First Intercultural Strategy endorsed

At its 12 December 2023 meeting, Council reaffirmed its commitment to our city's growing diversity by endorsing our City's first Intercultural Maribyrnong Strategy 2023-2026.

The City of Maribyrnong has one of Victoria's most culturally diverse communities and is forecast to become one of the most populous. The endorsed Strategy and Action Plan seek to build on the existing solid foundations of multiculturalism to grow a socially cohesive municipality.

You can view the Council report and recommendations, which includes the engagement report, on our website, or the endorsed Intercultural Maribyrnong Strategy.

Between August to October 2023, we asked our community for ideas on what Council can do to ensure everyone feels safe, included, and empowered in the municipality, recognising that there is a role for the community also in this.

As part of this engagement, we asked residents to consider the proposed actions in the draft Intercultural Strategy and share ideas on how we might bring them to life.

Thank you to all those who participated. We spoke with approximately 650 community members in person at nine face-to-face events and received nearly 250 contributions on Your City Your Voice, including a survey (both online and via hard copy postcards distributed in the Spring issue of Maribyrnong Messenger).

Some of the things we heard that are important to our community included a desire for:

• safe spaces
• community programs
• community-wide events
• opportunities for cultural expression
• promotion and representation
• training and education
• street appearance
• advocacy initiatives.

You can read more in the 2023 Engagement Summary Report.

In 2017, Council shifted its focus from multiculturalism to interculturalism to begin work on its first intercultural strategy. Feedback was sought from a Think Tank Round Table event attended by 50 people, and an online survey on Your City Your Voice.

In 2020, we hosted a series of stakeholder workshops, which included internal staff meetings and online stakeholder workshops, attended by around 50 people.

The focus of this engagement was on understanding early aspirations for an intercultural city, how Council could achieve this, and to help review themes to support the development of the draft Strategy.

Maribyrnong prides itself on being one of the most diverse communities in Victoria - 60% of residents who responded to a survey in 2018 believed it makes life better.

Maribyrnong has also long been recognised as a multicultural city - one with multiple nationalities, languages, and beliefs. Building on this, our vision for an intercultural city is one that also has the tools to:

• manage diversity and cultural conflict
• recognise and reconcile with First Peoples
• promote greater interaction between community groups.

In intercultural cities, most citizens regard diversity as a resource and accept all cultures change as they encounter each other in the public arena. See what our community values about cultural diversity in the video at the top of this page.

In the Council Plan 2017-2021, Council committed to facilitating the development of our municipality as an ‘intercultural city’ that promotes inclusivity and diversity.

In late 2018, Council signed up for a three-year membership to the Council of Europe’s Intercultural Cities Programme - one of 145 cities to become members. Other Australian members of the network included the City of Ballarat and the City of Melton.

Under the programme, member cities are tasked with setting up an intercultural support group to review their urban policies from an intercultural perspective and to integrate them into a comprehensive strategy.

Building on Council's membership through the Intercultural Cities Programme between 2018-2022, Council is continuing to deliver on its commitment to diversity and inclusion by developing an Intercultural Maribyrnong Strategy - the first for our municipality.

As part of this journey, in 2019, Council also teamed up with Ballarat and Melton city councils to host the Intercultural Cities Australasia Summit resulting in the 'Taking it to the Streets' event.