Kimberley Chu leads a panel of guests including City of Greater Shepparton Mayor Shane Sali, WIN News Shepparton journalist Seja Al-Zaidi, domestic violence survivor and advocate Lutfiye Kavci and former GOTAFE English student Jamal Atmanzai.
Photo by
Bree Harding
Several cultures came together during Harmony Week to embrace and celebrate Greater Shepparton’s diverse community.
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The Ethnic Council of Shepparton and District held a forum on April 3 in the city’s GOTAFE auditorium that featured a panel of local guests sharing their stories, views and ideas for the future of multiculturalism in the region.
Ethnic Council board member Kimberley Chu, of Hong Kong-Chinese heritage, welcomed the audience and introduced Victorian Multicultural Commission deputy chair and GOTAFE board member Bwe Thay.
Mr Thay told the crowd there were more than 200 students, who spoke more than 80 different languages, in GOTAFE’s English classes.
Victorian Multicultural Commission deputy chair Bwe Thay addresses the audience before the panel of speakers was welcomed to the stage.
Photo by
Bree Harding
He said he came to Australia 15 years ago as a refugee and now introduced himself as “a proud Australian with Burmese heritage”.
“I am proud of my Australian identity,” Mr Thay said.
“It’s fantastic to witness communities embracing what Australia and GOTAFE has to offer in this region.”
Ethnic Council vice president and Victoria Police multicultural liaison officer for Greater Shepparton Leigh Johnson then spoke of coming to Australia from New Zealand in the 1970s.
He is the only multicultural liaison officer in Victoria outside metropolitan Melbourne and Geelong.
Ethnic Council of Shepparton and District vice president and Victoria Police multicultural liaison officer for Greater Shepparton Leigh Johnson entertains the crowd with a speech about his involvement with multiculturalism.
Photo by
Bree Harding
He has been in the role for four years and said it was the best job in the world, joking it was because he got to enjoy eating the foods of every culture represented.
“I love how Australia is so accepting of all people,” Mr Johnson said.
Ms Chu then invited guests WIN News Shepparton journalist Seja Al-Zaidi, domestic violence survivor and advocate Lutfiye Kavci, former GOTAFE English student Jamal Atmanzai and City of Greater Shepparton Mayor Shane Sali on to the stage for a Q&A panel she chaired.
Harmony Week 2025’s theme is ‘Harmony — we all have a role to play’.
Cr Sali echoed the sentiment, saying it was impossible for one organisation to support all cultures and all languages from different cultural and community groups, so it required a collective effort to bring people together and get messages across to everyone, noting the 2022 flood forums as an example.
Cr Sali, who has Albanian heritage after his grandparents migrated to Australia almost 100 years ago, said 30 different nationalities called Greater Shepparton home.
He said he was proud of the city’s multicultural inclusion, particularly because one of the leading causes of disease was isolation.
“Shepparton has brought people together to share and celebrate our cultures,” Cr Sali said.
He urged all immigrants to “be very proud of where you come from and share your culture with those around you”.
“Don’t hide who you are. Understand you’re in a beautiful country who will be proud to share in it with you,” he said.
Ms Chu asked the panel members what they believed was key to inclusion and what the biggest barriers for their cultural groups in the area were.
Ms Kavci said it was important to stay open-minded and explore everyone else’s culture in the area.
She said her family’s biggest challenge had been language.
“I remember as a child being taken everywhere with my parents and other family to appointments and other places to translate for them,” Ms Kavci said.
Mr Atmanzai agreed.
“I think language is the biggest challenge for every community,” he said.
He said that was part of the territory coming into a “different culture, different language and different people”, and recalled with humour copping a $90 traffic infringement shortly after arriving in Australia for stopping his car in a no-stopping zone.
He needed his GOTAFE teacher to explain the reason for it to him.
“GOTAFE is the best place for learning and education,” Mr Atmanzai said.
“My wife and our five kids found peace in Australia; they are lovely people, Australian people.”
Ms Al-Zaidi said she didn’t agree with the notion that children were born free of prejudice.
Instead, she said people naturally approached what was different to them with fear and trepidation, and that bringing cultures together to learn and embrace each other’s differences was key to multicultural harmony.
“We need to cultivate love and connection, that’s what it all boils down to,” she said.
“To connect as humans is the most natural thing in the world.”
Greater Shepparton recently celebrated its annual Italian Festa and is looking ahead to the Albanian Harvest Festival on Sunday, April 6, followed by Converge on the Goulburn on Saturday, April 12.
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