The federal government is facing calls to restore Harmony Day to its original and internationally recognised name, with the Greens saying it "whitewashes historic and ongoing racism in Australia".

Harmony Day is marked across Australia on March 21, a date which is globally known as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi has written to Multicultural Affairs Minister Andrew Giles urging the government to revert Harmony Day back to its original "name purpose and approach".

"The 21st of March is not celebrated as Harmony Day anywhere except in Australia," Senator Faruqi said in the letter.

"It represents a superficial, self-congratulatory celebration of diversity which completely ignores the entire point of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination – the urgent, pressing need to recognise racism and eliminate it in all its forms.

"'Harmony Day' whitewashes this historic and ongoing racism in Australia."

Since 1966, the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has been observed annually by the international community on March 21 to mark the day police killed 69 people at demonstrations against apartheid in Sharpeville South Africa in 1960.

However, in Australia the date took on the new name under the Howard government in 1999 and is typically celebrated in schools and workplaces through displays of orange ribbons and multicultural food and entertainment.

Senator Faruqi said restoring the date to its original name would send a "strong message" that Labor "recognises the serious and pervasive scourge of racism in Australia, and the urgent need to combat it".

She said too many people were still subjected to racism and racist behaviour in Australia and expressed concerns about the growing threat of far-right extremism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and prejudice against First Nations people.

She also referenced research by the Lowy Institute, which showed one in five Chinese Australians has experience a racist attack, and a report by the UN which found people of African descent were exposed to "multi-faceted forms of racial discrimination, xenophobia and systemic racism" in Australia.

"We are far from eliminating racism in Australia," she said.

"Australia has a colonial past and a bloody history that is tainted with dispossession and violence.

"Systemic racism manifests in workplaces, schools, sport, media, public places and in parliaments.

The Department of Home Affairs' website describes Harmony Week as "a time to celebrate Australian multiculturalism, and the successful integration of migrants into our community".

It states that "Australia is one of the most successful multicultural countries in the world" and encourages people to celebrate diversity by hosting an event or wearing orange.

"Harmony Week is about inclusiveness, respect and belonging for all Australians, regardless of cultural or linguistic background, united by a set of core Australian values," the website states.

Mr Giles's office has been contacted for comment.

In a 2023 Harmony Week message, uploaded online, Mr Giles acknowledged the overlap between the two events and said the international day called "on the international community to step up its efforts to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination".

"We've come a long way as a nation but there is still much more work to do," he said.

"We've grown and we're increasingly not afraid of having difficult conversations about our past, present and future, of questioning our ways and acknowledging our mistakes, and finding new ways to live better, in harmony."

Ahead of the election last year, Labor pledged $7.5 million to the Australia Human Rights Commission to work towards implementing a national anti-racism strategy.

"With racism on the rise, it's more important than ever we have a government that is committed to standing against it," Mr Giles said at the time.

"An Albanese Labor government will deliver on an anti-racism strategy where the Morrison government has failed to act, to ensure no matter where you are from, no Australian is left behind."

Harmony Day a 'con job' to avoid talking about racism

Andrew Jakubowicz, a professor of sociology at the University of Technology Sydney, describes Harmony Day as a "con job" designed to avoid addressing questions about racism.

"It's all about making people feel that there's really no problem with people who are different from them, and if you share food from different countries and you dress up in different clothes and everyone sings and dances, then the whole problem of racism disappears," Professor Jakubowicz said.

"In terms of addressing the causes and processes through which racism is reinforced, it set that back dramatically.

Professor Jakubowicz spent 15 years trying to get his hands on the secretive research, commissioned by the Howard government following the Coalition's 1996 election win, which formed the basis for the launch of Harmony Day.

He says then-opposition leader John Howard opposed the Keating government's plan to criminalise hate speech, and committed a Liberal government to establishing an "education campaign" instead.