Living in Harmony Community Grants 1999

Victoria

Geelong Radio 100.3 FM - Promoting Harmony within the Geelong Region

$44,800 Awarded

This project, now completed, aimed, through the medium of community radio, to:

provide opportunities to highlight cultural, racial and religious differences and similarities between cultural groups, for:

air participants’ experiences with intolerance and bigotry
identify issues and areas of concern that impede members of the above groups from having harmonious relationships within their groups and the wider community
extend general knowledge in the Geelong area about the region’s Koori community
review attitudes, policies and processes and recommend changes which promote and enhance harmonious relationships within these groups
actively promote, via radio, the recommended solutions to build harmonious relationships between these groups

The project:

established a series of forums to review attitudes, policies and procedures which impede harmonious relationships between people from diverse cultural backgrounds and the wider community
brought together ethnic and Indigenous communities in developing recommendations and strategies for implementing change
introduced Harmony concepts into groups and activities representing all aspects of Geelong life, eg:

sporting (especially by arranging for football matches with an NT schoolboy team)
religious
cultural
volunteering
youth

sought the active participation of Koori organisations, the Wathaurong community and the One Fire Reconciliation Group for forums and radio programs
produced:

a video recording of Harmony Day activities and 3 CDs of radio programs aired on Geelong Radio which focused on the benefits of cultural diversity and solutions to racial tensions
a series of radio programs for each target group to summarise forum discussions and highlight the benefits of cultural, racial and religious harmony for Australia
a "Harmony on the Net" website http://home.iprimus.com.au/geelongradio
a far-ranging Harmony Day celebration, by holding a six hour feature broadcast live from the main city mall on Harmony Day
very wide publicity through broadcasting, newspaper articles, and by inviting other LIH grant-holders to discuss their projects on radio 100.3 FM

The project found that:

since the program, there is greater awareness of the Koori community within Geelong, and that more attention and respect are given to its members
promoting Harmony through radio programs (some multilingual) substantially heightened community awareness of various cultural groups in Geelong
in forum discussions, the smaller and more intimate the group, the more likely people are to talk without feeling self conscious
it gained community credibility through on-air interviews with community groups who represented the target groups