Tuesday, 29 July 2025

Cultura

Ella GEORGE (Lara) (19:02): (1212) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Youth. The action that I seek from the minister is to meet with the Cultura multicultural youth council. This group is part of Cultura, a Geelong-based organisation that promotes cultural exchange and understanding. The multicultural youth council are working towards identifying community needs, developing project ideas and providing leadership training for young people.

The young people involved in this group are truly inspiring. At a recent Geelong consultation session for Victoria’s multicultural review I was particularly impressed to see some of these council members standing up and speaking out so magnificently on behalf of their communities. I would like to touch on some of the points they shared with us that evening.

[NAMES AND QUOTES AWAITING VERIFICATION]

Angel from the Indonesian community shared this:

From what I understand it is very easy for people of colour to feel like they should be invisible in a place where we do not have a voice. But that needs to stop for the sake of young people who might be going through the same thing that I myself and countless others did. I implore that there is a change to be made so that everyone who feels ostracised has a sense of strength to take up space and be proud of their roots.

Pia, who is part of the Macedonian and Indian community, shared this:

This racism still impacts me every day as I do not like dressing in traditional clothing, speaking any languages other than English because I have been made to feel so ashamed or embarrassed about my culture, and that sucks.

These comments highlight the importance of supporting our regional multicultural communities, and I am really proud that this Allan Labor government does just that. Meeting with the Cultura youth council will be an excellent opportunity to hear more from this extraordinary group, and I look forward to the minister meeting with them.