Multicultural Mosaic Conference

The School of Education at the University of Newcastle hosted the 2003 Multicultural Mosaic Conference. The conference provided a forum on the value of multicultural texts, particularly in educational settings. The theme of the conference "Don’t Judge a Book by its Colour" acknowledged the perceived impediments for the inclusion of multicultural texts in learning environments. The conference aimed to alleviate such a paralysis by breaching the discourse between researchers, teachers and authors in an effort to promote texts as effective tools for enhancing awareness of multicultural perspectives and combating prejudice in all its forms.

Featured presentations included:

• Multicultural Literature: Foundations, Fashions and Futures, Wendy Amosa (University of Newcastle);
• Making and Mooting Australian Mosaic, Sonia Mycak (University of Sydney) and Wendy Amosa (University of Newcastle).
• Multiliteracies – Creating Inclusive Practice for All, Coral Cara (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) and Kaye Widdowson (Equal Opportunity Resource Centre);
• Social Engineering through Literature, Doug Absalom (University of Newcastle);
• Use of Literature / texts from non Anglo-Saxon composer, Larry Grumley (Catherine McCauley High School);
• Critical Literacy in a Multicultural Context: The Importance of Cultural Awareness in Classroom Textual Practice, Rachel Burke (University of Technology, Queensland);

The conference ended with an open forum on promotion of the use of culturally diverse texts in educational settings, and was supported by a University Research Grant, in conjunction with the Newcastle University Postgraduate Students’ Association (NUPSA).