INTERFAITH CHILDHOODS

The Interfaith Childhoods project works with schools, communities and religious organizations to collect and share stories of everyday life told by both secular people and those of faith in Australia and the U.K. Many migrants and refugees start a new life with very little other than their faith. We collect stories and experiences of “what really matters” in the lives of children and adult community members living in some of the most disadvantaged areas of the U.K, and across Australia. We share these stories through film, animation, art and media, as a way of developing public understandings of what belonging feels like in multicultural cities. Narratives of how people keep on going, what sustains them, and what really matters show many connections across very different places and communities. To date, we have over 400 research participants across Western Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Canberra, Manchester and London. Qualitative research is ongoing in the form of arts workshops, focus groups, interviews and ethnography, and our quantitative telephone survey assessing belonging, acceptance and attachment to religious life runs in early 2020.