3ZZZ's Harmony Day Project
3ZZZ: STRENGTH IN DIVERSITY
Melbourne full-time ethnic broadcaster 3ZZZ has commenced a new project called Strength in Diversity: Our Stories on Radio. The project will bring together members of established migrant communities and new and emerging communities to discuss racism and produce radio documentaries that will help reduce racial tension between communities. The project is a part of 3ZZZ’s commitment to broadcasting the voices and stories of multicultural Australia and a part of ongoing project work in developing stronger links with Melbourne’s refugee and emerging communities. Project Coordinator Jo Curtin is pleased that the radio documentaries will tell stories that will encourage harmony in the community, particularly between established communities and new and emerging communities.
“The radio documentaries will be distributed to community stations across Australia for airplay,” she says. “We’re hoping to encourage intelligent and candid discussions about race issues on community radio stations across the country, and we’re hoping that through listening to each other’s stories we can better understand and accept each other.”
Participants have been chosen to reflect a diversity of backgrounds and preference has been given to those with some radio experience or those with inspiring ideas. Up to 35 participants are taking advantage of free training and production assistance in making their documentary. While participation in the project is voluntary, participants are eligible to receive some travel or child-care cost reimbursements and there are subsidies for regional participants.
“We’ve had applicants from as far away as Narrandera in Southern NSW,” says Curtin, “and the participants range in age from 17 to over 70!” Participants are planning radio documentaries that might include personal stories, spoken word, interviews, or vox pops and some will be compiling their stories by computer using music and sound effects for the first time.
An important part of the project was a public forum held at 3ZZZ on 31 January. Thirty people from a wide variety of backgrounds came together to discuss the issues and relationships between established migrant communities and new and emerging communities. The themes, issues and ideas raised at the forum will guide the content of the radio documentaries being made over the next month. The themes included: fears about losing one’s culture, comparisons between the experiences of past and present refugees, media representations as divisive, government directions/funding for language education, stereotyping and parents’ attitudes and influences. Feedback from the participants of the forum showed that they found it to be very worthwhile and enjoyed meeting others who want to get active and make our multicultural society more harmonious. Certainly, considering the impacts of racism and bringing discussions of multiculturalism into the open gets people talking! Participants left the forum with a greater understanding of other’s experience of migration. Many were inspired to share the experience with their community and to get started on their documentary-making. One participant said that it was “fantastic to meet other people who are passionate about their cultures and are also interested in promoting harmony between different community groups”.
This project is proudly supported by the Australian Government’s Living in Harmony initiative. Administered by the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs, the Living in Harmony initiative aims to promote community harmony. It recognises that, whatever our backgrounds and beliefs, we are united as Australians and want to live in a country that is free of racial intolerance. For more information on the Living in Harmony initiative, visit www.harmony.gov.au.
3ZZZ looks forward to tackling more projects like this in the future. “We are more than an ethnic radio station broadcasting to a diverse set of communities,” says Curtin. “By encouraging people of different ethnicities to work together we are leading by example, 3ZZZ is multiculturalism at work”.
The Strength in Diversity: Our Stories on Radio documentaries will be launched on Harmony Day (21 March) at the 3ZZZ Studios. The documentaries will be available online at www.cbonline.org.au or on CD from 3ZZZ from early April, call 03 9415 1928 for more information.