His was delivered before a small crowd in Sydney on October 27, 2015. But it was only released by the Ethics Centre online last week.
Since then has gone viral, been viewed more than 940,000 times on Facebook and almost 100,000 times on YouTube. It has also now been labelled as a 'Martin Luther King moment'.
For speech maker and NITV's Stan Grant, no amount of likes or views can erase a history of suffering and injustice.
“My eight-minute speech has come after 200-plus years of struggle.”
“I stand with my father and my grandfather and his father before him, all of whom have fought for a foothold in this society against extraordinary odds at the coalface of racism, injustice and suffering.”
“So eight-minutes is just eight minutes in a 200 year conversation,” said Mr Grant.
He can’t predict the power of the internet, but hopes his speech will encourage others to speak up about racism.
“The important thing is that we are getting to a point now where people are willing and ready – to not only listen – but to ask what they can do.”
“In many respects it’s outside of my hands as to where this goes from here. But if this feeds into a discussion, if this allows us to ask hard questions and make our politicians more accountable, then that’s all to the good.”
“Nothing is solved in a day.”
