Gamelan DanAnda recently made a submission to the public consultation for Australia's next National Cultural Policy.

Our submission highlights that multicultural and community-engaged art forms are still widely misunderstood and undervalued by the broader industry and funding bodies.

Here are a few of the key recommendations we put forward:

• Redefining Professionalism: We are challenging the assumption that community-engaged arts are of a lower quality. Our highly skilled performers deserve the same professional recognition, pay, and respect as Western classical or contemporary ensembles.

• Direct Funding Pathways: We are calling for targeted funding pathways that invest directly in the culturally specific organisations that carry and transmit living cultural heritage, rather than channelling support solely through broad umbrella bodies.

• Addressing Sector Burnout: Small arts organisations carry an immense administrative burden. We recommended the creation of a dedicated peer mentoring programme to help grassroots, multicultural arts leaders build sustainable governance and strategic frameworks.

• Global Exchange Programmes: We strongly advocated for new funding to enable reciprocal artist residencies between Australian practitioners and international master artists.

At Gamelan DanAnda, our community orchestra brings together individuals aged 4 to over 80—bridging the Indonesian diaspora with the broader Australian public to create innovative, intercultural art. It is time our national policy fully recognises the artistic and diplomatic value of this grassroots work.