What is the purpose of this website?

This site was established to assist teachers find quality resources on multiculturalism and explore new strategies to promote cultural diversity and tolerance.

Australia has always been culturally diverse. Before European settlement, it is estimated that there were 700 different Indigenous cultural groups speaking some 250 different languages. When the First Fleet arrived in Sydney in 1788, there were estimated to be about 60 different nationalities among the crew and convicts. Since then, extensive immigration from countries and cultures from around the world have extended the cultural and linguistic diversity of Australia’s population making it one of the most diverse populations in the world today.

Making Multicultural Australia is a website which aims to assist young people of upper primary and high school age, their parents, the teachers and the wider community explore our cultural diversity. It provides information on the contributions that different cultural groups have made to the development of Australian society and on the various views towards immigration and multiculturalism that have historically influenced government policies and programs and transformed the Australian population.

The website brings together resources from the highly acclaimed triple CD-rom package of the same name and new resources and activities to support NSW syllabuses and a variety of curricula across Australia. The website has been jointly developed by the NSW Department of Education and Training and the Office of the Board of Studies NSW with assistance from Dr Andrew Jakubowicz, Professor of Sociology at the University of Technology Sydney.

A generation of students growing up in the 21st century is daily confronted with issues of cultural diversity, conflict and tolerance. These educational resources will help bring these issues into the classroom in a structured way, actively informing and promoting community harmony amongst young people.