DANCING | Between the Years, 2024 Highlights
As 2024 draws to a close, we thank all our partners, clients and supporters for sharing the many highlights of the year with us. It’s been a year to consolidate our achievements, bring new people to our team, bring our insights and vision for global harmony to more of the world, and the joy and value of cultural expression wherever and in as many forms as we can. There are people who resist harmony and we thank them too, because as the great psychologist Carl Jung said, “What you resist persists.”
We wish you all a happy and safe festive season!
ATTENDING | Conferences! And Holi!
Our team presented at more conferences in 2024 than ever before – too many to name them all. Our CEO and Founder Peter Mousaferiadis presented at Big Data & AI World London to a standing-room only crowd, and a short while later delighted us with photos from Kathmandu, his face covered in paint, having arrived right in the middle of Holi to attend Salzburg Global Seminar Asia Peace Innovators Forum. Afterwards, Peter participated in the 6th World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue in Baku, Azerbaijan. Peter is now regularly called upon to share his views on AI around the world.
Meanwhile, our CTO Rezza Moieni participated in the Vietnam ESG Investor Conference 2024, our Marketing & Comms Coordinator Mario Chatzidamianos represented Diversity Atlas in the European Business Summit and Product Led Hub’s DEI Summit in Athens, Greece and the Diversity Atlas team attended the annual Tech Diversity Awards gala awards night in Melbourne, Australia, mapping the diversity of the audience and participants for the third consecutive year, this time with our Product Director Quincy Hall, Education and Experiences Team Leader Nicola Diomides and Data Scientist Nicole Lee.
In August, Rezza Moieni presented at Imagine: Nonprofit in Melbourne, Peter Mousaferiadis presented at the Diversity and Inclusion Summit in Perth. In October, we welcomed new team member Kasia Hayward as Diversity Atlas’s new Head of Culture, Innovation and Engagement, based in London, and threw her into the deep end with Mario Chatzidamianos presenting at Big Data & AI World London. Mario also presented Diversity Atlas at the Seventeenth International Conference on the Inclusive Museum in Vienna, while Diversity Atlas Strategic Advisor Diane Herz presented at the Worktech conference in Los Angeles.
In October, Transformation Consultant Wanah Bumakor presented Diversity Atlas at the UNESCO Chair on International Competences Conference in Nairobi, Diversity Atlas Business Development and Sales Head Eileen Lim and Tech Lead Abdolnabi Zameni represented us at the Digital Gateway to Southeast Asia Business Exchange in Kuala Lumpur and Chief Experience Officer Michael Walmsley and Eileen Lim represented us at the first APAC DEI Summit in Malaysia. In November, our Education & Experiences Program Coordinator Toby Mills and Cultural Educator Demetrius Mousaferiadis represented Cultural Infusion at the MLTAV Annual Languages Conference.
And 2025 will be even bigger!
PUBLISHING | New Writing
Peter Mousaferiadis was published in The Mandarin, Australia’s leading independent news platform for public sector leaders and executives with a 1.5 million-strong public sector readership, with his urgent response to the federal government’s Multicultural Framework Review and published a longer report independently. Peter wrote two other important articles for the blog: Holistic Data and Its Role in Undoing Racism and Democratised Datasets: Valuing People for Who They Are.
Peter also wrote up his presentation to Big Data & AI World in the post, Diversity in the Age of AI: Diversified We Grow, which is our most read post of the year, sparking conversations with its thought-provoking perspective on AI and culture. Peter closed the year with a post to coincide with the International Day of Neutrality: Justice, Fortune and Creating Space of the Other – What Would the Sages Say? and there’s a post about colourism in the pipeline. Rezza Moieni wrote compellingly about cyber security in his post Cyber Security Champions: Three Years of ISO/IEC 27001 Certification at Diversity Atlas.
REPORTING | New Presenters and Programs
Demetrius offered popular workshops for Greek dance, while we got a great response to Barkindji Educator Djarrin’s new touring program for New South Wales.
Two other new programs that were taken up warmly were Yalla! Arab Dance & Culture and Colombian-Caribbean Rhythms and Culture.
EMBEDDING | Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Connections
Stolen Generations Elder Aunty Gabby led many sessions this year on Embedding Aboriginal Perspectives in the Classroom and in corporate spaces. Peter Mousaferiadis with Uncle Paul and Aunty Gabby facilitated a series of workshops exploring identity with Western Health in Melton on the western outskirts of Melbourne.
NAIDOC Week, the annual celebration of the histories, cultures and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, continued to be one of our busiest weeks of the year and saw people of all ages meaningfully engage and learn with workshops on didgeridoo, storytelling through art and more.
CELEBRATING | Harmony Week
Harmony Week is one of our busiest weeks of the year. We delivered more than 100 cultural incursions to more than 90 educational and community organisations across Australia, reaching thousands of people. We recognise the history of this week, which coincides with the commemoration of the 21 March 1960 Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa and the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. We don’t take Australia’s relative peace and harmony for granted and believe such events help sustain it.
It is not too early to book for Harmony Week 2025. Book early to avoid missing out!
LAUNCHING | Learning Lands Gift
This year, we launched an initiative to give everyone who books a program with us three months’ free access to our Learning Lands suite of constantly updated intercultural education resources, comprising internationally award-winning apps, games and activities that integrate the arts, music, geography, history and Indigenous perspectives to put students at the forefront in intercultural competency. We have been delighted by the enthusiastic response to this offer and are pleased to continue it into 2025.
REPORTING | Diversity Atlas
Certification and Health Check
We launched a new certification program and were delighted to award our first certificate to Melbourne City Mission (MCM) in recognition of their outstanding commitment to diversity, inclusion and wellbeing in their workplace. The survey revealed (among other things) that the MCM workforce comes from at least 33 countries of birth, speaks 77 languages and dialects, and identified 91 ancestral groups.
We produced a free Diversity, Equity & Inclusion healthcheck for anyone wishing to identify diversity data gaps in their organisation.
Anti-Racism
Cultural Infusion’s mission to build cultural harmony and intercultural understanding has meant a strong investment over years in anti-racist strategies and thought, and while developing our diversity data analytics tool, Diversity Atlas, which importantly avoids categorising people by “race”. This is an anti-racist strategy.
In 2023, we contributed to the United Nations Human Rights office of the High Commissioner Draft General Recommendation no 37 on racial discrimination in the enjoyment of the right to health, and in 2024, we were delighted to welcome leading race theorist Dr Sheena Mason to the Diversity Atlas advisory board.
Membership
And finally, Diversity Atlas launched a membership program! Sustainable change begins with informed action.
This membership program is for people who want the right support, ethical tools and fully inclusive community to navigate our complex and rapidly changing world.
Come aboard!
LOOKING | Forward to 2025:
Launch of New School Packages
Cultural Infusion is launching comprehensive school packages to promote intercultural understanding, including:
- Engaging workshops and performances
- Digital tools including our data-analytics tool - Diversity Atlas
- Live professional development sessions
- Teacher resources
And more!
Our packages are curriculum aligned and tailored to your needs.
Pak Sumardi’s Programs – Book Early to Avoid Missing Out!
We are excited to remind you of the return of Indonesian Master Storyteller Pak Sumardi to Australia to present puppet theatre and insights into Indonesian culture and these renowned ancient storytelling forms to schools, preschools and community groups around Australia, including Wayang Kancil, Wayang Golek and Wayang Kulit. These are already booking fast. Book early to avoid missing out!
HIGHLIGHTING | Calendar Spotlight: Lunar New Year, 29 January 2025
Lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, has been celebrated in many countries for thousands of years, particularly China, Korea, Indonesia and Vietnam. The New Year celebration involves removing the bad and the old, and welcoming the new and the good. It’s a time to worship ancestors and pray for good harvest. Lion dance, dragon dance, temple fairs and flower market shopping and just a few of the rich and colourful traditions. Families will redecorate their houses with red couplets, lanterns, new flowerpots and furniture, and will shop for foodstuffs for banquet specialities.
To honour the essence of this festival, we have many immersive programs to help you celebrate Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean cultures:
- Chinese Lion Dance (VIC, QLD, NSW, ACT, WA)
- Chinese Martial Arts (VIC, QLD, NSW, ACT, WA)
- Chinese Calligraphy & Brush Ink Painting (NSW)
- Chinese Classical Dance (VIC, NSW, SA, WA)
- Chinese Classical Music (VIC, NSW, SA)
- Chinese Drumming (VIC, QLD, NSW)
- Chinese Fan Painting (NSW)
- Chinese Culture for Day (VIC, NSW)
- Chinese-Korean Ethnic Dance (VIC)
- Korean (K-pop) Dance (NSW)
- Korean Classical Dance (NSW, VIC)
- Vietnamese Classical Music (NSW)
- Vietnamese Classical Dance (VIC, QLD)
MORE:
Cultural Infusion (CUIN)Address: Suite 2, 273-277 Wellington Street, Collingwood, VIC 3066
Cultural Infusion respectfully acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land, the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation and pays respect to their Elders, past and present and future custodians In continuation of cultural, spiritual and educational practises of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples throughout Australia.