a multicultural History of Australia
Making multicultural Australia
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Period: This Generation »
Commentary on: Australian Multicultural Foundation »
Prof Andrew Jakubowicz.
Text Commentary
The Australian Multicultural Foundation shows the ways in which recognising that Australia is multicultural helps us improve the quality of life for everyone in the society.
The Foundation was set up as a Bi-Centennial project in 1988, when the national government put $3 million into a Foundation, to make it independent of any government control. This independence has meant the Foundation has carried on its continuing commitment to understanding and contributing to Australian diversity for two decades, irrespective of changes in governments and fashions for ideas.
Over that time it has addressed issues of language development, policing, youth needs, care for the elderly and people with disabilities, and built communities through recruiting and using volunteers. More recently it has been a pioneer of religious diversity in education, building support for young Muslim Australians and their participation in Australian society, and developing training in Australian ways of life for foreign-born clerics of all religious faiths.
At a global level it has been at the forefront of initiatives to have the Commonwealth of Nations establish a religious leaders’ advisory panel. It has also helped Europe set up its own multicultural foundation, and now engages with the global Metropolis project, which examines policies and practices in the world’s culturally diverse cities.
The Foundation has really taken Australian culture to the world.