An image from the recent Sudanese community festival.
Image: Rodney Start
Source: Museum Victoria
The Immigration Museum’s Community Connections program has received a 2008 Melbourne Award.
In the program, various communities contribute to, and help create, exhibitions and festivals that document and explore experiences of migration and cultural diversity.
The program has been running since 1998 and is the only one of its kind in Australia, engaging more than 15 000 people annually. Six events are held each year. More than 70 culturally and linguistically diverse groups have had their practices, traditions, history and heritage celebrated and commemorated through the scheme since its inception.
The City of Melbourne presented the “contribution to community” award at the gala ceremony on 30 August – deemed “Melbourne day” – as part of a range of events and celebrations. Winners in nine categories were recognised for their contribution. Sporting great John Bertrand was also named Melburnian of the year for his philanthropic work.
Pictured here is the Sudanese community festival, which took place in April 2008; it incorporated dance performances, music and storytelling, and offered another perspective on the Sudanese community in Melbourne and Victoria.
The next event on the Community Connections calendar is the Cambodian festival on Sunday 14 September. It will include traditional Cambodian food, music and dance performances, family activities and a historical perspective on Cambodian migration in Melbourne and Victoria. Waters of Tuvalu: a Nation at Risk, profiling a people whose homeland is on the verge of being destroyed by climate change, is the community exhibition presently on show at the Immigration Museum.