Harmony day 21 March

 

Harmony day | 21 March 

Harmony Day is about celebrating differences and embracing new cultures. To bring equality between different cultures and religious groups, 21 March has been selected to mark this day as it coincides with the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination since 1999. Our cultural diversity is a great strength and brings with it a whole host of traditions, religions, languages and of course, food! It helps us to do things in different ways, reduces discrimination and lets us accept difference. Despite this, being anything other than Anglo can sometimes be challenging in Australia. It can feel like there’s nobody else like you and people’s lack of understanding sometimes leads to conflict. 

History Behind Harmony Day 

Harmony Day was first celebrated in Australia in 1999, but its roots go back hundreds of years. In 2017, researchers published evidence in the journal “Nature” that the ancestors of Aboriginal Australians landed there from Southeast Asia about 65,000 years ago. No one knows exactly how they got there, and although the distance was shorter than it is today due to large expanses of frozen water, some speculate that they still had to undertake a sea voyage of at least 45 miles, perhaps, according to the Australian Museum, in rafts made of bamboo! These first settlers were the original indigenous Australians and lived in harmony with the land for centuries.

Share a meal 

Get your mates together and host a Harmony meal – if there’s one thing that brings people together, it’s food! You could ask everybody to bring a dish that means something to them – it could be an old family recipe, a lunchbox favorite or a dish they like to whip up when they want to impress. Get everybody to make a card for their dish explaining what it is and why they brought it, helping everybody connect to each other's cultures.

Reconnect with the places you miss

For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, put some time aside to spend on country. If this is something that you do regularly you’ll probably already have a good idea of what works for you. If spending time on country is a little harder or unfamiliar, you could ask an Auntie, Uncle, Elder or friend to welcome you onto their land and learn about their traditions and practices. This sort of reconnection with land can be healing and beneficial for your wellbeing.

Reference:

Celebrating Harmony | Cultural Identity | ReachOut Australia