, and I think, "Well I'm not, my family are not, "the people that I know are not - "they're all hard workers, they work for their money." You get all these stereotypes.

VOICEOVER: The University of Technology Sydney, The Body Shop and ANTaR launched the Respect campaign in Sydney last week. Respect aims to encourage all Australians to understand the hardships Indigenous people face by taking four easy steps: understand, acknowledge, be supportive, speak up. ANTaR spokesperson Phil Glendenning says it builds on the Prime Minister's apology last year.

KEVIN RUDD, PRIME MINISTER: A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility.

PHIL GLENDENNING, ANTAR: Wonderful words, but what do we do about that? And I guess this campaign is a way of enabling non-Indigenous Australians to do something to help build that new bridge.

VOICEOVER: Professor Larissa Behrendt says racism still exists and believes it's a barrier to better policy making by the Government.

PROFESSOR LARISSA BEHRENDT, JUMBANNA INDIGENOUS HOUSE OF LEARNING: So the racism stops people getting the right information, it allows politicians to be lazy and to say, "Well, we have thrown lots of money at it," and Australians aren't questioning, because that all sort of fits with their preconceived ideas.

VOICEOVER: The Australian Reconciliation Barometer shows there are some people who want to help disadvantaged Indigenous Australians, but 80% of those don't know how. ANTaR says non-indigenous Australians have a certain sense of fear when it comes to understanding Indigenous issues. They hope The Body Shop, with over 3 million customers last year, can actually step in and help. Over a 3-week campaign, workers will encourage all customers to stop and look at ways they can create better relationships with all Australians. Aunty Joan says all Australians need to do is to get to know each other.
Source: Living Black SBS