Lukasz Swiatek, a Kosciuszko Heritage committee member, has presented Kultura Connect magazine to a group of young people at the Community Relations Commission Youth Leaders Day Symposium.
The all-day event, held at the Novotel Hotel in Parramatta on August 6, was designed to give young people under 25 the chance to explore social and multicultural issues and hear from speakers working in various community and ethnic organisations. The Symposium’s theme was “Participate and Contribute”.
Lukasz’s presentation, titled ‘Communicating Cultures: Lessons from the Production of Kultura Connect Magazine’, was delivered in the Media Workshop Strand.
The half-hour speech showcased Kosciuszko Heritage and the magazine. Split into three parts, the presentation examined the popularity of magazines in Australia, the journey of Kultura Connect (its origins and its development over time), and lessons learnt from creating and editing the publication. In particular, the cosmopolitan nature of the magazine was highlighted and Lukasz emphasised that the listeners themselves could make this sort of publication.
“It was great to talk to, and get to know, some of the delegates who came up to me afterwards to ask questions, and it was wonderful to hear the other presentations about some of the multicultural and ethnic media projects being run in NSW,” says Lukasz.
Kultura Connect, established in 2009, is a Polish-English online magazine published by Kosciuszko Heritage. The aim of the magazine is to connect readers to a world of culture, by telling the stories of people, places and events from around the globe.
The Community Relations Commission is an organisation dedicated to “promoting community harmony, participation and access to services in order that the contribution of cultural diversity to NSW is celebrated and recognised as an important social and economic resource”.
The first slide of the presentation 
The Media Workshop Strand room in the Novotel Hotel 
A slide from the presentation showing all of the different countries that articles in Kultura Connect have covered (Australia, Poland, China, the U.S., France, Bosnia, Switzerland, Italy, Cambodia, the United Arab Emirates, the Netherlands, Columbia, Singapore, Norway and Spain) 
The program of the Symposium 
The opening session in the Lennox Ballroom at the CRC Symposium 
The Novotel Hotel in Parramatta 
Lukasz giving his presentation (photo: Jack Wai-him Yip)