Harmony Week Stories – Everyone Belongs

Australia is a vibrant and multicultural country – from the oldest continuous culture of our first Australians to the cultures of our newest arrivals from around the world. Harmony Week, celebrated from 15-21 March, is about inclusiveness, respect and belonging for all Australians.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics tells us that:

• Nearly half of Australians were born overseas or have a parent who was.
• We identify with over 300 ancestries.
• Since 1945, more than 7.5 million people have migrated to Australia.
• 85% of Australians agree multiculturalism has been good for Australia.
• More than 70 Indigenous languages are spoken in Australia.

Whether you’ve recently arrived in Australia, or your family have been here for generations, check out these resources and discover the stories of some of our people:

The BBQ (DVD)

Laid-back suburban everyman Dazza Cook loves to entertain his friends and neighbours with his weekly backyard barbecues, utilising the ancient rum-barrel barbecue that family legend says came from their ancestor Captain James Cook’s Endeavour.

I’m Australian too by Mem Fox

From countries near and far, many have made their home in Australia, sharing it with the original inhabitants, and living in peace beneath the Southern Star.

New boy by Nick Earls

Adjusting to a new country and a new school was never going to be easy. The food is strange. And it’s the whitest place Herschelle has ever been. Worst of all, no one understands the Aussie slang he’s learnt on the web. Herschelle will have to confront racism, bullying and his own past before Australia can feel like home.

Detention by Tristan Bancks

Sima and her family are pressed to the rough, cold ground among fifty others. They lie next to a tall fence designed to keep them in. When they make their escape, a guard raises the alarm. In the chaos Sima loses her parents. Dad told her to run, so she does, hiding in a school and triggering a lockdown. A boy finds her hiding in the toilet block. What should he do? She’s breaking the law, but is it right to lock kids up?

Growing up Aboriginal in Australia edited by Anita Heiss

Childhood stories of family, country and belonging. What is it like to grow up Aboriginal in Australia? Each account reveals, to some degree, the impacts of invasion and colonisation – on language, on country, on ways of life, and on how people are treated daily in the community, the education system, the workplace and in friendship groups.

The happiest refugee: the extraordinary true story of a boy’s journey from starvation at sea to becoming one of Australia’s best-loved comedians by Anh Do

Anh Do nearly didn’t make it to Australia. His entire family came close to losing their lives on the sea as they escaped from war-torn Vietnam in an overcrowded boat. This book tells the incredible, uplifting and inspiring life story of one of our favourite personalities.

The freedom circus: one family’s death defying act to escape Nazis and start a new life in Australia by Sue Smethurst

When Sue Smethurst first sat down with her grandmother-in-law and asked how she survived the Holocaust, she was shooed away. But each week she’d bring cake from her favourite shop in St Kilda, a bottle of the brightest nail polish she could find, a handful of old pictures and her tape recorder. They’d chat and paint Milda’s nails, and with each ‘chat’ the story unfolded. The story of how Milda and her husband, a circus performer, escaped Poland and embarked on a terrifying journey through the USSR and Middle East to Africa and ultimately to safety in Australia, is nothing short of extraordinary.

Under the golden sun by Jenny Ashcroft

Wanted: companion to escort a young, orphaned child to Australia. A year ago, Rose would have thought nothing of the advert, but that was before her unjust dismissal from the Air Force, exile to a sleepy Devon village, and growing distance between her fiance Xander. She agrees to chaperone the child across the world, having no idea of the secrets, lies and heartbreak awaiting them. But when when the time comes, will Rose want to leave?

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