Me, My Culture and NSW
Competition
Me, My Culture and NSW
Woke has had the privilege of partnering with Multicultural NSW to create the ‘Me, My Culture and NSW’ competition. Our aim was to give an opportunity for young people to celebrate diversity, share their culture and join us in combating cultural stereotypes and racism. We can definitely say that we have achieved this!
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Our competition was a huge success! We had hundreds of participants, whose entries were extremely insightful and of the upmost quality. We received so many outstanding entries and as the calibre of submissions was so high, we have created two new categories: Highly Commended and Honourable Mention.
We also want to take this opportunity to invite any young person who’s passionate about social justice to write for Woke. Have a look at our writing guidelines and don’t hesitate to contact us via our email ourwoke@gmail.com, we’d love to hear from you!
Now, we’re excited to announce the winners of the competition below!
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Writing
1st Place
The Coexistence of Two Selves
Baulkham Hills HS
2nd Place
Nothmead Creative & Performing Arts HS
3rd Place
Falling Apart at the Seams
Penrith HS
Highly Commended
Writing Beyond: the Terrorist & the Bollywood Dancer
North Sydney Girls HS
Highly Commended
Ext. In a Botanical Garden
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Highly Commended
9am In My Grandmother's Dining Room
Girraween HS
Honourable Mention
Willoughby Girls HS
Honourable Mention
Fort Street HS
Honourable Mention
Woolworths & The Asian Store
Girraween HS
Writing - Shortlisted entries recognised by the editors
The Editors of Woke have further recognised the following work for their amazing merit as well!
Photography
1st Place
By Khadijah
Khanh Linh Nguyen
Maryam Rizwan
Marzia Mahzabin
Beverly Hills Girls HS
Highly Commended
Rooty Hill HS
Honourable Mention
East Hills Girls Technology HS
Honourable Mention
Erina HS
Film
1st Place
Audition: A Film about Racism
Prairiewood HS
2nd Place
Ryde Secondary College
Fairfield High School's (Intensive English Centre) Poems
We would also like to congratulate Fairfield High School - Intensive English Centre for being the school with the most submissions. Many of the poems we received were from recently arrived migrant and refugee students from all around the world, and we would like to share their emotions and experiences. They are beautiful to read.
Strive for happiness
My heart was upset like the night sky without stars
Leaving my country was a nightmare
My destiny tossed me across the oceans
Scared to begin in a new country
Looking across Australia’s blue ocean
My dreams hugs me closer
Rays of the sunshine filled my soul in hope
My hope was like a lifeboat to me
I thought that music was only friend, but I found a friend
I don’t grieve about the past
Australia became my most beautiful sunshine star in the night sky
I believe life always hands me a new chance to shine bright like a star
By Natalia Yousif
My Culture poem
My culture is sharing and caring
My culture is unfair
My culture is the smell of dolma seducing you
My culture is following and protesting a rotten government
My culture is dancing khiga as a uniting dance
My culture is living in its worst days
My culture is a blinding amount of generosity
My culture is a melody
My culture is the taste of meat and bread in every meal
My culture is slowly shrinking around the world
But my culture will never die
By Ramel Pethyo
