Amnesty International Australia's Shankar Kasynathan talks community and inclusion

He distinctly remembers being aware of a sense of "otherness" while visiting Bendigo, many years ago.

A sense that people in the pub he and his cousin had walked into were wondering, "What are these guys doing here?"

He still isn't sure whether the reactions in that pub were those of curiosity.

"But I still remember the looks on everyone's faces, of being the other, in that space on a Friday night," Mr Kasynathan says.

The 35-year-old has seen Australians open their hearts and homes to people new to the community, time and time again.

Some of his earliest memories are of people helping his family build a life in Melbourne, after the Kasynathans escaped civil war in Sri Lanka.

As an adult, Mr Kasynathan chose to live and work in some of the most remote communities in Australia.

He has seen some of Australia's best - and worst - responses to newcomers in his lifetime. And he has seen change.

"There have certainly been incidences in Bendigo's recent history which show there have been more people willing to speak up and say this is a melting pot - this is a culturally diverse town, and we welcome all sorts here," Mr Kasynathan says.

He is working towards nurturing more positive changes - changes where people feel less like the 'other', and more included.

Mr Kasynathan, his parents and three sisters loved the lives they were leading before they had to leave Sri Lanka.

His parents - mum Nalini and dad Kasy - were academics.

"Mum was a cultural and political geography academic," Mr Kasynathan said.

"Dad was an academic in the philosophy department."

The pair met as university lecturers in the hill country, in Kandy. They fell in love. They had a baby. And they pursued their chosen careers.

"When things started getting really bad for Tamils in Sri Lanka, there's memories of Mum hiding us kids in the attic of a neighbour's house as mobs went from house to house burning houses - and, in some cases, people," Mr Kasynathan said.

"Dad was one day called to the fourth floor of the Criminal Investigation Department in Colombo."

Mr Kasynathan said that floor was known for people being interrogated and "accidentally falling out of windows".

His father reported to the department and survived the experience. But Mr Kasynathan said that's when his dad knew things were getting really, really bad.

"Our house was ransacked a few times by the military police and there were times when Mum and Dad left us kids at a neighbour's house because they felt the end was near," he said

The family was sponsored to come to Australia by a family in the Melbourne suburb of Ringwood.

"There was a pathway at the time called the community refugee settlement scheme, which allowed for community groups to privately sponsor people who fit under the category of refugees, had certain skills... certain English language requirements... certain age group," Mr Kasynathan said.

They moved into a church-owned property, which has been his parents' home since they arrived in 1987. They bought it off the church at auction.

"My earliest memories are of community-led, neighbourhood-driven goodness, of people wanting to help their new neighbours," Mr Kasynathan said.

"That was an early formative experience."

But it wasn't all that straightforward. Mr Kasynathan said he remembered his mother - who worked alongside him for some time on the paper round - having a paper thrown at her by an older man who said he didn't want them coming and taking Australian jobs.

Another time, Mr Kasynathan said his mother was physically abused by a stranger on public transport for speaking in Tamil with a friend.

Mr Kasynathan believes everything he has seen and experienced so far has led him to the positions he holds today.

He is a campaigner for Amnesty International Australia, one of 12 Victorian Multicultural Commissioners, and an advisor for Welcoming Australia.

Mr Kasynathan also sits on the Loddon Campaspe Multicultural Services board.

One of the campaigns he is passionate about centres around improving pathways to resettlement for people from refugee backgrounds - namely, community sponsorship.

Mr Kasynathan is also determined to change mindsets around not-so-'new' arrivals, to better accept and include people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds as members of the community.

"To not just be, 'This is the other,' but, 'These people are us'," he said.

He said there needed to be a shift from a mindset of 'saving' people who were newly arrived to building community with friends, some of whom happened to be of refugee background.

"There is no-one in a better place to lead change and growth than people with lived experience on the ground, working with their not-so-new neighbours," Mr Kasynathan said.

He studied economics at school, but found himself drawn to corporate communications, lobbying and campaigning.

After growing up in Melbourne, he took a chance on an opportunity to move to Kununurra, in the Kimberley. After that, Mr Kasynathan moved to the Northern Territory, based in Darwin.

"It was there that I started volunteering with a group called the Darwin Asylum Seeker and Advocacy Network, where I got to visit and see for the first time asylum seekers in detention," he said.

"It was that sort of sliding doors moment, when you see somebody across the table from you who you look at and think, 'If my life had gone that way... I would be in your shoes.'"

Frustration on progress on change for Aboriginal people and for asylum seekers and refugees made Mr Kasynathan eager to learn more about the political process.

After a few years working as a policy advisor in the ACT Government, Amnesty came knocking.

And Mr Kasynathan hasn't looked back.

'My New Neighbour'

Bendigo residents Bu Gay and Rose Vincent share their stories as a campaign for community refugee sponsorship celebrates its second anniversary.

When: March 26, 4pm - 7pm

Where: The Old Church on the Hill, 36 Russell St, Quarry Hill

RSVP: Loddon Campaspe Multicultural Services - 5441 6644.