Sport uniting cultures – Harmony Day 21 March 2013
‘Everyone belongs’, ‘Many Stories – One Australia.’ These are the messages for this year’s Harmony Day, a day of cultural respect. Out of the two messages, certainly the latter is most evident. Australia has grown from its unique indigenous roots to become one of the most diverse nations in the world, sitting at number 2 in multiculturalism behind Luxembourg. There are, without doubt many thousands of different stories to celebrate this year from indigenous tales through to yarns from Australians whose origins began in all regions of the globe. But belonging? With such an eclectic population how can so many different communities and cultures in Australia join together to create an identity and sense of belonging? One way that has shown repeated success is sport.
Australia has an interesting attitude to identity. As a migrant you are not expected to forget where you came from, or your rich cultural heritage but instead, bring it to the table, share it and unite it with all the freedoms and opportunities and delights that being Australian has to offer. The result is a fascinating mix of old and new, with the intention of keeping the best of both and celebrating them all with gusto.
Hence, a diverse mix of cultures intertwined with the quintessential Australian way of life, are held in high esteem. But how do migrants actually become part of their new community? How do they integrate their old culture with this new ‘way’ and achieve that sense of belonging? Sport is a tried and tested vehicle which passes its road test time and time again.
Why? Why can sport succeed where other means fail at the first hump? It may be to do with what sport represents. Intrinsically sport has a goal that everyone involved in the sport is striving for. It is a common aim that everyone understands. Already a sense of belonging has begun.
To achieve the goal, whether it be scoring a basket, swimming 50m, dancing in time to the rhythm, involves effort, teamwork, motivation, and focus to name a few. Sport allows an individual to experience competition, success and failure, elation and tears in an environment which has safe parameters. It can evoke passion, expression, inspiration, discipline, motivation and confidence, attributes which then overflow into other areas of an individual’s life. Just to play can give a sense of worth, and a sense of being part of something, a belonging.
When you make eye contact with your team mate as you make them a good pass, or hold out your hand as you help them out of the pool, or cheer for a fellow dancer, you have started a communication, a relationship. And communications and relationships form a cornerstone of culture. Thus sport has unwittingly brought people together.
There are so many examples of sport breaking down cultural barriers that it is hard to do it justice. To mention the London Olympics to many is to evoke a knowing, a pride, a faraway look, an unforgettable memory. Such a Games, unites the world in sport, dissolving cultural barriers and focusing on the brilliance of human determination, spirit and endeavour.
More locally in Australia, there are masses of everyday positive moments of sport and culture linking arms. One such example is The Huddle established in 2009 by North Melbourne FC with the support of the Scanlon Foundation in partnership with the Australian Multicultural Foundation which won the 2013 Sports Leadership Award this week. Part of their outstanding work is promoting multiculturalism and providing pathways through sport for migrants to integrate into the community. There are many, many other such stories.
The impact of sport on uniting cultures is further exemplified by a number of videos available on the Australian Sports Commissions website. Well worth a viewing. It is hard to capture such impact in text alone but here are a few anecdotes from some of the videos and an example of one such video:
Junior Soccer Team breaks through cultural Barriers
‘They learn teamwork and the values of Australia (by playing with the club). They learn about the different cultural backgrounds (of other players)’
‘First of all the club has to be a welcoming environment. Having community barbeques where different parents can meet each other works really well.’
Lifesaving Victoria
‘By having guys such as Vishal and Joseph come down and be involved they are really ambassadors for their communities in terms of learning the skills they need to not get in trouble themselves and to get others out of trouble.’
Sudanese Basketball Carnival
‘Australia is really multicultural. I think sport and basketball in particular brings a lot of people together and you don’t really think about anything else than the sport and everyone is still the same on that court so you forget about all your problems’
‘It’s really hard back there in our country. Girls are not allowed to play any sport, because they are girls. But here because we come to Australia we can play so it’s a free country’
Southern Tasmanian Badminton Association – Sport bridging cultural divides
‘Badminton is like a language. You know, we talk languages but this bridges languages, it bridges cultural divides.’
‘This sport has given me an opportunity to know many friends and also many other cultures’
‘It makes me more confident to talk to other people – to locals’
‘When they are playing and improving they are getting better technically. They are getting better mentally and they think to themselves if I can do far better than I’ve ever done on the badminton court why can’t I do it in other aspects of my life.
Midnight Basketball
‘I think it just helps integrate the young people from diverse cultural backgrounds into the area and gets them accustomed to some of our cultures here and the way we run day to day.’
‘When I arrived in Australia it was really cold. It was really different from Africa because Africa is really hot. In Africa they have a lot of war and criminals there’
‘Some of these guys have come from pretty hard sorts of backgrounds so something like this.helps them fit in that little bit easier and breaks down a lot of barriers I guess.’
‘It makes it a lot of fun and I think that’s the best way they can join into the community’
‘It is helping me a lot… learning how to make new friends and meeting people from different countries. Yes it is helping me a lot’
AFL Multicultural Camp – 25 nationalities
‘Look our game welcomes everybody. It doesn’t matter what colour, what race, what religion,what denomination or what your background is. Once you get involved in AFL football you’re equal.’
‘To be more involved in the community. To sort of make more friends and to sort of fit into the Australian way of life because some refugees who come to Australia it’s kind of hard for them to fit in.’
‘I think fundamentally the opportunity is to first of all to feel part of the community that you are living in and that this is a game that particularly in the southern parts of Australia that really is embedded in the culture of every community. Therefore it offers migrants and new communities a great avenue to actually meet people and feel that they are part of the great country we live in.’
Bowls Australia – Bringing Diverse Cultures Together
The harmonious power of sport.