Multiculturalism

The new buzz word in education. Multiculturalism! Multicultural schools, multicultural society, multicultural teachers. In 1980, money was being poured into S.A. schools to support 'multicultural' programmes. There was even a large Multicultural Centre which ran programmes for teachers and generally provided the organisation needed to support schools.

This focus on multiculturalism was obviously an attempt by the then government to put right the policies of previous governments, i.e. the white Australia policy, the herding of migrants into 'holding centres' which were no better than tin sheds, the assimilation of ethnic groups into the 'white' English culture. And not forgetting the policies which were an attempt to annihilate the Aboriginal population.

And I was to be part of this new multicultural approach!