Celebrating 10 Years of Welcoming

April 20, 2011 marks Welcoming Australia’s media launch and official date of birth.

The journey began in response to a prevailing political and media narrative that was training Australians to fear their neighbour. We were determined to cultivate a culture of welcome by calling out the best in Australians rather than appealing to their worst and creating opportunities to offer personal and practical acts of welcome.

As a practice, welcoming is far more than how we greet people at the front door. Welcoming is about how we value, engage and interact with the people around us. Welcoming poses the question ‘whom do we want to be?’ and provides the answer to how we might get there.

To mark our 10th Birthday, we have developed a publication which features some of our key milestones from the past decade. The timeline is a roller coaster of profound loss, dehumanisation, mobilisation, determination, innovation and a lot of work by a lot of people committed to creating communities where everyone can belong.

The growth and scope of Welcoming Australia is testament to the generosity of people and communities across this country; and, we could never satisfactorily begin to capture every person, moment, tear, joy, fear, frustration, or accomplishment.

Thank you to everyone who has journeyed with us this far. As we acknowledge the past and look to the future, we have a profound opportunity to work towards ‘welcoming Australia’ being less an aspiration and more a reality.

To download the publication and view the timeline, visit: www.welcoming.org.au/10Years

Below are some of the images from our 10 Year Gala Dinner at Adelaide Town Hall, on 23 April 2021.