In the 6½ years I’ve been a sheep and goat farmer, I’ve learned heaps. One important fact I’ve learned is that crossbred animals are hardier than purebreds or full-bloods. I suppose it has to do with genetic diversity versus inbreeding. Which is germane because this week is Cultural Diversity Week. Or maybe not: According to the Victorian Government website it’s 15-21 March, but the Melbourne City Council website says CDW’s held annually between 17 and 23 March. The former is more likely because the Melbourne University website says the University’s CDW celebration will be 16-20 March. But the CDW dates on the Immigration Museum website and the YHA website agree with the Council’s. Whenever CDW actually is (or was), it’s limited to, and widely celebrated throughout, Victoria. It should be celebrated, because Australia is a mixing bowl of many indigenous and non-indigenous cultures, and our nation is all the better for it. Australian culture’s greater, richer, than the sum of the ingredient cultures. Or as the writers of this piece in last Wednesday’s Age write so eloquently, we are ‘One nation, many cultures’. I think it no accident that three quintessential immigrant nations – USA, Australia and Israel – possess the strongest and most vibrant democracies on earth. So CDW should be celebrated Australia-wide – not just in Victoria.
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