Celebrate Refugee Week at Spirit of Welcome Community Festival in Lilyfield Sunday 15 June

Newly arrived refugee artists will showcase their incredible talents, share their stories, and express their cultural heritage through art, music, performance and food at SSI’s Spirit of Welcome Community Festival this Sunday June 15 2025.

SSI General Manager Newcomers, Settlement and Integration Yamamah Agha said the free event provided a platform for the area’s diverse community to express their heritage through the arts.  

Spirit of Welcome will be held at Lilyfield’s Refugee Welcome Centre, a collaboration between SSI and Inner West Council. It is a safe and inclusive space for newcomers to flourish, with its practice rooted in love and care.  

Ms Agha said the festival’s theme followed was the same as the Refugee Council of Australia’s theme for Refugee Week 2025, Finding freedom: diversity in community, demonstrating how gathering together and celebrating culture through the arts is a powerful tool for social cohesion.  

“Many of the artists have recently settled in Australia – for them, it’s a moment of connection, of expression, and of being truly seen and heard,” she said.  

“The Spirit of Welcome is a celebration of who we are as a community; diverse, resilient, creative, and above all, welcoming. It’s an opportunity to come together, to learn from one another, and to experience the richness that every culture brings into our shared space.”  

The Spirit of Welcome event is a cross-cultural and family friendly event that showcases the cultural and artistic contributions refugees make to their new home and is a celebration and acknowledgment of our rich cultural and linguistic diversity.  

The event encourages active participation and engagement of inner west locals and newly arrived communities through workshops, performances and activities. This year, an art exhibition titled The Spirit of Welcome, will open during Refugee Week and run until June 20 at the Refugee Welcome Centre to showcase SSI Creative Compass artists. 

Spirit of Welcome is a free event with all community members welcome. RVSP here.