Since Karen people came to live in Australia, they have seen that organisation is very important for the community in this country. Even though they were less in number, they started organising themselves as a group. After the Karen people started growing in number, in 1996 they started organising a committee.
The purpose for this committee is to work for the Karen people who had resettled in this country especially in socio-political perspective. For the Karen organisation to be recognised in this country, this committee started writing basic constitution for the first time on February 17, 1997. The same year, the Karens in different states started organising committees for the first time through Teleconference.
On February 14, 1998, the Australian Karen Organisation's constitution was recognised by the Australian government. And in April, 1998, the Australian Karen Organisation''s committees from all over Australia held the first national conference in Sydney. On July 16, 1998, the Australian Karen Organisation was recognised by the Australian government.
Our vision is for the well establishment and resettlement of the Karen community in Australia.
Our mission is to represent and act as an umbrella organisation for the Karen people in Australia and to represent them and voice their concerns in all political, social, cultural and economic matters and to facilitate their affiliation to the AKO.
The Objectives of the Australian Karen Organisation are as follow:
In order for our Objectives to be fulfilled we, therefore, want to encourage our people to work together for peace in order that our people would be in stable in the countries where we live. Our greatest hope is that we want to see all the Karen people working in peace and harmony.