Projects

Completed December 2002

Who's involved

The Migration Heritage Centre, the Centre for Cultural Research, University of Western Sydney and the Powerhouse Museum with the active involvement of young people and community organisations from Western Sydney.


When and where

Project location: Western Sydney
Project status: Completed project
Date of completion: December 2002

Project description

What does it mean to be Australian today? How do youth cultures contribute to contemporary Australia, and breathe new life into our sense of who we are? How do young people from migrant backgrounds create and understand their own identities?


GENERATE, a unique and important research project, explored these questions and more. Focused on the experiences of Western Sydney's Middle Eastern and Asian youth, the project documented the new popular cultures and identities these young people are generating for themselves in their everyday lives.

The world of popular culture - including music, fashion, tv and film, cars, computers and the internet - is an important resource for young people everywhere. GENERATE examined the way young people from several cultural backgrounds use popular culture to fashion a sense of who they are and how they want to be known. It looked at how their cultural identities are constructed, through everything from the rituals of getting dressed and 'making-up' for a night on the town, to driving around and just hangin' out.

Check out the GENERATE discussion forum on this website. This Forum is for young people. It's designed so they can have their say on how they feel about 'being Australian', and how they express their identity. It is a space for them to talk freely about how Australian society is changing, and how they think it should change, and to share their experiences with other young people.

What did the project achieve?

GENERATE highlighted the positive contribution that young people make to Sydney life and Australian culture. The project had a participatory approach, with young people involved at all levels: as research assistants in the field, and as youth representatives on the Advisory Committee.

GENERATE also established training programs in arts and media production for young people. The different facets of the project enabled the exploration of the experience of living in a multicultural society from the point of view of young people themselves, culminating in a publication and a major exhibition of youth cultures held in association with the Powerhouse Museum.


Project contact

Professor Ien Ang - Director
Centre for Cultural Research

Phone 02 9685 9987
Fax 02 9685 9964

Email i.ang@ccr@uws.edu.au

Address:
Building LZ Parramatta
PO Box 1797
Penrith South DC NSW 1797
AUSTRALIA