
Stories beyond COVID: A Celebration of Life
Overview
The ‘Stories Beyond COVID: A celebration of life’ is a Festival organised by the Islamic Council of Victoria (ICV), to allow diverse communities across Victoria to share their experiences during the time of COVID-19. Through times of hardship, the community have stood in solidarity, and people have often found unique ways of coping. The Festival will showcase how children, young people and families have experienced the lockdown and hear directly from them about how they have coped with the pandemic. The format will be digital with webinars and Q&A sessions on how the community’s life has changed.
Aims
The Festival will allow children, young people, and adults to share their stories through video. We will hear how even when separated, the community was able to stand together and support one another. It will also be an opportunity to learn about essential tools such as self-care, remote support and hear from experts about the impact of the pandemic. Participants will have a chance to self-reflect on their own experience and acknowledge the collective endurance that was required to get through these challenging times. Additionally, we will hear from faith leaders about the reopening of the Mosques.
The main goals will be:
- For people to share their lived experience of dealing with the pandemic.
- An opportunity to hear the voices of the children, so that we can reimagine the pandemic through the lens of young people.
- To celebrate the recovery period and give hope to others.
- Expressing the rich cultural diversity that exists amongst the Victorian Muslim and other cultural and religiously diverse communities
- To celebrate and acknowledge the creativity of the largest portion of the Muslim community, the children and young adults, who are the future leaders, creators, and pillars of society.
Multicultural Culinary Day
One of the Festival days will be dedicated to a Multicultural Culinary Day. This will be an opportunity for you to demonstrate your skills in the kitchen by cooking your favourite dish from your cultural background. Submit a video that channels your Nigella Lawson skills or be as fun and creative as possible while cooking.
The choice is yours. The five best entries will win a prize. The best entry will win a gift card from a retailer or a valuable kitchen supply!

Age Group Categories
The categories for submission include the following age groups and should depict how the person has spent their pastime during the pandemic, reflecting their personal story of resilience and/or positivity. Letting their personal narrative shine through.
The following age groups are:
Children (5 – 12 years)
Children, with assistance of adults, will share their experience of time spent through the pandemic. They can share their favourite story or past time in a playful manner and express what they had most enjoyed, during their time in the pandemic. Children will have the most positive outlook in telling their story, so parents are encouraged to let their child’s imagination come through.
Young people (13 – 17 years)
Young people are most often than not, experiencing the world with more understanding. They are experiencing by exploration, in both the physical and digital world, and will often still view the world with the innocence of children but with greater context. The world of young people is an important step into adulthood, and again with the assistance and consent of adults, parents should encourage young people to express their time through the pandemic.
Young Adults (18 – 25 years)
Young adults have a greater informed outlook of the world, and the pandemic would highlight a greater sense of how the time during it has greatly changed their space. As the most informed age group, who will influence the future of our immediate society, the video submission should highlight the innovative and creative ways their pastime has changed during their time through the pandemic.
Adults (25+ years)
As the most matured segment of the community, the video submission would highlight activities that the person has undertaken, during this time. Often this would be concentrating on the family space, spirituality, or time for self-reflection and study; that their normal busy life could not include pre-pandemic. The adult submission should reflect a narrative of the importance of how the pandemic has shaped the time they experienced.
To Submit
To submit your video please use the below link, (Video size limit 1GB)
https://form.jotform.com/203428574404858
Please email: 2021DigitalFestival@icv.org.aufor a copy of an information pack of the Digital Festival and a guide of how to submit an entry.
Mosques Re-opening
The pandemic proved to be one of the most difficult times for the Muslim community, as the hub and spiritual centre, a practising Muslim’s daily life revolves in and around the masajid. During the pandemic, Muslims faced the aspect that they would not be able to enjoy the festivities of their two greatest days of the year, together with friends, families, and loved ones. Eid Al Fitr and Eid Al Adha. The significance of this, also proved the resilience of our community. That our faith stands true to its message of spreading peace and diversity, through being at one with the Victorian community at large, by staying safe and following government regulations.
To celebrate the community’s resilience, especially through the restrictions. We have dedicated a day for mosques to share their story. The adversity they faced, and the light at the end of the tunnel – by sharing their processes of opening up again to the wider community.
Video brief for the Mosques
The Islamic Council of Victoria (ICV) would like to share this initiative with all Mosques in Victoria. We would like you to record a short video to be shared during our Digital Festival. The video is a great opportunity to share your thoughts and guidance to the community, to assist them and highlight their spiritual resilience during these difficult times.
The video submitted can work on unlimited ideas, so you can be as creative as possible. It’s a chance for individual mosque management to give a voice behind the planning of re-opening during restrictions.
Video, can follow this structure:
Introduction – Of yourself. For example, “Salaam, I’m….”
Body – Explain the importance of keeping the community safe – talking to the planning and implementing of opening up the mosques again to the community
Outro – End your video. You can end this with an individual parting message
Things to consider:
- Intonation and speed of delivery.
Be clear and concise. If you re-watch your video and think you’ve spoken too fast, then it’s too fast. Leave a 5 second gap at the start of your video before you start speaking, and leave another 5 second gap, after you have finished speaking.
- Be as natural as possible.
If you’ve developed a script for yourself, make sure it doesn’t come across as reading.
- Between points of information, leave a gap. This makes it easier to edit, if needs be.
- Enjoy the process!
Some of you might revel in front of the camera, whilst some may be naturally camera shy. Be conscious that this translates in front of the camera. Practice what you want to say, this will provide better results.