Celebrating the Multicultural Fabric of our Regional Communities
Article by Dellaram Vreeland
In Mansfield at the foothills of the Victorian Alps, a group of recently-arrived Afghan refugees are finding their feet in their newfound home. The town, deemed by local resident Marie Sellstrom as “quite monocultural”, has banded around them in a swell of support, assisting with their literacy and numeracy skills, helping the refugees source employment, and even teaching them how to line dance. It’s a symbiotic relationship. The refugees are sharing recipes from their homelands, teaching the locals how to cook, and volunteering at the Country Fire Authority and local theatre. Marie says the community has “so much to gain” from their experience and leadership.
One hundred and twenty kilometres away, in Victoria’s Goulburn Valley region, another group of Afghan women are rallying together for International Women’s Day to raise awareness about the escalating persecution against women and girls under the rule of the Taliban. The event has been organised by the newly-instigated Goulburn Valley Afghan Women’s Association Shepparton. It’s a space for the region’s Afghan women to have a voice, support each other, and encourage younger people to take on leadership roles. In an interview with Guardian Australia, the co-founder said it was important to “be a role model for our younger generation” and “celebrate their achievements”. She was grateful to her community for providing her children with the freedom and opportunity they would never have been granted back home.
Over the past year, my work as a rural reporter has seen me cross paths with both newly- arrived refugees and long-time residents from communities across Victoria. I’ve explored the evolving and compassionate relationship between those who have recently fled their home countries, and those who have called Australia home their entire life. Speaking to these individuals, hearing their stories, understanding what drives them to do what they do, has been quite the profound venture. As a second-generation Iranian migrant with refugee parents, I like to think I understand – to a degree – the myriad cultural and language barriers associated with settling in a new country. To hear how these refugees are overcoming these challenges and contributing to the warp and woof of their hometowns, and more so, how our rural communities are rallying around their resettlement, has been especially heartening.
One specific example of this has been through Community Refugee Sponsorship Australia’s community refugee integration and settlement pilot (Crisp). Under the Crisp, refugees are assisted by community supporter groups of five or more adult volunteers who provide twelve months of practical support, assisting with accommodation, local orientation and access to public services. About fifty per cent of these groups are currently located in regional areas across Australia - near Bendigo, Orange, Terrigal, Warrnambool, Keith, the Blue Mountains to name a few - further proof of how our country towns are standing ready and raring to open their hearts and homes to anyone in need. In a recent interview with an Iraqi family who had settled in Warrnambool, a coastal town in Victoria’s south-west, through the Crisp, I was told of how the program had helped them “create friendships based on love and mutual respect” and how the community had always made them feel welcome, helping them “integrate quickly into society”.
This embracing attitude that exists in our country towns towards immigrants is not often showcased. Our major cities are typically aggrandized because of their rich cultural make-up, while our rural communities are regarded as homogenous and closed- minded. According to a study by Forrest and Dunn into cultural diversity and racism in rural Australia, “rural areas have also been perceived as ‘white’ landscapes where cultural diversity and even ethnicity is rarely ‘seen’”. We as individuals, communities, and institutions, particularly the media, have a key role in shifting this narrative, and making it known that our communities are home to a diversity of thought, experience and knowledge that enrich our cultural landscape. Sure it’s evolving, but it’s worth unearthing.
In Australia’s 2023 Mapping Social Cohesion report, seventy-eight per cent of survey respondents agreed that accepting immigrants from many different countries made Australia stronger, with eighty-nine per cent agreeing that multiculturalism had been good for the country and eighty-six per cent agreeing that immigrants were generally good for the economy. That said, the report did identify prejudice and discrimination as disruptive forces, particularly towards certain cultural and religious groups.
My family first moved to Australia as refugees in the early 1980s, having fled Iran only a few years prior. It was the beginning of the Islamic Revolution, and the persecution against members of the Baha’i Faith, a minority religion whose primary aim is the promotion of prosperous communities, was only set to intensify. The safest course of action for them was to give up everything they knew and to leave their homeland – a story often told among refugees and asylum seekers.
When we first moved to Ballarat, we were the only Iranians in town, but we never harboured feelings of otherness. And while I don’t recall specific incidents where I was the target of racism or discrimination, I understand this isn’t a shared experience. I have witnessed Ballarat undergo a significant cultural progression over the past three decades, but sadly, I have also observed instances when prejudice has disrupted the social fabric. In many cases, I put it down to a small glitch in the system that is then surmounted by a swell of support, and so I am reaffirmed in my hope that the community is looking out for one another and these fleeting moments of intolerance or ignorance are just that.
It is also during these instances that I hope for increased dialogue, education, and more opportunities where we can enhance our understanding of one another’s stories - because only then will we truly be able to move forward as one human body – acknowledging and valuing the role each of us plays in its operation.
In my mind, multiculturalism consists of the three cultural components Noel Pearson spoke about in 2018 when he referred to the three parts of Australia’s identity – the Indigenous heritage it is founded on, the British institutions it inherited, and multicultural migration. It is each of these components that, when combined, tell the full story of who we are as a country. There’s no doubt it’s an evolving story, but it is one that needs to be shared from the beginning and into the future if we are to work from a place of tolerance to a place of love – fully realising our interconnectedness as one human family. I think we are noticing glimpses of this inclusiveness in the regions, but it’s time we start celebrating it more broadly.
If you’re interested in seeing more of our work - we hope you’ll consider subscribing to our physical paper here.