COUNCILLOR RECALLS RACIST BULLYING AND WARNS OF RETURN OF 'SCAPEGOATING AND BLAME'

Rhetoric against all minorities is escalating and must be challenged

- By RICHARD EVANS Local Democracy Reporter [e-mail]

A MIXED-RACE Penmaenmawr councillor has told of her experience of racist bullying and her efforts at a North Wales council to promote diversity.

Born to her Indian father and white mother, Plaid Cymru councillor Cathy Augustine says she and her family experienced racism when she was a child.

Since she was elected in May 2022, Cllr Augustine says she has worked to improve diversity within Conwy County Council, including chairing the Gypsy, Roma, Traveller working group and helping form an engagement group.

She also represented the authority at the first ever All Wales Anti-Racist Action Plan summit in Cardiff.

Cllr Augustine now campaigns with ministers to improve services for minorities, helping colleagues embrace Wales as a "self-declared Nation of Sanctuary", while raising awareness of the All Wales Anti-Racist Plan.

"I'm the daughter of an Indian father who came to London from Kolkata (then Calcutta) in the 1950s," she said.

"He married my white British mum in 1959, when mixed-race couples were rare - even in fairly cosmopolitan London.