CONFERENCE THEMES

Theme 1: The Meaning of Community

• What is the 'mainstream' - all of us or some of us?
• Democracy, equality, fairness - what do these ideas mean in practice?
• The politics of community leadership.
• Reconciliation - what next?
• Capacity building in Indigenous and ethnic communities.
• Disability rights - turning them into practice.
• Designing the future - planning in whose image?
• Inclusive celebrations - beyond spaghetti and polka.

Theme 2: From Diversity to Civic Participation

• Indigenous access and the 'mainstream'.
• Disability and access - challenges and strategies.
• Immigration and settlement-current debates.
• Ethnicity and access - public service in a culturally diverse society.
• Points of intensity: indigenous people and disability ; immigration and disability; gender and disability.
• Strategies to combat discrimination and racism.
• The economic benefits of diversity - productive diversity.
• Mediation - cultural assumptions and practical outcomes.
• Organisational change human resource management tools - equal employment opportunity and diversity management.

Theme 3: From the Local to the Global

• Globalisation - local impacts and international opportunities.
• Indigenous rights - international human rights perspectives.
• Treaty eh? Local, national and international perspectives.
• The struggle for international disability rights.
• The internationalisation of human rights-local perspectives.
• Local to local - friendship city relationships.
• Environmental sustainability - local action, global focus.
• Immigration and the environment.
• Australian refugee policies and practices.