This week (20-26th March) is Harmony Week, a week to spotlight the multitude of different cultures and backgrounds in Australia, recognising this is what makes up our Australian culture. It is about celebrating our differences and uniting together in harmony so that everyone feels a sense of belonging. 

The official Harmony Day is the 21st March, today! However, the notion of harmony is promoted and celebrated all week. In fact, Harmony Day (21.3) coincides with the International Day for the Elimination of Racist Discrimination. Creating Harmony in our society is so crucial, especially in a society that is so culturally diverse. This is probably why Harmony Day began in Australia back in 1999. 

Education is the most powerful way to promote and foster an acceptance and appreciation of difference, therefore celebrating Harmony Week in schools is ever so important. The theme for 2023 Harmony Day is “Everyone Belongs”. There are so many activities that can be quickly implemented in the classroom that help students engage with the concept of belonging. Some activities we’ve tried before include:

• Creating a class mural or picture that can be showcased on a display board, promoting a sense of inclusivity. An easy, low prep class mural can be made out of cubes. The artist Thankyou X creates cube murals that can be simplified and re-developed into a classroom artwork. 

• Having students participate in a Class Bingo that highlights diversity. This is a great way to introduce the idea difference, and promote difference as common. In this Bingo style game students search for other students who have a different hair color, eye color, cultural background ect. 

• Students could explore the words we use that come from different languages (or even the language they are learning at school). For example déjà vu is a French word and has been adopted into the English language.

• You could learn and sing a song which teaches how to say hello in different languages. This could be used as a morning greeting song. A simple and adaptable song that could be used is “‘Round The World With Ways to Say Hello”- by Hap Palmer

• Make paper chain dolls, where each student colors in their doll with their cultural background flag colors.

Many more activities for the age groups Kindergarten to Lower Secondary can be found on the Victorian Government website: Harmony Day. 

How will you be celebrating Harmony Week? Please post ideas to use in the classroom in the comments below!

*Image sourced from: Morton Bay: Regional Council