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July 2024

Mixed emotions and new growth

Refugee Week in Canberra in the early 1990s

Canberra has long been a progressive, welcoming city. Nearly one in four Canberrans speak a language other than English at home, and we have a range of diverse communities. Canberra is proudly part of the Welcoming Cities Network, and hosts possibly the largest celebration of multiculturalism in Australia each year, the National Multicultural Festival.

Recently, ArchivesACT staff examined a file relating to multiculturalism and refugees in the ACT, dating from 1989 to 1993:

89/16417: SOCIAL JUSTICE UNIT, MULTICULTURAL – REFUGEES. OFFICE FOR CHILDREN YOUTH & FAMILY SUPPORT

Australia and celebrates Refugee Week every June, encompassing World Refugee Day on 20 June. In Australia the event has grown significantly since it was first marked in Sydney in 1986, and has been a national event since 1988.i

Our file includes a speech by Chief Minister Rosemary Follett at a Citizenship Ceremony held at Allara House in Civic during Refugee Week 1993. Ms Follett, the ACT’s first Chief Minister (see Find of the month August 2012), was serving her second term, resuming the role after Trevor Kaine’s 18 months as Chief Minister. In her speech, Ms Follett congratulates the former refugees on gaining Australian citizenship, expressing her hope that they will maintain their cultural identity. She remarks that Canberra had at that time the second-highest proportion of overseas-born people in Australia, and had more than 120 different ethnic organisations:

Fig. 1. Speech notes of Chief Minister Rosemary Follett, 1993, p. 1

Fig. 2. Speech notes of Chief Minister Rosemary Follett, 1993, p. 2

Fig. 3. Speech notes of Chief Minister Rosemary Follett, 1993, p.3

Behind the speech is the Minute written by the Social Policy Branch for the Chief Minister’s Department, which outlines the purpose and role of the Refugee Citizenship Ceremony. It includes who will introduce her—Dr William Maley, who continues to be involved in the Refugee Council of Australia today—and notes which countries the refugees at the ceremony are from. The brief also advises Ms Follett that the Community Refugee Resettlement Scheme, a community-based support group, had assisted in settling about 120 refugees in Canberra over the previous two years.

Refugee Week also featured supporters of national and international repute. In June 1989, actor Jack Thompson was appointed as a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador, acting as a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner on Refugees and making a 1993 documentary about Cambodian orphans.

Fig. 4. UNHCR media release about Jack Thompson documentary, 1993

Actress Liv Ullmann, known for her work in the 1960s and 70s with acclaimed director Ingmar Bergman, was another high-profile campaigner for refugees during Refugee Week 1993. Austcare brought her Canberra, where she spoke at the National Press Club on 23 June.

Fig. 5. Austcare promotional materials for Refugee Week 1993, featuring Liv Ullmann

Fig. 6. Menu from National Press Club address by Liv Ullmann, 1993

In addition to events like the citizenship ceremony and the Press Club address by Liv Ullmann, the file documents many other small and large events that took place across Canberra during Refugee Week. For example, these events in 1990 included poster displays, ‘ethnic musical group buskers’, a Refugee Week Mass at St Joseph’s Catholic Church in O’Connor, and dinners hosted by various refugee organisations.

Fig. 7. Refugee Week draft programme part A, 1990

Fig. 8. Refugee Week draft programme part B, 1990

This file shows the organisation and planning that went into marking Refugee Week, in coordination with dedicated NGO and volunteer groups. Like many government records, it is a transactional file from an official and organisational perspective, rather than documenting personal experiences. In this, it is a reminder of how government records are very often complemented by other research sources, such as personal accounts like memoirs, oral histories and personal papers, newspapers articles, and academic works.

Images

Figs. 1-3. Speech notes of Chief Minister Rosemary Follett. Territory Records Office (TRO) file 89/16417 – Social Justice Unit, Multicultural - Refugees

Fig. 4. UNHCR media release about Jack Thompson documentary, 1993. TRO 89/16417

Fig. 5. Austcare promotional materials for Refugee Week 1993 featuring Liv Ullmann. TRO 89/16417

Fig. 6. Menu from National Press Club address by Liv Ullmann, 1993. TRO 89/16417

Figs. 7-8. Refugee Week draft programme, 1990. TRO 89/16417

References

File 89/16417 – Social Justice Unit, Multicultural - Refugees

ACT Government ACT Wellbeing Framework – Culturally and Linguistically Diverse. https://www.act.gov.au/wellbeing/explore-wellbeing-of-specific-groups/culturally-and-linguistically-diverse, accessed 1 July 2004

Welcoming Cities. https://welcomingcities.org.au/what, accessed 1 July 2024

i Refugee Week. https://www.refugeeweek.org.au/about, accessed 1 July 2024

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