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With close to half of Australians born overseas or with one or both parents born overseas, it’s critical that our engagement and communication is inclusive of multicultural communities.
At the Social Deck, we are inclusive of diversity by including people from diverse backgrounds in engagement in a culturally safe way. We do this by working with organisations such as Multicultural Youth Advocacy Network (MYAN) and FECCA as well as testing our communication materials with community members from multicultural backgrounds.
To celebrate Harmony Week, The Social Deck team brings you a multicultural edition of ‘What we’re watching, listening to and reading’.
What we’re watching
The School That Tried to End Racism on ABC iView.
The series follows a group of year 5 and 6 students as they learn to identify and tackle racism, privilege, prejudice, stereotyping and representation.
The series offers opportunities for us to consider the impact of racial biases and the importance of addressing them. It also deepens our understanding of the barriers some multicultural audiences face, how to overcome these in engagement and communication, and the need to empower people from multicultural backgrounds to tell their stories.
What we’re listening to
The Multicultural Minds podcast sees host Emily Unity speak with guests from diverse backgrounds as they explore the relationship between culture and mental health.
A recent episode featured Dr Dakhina Mitra, who spoke about her experience as a researcher specialising in child rights and participatory research design.
Dr Mitra works to empower and respect children as the experts of their experience, using methods like drawing, photography, clay-modelling, story-telling and journaling to glean valuable insights.
This is particularly relevant as The Social Deck works with the Department of Education, Skills and Employment to engage young people on issues that affect them. Dr Mitra’s insights on participatory research can be applied to engagement with young people. You can also check out our previous blog with tips for engaging children and young people.
What we’re reading
Aged Care’s Culture Gap: How to respond to the needs of a diverse and ageing population
This narrative from the Scanlon Foundation discusses cultural blind spots that can be found within the aged are systems. These blind spots include the increasing importance of language as older Australians can revert to their first language, providing culturally relevant meals and the role that location can play in improving quality of life e.g. being close to a pre-school centre or church for some cultures.
It also highlights best practice examples of culturally safe aged care around Australia and recommends on how we can better support Australia’s diverse and ageing populations into the future.
The online publication provides insight on the stigma attached to aged care for some diverse communities and considers the importance of language for older multicultural Australians.
The narrative has offered us a deeper understanding of additional considerations when engaging with senior Australians from multicultural backgrounds. This is particularly relevant as we work to support the Department of Health’s new person-centred approach to engaging across aged care.
