Parents and Students Push Back Against… Harmony Day?

I’ve got nothing against Harmony Day. If you’re not Australian, Harmony Day is celebrated annually on 21 March and is a government-declared observance day that began in 1999, coinciding with the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. This year, my children’s school are going full steam ahead with Harmony Day – Week – whatever. A couple of weeks ago, both my children were sent home a note from their teacher inviting parents of culturally or linguistically diverse children to come in and contribute something towards Harmony Day, things like “cultural dress, traditions, foods, celebrations, sports, or anything else that will help develop our cultural understanding”. As I have a multicultural family (my wife is Chinese), I asked my children what they thought of this. Their response was swift. “Nah, we don’t want to do that.” I asked why and they just said it sounds boring. Pressing my son a bit further, he just said that he doesn’t like being forced to do things he doesn’t want to do. Fair enough. Me too. I get it, for them, dressing up in different clothes, or singing a Chinese song, just seems pointless and potentially embarrassing.

Don’t get me wrong, my children completely embrace their Chinese heritage. They have Chinese friends, and go to Chinese school on the weekends, and really enjoy that side of their lives. But on the other hand, they also embrace their Aussieness. They watch Bluey, and like mucking around like typical Aussie kids. They also just don’t have an interest in all this diversity ideology that the school keeps trying to push. I know my kids, and they treat everybody fairly. They certainly don’t treat people differently because of their cultural background, or ethnicity, or anything like that. All they care about is having fun with their friends, and that’s pretty much how their friends act as well. There’s certainly no racism that I’m aware of. The only mention of racism is from the teaching staff. They seem to want to preach about racism that doesn’t actually exist in the school.

A week later, the teacher sent out another letter reminding us that they’re looking for some culturally-diverse volunteers to come into the classroom. I asked my children again, but they just weren’t interested in celebrating Harmony Day at school, so I asked my wife if she was willing to do something. Her response was equally swift. “No, I don’t want to do it.” You see, my wife has been living in Australia close on 15 years. At first, she found all these little multicultural events interesting, but now, she’s a bit sick of it all.

But it’s not just my family and I who seem to be a bit hesitant about all this. A couple of days ago, we got another letter from the teacher, this time a bit more brusque. “Dear Parents, As of today I have not heard from anyone who is willing to share traditional dress, provide food, or any information for our class for next Tuesday’s Harmony Day. I think it’s important to provide our students with time to share and celebrate their culture.”. Clearly, none of the other families are willing to contribute their time, either.

Look I’m all for people volunteering their time. If the local Chinese community want to perform a traditional lion dance, great! If the Japanese community want to show of their aikido skills, more power to them. The only issue that I have with all this is that the school/society are trying to push it on everybody. Diversity doesn’t need to be taught. Children are experiencing it everyday here in Australia. It comes second nature to them. The school’s Harmony Day celebrations, as with many things they seem to do of late, is largely symbolic. It’s tokenistic.

Even the ABC seem to be against Harmony Day, albeit, for different reasons. “Calls to ditch Harmony Day amid accusations it 'whitewashes historic and ongoing racism' in Australia.”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-13/harmony-day-elimination-racial-discrimination-government/102088852

Yeah, there’s racism, but it’s certainly not coming from the children. Some the teachers quite enjoy treating people differently because of their ethnicity.

For example, at the entrance of the classroom, my son’s teacher has “Welcome to Country” with an Aboriginal Flag pinned to the front door. Wouldn’t it be more inclusive and make more sense if she had “Welcome to Classroom”? It doesn’t make any sense welcoming the students to country every time they enter the classroom, does it?

The other day, I arrived early to pick up my son, and I peered into his classroom and they were watching a video about Pride.

Anyway, I hope you get my point. The school waffle on about inclusion, and racism and sexism, but the only racism or sexism I’ve witnessed at school is the drivel coming out of the teachers’ mouths.

HARMONY WEEK
https://www.harmony.gov.au/

MUSIC
Allégro by Emmit Fenn