Word from the Publisher 029 – Blessing at Cultural Diversity Week

Blessing at Cultural Diversity Week

Cultural Diversity Week started on 21 March from Harmony Day coinciding with the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Typically Harmony Day in Australia is marked by community events and local activities to promote social cohesion and racial harmony and is expressed through community participation, inclusiveness, celebrating diversity, respect and belonging. Harmony Day was introduced by the Howard government in 1998 to re-centralise a singular and unifying notion of Australian-ness within multicultural policy.
Two national policies have been implemented since then to achieve this goal. The first one is the learning of a second language by young Australians. However, the percentage of students taking a language other than English (LOTE) before leaving school suggests that few from the mainstream try to learn a language other than English. LOTE is practically a means by the ethnic minorities to preserve their culture and language for the second generations. The quote by Frank Smith “One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way.” is correct that learning a second language gives more possibility of success for the next generations. The government should reconstruct LOTE education to target all Australian students instead.

The second policy is the funding of a lot of CALD events by various governments. In general, the preservation of culture within ethnic minorities is seen as appropriate and respected. However, I think that more has to be done.
Yes, we celebrate Lunar New Year, Holi, Ramadan, mid-Autumn festival, Diwali and other cultural festivals and observe that the society accept their legitimacy. However, we do not see much effort to share these festivals among mainstream and various ethnic groups. Being multicultural should be more than just accepting differences in the mainstream but also an effort to encourage mutual understanding and learning of other cultures.
BlessingCALD publishes in English for new migrants. We try to share important news and information from a CALD perspective. We believe that your support in BlessingCALD will not just help the new migrants to integrate into the Australian lifestyle but also to build up Australia as a multicultural society.

Raymond Chow
Publisher, BlessingCALD