Colour and music dominated Griffith Schools on Wednesday, for their annual Harmony Day celebrations, with both Griffith High School and Marian Catholic College getting into the spirit of diversity.
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Griffith East Public School
The front fence of Griffith East Public School was a sea of Orange on Wednesday to celebrate Harmony Day.
Students and staff members alike came together to celebrate the big day. Griffith East’s Lisa Turner said the school places a big focus on togetherness.
“Harmony Day is about showing we all belong,” she said.
Teachers did activities focusing on international harmony and celebrating differences.
“They read stories, every child had a piece of a puzzle to show they all fit together and students researched a number of international cultures.
Griffith Public School
When you walked through the gates of Griffith Public School on Wednesday you were greeted with a rainbow of traditional costumes.
The students came together to celebrate Harmony Day dressing up in their fore fathers national dress or in orange – the colour that represents the day.
What would normally be a boring cement wall was made into a work of art that told a story of the many culture that makes up Griffith Public.
Students hands were traced, cut out and the decorated in the colours of all the flags of the countries were the students heritage originated.
The front office noticed board welcomed guests with a map pin pointing the diversity of countries that the students descend from.
Bordering the map the children showed off the writing skills penning poems for all to read.
Griffith High School
Griffith High School put on a great spread of multicultural food for students, teachers and community visitors to enjoy.
Libby Ridgway helped organise the event, and said Griffith High’s celebrations were phenomenal.
“It is something we celebrate every year at Griffith High, and it works really well because we have such a broad multi-cultural background, we have around 50 different cultural backgrounds in our student body,” Ms Ridgway said.
“Its a day for us to get the kids together to share what they love most about their culture and embrace it.”
They day was highlighted with fantastic musical and dance performances, and not just from the students but some teachers as well got up and shared their cultural dance.
The Year 12 fundraising team raise money every year for a charity, and managed to raise a few hundred dollars.
“Our students are also being encouraged to wear traditional clothes or orange, and give a gold coin donation, with all funds raised going toward the Bambigi Swimming Program,” Ms Ridgway said.
The program aims to ensure that more Indigenous children in Griffith have an opportunity to learn to swim, organised by year 7 student Piper Stewart.
Student Tom Geddey-Kanety was outfitted in a traditional Israeli belly-dancer dress, and said she was proud to represent her family heritage.
“My dad is Israeli, and when we were over there visiting we found this outfit, and I thought it would be perfect to wear today,” Tom said.
“Belly dancing goes around all of the Middle East, in Turkey and Portugal, but this is a more traditional Israeli belly dancing outfit.”
Belle Matini and Marelle Popele performed a traditional Samoan dance, to rapturous applause and standing ovations.
Kalinda School
Kalinda School joined in with Griffith High in their celebrations, and Kalinda principle Angela Sampson was thrilled for her student to be a part of the colour and community.
“We are all very excited to be here, it is a real celebration of the diversity we have here in Griffith and inclusiveness,” Mrs Sampson said.
“We had some students teach us Samoan dancing earlier, so it was lovely to see.”
Marian Catholic College
Marian Catholic College’s celebrations were just as fun, colourful and exciting, and organiser Lora Segrave said seeing all the students dressed in their cultural garb and demonstrating cultural dance was fantastic.
“It has been very successful, the student have really embraced the cultural diversity. We have had a number of different performances from cultural groups, and we had a number of stalls as well,” Ms Segrave said.
The courtyard was filled Italian, Dutch, Indian and of course Aussie food stalls, with students lining up to receive a henna tattoo and sausage sizzle.
History of Harmony Day
Harmony Day is a day to celebrate Australian multiculturalism, based on the successful integration of migrants into our community.
The day coincides with the united nations international day for the elimination of racial discrimination.
Since 1999, more than 70,000 harmony day events have been held in childcare centres, schools,community groups, churches business and federal, state and local government agencies across Australia.
The day is about inclusiveness, respect, and belonging for all Australians, regardless of cultural background.