The Australian Refugee Association is thrilled to welcome back its much-loved, award-winning ARA Souk Market to the Tonsley Innovation District on Saturday 20 June 2026.

Winner of the 2023 City of Marion Community Event of the Year, The Souk has quickly become one of Adelaide’s most vibrant multicultural events — drawing thousands of visitors and showcasing the richness of cultures from around the globe.

Following another outstanding year, The Souk continues to grow. With 100+ stallholders representing over 30 countries, we’re set to make 2026 our biggest, boldest and most vibrant event yet.

🌏 A global marketplace experience

Step inside The Souk and be transported through a colourful, undercover marketplace alive with sights, sounds and aromas.

Discover and enjoy a curated mix of:

🌮 Incredible global street food and Gourmet & specialty food products

🛍️ Artisan traders and unique handcrafted goods

🎶 Live music, cultural performances, dance and art

🎭 Roving entertainers and immersive experiences

Inspired by traditional souks across the Middle East, Africa and Asia, this is more than a market — it’s a cultural journey with no passport required.

✨ Join us

Whether you’re coming to explore, eat, shop or showcase your business, The Souk 2026 promises an unforgettable day of culture, community and celebration.

We can’t wait to welcome you.

Questions and queries - Email: events@ausref.net

Celebrate Refugee Week with a shared‑plate event. Bring a dish from home and connect through food. Free. All welcome.

Join us for an afternoon of connection, culture, and community as we celebrate Refugee Week with a shared food experience. Bring a plate of something meaningful to you — a family recipe, a favourite snack, or a dish that reminds you of home — and enjoy stories, flavours, and conversations with others.

📅 Date: Thursday 18 June ⏰ Time: 1:30pm–3:30pm 💲 Cost: Free 🌏 Who’s Welcome: Everyone

Important: This is a community‑shared food event. Allergens will not be controlled, and dishes may contain common allergens. Please participate with care based on your personal needs.

Come along, meet new people, and celebrate the richness that refugee communities bring to our shared home.

The power of a story. Join us this Refugee Week for a special event with Durkhanai Ayubi, bestselling author of Parwana and her latest release She Who Tastes, Knows, A memoir of food, exile and awakening.

Durkhanai will join us to discuss her story of coming to Australia as a refugee and her journey to becoming the owner of her much-loved award-winning Adelaide family restaurant, Parwana, as well as publishing her best selling debut book Parwana and her latest memoir, She Who Tastes, Knows.

About the book: She Who Tastes, Knows is an expansive history of Durkhanai’s homeland and a vivid, moving story about what it truly means to understand another’s culture. Through stories of food, family, belonging and migration, the book traverses cultural boundaries, weaving a tapestry of dignity, empathy and understanding. Each chapter draws on a particular ingredient important to Durkhanai’s cultural identity, and explores their life cycles to uncover unseen histories of Afghan culture, the complexities of migrant and refugee experience, and how we as a society might work towards unifying our disparate cultures and ways of seeing the world. In our modern world, which can feel so disjointed, this book shows us – with timeless prescience – how new possibilities for connection are just under the surface, waiting to bloom.

About the Author:

Durkhanai Ayubi was born in Afghanistan in the 1980’s, and she and her family became refugees when she was a small child. She’s grown to see her ancestral lands be misunderstood as a desolate war zone of helpless people, with no history or culture worthy of mention, when the reality is in fact steeped in rich, complex histories of incredible cultural significance. Living in Australia, Durkhanai’s only tangible connection to the histories of her homeland was through food, first through cooking with her family, and then as an owner of her much-loved award-winning Adelaide family restaurant, Parwana. Years on, and following Afghanistan’s systemic collapse in 2021, Durkhanai realised that it was time to revisit those histories and tell the previously untold stories that can help shape a more optimistic future.

Afternoon tea at the library to celebrate the launch of City of Onkaparinga’s Refugee Week Art Project 2026 Exhibition.

City of Onkaparinga’s Refugee Week Art Project has invited all of those who came to call Australia home through experiences of war, persecution, displacement, or internment to tell their story through art.

Selected art will be displayed on level 3 of Noarlunga Library during Refugee Week 2026, 15-21 June.

Anyone is free to join us for afternoon tea as we come together to celebrate the launch of the exhibition.

Bookings required.

For more information please call Noarlunga Library on 8384 0655 or email libraries@onkaparinga.sa.gov.au. For more information about the Refugee Week Art Project please call Mia on 0481 057 999 or email Mia.Mandara@onkaparinga.sa.gov.au

Photography and Video Notice

· Photos and videos may be taken at this event.

· If you don’t want to be photographed or filmed, please let a staff member know at the start.

· If you don’t let us know, you and anyone attending with you may appear in photos or videos.

· The City of Onkaparinga and partner organisations may use this content for promotion, including in print (like posters or articles) and on social media (like Facebook and Instagram).

Get ready as the Australian Refugee Association (ARA) brings its award-winning Souk back to Tonsley Innovation District.

The Souk is part of the Australian Refugee Association’s Refugee Week celebrations. We are thrilled to be bringing the bustling and exciting vibe of a Souk experience to Adelaide again.

For the first time last June, we held The Souk, a multicultural market event. It won the 2023 City of Marion Community Event of the Year Award and created the most successful event in ARA’s history! Over 75 stalls and 3500 people attended.

People are still talking about what an amazing time they had and can’t wait for The Souk 2024. We would love you to join us and create that magic again!

Souks can be found in the Middle East, Africa and even in parts of Asia. Traditionally souks were on trade routes, marketplaces for Merchants to stop, rest, sell their wares, trade and meet old friends and acquaintances. Souks are a myriad of interesting, eclectic discoveries as you meander through the maze of laneways and nooks.

The Souk is very different from a normal Australian market. Indulge your senses as you immerse yourself in the atmosphere of merchants, music and mouth-watering cuisines. Sit back and take in the textures and patterns in this exciting celebration of culture and community. You will be delighted by roving cultural entertainers, performers and buskers. Stalls will be packed full of colour, interesting products and keep a memento from our Middle Eastern inspired photo booth styled and created by local Iraqi artist, Nooralhuda Aziz.

We have curated a wide variety of “merchants” selling fresh produce, spices, oils, plants and flowers, street food, artisan produce and handicraft products such as jewelry, textiles, gifts and paintings. It will be a feast for the senses and a place of gathering with your friends and family….and a VERY multicultural experience with no passport required!

The Souk is fully undercover so a wintery day won’t bother us. And for those who know the Tonsley Innovation District where the former Mitsubishi car factory used to be, The Souk is right next to the gorgeous Central Rainforest. Loads of parking and seating for a full family day out

Head over to our Facebook event for spotlights of our Merchants, entertainers and performers, and souk updates as we bring The Souk to life over the coming weeks!

See you Soon ~ Ksenija, The Souk Manager