It was Tuesday 8 June 2021 when I met Ken Dray, Senior Policy Lead, Policy & Partnerships for Create NSW
Western Riverina Arts had invited a group of locals to a discussion in the Leeton Museum and I asked why sport and the arts were often presented as opposites, when they clearly have so much in common and are united as being cultural activities.
Ken thought only France had a Ministry of Culture that housed both.
Anyway, I was thinking about that conversation now we have the NSW Department of Creative Industries, Tourism, Hospitality and Sport.
Australian culture is sometimes presented as a joke, but I think it's significant that we are the meeting point between the oldest continuous culture recorded in human history and one of the newest, as well as most multicultural.
Many people are surprised when I point out that the Western Riverina region is the most diverse community outside of western Sydney.
My worry is that "creative industries" is too often presented as services like graphic design.
Everyone benefits from engaging with the arts and it needs to be recognised as something more significant than some form of consumption like reading a book, watching a film or buying a souvenir.
