Living in Harmony Community Grants 1999

Queensland

Rotary Club of Maryborough North

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Creating Harmony in Maryborough by Involving the Community in a Multicultural Festival, October 1999

$21,300 Awarded

| Aims | Activities | Outcomes |

Aims

This project, now completed, aimed to:

  • raise awareness in the Wide Bay region of the benefits of community harmony and multiculturalism

  • celebrate Maryborough’s history as a major immigrant arrival port since the nineteenth century

  • recognise both the Indigenous and European roots of the region’s people

  • help create harmonious multicultural relationships through numerous groups working together towards a common objective

Activities

The project:

  • held a multicultural Festival, Interfest, on Saturday 2 October 1999 to celebrate the cultural diversity of the region, to involve schools, people from Indigenous, multicultural and mainstream community organisations in a demonstration of cross-cultural exchange and appreciation, which included:

    • live performances of international dance and music from groups including Brazilian, Scottish, German, Filipino, Thai, Italian, Africaans, (former) Yugoslav, Malaysian, Chinese, Dutch and Swiss groups

    • displays of visual arts, banners and costumes, plus international food

    • broadcasts of the proceedings on local radio and TV in the Wide Bay Region

  • conducted a series of school based activities leading up to Interfest, which involved:

    • local school children from a number of schools:

      • undertaking research on their ancestors’ countries of origin to feed into projects for the Festival, with the enthusiastic support of the Maryborough Family Heritage Unit

      • carrying out projects reporting on customs of other cultures and making items from other cultures such as flags Chinese lanterns, Japanese kimonos and origami

  • achieved broad media coverage through:

    • editorials, articles, photos multicultural success stories and cross-cultural competitions in the local Chronicle and Herald newspapers

    • producing a television commercial for the local TV station, with children in bright differently coloured LIH T shirts

  • held a feedback survey of visitors to Interfest

  • held a follow-up to the Festival on Harmony Day, 21 March 2000 by taking a stall at the very popular weekly Maryborough Market Day, which:

    • was held in the mall, attracting many residents and visitors

    • was well supplied with Living in Harmony literature andstickers

    • had many people coming up with enquiries, who went away proudly wearing their stickers

    • was extended by Rotary members also walking through the markets spreading the LIH message

Outcomes

The project:

  • was notably successful in that the Festival took place in an area with little if any experience in community events with multicultural and/or harmony themes, but still:

    • drew considerable public support

    • involved many people from a number of schools and from the community generally

  • represented the first time that anything like this had occurred in Maryborough on this scale – "the parade brought an awareness of multiculture before the eyes of all" - the first time that such a spectacle like this had occurred there

  • created a lot of talk about the parade, and peoples’ hopes that it would be repeated

  • received encouraging feedback from the survey that the majority of visitors:

    • had appreciated the variety of entertainment

    • would appreciate:

      • more items from Indigenous groups

      • greater variety of workshops from different cultural groups

      • would come again

  • felt that as a public education exercise the festival follow-up Harmony Day stall at the Maryborough Market Day was a great success

  • gave the Rotary Club the opportunity to learn a great deal about working together with people of different cultures and concepts, including having some representatives from other cultures on their committee