Multicultural Festivals and Events Program

The department has created a prioritised list of new and emerging priority communities. New and emerging priority communities are groups of people from humanitarian backgrounds or communities who are more likely to have higher needs.

Many of the listed communities have recently been or are currently part of Australia’s Refugee and Humanitarian Programs. The list comprises both countries of origin and specific ethnicities.

Organisations who are from these prioritised new and emerging communities will be eligible for reduced requirements under the 2026-27 MFE program. For more information on the reduced requirements see the Funding stream eligibility section in the program guidelines.

Priority list by country of origin or ethnicity:

• Afghanistan
• Assyrian
• Burundi
• Chaldean
• Djibouti
• Eritrea
• Ethiopia
• Hazara
• Iran
• Iraq
• Kenya
• Kurds
• Liberia
• Myanmar
• Palestine
• Papua New Guinea (PNG)
• Pashtuns
• Pasifika communities
• Republic of Congo
• Rwanda
• Sierra Leone
• Somalia
• South Sudan
• Sudan
• Syria
• Tajiks
• the Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Timor Leste
• Uganda
• Ukraine
• Uzbeks
• Yemen.

In the application form, the applicant organisation will be asked which community from the priority list their membership identifies with.

Organisations that do not align with the countries or ethnicities on the priority list are not eligible as a new and emerging community. Their application will not be assessed under these criteria.

The ‘new and emerging priority community’ criteria refers only to the countries and ethnicities listed on our priority list. A newly formed organisation is not eligible for the reduced application requirements unless they identify with one of the countries or ethnicities on the priority list above.

Organisations that have been successful in previous grant rounds

2025–26

2024–25

2023–24

2022–23

2021–22

2020–21

2019–20

2018–19

2017–18

2016–17