More than a quarter of students at a Newcastle school speak a language other than English, a fact that the students wanted to embrace and celebrate during Harmony Week.
Children from all different cultures sat patiently while parents traced henna on their hands, while others excitedly followed Indian dance moves.
St John’s Primary School in Lambton celebrated the diversity of their almost 200 students with day full of cultural activities on Thursday March 19.
Twirling in her hot pink traditional south Indian outfit, year 4 student Mystica Rayappan said she was happy she got to celebrate her culture with her friends.
“We got to do henna and I like the Indian dancing and the bindis,” she said.
The nine-year-old said one of her favourite parts of her culture was the food, particularly payasam – a dessert made with vermicelli, sugar and milk.
As well as Indian dancing and henna, students took part in percussion activities, learning how to say hello in different languages and an Indigenous yarning circle.
The diverse student group represents 18 different languages.
Year 6 student leaders William Brown, Eddie Larrigo, Marni Agland and Lily Daly said they had a lot of fun celebrating their peers’ traditions and culture.
“I love being in a school with so much diversity because we can learn about different cultures and different traditions and all our friends will teach us different foods,” Lily said.
“It makes everyone feel like they belong and are not left out or not included,” she said.
Marni said she really liked that everyone was able to come together, and Eddie said he belonged to the Aboriginal Worimi mob and he enjoyed the yarning circle and learning about ochre.
Year 5 student Eniola Akinade said his Nigerian culture was very special to him and he always loved seeing his grandma when he visited Nigeria.
“I’m wearing a traditional gown with blue and orange scribbles which show the land and where we come from,” he said.
He said he loved all the different ways to cook yams in Nigeria and said that he especially loved when it was salty.
“I like Harmony Day because we can share our culture and everything we do in our homes,” he said.
His classmate Sebastian Aguba enjoyed getting to share some of his Philippine culture by wearing a traditional embroidered long-sleeved shirt called Barong Tagalog.
“I feel that every time I go there I feel welcomed and loved,” he said.
“I love telling people about what I do when I go to the Philippines.”
He said he loved eating Tinola, which is a broth with chicken and rice.
“It’s really good,” he said.
The original article from The Newcastle Herald is available here.
