Page 3408 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 22 October 2014
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Our multiculturalism has always been a practical and productive one and I see that there are basically two variants on the method of embedding additional cultural groups into our society. There is the government-led policy funding type of integration which involves English language classes and events sponsored to demonstrate our multicultural state, money for cultural associations to assist them to stay strong and connect the longer term representatives of their community to the newer ones. Certainly another equal and probably much more important element of our multicultural success is the bottom-up approach, which we should encourage, of neighbour-to-neighbour support and openness at the suburban level, both through members of longstanding multigenerational presences in our nation to newer arrivals and through the mainstream Australian people reaching out to those who are different.
I will mostly focus today on the bottom-up work that members of our community do but I also take this opportunity to suggest that in the current climate of some fear and concern about the events overseas, and their potential to reach into the hearts of our neighbourhood, boosting the government element would be wise. We must guard against overreaction but we must also put our money where our mouth is and have active support for those who can best combat such fear and increase harmony.
This is not the first time that Australia has faced fears of particular ethnic groups. As far back as the time of Ned Kelly, we have dealt with ethnic and religious clashes to some degree imported into Australia, and from history we have learnt to take a long view, to be very targeted in any action and to think compassionately about perfectly innocent and good-willed people who are vulnerable to unfair discrimination. Such fear can impact upon individuals’ confidence about living in Australia. When they leave their front door they can be quite unsure how people will treat them. I am sure we will approach this matter with a largely tripartisan view.
So let us focus for a moment on the contribution of Muslims in particular to Australia and to Canberra. There is significant evidence that Muslim fishermen from southern Sulawesi and Indonesia were fishing here in the early 1700s and were in contact with our local Aboriginal people. In the 19th century Muslim men from Pakistan, India and Afghanistan worked as camel handlers and played an instrumental role in exploring our nation. One of the first instances recorded was on 9 June 1860 when 24 camels and three cameleers arrived in Port Melbourne from India to join the Burke and Wills expedition. Cameleers were vital to travel in the interior of Australia right through until the 1920s, and across the 20th century and into this century Muslims from Turkey, Albania, Bosnia, Lebanon, Africa and many other nations have migrated to Australia to fulfil our growing need for work and for our future as a stronger and more vital Australia. So we owe so much, right from the discovery journeys of Burke and Wills, to the skills and dedication of hardworking Muslims.
In our Canberra region there are more than 20 locally owned businesses run by Muslims, providing a whole range of different goods and services. There are several different organisations which gather in Muslims and their culture here in the ACT as well as a number of centres specifically built for worship, including two mosques and the Canberra Islamic Centre. Canberra’s commitment to the Islamic Centre in particular was displayed so practically this year in the many acts of kindness in
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