Students from Catholic school Emmaus College Melbourne discuss the things they learnt and benefits they found from visiting the Islamic Museum of Australia, including dissolving social barriers and creating intercultural harmony.
Transcript:
[Sherene Hassan OAM]: The most important thing that we can teach our children is how to get along with people that are different from ourselves.My name is Sherene Hassan. I’m the Education Director at the Islamic Museum of Australia.
The key objective of the Islamic Museum is to encourage our visitors to view Islam through the lens of art and heritage and culture. But it’s also really significant for Australian Muslims as well, for them to understand the connection that we have to this nation. Students discover that Muslims’ arrival in Australia pre-dates white settlement, and they also have an understanding about the contributions that Muslims made in the 1800s — in particular, creating this wonderful nation.
For example, they built railway tracks, telegraph lines and transporter supplies wide across Australia. They found valuable water supplies with the help of Indigenous elders. And we’re really proud to share these stories.
[Zoe Wood]: One of the best parts of coming to IMA in Melbourne is our students actually get to speak to and hear from people of the faith. It’s such an incredible exhibition for our students to learn all about Islam in Australia, which develops a great understanding, appreciation, tolerance, which is really important. [Student 1]: I really liked the kaleidoscope because you got to see all the really cool patterns and all the different sort of art in Islamic culture. [Student 2]: The most interesting thing we learned was probably to see how close and similar the both religions are, by that, I mean Christianity to Muslim. [Student 3]: I think the thing that most stood out to me was how there’s so much intertwined in our culture. Australia is a very multicultural and accepting place for the most part, and I think that we need to embody those values. [Student 4]: I would absolutely recommend other schools to come here because I feel like it dissolves a lot of social barriers, things that we even unconsciously or consciously have. [Sherene Hassan OAM]: So, the museum provides an opportunity for students and from people from all walks of life to understand more about Islam, to foster a greater understanding. Just speaking to one another and sharing each of the stories, I think is a nice, powerful way. They’re our future leaders, so it’s a great opportunity.The Islamic Museum of Australia highlights the artistic and cultural heritage of Muslims in Australia, fostering greater intercultural harmony in our communities.
Learn more about the Australian values.
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