Community Arts
Arts Initiative with Muslim Australians
The Australian Human Rights Commission is coordinating a national arts and culture initiative in partnership with the Australia Council for the Arts, to offer Muslim Australians the opportunity to engage within their communities and the broader Australian community. The Initiative will work in the agencies’ mutual areas of interest - human rights and the arts.
The Initiative will provide a safe environment for participants to share and explore the issues affecting Muslim Australian communities, particularly Muslim young people, through a range of community arts-based projects in urban and rural locations around the country.
The project is based on the idea of ‘community cultural development’ which encourages participation, collaboration and inspiration to work creatively with individuals and communities to tackle complex social, economic and cultural issues.
The Initiative aims to help:
- promote a positive message, and counter negative stereotypes, about Muslim Australians
- provide an opportunity to build better understanding between Muslim and non-Muslim Australians
- increase community awareness of the social and personal impacts felt by victims of discrimination, vilification and abuse
- build self-esteem and knowledge within Muslim communities, especially among young Muslim Australians
- increase the sense of belonging felt by Muslim communities and young Muslim Australians in the broader Australian community
The projects supported so far are:
- Young Muslim Women’s Short Animation Film Project - partner is the Bankstown Area Multicultural Network in NSW
- Arab Film Festival Australia – the national tour - partner is the Information and Cultural Exchange (ICE) in NSW
- The Islamic Spectrum in Australia - partner is Nexus Multicultural Arts Centre in SA
- Frontline Project - partner is Darwin Community Arts in NT
- Muslim Women's Arts Project – partner is Casula Powerhouse.
The Initiative started in late 2008 and will run until early 2012.
Find out more in 
PDF [30 KB] or in 
Word [31 KB] about the project.
The Initiative receives advice from an Initiative Advisory Group (IAG). All members of the IAG have expertise in multicultural arts, cultural practice and community cultural development. The meeting was an opportunity for the IAG and the Initiative Management Group to discuss current projects, evaluation and next steps for the Initiative.
Find out more about the IAG, including the members, in PDF or Word
