Australia's National Local Government Newspaper Online

WA Council helps students explore local cultures

This year around 500 young West Australians have explored the cultures and languages in their area thanks to an innovative Local Government project. Kwinana Town Council, located 40 kilometres from Perth and home to around 21,000 people, partnered with seven schools to run a workshop program to tackle local racism and celebrate the cultural diversity within the Council's boundaries.

Using Living in Harmony funds from the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, a local arts group and the schools teamed with the Council to use theatre techniques to involve students in trust building and other exercises. The project also incorporated an education resource for Years 4 - 7 classes.

The Racism Education Kit offers teachers 11 simple but effective learning strategies to help students recognise racist and bullying behaviours, explore the backgrounds of classmates and design harmony symbols.

And the impact?

Council reporting shows younger students said they were now more trusting of others, older students felt more confident in stepping in to help others and schools noted a significant change in the general playground atmosphere.

Kwinana recently received national recognition at the 2006 National Awards for Local Government.

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