Integrated Cultures ACT Inc.

Integrated Cultures ACT Inc. brings different cultures into an interaction that allows them to adjust their personal norms to accommodate others’ norms and in the process deal effectively with the tensions of cross-cultural interaction and develop a harmony that allows for better understanding, inter-mixing of races and cultures. It allows for expressions of that harmony to occur through the medium of the arts, social engagements, exchange of ideas on issues of common concern and, through a variety of interactions between and amongst the different people that compose Australia.

The association was formed with the aim of fulfilling what its name denotes namely the integration of cultures. Australia is a multicultural society where a variety of cultures, ethnicities, races and, generally, people live together in harmony. But, do these cultures, ethnicities, etc. simply live together or live side-by-side or, do they absorb cultural norms, practices, beliefs and mutate into one cultural identity?

Integration is a lot more than insertion into a community. Foreigners migrate into Australia and begin life on this continent. They interact and interrelate with their own kind and also with others. And, yet, they maintain their cultural identities such that beyond a certain point in their social and cultural interactions, they remain isolated within the perimeters of their own kind. This feature of multiculturalism has made Australia so much the richer for its strength lies in the contributions made by each culture, ethnicity, race or social group that brings its own perspectives, experiences, social practices and other aspects to a melting pot of immigrants that is Australia.