“So what are ya?”, “Where you from?”,
I’ve been asked these questions and hundreds of similar iterations since I can remember.

My father is from Egypt and my mother is ethnically Chinese, born in Malaysia. They met at University of New England in Australia in the 70s before settling in Melbourne. Like most migrants at that time, they experienced racism on a daily basis. Growing up, they used to tell me how lucky I was that I didn’t have to experience the name-calling, the discrimination or stereotyping that they did. I think part of my luck was because people can’t easily stereotype me – I mean it’s pretty hard to find a negative depiction of a Chinese-Malaysian/Egyptian person in the media!

My mum used to tell me how she once heard two ladies debating on a plane for over 2 hours trying to guess the ethnicity of her kids. Over the years, I’ve had many people try and guess my background with the most common guesses being Chilean or Filipino and the most interesting being Inuit! While people have always asked me where I was from, it has mostly been out of genuine curiosity and their responses have been overwhelmingly positive. But these questions have always made me think about how I fit in to this place…

Melbourne is an eclectic tapestry of people and cultures. It is home to people who hail from 180 different nations, who speak over 233 languages and dialects and who follow 116 different religious faiths.

And like most other modern, urban cities, we have hybrid identities and create communities that don’t just relate to our particular ethnic, cultural or religious background but also to our jobs, our interests, our politics, our friends and our local milieu. While difference is often (mis)perceived to be a source of fear and conflict, I have always believed that there is so much more in our shared humanity that binds us than divides us.

For the past three years, I have been invited by Multicultural Arts Victoria to be a ‘cultural ambassador’ for the Melbourne Festival.

For me, the cultural ambassador program has not just been about building connections between people from diverse cultural communities to the Melbourne Festival, but also about trying to draw from the program an expanded sense of ourselves.

From Tanderrum, the spectacular welcome to country which brought together Elders of the five Kulin Nations for a ceremony that celebrated 40,000 years of our Indigenous heritage to Belarus Free Theatre, a company in exile which travels the world to stage their revolution against the dictatorial regime in Belarus, it has been heartening to see the Melbourne Festival program more diverse local and international artists that not only reflect Melbourne’s multicultural, multifaceted identities but that also challenge us about important social issues and on what it means to be human.

It is very easy to be disconnected from issues that do not affect our circle of family and friends but the power of the arts can bring someone’s story to life in a way that enables us to relate to that person on a viscerally human level, regardless of how different their life may be to our own.

The arts are critical to the health of a city. They can be the thread that interweaves our communities together. We all have a human right to participate in the cultural life of the community and to access and enjoy the arts. There’s a very good reason for this. The arts are symptomatic of our humanity. The arts can both create and reflect our sense of place, our sense of identity and our sense of being.

I’ve felt incredibly privileged over the years to interview so many of the artists including Archie Roach, Tom E. Lewis, Pedro Reyes, Quique Neira, Nilaja Sun and Emmanual Jal on Right Now Radio, a human rights focused radio show on Triple R, and also to share the Melbourne Festival with my networks.

The cultural ambassador program has been a great opportunity to really feel part of Melbourne’s premier arts festival.

As a Melbourne-born, half-Egyptian, half-Chinese-Malayasian, West African dancing, human rights and arts promoting, lawyer I can definitely say that it’s not hard to feel at home in this city!

Evelyn is the chairperson of the Human Rights Arts and Film Festival (HRAFF), which she co-founded in 2007. Now in its 7th year, its aim is to use creative media to make human rights relevant, accessible and engaging to everyone. She is also a lawyer, a presenter of Right Now Radio, a human rights focused program on Triple R, and regularly dances with West African drum and dance troupe Wassawumba.

Image below: TANDERRUM, credit Sarah Walker