The Project

A celebration of Australia's cultural diversity

The idea for this project was very simple. It was to graphically illustrate the amazing cultural diversity in Australia today.

The candidates must have been born overseas, preferably in their country of origin. But this proved difficult in many instances just because of the circumstances of war and the displacement of millions of people in so many countries around the world. They did not need to have been naturalised, although this proved to be a uniquely common thread: almost everyone who was photographed for All of Us could count to the day when they would get Australian citizenship- if they didn't aleady have it! They just needed to have chosen to make Australia their home.

Of course, in this incredibly diverse mix were the original Australians, our indigenous people as well as the descendants of the first English colonisers from the First Fleet who landed in Sydney on January 26, 1788.

The outcome of the project is an installation of more than 220 photos on the walls of the Crossbar building at Federation Square on Australia Day 2008. There will also be a smaller show of selected works at Australian Galleries- Works on Paper- on the corner of Smith Street and Derby St Collingwood, and of course a large format book containing the photographs along with short descriptive captions.