Neroli Colvin Book Launch. Rurality, Diversity and Schooling: Multiculturalism in Regional Australia

Neroli Colvin's book was launched at Gleebooks, Sydney, on March 23, 2024.
At the event, the editors of the book, Rurality, Diversity and Schooling: Multiculturalism in Regional Australia, professors Megan Watkins and Greg Noble from Western Sydney University, discussed the book in front of an audience that included Neroli's friends, family, and colleagues, as well as interested community members.
With the help of MC Jock Cheetham, Neroli's partner, Greg and Megan explained the book's themes, insights, and intentions in eloquent detail.
Greg, Megan and Neroli worked together on Neroli's PhD, the basis of the book, under the auspices of Western Sydney University. Greg and Megan edited Neroli's PhD into this book form, published by Bloomsbury, after Neroli's passing in late 2018.
The book, available through the link above (and perhaps Gleebooks still) is described on Bloomsbury's website thus:
Migration and refugee settlement policies have brought significant demographic changes to some regional centres over the past two decades and this book focuses on one such centre, a mid-size town in New South Wales.
Historically, social relations in rural settlements have been enacted primarily within a "white/black" (Anglo/Indigenous) binary but in recent years this town has become home to several hundred refugees from Africa, South-East Asia and the Middle East.
Using interview, observational and documentary data, the book examines how multiculturalism is understood, valued and lived in the town's two public high schools.
Schools are key sites for everyday interactions between people from diverse ethnic, cultural, language and religious backgrounds.
Drawing on critical theories of discourse, space and race, the book examines a host of anxieties in the town and its schools about recent demographic changes revealing how notions of rurality, steeped in colonial narratives about European settlement, productivity and racial superiority, continue to shape how “difference” is perceived and experienced in regional communities.
Jock Cheetham is working on a PhD telling the story of Neroli's life, at Neroli's request, in relation to her work, life and legacy, as well as the story of his own grief journey. This is through the University of Sydney.
Jock has been working on Neroli's legacy in a variety of projects, including the Bathurst Multicultural Storytelling Festival. bathurststoryt...
Neroli’s PhD was on cultural diversity in regional education and she started working on this festival when we first visited Bathurst.
The festival is possible because of donations kindly made towards Neroli’s legacy.
bit.ly/NeroliSt...
For some information about Neroli's life and how she lived it, here is Neroli's obituary from The Sydney Morning Herald.
bit.ly/NerolisO...
Jock Cheetham works teaching journalism at Charles Sturt University, which supports his research project allowing him to tell Neroli's and his story, as noted above.
Anyone interested in discussing Neroli's work, life or legacy, or Neroli's book, can contact Jock via CSU.