Over 800,000 refugees and displaced persons have settled in Australia since 1945. The success of refugee settlement on Queensland’s Darling Downs has been hailed as an example for councils around the country as refugees are helping building the cultural fabric of regional communities.
This year’s Refugee Week theme is ‘Healing’. It raises awareness of the issues affecting refugees and promotes harmony and togetherness. The importance of human connections has been underscored by the pandemic and such lessons can help us in so many ways. Mainstream and refugee communities alike can draw upon shared hardship to heal wounds, to learn from each other and to move forward. Healing can occur through storytelling, through community and also through realisation of our intrinsic interconnectedness as individuals.