This project aimed to explore the experiences of Muslim Australians, specifically Afghan Hazara. This report will show that identities are nuanced and complex as individuals and groups negotiate their sense of identity. It will highlight the ways in which Hazara Australians, ‘Aussie Afghans’, have a growing attachment and sense of belonging to Australia. It is becoming ‘home’, a place where Hazara Australians believe they have a positive future.

The report will also identify a re-imagining of Australian national identity– one that envisions Australian-ness as something which includes these newer Hazara Australians within the middle of Australian society, as part of the ‘Australian crowd’ a sit were, rather than on the margins. Religion is an important category for Hazara but in far more complex ways than one would think. Muslim identity is reflected in both a sense of religiosity – adherence to Muslim religious beliefs and practices – and/or as a cultural or community identity, one that is reflected by certain values to be held and demonstrated. But religion may not be a primary self-identification. For many Hazara, it is their ethnicity, their family, their culture or their individuality that comes more to thefore. It is a reminder that one must be careful not to assume or ascribe categories or meanings of categories that people themselves may not hold or view quite differently.‘Aussie Afghans’ in the end are as complex and nuanced in their understanding of themselves as we all are.