A Multicultural Odyssey: A Memoir (almost) sans Regrets

This is the story of the part one man played in the origins development and general acceptance of Australias policy of Multiculturalism.James Houston traces his role in Multiculturalisms earliest formulation. In 1973 strategically located in the Immigration Department - and contrary to the views of its officials - he distilled his vision for Australias future into a speech written for Al Grassby Minister for Immigration in the Whitlam Government. He drew on the convictions of some visionary academics and Melbourne migrant activists as well as his own four-year Australia-wide field research with ethnic community leaders.Following the Dismissal in the face of the Fraser Governments disinterest and grudging funding he recounts the heroic seven-year struggle by the puny Office of Community Relations to implement the new Racial Discrimination Act. Houstons simple role was to reshape community attitudes towards the discrimination experienced by Aborigines and migrants! In the process his Christian convictions about social justice would be sharpened.So how did the son of an unemployed labourer born during the Great Depression find himself in this role? Benefiting from quality education in NSW for gifted but poorer students and accessing Sydney University through scholarships he became a modern languages teacher - in NSW UK and Germany.On a lighter note the book evokes a 1940s childhood a dawning awareness of the wider world and a fascination with language culture and travel - each a lifelong passion. It traces a long and purposeful life marked by creative endeavours delight in travels worldwide and a love for tutoring university students in China. Ordained to the Anglican ministry in later life he served as vicar in Melbournes neediest parish and later as Director of Cross-Cultural Ministry for the Diocese.The closing chapters offer a Christian commentary on life in Australia today and the search for meaning in a fractured world. The Memoir describes a life-embracing journey of faith and self-discovery with God as gracious companion.