Living in Harmony Community Grants 1999

New South Wales

Partnerships in Cultural Change: Reconciliation and Diversity

$54,000 Awarded

This project aimed to:

provide for cultural exchange and awareness of cultural diversity between students (including overseas students) and staff at the six campuses of the University of Western Sydney (UWS), community groups of non-English speaking background and Indigenous groups
encourage the development of a Reconciliation process at the University between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups and those from other cultural backgrounds
increase the profile of regional groups and their issues as raised within the University and the broader community.
develop an educational workshop program with targeted community groups, and with students and staff within various campuses of the University

In collaborative partnerships with appropriate departments, the project held the following lectures, built in to relevant courses:

Health, Ethnicity and Racism Forum - Parramatta campus - for students in health-related disciplines to gain first hand knowledge from experienced service providers on a range of health and social issues affecting:

Culture and Cultural Identity Workshop – School of Education and Early Childhood, Penrith campus and Bankstown campus (Cultural Mosaic I and II) on:

learning in a multicultural environment
importance of cross-cultural awareness
in-depth exploration of the relationship between cultural identity and diversity

Unity Week multicultural event produced with several faculties (all campuses), including:

interfaith service
multicultural art exhibition
film screenings
food fair
Aboriginal storytelling and concert
Conversations, where high profile Aboriginal women spoke about their life and work

School of Contemporary Arts, Penrith campus, School of Media. Design and Communications, Penrith; and School of Media, Design and Communication, Bankstown campus (Cultural Identity)
School of Media, Design and Communication, Penrith campus (Media Representations of Race and Ethnicity- Media and Cultural Diversity)

Speak-Out against Racism and War (Bankstown campus) – convened with the Bankstown Campus Students’ Association, which:

focused on the complex links between ethnicity, racialisation, youth and crime
included speakers from the UWS Muslim Students’ Association and the UWS Aboriginal students

The project:

with supplementary funding from UWS, published Voices from UWS Diasporas - to be launched on Harmony Day 2002, and distributed it to students, staff, and local community groups. It includes:

an anthology of essays, articles, poems, short stories and photographs produced by UWS students and staff on themes such as:

good practice principles for staff and students to address anti-discrimination on campus
list of anti-discrimination resources

changed from the original plan to a program with a greater focus on campus activities as difficulties arose in:

setting up contacts for ongoing networking, both within UWS and in the local communities of the Western Sydney region
establishing community links with Indigenous and multicultural groups
far-reaching effects of overall UWS restructuring which affected a number of units which had previously offered support - for example, the Penrith Campus Reconciliation Group, expected to be a key partner, became unable to contribute
identifying either interest or awareness in Reconciliation issues amongst either staff or students

was able to raise the best response to Reconciliation issues via Harmony Day, Unity Week, the Anti-Racism event activities and the Diaspora booklet, actively including Indigenous and multicultural community groups
received generally very positive feedback from students who felt that they had benefited from the activities, and were interested in the anti-racism strategies proposed, from questionnaires distributed to students after the finish of the:

led to students creating an anti-war/anti racism e-mail discussion group following the successful anti-war/antiracism speakout