Multiculturalism: The Changing Faces of Australia

I.

Still young, the child learned how to act from the adults in their world, trying on new personas like winter coats, searching for the one that fit just right.

Australia is a young country. A susceptible child that is everyday shaped by the people around it, their voices and identities. Australia is one of the most multicultural countries in the world, an accumulation of people from different backgrounds; an ever-evolving organism that refuses to stop growing, changing.

II.

The reef a kaleidoscope of colours;

Constantly shifting;

Bright fish and coral clashing

But together

Breathtakingly beautiful.

Australian culture is a sense of oneness, a kinship made not through heritage but through our everyday lives. Australians don’t fit into any

It flourishes from the fingertips and the mouths of the people here, rising out of everything we create. It is the phoenix of all cultures, taking on new life every day, not waiting for ashes to be re-born.

V.

The land lay dry and barren, deep cracks carved through the once fertile soil of Lake Hume; Australia was once again a fractured landscape.

But we have not always celebrated difference. Built on oppression and institutionalised racism, Australia has a dark history, one that cannot be hidden away nor forgotten. The lives and deaths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, South Sea Islanders and migrants are woven into Australia’s history; the people whose blood, sweat and tears built our country.

VI.

Spring had delivered, with the shoots already stretching up towards the sun and the new leaves budding, it was once again the time for new life.

These people are still in our community, the descendants of those whose struggles we stand upon still battle to be heard and recognised, but I have hope. Hope for the futures of all Australians, that they find their own voice and continue to forge Australia’s culture. We must break free of the single story, and take pride in our multiculturalism, because it is what makes us