MULTICULTURAL QLD MONTH 2026
PODCAST TRANSCRIPT
Definitions:
LAC – local area coordinator
NDIS – National Disability Insurance Scheme
CP – community partnerships
[00:00:02] CQ voice-over:
Welcome to Care Is Everywhere. A Carers Queensland Podcast. This Multicultural Queensland Month, we're celebrating the rich cultural diversity that strengthens communities across Queensland. In this episode, we explore how Carers Queensland is helping carers and people with disability from multicultural backgrounds access the information, services and supports they need to live their best life.
We discuss the importance of meaningful inclusion, building trusted community connections, and the work our teams are doing across the state to ensure everyone feels seen, heard and supported, regardless of their background.
First up, we're joined by Richa Carers Queensland's multicultural engagement lead from Rockhampton. Richa shares her perspective on the importance of building strong connections with multicultural communities and improving access to support for people with disability.
I began by asking Richa about her cultural background and what inspired her to pursue this work.
[00:01:09] Richa:
Thank you so much, Tracy. Thank you so much for having me today with you. My name is Richa and I'm originally from Nepal. I moved to Australia in 2019 to do my further studies and since then I have had the opportunity to work across research, community engagement and now the disability sector.
So my professional journey has always involved working with people and communities, but supporting multicultural communities has always been a part of my life outside of work. It's something that I'm always passionate about. I have been involved with organization like Central Queensland Multicultural Association, Central Queensland Nepalese Association, including through volunteering and community activities, we try to organize festivals and celebrate culture and tradition to pass on our culture to the next generation in Australia as well.
So for me, supporting communities and celebrating diversity has never been just a part of my job. It is something that I genuinely enjoy and have been involved in because I believe communities are stronger when everyone feels that they belong and have an opportunity to participate. So, being from Nepal and having experience like moving to a new country myself, I understand that the language barrier, cultural differences and the system that is unfamiliar can sometimes become big barriers. And that personal experience has really shaped my interest in creating more inclusive environment both in the community and workplace to make people feel comfortable in sharing their experiences and accessing the support and services that they need and deserve.
Thank you.
[00:02:49] Tracy (interviewer):
So Richa, what drew you to working with multicultural communities and people with disability in Australia? What drew you to that?
[00:02:58] Richa:
I think my personal experience plays a huge part in this. As I said earlier, I have been involved with the multicultural associations outside of my work as well. And when it comes to a new country, you understand that things that are quite similar, simple to someone who has grown up in Australia can sometimes be quite difficult for someone from different cultural background or language background and even understanding how a system works, knowing where to ask for help can be a big challenge for people. So when you add disability to that, it adds an extra layer of complexity. So there can be language barriers, cultural beliefs, a stigma around disability and limited awareness of NDIS, or simply uncertainty about where are the supports and what kind of supports are available to you. So through my community involvement in different organizations, I have seen how important it is to create spaces where people feel comfortable asking questions and talking about their need. And this is what attracted me to this work and I want to help make this system easier to understand and make sure that people from multicultural communities feel that they belong and their culture and experiences are respected.
[00:04:09] Tracy (interviewer):
It's wonderful work that your teams are doing Richa, and that leads us to Multicultural Queensland Month, which is what this episode is all about. So why is it important that we recognise Multicultural Queensland Month and celebrate it?
[00:04:26] Richa:
I think we are really fortunate and grateful to be in Australia and then, like Queensland, celebrating August as the Multicultural Month is about much more than celebrating food, clothing, music or festivals. Although these are wonderful ways of celebrating culture. It's about recognising the people and the stories behind those cultures and creating an opportunity for everyone to feel included.
As Australia is one of the countries in the world that has embraced multiculturalism, I, along with the multicultural community, feel very privileged to live here and be a part of such a diverse community.
Multicultural Month gives us an opportunity to celebrate that diversity but also reflect on whether everyone has the opportunity to participate, access services and feel that they belong. So for me particularly this is important in the disability sector as well. And coming from Nepal I really value the opportunity to share my culture while also learning from so many other cultures. And I think our differences are actually what makes our community stronger.
[00:05:31] Tracy (interviewer):
Yeah, I agree. And Carers Queensland's done a lot to support the multicultural communities over the years and one of those ways is by making our services and resources more accessible for people with disability and carers from diverse backgrounds. Can you tell us how we're doing that?
[00:05:52] Richa:
At Carers Queensland, we support making all our services accessible and welcoming for people with disability, and we support this through interpreters, translated resources, community engagement and building relationships with multicultural organisations and community leaders.
As I said earlier, we have dedicated multicultural LAC CP staff who work really closely with multicultural organization community group leaders, particularly those people with disability and carers from CALD backgrounds and like these LAC CP staff have been building this like in strong local relationships, and we use those connections to understand what communities need and how we can best engage with them.
Not only by engaging with multicultural organisations, but we have like our LAC in Community program where we take NDIS information and support into community settings where people already feel comfortable and safe. And we work along with those organisations to understand what information would be most useful and tailor our workshop and engagement session to the needs of that particular community.
We also have like our resources, which is Speaking up for Yourself Australia, which can be translated online as well. And we can use those resources to provide more information about NDIS and access and support services to all the multicultural communities as well.
[00:07:22] Tracy (interviewer):
With our events, do we offer interpreters and translated resources?
[00:07:22] Richa:
We do. We do offer information and translated resources as per the needs of the community. So we not only provide translated resources, we also make sure that we understand in which part the community is finding difficulty or is having barriers and access with. So we understand what are the community needs beforehand. And then we tailor our information session and we also organise the interpreters and translators accordingly.
[00:07:59] Carers Queensland Announcement:
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[00:08:40] Tracy (interviewer)
Richa can you give us an example of a community where Carers Queensland has worked with quite closely to improve access to services?
[00:08:49] Richa:
Of course Tracy, in Carers Queensland we support a lot of different communities through our different sites, whether it's Toowoomba, Brisbane North South Ipswich, Sunshine Coast, and Rockhampton region. In the Rockhampton region I particularly engage with all the multicultural communities including Indian community, Nepalese community, etc and then a lot of other communities. But like Rockhampton the communities are different but in Toowoomba especially. One example that I would like to give is one of our LAC CP staff. She's really passionate about supporting this multicultural community and one of the largest community is Ezidi community.
They have 8,000 Ezidi people in Toowoomba which is like largest Ezidi community after Europe and you can imagine how much support they would need because like they do have a lot of language barriers. So our dedicated LAC CP staff has been working really closely with the Ezidi community not only inside the work but also engaging outside in the community space and helping and supporting them in getting access to NDIS and also not only NDIS supports and services but she is helping in the community connection as well. She's referring the Ezidi community to the culturally appropriate services and we have also been reported that after they have been reported they have been referred to different supports and services.
They felt really comfortable and feel safe sharing their background resources and how they are getting support from Carers Queensland. And we do have two sisters from Ezidi community which we have shared in our Carers Queensland stories as well, how they got into NDIS through Carers Queensland support and how they are now supporting the broader CALD community in getting access to NDIS and navigating to different other community supports.
[00:10:46] Tracy (interviewer):
Yeah, it's a wonderful example of how Carers Queensland is really helping multicultural communities access the NDIS, and that kind of leads me to the progress and challenges that you've seen. Richa, what positive changes have you seen in recent years when it comes to inclusion and accessibility for multicultural communities?
[00:11:10] Richa:
I think with time there is growing understanding that multicultural communities need to be actively engaged rather than simply expected to find and access the services themselves. I have realized like, since when I started my journey in Australia, just realized like people and organization are focusing more on the key communities including Multicultural, First Nations and our Rainbow communities. And so is Carers Queensland.
So through my community involvement I have seen that organization wanting to connect with multicultural communities, participate in community events and understand different communities they are working with. And I have also seen conversation about cultural capability, culturally responsive practice across different organizations. And I think there's still a lot of work to do, but I am really encouraged by the willingness of all these organizations and staff to learn. Even within Carers Queensland, we are so passionate about sharing and supporting the CALD communities and it's not that we just provide the NDIS information, but we do help them in accessing the other community supports and services that are available wherever they feel comfortable. And for me that willingness to listen and learn is really a positive change.
[00:12:26] Tracy (interviewer):
Well, it's been wonderful talking to you today Richa. You work so hard for Carers Queensland and the people that we serve. What message would you like multicultural carers, people with disability and their families to take away from our conversation today?
[00:12:43] Richa:
Thank you so much for having me, Tracy. I am really passionate about supporting multicultural community and if there is something that I can speak up and people feel aware of things that are happening around them, I really enjoy doing that.
I would like people to know that their culture, language and background should never be a barrier to getting the support they need. Even if you are unsure about the NDIS or don't know where to start, it is okay to ask questions and you don't have to understand everything on your own because like not everyone knows everything and including myself. I'm learning every day and I would encourage people to reach out even if they are not sure whether they are eligible or whether a particular service is right for them. Finding the right information is often the first step and I think it is really important to remember that diversity is a strength.
Coming from Nepal, I feel really privileged to be living in Australia and to be a part of the country where so many different cultures and communities come together. And being able to support multicultural communities through my work at Carers Queensland gives me a sense of great satisfaction because I feel that I'm contributing to create a more inclusive community.
And one message that I would like to give is like, we all are different in Australia or anywhere in the world and I believe that is what makes us stronger.
[00:14:05] Tracy (interviewer):
Oh, thank you so much, Richa. Thank you for the chat today and Happy Multicultural Queensland Month.
[00:14:11] Richa:
Thank you so much. Happy Multicultural Queensland Month to you as well. Thank you so much for having me today.
[00:14:19] Carers Qld announcement:
Our LAC in Community sessions are held regularly throughout Queensland to help you with your NDIS journey. In these sessions you can talk one-on-one with our dedicated local area coordinators to learn more about your NDIS funding, getting the most out of your NDIS plan, finding and working with service providers and utilising the My Place online portal. If you're not on the scheme but would like to be linked with services and supports within your local community, we can assist you to find them. To register, visit our website @carersqld.com.au or call our enquiries line on 1300 999 636. LAC in Community Sessions - bringing the NDIS to you.
[00:15:10] Tracy (interviewer):
Next up in this special Multicultural Month episode we're joined by Francie from Brisbane. We started by asking Francie about her background and why she connected with Carers Queensland.
[00:15:20] Francy:
My name is Francy and my CALD background is from Colombia and I arrived Australia 10 years now and then when I arrived to Australia in the beginning the idea was to learn the language but and then I fell in love with the beautiful country and the people and everything around Australia. So then I started living here in Brisbane and my experience has been challenging after something I had an incident work in 2020 and then my life changed and I became person living with disability.
So my CALD background is yes from Colombia. I'm really proud. Before my incident I was a person really active. I work a lot and study and I looked after my daughter and then when incident happened things changed a lot because my daughter has to become the main carer, my principal carer. We didn't have actually support at all so she was working really hard to keep her mother going. She advocated for me, doctors, lawyers about my incident situation, and I remember that I had to go to hospital many times and she just looking after me next to my bed waiting for mommy waking up and then she had to go to study.
So for us, the life before Carers Queensland started supporting us, it was really really difficult because we didn't have any help at all. So that changed a lot and positive ways as life for me and also for my daughter. Because she was only 13 years when this happened. And we only living here together, my daughter and myself. We didn't have any additional support from no one. Because we don't know anyone in that moment either.
I think after the situation become really badly because I started to lose mobility. And all of the staff we had to call ambulance all the time for they drove me to hospital. The ambulance services start to send letters to different organization to asking for support for my daughter and myself. Because we didn't have actually any status like residency. We both were students, so we didn't have - I couldn't work because I was really unwell.
And we didn't have money to pay for psychology. And then eventually one organization, one of the NGO come and giving my daughter counselling for some time to making her handling because she also become really depressed. It's understandable. She was just a little girl. She had to become a mother. And I to the mother. So yeah. And then for me. So some organization started helping us with food, rent, medical support, many doctors do pro bono because we were in really vulnerable situation at that moment. Like physical, emotional, psychological and all of this stuff was really complex.
I think she had been handling really well. To be honest. She couldn't take in so many another ways. She can maybe and then drinking alcohol or drugs or smoking. But she decided she want to make this the best she can. So she studied really good. She always was actually one of the best students. No matter what happened and she figured out to go to one of the best universities here in Australia. Everything has been done for herself because I couldn't supporting her in that six years. I'm really proud of her because I think thanks to her actually I am still alive because she actually looking after me in the way that no one more could do it.
Yeah. And this has scary just sad still when I thinking about it. And I guess I feel as a mother and probably many mothers listen these podcasts, we supposed to looking after a child and protecting them. And somehow I know it was not my fault. But somehow I feel that I fail her like I couldn't make my job as a mother should do. And that made me feel sad because I think she didn't deserve what happened. But I guess life it just happened. Sometimes we don't have control about the situation.
And we had to make him figure out how we keep going under the difficult situation. We need to try to see what is the positive side of the things. Otherwise it can be really difficult living with disability in another country. Where do you not speak the language. There's so many barriers, but you just have to make a choice. And my choice it wasn't keep going with my daughter. Both of us tried the best we can to facing this situation.
[00:20:48] Tracy (interviewer):
After a traumatic workplace incident, Francie began navigating life with disability. Yet through determination and resilience, she has overcome many challenges and now uses her experience to advocate for the rights of people with disability.
[00:21:05] Francy:
I was working as supervisor in mental health and it was one of the best things happened to me. I remember because in that time I want to find stability for me and my daughter. And I was really happy. I know working with other people and looking after another people. And one of my residents become unstable and he do like assaulting in me and leave me with many injuries, physical, psychological and like it was really bad. And then we start the process to the insurance company or probably the provider, the company working with. But they didn't actually give us the support we needed. So then my daughter started to become the person that looking after me because we don't have many choices.
And yeah, it was really challenging because after you be independent person, working hard, study, do everything for yourself. One day you're waking up and in a bed in the hospital and you're not able to walk, you're not able to speak, you're not able to move, you're not able to and you don't understand what's going on. That's afraid, right? And then you realize that you are in another country, but you don't remember your daughter, you don't remember nothing. It's like, oh my God, what is going on here? It was really difficult moment for us, especially for me, my daughter. I can tell that when I forgot who is she? I can tell in her eyes the sadness that my mom doesn't remember me.
Otherwise I think things have been positive because I am is still alive. Since I am still alive, I had opportunity to keep going, right? Probably I could have died that day because it was really bad. But no. So I'm still here and I’m still able to support my daughter nowadays and a little better and honesty to making of this experience something positive to support people for CALD background with living with disability.
And probably to tell people that we still yes people with disability, probably we can't do the things in the same way that the person doesn't have disability. But with the right tools, with the right support, we able to do many things. I have meet people so smart and wonderful that actually for me it's like oh my God. You know, like yes, we have disability but doesn't mean we are not allowed to be part of this society and the community.
When we start to find some support here, then we come to Carer’s Queensland and I had this beautiful woman called Amela and she was the person to start to support me through the system. And yeah, she was actually really concerned that I understand the information that Carer’s Qld is asking. She had interpreted the service for me. I had my advocate for me and myself. And she always has been there like she's not anymore working with me, but she had been supporting me all of this time to understand the system. Right. Because I'm not from Australia, so I don't know the systems that she had given me the opportunity to understand better what are my rights, what things I can do, how I can access or who I should contact.
And that give me a lot light because I don't feel so confused. But another thing is that also she and the organization have been helping me to do some workshops where I bring people from CALD background to explain what is the system and how we can use it. Right. And this is good opportunity because many people from CALD background doesn't understand really well.
The system is already huge and it's scary and we do not understand how to do the things. It can be really complex. But yeah, we had to I think really wonderful job with Amela for all of the support she has been giving me and also for Carers QLD to support me during this time. So yeah.
[00:25:50] Georgie (interviewer):
Is it important to have support services that understand your culture and language and why do you think that would be the case?
[00:25:55] Francy:
It's important and fundamental because you can - so first thing is person with disability.
All disabilities are different because the people are different. Right. But the second thing is because we have different CALD backgrounds. So for us as culture had a lot to do with the services. So it's important that this provides services organization in general understand that culture CALD background is fundamental to giving the support and the right support to the person and the families. Because we here not talking only about frenzy. We're talking also about the families of the people that use the services.
So I really encourage all the providers that understand that interpreter services is fundamental, always has to be there giving people probably the information in Spanish wherever be the language for the person actually understand what is going on.
So that giving the person the opportunity to advocate for themselves for actually understand what the services for, what they can do, what accessibility they can have. That means that inclusion and it's something that we really had to highlight accessibility inclusion are important for every human being.
We need to improve. We need to making better. Right. So it's not just only complain about the systems. It's about how we can come together and making better systems for people from CALD background like Carer's Queensland has done a really good job because they try to push inclusion. Yes. But it's just not only Carers Queensland is all the systems has to work in the best to make people inclusive and understand and CALD background it's just CALD background is difficult because it's belief. It's also what is my principles, my values, the language and everything. So it just be things. So I think we need to make much better. Yes.
[00:28:10] Georgie (interviewer):
There’s always room for improvement isn’t there. And why is Multicultural Queensland month important to you?
[00:28:16] Francy:
Well, because it's the moment where we can talking about how things have been good and what things can improve. Right. Or what things we need. So when we're talking about inclusion is when everyone had the opportunity to express themselves to tell what are the needs they have.
So it's the opportunity for all of us growing up for making a better country. Australia is beautiful country. I know as many things going on at the moment in Australia but it's beautiful country. And as many things they are working here and they need to improve 100%. Sure. But we had something for we can make improve. There's so many and other places doesn't have anything at all. Yeah. And they have to build them. But here in Australia we have the opportunity to make things much better. So that's important because I can also express myself and say what things I like and what things I would like to make much better.
[00:29:17 ] Georgie (interviewer):
And what would you say to someone who is nervous about asking for help?
[00:29:21 ] Francy:
I think it's normal. But something I learned from my situation is when you asking for help people actually will stand up for yourself. It's nothing to be afraid. It's not about vulnerability. It's about show us that always is opportunity for people can supporting us and helping us. And the beginning for me was I don't want to talk about myself. I don't want people know what happening. And because I didn't want no one support me because I was afraid then my condition become worse.
But soon I start to accept people's support and asking for help. Things become a little more stable, a little more better. I feel support. I feel that when I don't have energy it's people that actually stand up for me. So it's definitely so important for physical, psychological emotional. Always understand that there's no quickness asking for help. Actually it's strange when people asking I need help, can you help in me? And then for sure many organization and beautiful people as my position they will be there for us.
[00:30:42] Tracy (interviewer):
And that was Francy from Brisbane sharing her lived experience and the importance of culturally inclusive supports and how working together can create better outcomes for people with disability from multicultural backgrounds.
Our final guest today is Jana from Multicultural Australia. Here, Jana talks about the value of the partnership with Carers Queensland and highlights the impact of working together at the recent LUMINOUS event at South Bank, celebrating diversity, culture and community.
[00:31:18] Jana (Multicultural Australia):
Yeah, I feel like we have a very aligned partnership and I think it's because we have a very similar vision around inclusion, which makes this a very natural partnership in many ways and it keeps evolving and we're finding more opportunities to collaborate. And how that actually came about was then we decided earlier this year to step back from a specific project that we worked on together and we discussed more broadly what our prospective organizations do and what our priorities are.
And we actually found that we are more aligned on multiple avenues, on multiple departments, on what we do. And from there we were able to understand and discover a few different areas that we can collaborate much more deeply together, mostly around community and also in the corporate engagement. So for example, the cultural awareness training that we do and disability awareness that you do are very similar in many ways, but they also compound and we can work much more effectively together.
And I think where this comes from is that we both listen very deeply to our communities and we co-design our programs with our communities and we are ready to adjust what we know, because that's what we do every day in our consulting and training work. And it's this process of staying curious and adjusting and improving. And I believe that's the reason why we work so well together.
[00:33:13] Tracy (interviewer):
Accessibility and inclusion were central to the success of Luminous. How did our organisations work together to ensure the event was welcoming and accessible for people from diverse cultural backgrounds living with disability?
[00:33:28] Jana:
Yeah, Luminous is all about inclusion and celebrating the diversity in our community. And, well, first of all, we acknowledge we are not experts. We always mention that in our training sessions and we're not experts in cultural capability and we know a lot, but we're always curious and open to keep learning. And we also acknowledge that we don't work as deeply with people with disabilities every day. And it's important for us to partner with organizations such as Carers Queensland that specialize in this area so we can keep learning and do better for our clients and our communities. And for Lumina specifically, our commitment was to have better accessibility for the event and we worked very closely with Carers Queensland to improve that. And Kerry Queenton was really open to share the expertise and provide us with their feedback along the way. And we very much appreciated this approach and this openness and we took it all on board and implemented it where possible.
And it feels like this year we made a really good move on making the event more accessible and engage better with people with disabilities. And we're really looking forward to keep building on not only this relationship, but on also making our event more inclusive.
[00:35:08] Tracy (interviewer):
Yes. You created an accessible viewing area this year, didn't you?
[00:35:12] Jana:
Yes, we did, yeah. Yeah. It was actually very busy on the night as well.
[00:35:19] Tracy (interviewer):
Was that a strong inclusion that you felt was a great thing for this year?
[00:35:26] Jana:
Yeah, I think my learning from that was we didn't really realise, like, we communicate about inclusion all the time. Right. But we didn't really realize by not talking about the accessibility of the event, we were unknowingly excluding people or not letting people know how they can be involved and make it easy for people.
So it was a bit of a blind spot for us. And so creating that accessibility viewing area was like a really good step to show that everyone is welcome in a new way. And we were really happy to see that people took up the offer and took a good spot there to watch both the parade and the concert afterwards.
[00:36:29] Tracy (interviewer):
From your perspective, then, what impact has the partnership with Carers Queensland had on multicultural communities and people with disability carers and their families? And why is it important for organisations like ours to work together?
[00:36:44] Jana:
Yeah, that's a great question. So I guess it's a good point to acknowledge the intersectionality and the impact that has on people. In our training sessions, cultural capability training, we talk about that quite a bit about systems that exist and in the attempt to break down barriers, they often address like one axis of a person's identity. So, for example, they address a disability or they address the cultural diversity or trauma.
But this creates blind spots because people whose experiences overlap, they tend to then disappear from view because only one access gets addressed. But those aspects of an identity, of a person, they actually interact and compound. And as they happen all at once and not separately. So by focusing our services on one aspect, we can unknowingly have those blind spots about other aspects. So, as I mentioned, for Luminous, which is all about diversity and inclusion for us, that automatically included everyone, but by us not communicating on that accessibility aspect of the event, we may have unknowingly excluded people.
And even though we work in inclusion, our organizations have a very different, different focus. And multicultural communities and people with disabilities sometimes have those multiple barriers to access services. So by us working closely, we can not only unveil potential blind spots, but also advocate more effectively for all of our communities. And if you keep thinking about all these aspects, I believe it really lifts our services and it benefits all clients.
[00:38:59] Tracy (interviewer):
Well, we're almost at the end of Multicultural Queensland Month, Jana, and if we look towards the future, what opportunities do you see for your organisation, Multicultural Australia and Carers Queensland, to continue strengthening support for multicultural communities?
[00:39:17] Jana:
Yeah, like I mentioned, so many crossovers between our services and I think, therefore, there's a lot of opportunities that we can keep exploring. I think both our services increase inclusion in their own right, but by us working together and collaborating on different projects and different opportunities, we will, I think we will ensure that we can keep learning and adjusting our services and addressing those blind spots and keep looking for how we can do better for our clients and improve the services and the services that other service providers create as well. And I also really like how we work together across all levels. So understanding case management, for example, to use services, we do employment support and like you, we also offer consulting and training and advocacy services. And I think there is so many. There's so much alignment and so many opportunities that we can keep exploring across all of Queensland. And I'm really excited to keep working with you.
[00:40:47] Tracy (interviewer):
And that was Jana from Multicultural Australia.
As we wrap up this special Multicultural Queensland Month episode, a heartfelt thank you to our guests for sharing their experiences and to the many individuals and organisations working to make our communities more welcoming, accessible and inclusive for all.
To learn more about Multicultural Queensland Month or to access Carers Queensland services, supports and resources, visit our website: carersqld.com.au/multicultural
You've been listening to Care Is Everywhere, a Carers Queensland Podcast. If you've enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review and share it with your family, friends and networks.
Thanks for listening.
