Buddhism is Australia’s second largest religion, and has a long history dating back to at least the 1850s Gold Rush period, yet the life stories of prominent Buddhists in Australia have remained largely undocumented until now. Buddhist leaders and community members in Australia felt there was an urgent need to record these stories and to preserve them for future generations.
Buddhist Life Stories of Australia
Buddhism is Australia’s second largest religion, and has a long history dating back to at least the 1850s Gold Rush period, yet the life stories of prominent Buddhists in Australia have remained largely undocumented until now. Buddhist leaders and community members in Australia felt there was an urgent need to record these stories and to preserve them for future generations. Dr Anna Halafoff, Dr Edwin Ng, Praveena Rajkobal and Jayne Garrod, researchers from Deakin University, responded to this call in partnership with the national and state Buddhist Councils of Australia and filmmaker Freeman Trebilcock.
With the assistance of the Research my World program, the crowd funding joint venture between Deakin University and Pozible.com, we raised $10,000 to begin to record these stories and increase understanding and awareness of Buddhism in Australia. This website, built by Jayne Garrod in consultation with Dr Halafoff, provides free access to interviews with prominent Australian Buddhist leaders from diverse traditions, as an educational tool for communities, schools and universities.
It is the first stage of a larger long-term research project on Buddhism in Australia, and more videos will be added over time. We are now in the process of analysing the interviews and will provide links to our research publications on the website as they become available. We also intend to raise additional funds to continue our work on this project, in partnership with Australia’s Buddhist communities.
Visit http://buddhiststoriesaus.net/
