With a long recorded history dating back to at least the 1850s Gold Rush period, researchers claim Buddhism is Australia’s second largest migrated religion.
Yet the life stories of prominent Buddhists in Australia have remained largely undocumented until now. Buddhist leaders and community members in Australia felt there was an urgent need to record these stories, to preserve them for future generations and to share with a wider audience.Dr Anna Halafoff, Dr Edwin Ng, Praveena Rajkobal and Jayne Garrod, researchers from Deakin University, responded to this call in partnership with the national and state Buddhist Councils of Australia and filmmaker Freeman Trebilcock.
With the assistance of the Research My World program, the crowd funding joint venture between Deakin University and Pozible.com, $10,000 was raised to begin to record these stories and increase understanding and awareness of Buddhism in Australia.
This website, built by Jayne Garrod in consultation with Dr Halafoff, provides free access to interviews with prominent Australian Buddhist leaders from diverse traditions. It is an educational tool for communities, schools and universities. It is the first stage of a larger long-term research project on Buddhism in Australia, and more videos will be added over time. The researchers are now in the process of analysing the interviews and will provide links to their research publications when they become available.
Additional funds will be raised as needed to continue their work on this project, in partnership with Australia’s Buddhist communities.
Watch the 5min teaser here.
Website also includes extended interviews with featured individuals.
MORE:
Deakin University Research Team (Buddhist Life Stories of Australia)
Website: http://buddhiststoriesaus.net/contact/