12/10/2026
🇦🇺 FROM ADELAIDE TO CANBERRA- OUR VOICE AT FECCA 2026!
This week, Prima Nota has been given an extraordinary opportunity: to contribute to a national conversation about poverty, inequality, healthcare and belonging- in the very heart of Australia’s policymaking landscape.
We are immensely proud that our co-authored abstract,
“Beyond Cultural Difference: Poverty, Trust and Belonging Across Marginalised Communities in Four Countries”
by Nina Iouguina and Dr Shawn Michael O’Donnell, has been selected for presentation at the FECCA 2026 National Conference in Canberra.
The presentation will be delivered on Thursday, 15 October, at Old Parliament House, by Dr Shawn Michael O’Donnell.
And we could hardly imagine a more appropriate person to bring these experiences to a national audience.
Dr O’Donnell brings approximately three decades of frontline medical experience across four countries.
His career has taken him far beyond conventional clinical practice.
He served as Chief of Medical Staff at a remote hospital serving the Norway House Cree Nation in northern Manitoba, Canada, where access to healthcare was shaped by extraordinary geographical, social and economic challenges.
He has worked with First Nations and Inuit communities, undocumented migrant farmworkers, and people experiencing severe socioeconomic disadvantage across North America, Ireland and Australia.
He has witnessed the devastating consequences of poverty firsthand: preventable illness, substance dependence, family violence, mental health crises, and the profound hopelessness that can take hold when communities feel forgotten.
Different countries. Different cultures. Remarkably similar human struggles.
Our presentation challenges a fundamental assumption: that cultural difference alone explains the difficulties marginalised communities experience.
What happens when poverty, exclusion and a breakdown of trust are more powerful determinants of wellbeing than language, ethnicity or nationality?
And what must policymakers understand before designing services for the communities they intend to help?
Through Dr O’Donnell’s medical experience and our community work, we hope to bring these questions into sharper focus.
🌿 For a small, grassroots South Australian charity, this is a significant milestone.
FECCA brings together national multicultural leaders, policymakers, government representatives and community advocates to discuss the future of multicultural Australia.
We are proud that our perspectives will form part of that conversation.
Because communities should not simply be the subjects of policy. Their experiences should help shape it.
- 2 days to go!
Our Operations Manager, Carol Araneta spoke to The Philippine Times (Australia) about the FECCA 2026 National Conference in Canberra this week:
“We want policymakers to hear directly from multicultural communities and leave with a clearer sense of what needs to change: better access to health and essential services, greater economic opportunity, gender equity, action on racism and stronger support for community organisations.”
“Australia’s multicultural communities have an enormous stake in the country’s future, and this conference is an opportunity to make their priorities heard where national decisions are made,” she said.
“Multiculturalism has made Australia economically, socially and culturally richer, and the value that migrants bring should not be forgotten.”
Members of the public residing in or visiting Canberra can participate in the Walk for Multiculturalism on the opening day of the event.
Program schedule and registration details are available at fecca2026.com.au
👉 Read the article: https://philtimes.com.au/fecca-to-bring-multicultural-voices-to-parliament/
