Teaching Heritage - Investigating Multicultural Heritage

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	Exploring values is central to investigating multicultural heritage. When we discuss multicultural heritage are we talking about values ascribed by heritage practitioners – and applied through assessments of significance – or are we focusing on shared values in the community towards aspects of Australian culture and environment?

	Or, are practices in relation to multicultural heritage a meeting ground for both perspectives?


	Teachers In building units of work for classroom use with these questions and resources, you may like to consult the NSW History and Geography Stages 4-5 syllabus outcomes: History Outcomes - Stage 4 History Outcomes - Stage 5 History Values and Attitudes Geography Outcomes - Stage 4 Geography Outcomes - Stage 5 Geography Values and Attitudes For help with designing classroom assessment activities to help gauge whether these outcomes are being achieved, you may like to consult the History Planning Assessment Guidelines History Course Performance Descriptors Geography Planning Assessment Guidelines Geography Draft Course Performance Descriptors

In Investigating multicultural heritage, the meanings of heritage held by groups and individuals from varying cultural backgrounds act as a starting point for students to identify the values of others and to clarify their own values. The objective is one of working towards an appreciation of the diverse cultural values and shared heritage of all Australians.

In 1996, the Australian Heritage Commission (AHC) commenced a pilot project to assist migrant communities to identify and conserve their heritage places. Oral histories are a feature of the AHC migrant heritage project. Information gathered from interviews is used to identify important places. One group involved in this project was the Maltese community of Blacktown, Sydney. An area of significance to this group was Wooloomooloo, Sydney – a suburb where many Maltese families first lived and worked when they arrived in Australia after World War II.

Maltese and other ethnic groups would fish from the wharves in a harbour holding "every kind of fish". Today, a block of flats is being built in the Domain beside Wooloomooloo Bay – and the landscape of this area is changing dramatically.

In New South Wales, the Migrant Heritage Community Consultation Program is conducting workshops to find out the most effective ways for people from non-English speaking backgrounds to identify and assess heritage items from their own cultural perspectives. One strategy is to give workshop participants a camera and invite them to spend an hour or two photographing the sites and items of importance to their communities.

Helen Armstrong gives an insight into migrant communities and attachment to place:

The process of migration has resulted in particular ways of place making which can be interpreted in the cultural landscape. Some places created by migrant communities are vibrant and exotic. Other places are known only to migrant groups themselves and are not easily identified by outsiders. These are places in the cultural landscape of Australia which are rich with meaning. Such places are part of the cultural heritage of Australia.

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Heritage can offer a pathway to reconciliation with indigenous and migrant communities. While the distinct and meaningful in Australia’s blend of cultures remains a focus, community identification of heritage can inscribe a sense of the communal and this can cross cultural boundaries. Geraldine O’Brien writes: "It [heritage] can be unique to an individual – a personal momento that may look like a piece of junk to anyone else – but I think in its broader sense it is something we all share. And it crosses cultural boundaries."

Reconciliation is a way of unravelling the prejudices and injustices that can erupt in response to cultural difference. Heritage practices that integrate cultural perspectives support the preservation of cultural practices – an inheritance that is most often linked to places of importance.