Beyond the obvious appeal of the food, fun and fanfare of Beaumont Street’s annual Carnivale lies the more serious message of celebrating cultural diversity.
With the resurgence of right-wing jingoism around the world, it’s hard to think of another time when that message has been more necessary.
Statistically, Newcastle doesn’t rate highly on the cultural diversity scale.
2011 census figures indicate that less than eight percent of the Newcastle council area’s population come from a non-English speaking background, compared to more than 18 percent for the whole of NSW.
Fewer than 13 percent were born outside of Australia, compared to more than 25 percent for the state.
However, the figures also suggest that the city’s cultural diversity is increasing.
The 2011 ABS statistics indicate that, of those who were living in Newcastle but were born overseas, 25 percent came to Newcastle between 2006 and 2011.
Historically, outside Newcastle’s dominant white Anglo-Celtic population, immigrants of European origin have provided the basis for whatever modest claim to ethnic diversity our city has had.
The legacy of Italian and Greek families who came to Newcastle during the 1950s and 60s is still obvious in Hamilton.
More recently, our cultural diversity has been boosted by the arrival of Asian, Middle Eastern, and African people, particularly – though not solely - through the number and mix of overseas students studying at the University of Newcastle.
Suburbs around the University (such as Jesmond and Birmingham Gardens) have emerged as the city’s most culturally diverse communities.
All this and more can be gleaned from Newcastle Council’s Community Profile, available on the council’s website.
While Newcastle might not be able to mix it statistically with the multicultural heavyweights, it’s held its own in supporting cultural diversity.
In 1997, when Pauline Hanson picked Newcastle’s Civic Theatre as the venue to launch One Nation in NSW, local citizens who were outraged at her message of ethnic intolerance organised a counter-event to celebrate cultural diversity in nearby Civic Park.
The thousands who attended this celebration easily outnumbered those who turned up to support Hanson, and the Cultural Stomp became an annual event.
Two years later, when Hanson contested the federal seat of Newcastle, Novocastrians again sent her packing, despite massive publicity for her campaign in the local and national media.
In 2004, a neo-fascist group’s attempt to incite race-hatred in and around Islington (primarily directed against African refuges) backfired badly when local communities rallied to emphatically affirm Newcastle’s support for multiculturalism, resulting in the council formally declaring the city a Refugee Welcome Town.
More recently, in response to the rise of yet another incarnation of right-wing nationalism in the form of the so-called “Reclaim Australia movement”, local groups such as the Refugee Action Network (RAN) have organised well-attended “Unity in Diversity” days that have attracted a wide cross-section of the Newcastle community.
In 2015, Newcastle Council reaffirmed Newcastle as a Refugee Welcome Zone, and developed a Multicultural Plan that aimed to promote and celebrate Newcastle’s multicultural diversity, and to integrate this with the city’s economic development.
That plan is still being rolled out, but Hamilton’s Beaumont Street Carnivale – which preceded the council plan by many years - stands as an enduring local example of how to combine community, business and cultural diversity.
While sampling the simple delights of this year’s Carnivale, think for a moment on how its success is part of the larger story of our city’s achievement in rejecting racism and embracing diversity.
In a world where racism and nationalism are again on the rise, it may bring some comfort - perhaps even inspiration - to appreciate that we at least live in a city that has so firmly, consistently and creatively celebrated cultural diversity and asserted its vision for a multicultural community.
