Today’s news is overwhelmed with questions on multiculturalism, diversity and peace. In this edition we take a look at how education can play a very important role in building intercultural tolerance and respect.

Australia is one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world, but its indigenous communities have faced a long history of discrimination. We go there now to see what lessons can be learnt about diversity by immersing yourself in another culture for a day.

The late 1990s saw a rapidly changing Australia, and with new immigrants came new cultures such as Chinese, Indian and Vietnamese. Alongside this, the world’s oldest living culture, Indigenous Australia, needed an outlet to revive the importance of their history and stories. In schools around Australia, through Cultural Infusion’s “Discovering Diversity programs“http://www.wise-qatar.org/discovering-diversity-australia, old Australia blends with new Australia and teaches students to live in a more harmonious and inclusive community.

Aboriginal Elder, Alan Harris, and his sons, Tristan and Azza, have been running Cultural Infusion Programs for 12 years. Not only has this changed their family’s life, but the lives of many young Australians who now acknowledge and respect the role of Aboriginal Australia in the country they live in.

“The Aboriginal for a day program is our most popular program, because it submerges the students and teachers for a full day of concentration on different aspects of Aboriginal culture,” says Alan Harris. “Our main important message to the schools and the students is to understand that if they’re living in Australia then everything about Australia is their history, they need to know it, its important.”

Students thrive within the context of entertainment as education, and in Collingwood College where 80% of the students are from backgrounds other than English, teachers recognise the importance of reinforcing knowledge of different cultures for their students (…)
Read more in euronews.org