New reconciliation resources in ten key languages spoken in Australian homes released for National Reconciliation Week.
Reconciliation Australia has worked with Cultural Perspectives, a specialist research and communications agency, to produce the posters, flyers and explanatory materials promoting National Reconciliation Week (NRW) 2023 in Arabic, simplified and traditional Chinese, Greek, Italian, Korean, Punjabi, Spanish, Thai, and Vietnamese, languages.
The resources include posters and flyers and translated information on reconciliation and National Reconciliation Week. The 2023 theme urges all Australians to Be a Voice for Generations – Act now for a Reconciled Future.
Reconciliation Australia Chief Executive Karen Mundine, said her organisation recognised the importance of non-Anglo migrant communities in the Australian social and political landscape.
“It is clear that engagement and understanding from Australia’s largest migrant communities will be critical to achieving reconciliation. All the signs suggest that these communities are strong supporters of First Nations aspirations including those addressed in the Uluru Statement from the Heart,” she said.
“It is essential that Australia’s migrant communities understand our history and are able to make properly informed decisions about voting in the upcoming referendum.
“Young Asian, Arab, Pasifika, and African-Australians have been a growing presence at Survival Day protests across the country, and peak migrant organisations such as the Federation of Ethnic Community Councils (FECCA) have strongly endorsed the Uluru Statement from the Heart.”
FECCA Chair Carlo Cali recently told SBS News that the lived experience of migrants and refugees had informed their perspective to embrace the Indigenous Voice.
Last year a meeting of 800 delegates from ethnic communities from around the country endorsed constitutional recognition through a Voice.
Mr Cali said many migrants to Australia had experienced dispossession and colonialism themselves and therefore understood the brutal impact this had on the First Nations people. He said they wanted this legacy rectified.
Just over half of Australians were either born overseas or have at least one migrant parent; nearly a quarter of Australians speak a language other than English at home.
See more on Translated Resources.