Tarneit’s Shuobing Kuang, a Youth Civic Participation Project participant, wrote about her trip to Canberra for Star Weekly.
September 11 to 14 saw our adventure to the Australian Capital Territory, fulfilling the last chapter of the 2023 Youth Civic Participation Project activities navigating through the three levels of Australian government.
A tour of Parliament House offered a deeper insight into the history of our democracy, meaningful architecture, and provided us with the wonderful opportunity to converse with Joanne Ryan MP for Lalor and Minister for Education Jason Clare regarding the issues important in our community.
Stepping into the beautiful (but strangely neat) city of Canberra, we were greeted with the friendly face of our driver (and unofficial Canberra icon) Adam.
Memorable and valuable experiences were created as we explored the National Archives, High Court of Australia, National War Museum, National Museum of Australia, the AEC, Museum of Australian Democracy, National Capital Exhibition and the Royal Australian Mint.
Not only were we able to enhance our knowledge of Australian political history, but also the intersections between history, politics, economics, arts, and culture.
I will never forget the loud shrieks of delight within the escape rooms, our unsynchronised cheers of ‘YCPP’, building on top of each other’s questions and ideas, and our surprisingly competitive coin-spotting challenge.
Maybe the real treasure was the professional relationships and friends we made along the way.
