Harmony Day! The World Celebrates!

by Alberto Macchione

We come together to celebrate Harmony Day and Harmony week this week. Created in 2000, the then John Howard led Government declared 21st March, National Harmony Day. This is the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (commemorating the Sharpeville massacre in South Africa in 1960).

In the late 20th century, despite the legislation enshrining equal rights for all, many people still suffered from racist attacks. In 1998, after activists condemned the country for persistently turning a blind eye to its racism, the Howard government commissioned a study into the nature of racism over the last decade. The study highlighted a greater need for people to ‘live in harmony’ and, as a result, Harmony Day was created to encourage everyone to respect each other and appreciate the country’s multicultural background.

Harmony Day’s purpose is to celebrate unity and diversity, Harmony Day was originally an Australian celebration but is now marked worldwide by conscientious citizens.

Whilst Harmony Day is still predominantly an Australian holiday, people celebrate it worldwide by reflecting on the ways they can live in harmony with their neighbors, regardless of their background or circumstances. The communities themselves choose how they wish to celebrate, with over 55,000 Harmony Day events held since the celebration’s birth.

The City of Ryde partnering with CASS, CMRC and Relationships Australia NSW, held one such celebration on March 18th

2023 in West Ryde. Citizens were invited to attend a free event featuring a number of cultural performances from Chinese, Korean, Indian, Armenian and other groups in a joyous day celebrating diversity. Attendees were asked to wear traditional costumes or wear orange to symbolise harmony amongst one another. The organisers also featured face painting, limbo, musical statues games and ribbons dancing for kids. Italians were also represented with a performance by ‘Fratelli Del Sud’ featuring regional Italian folk songs and tarantellas performed on some of the traditional instruments of southern Italy by the popular Alvaro brothers.

Children of all backgrounds were dancing and the audience clapped along to the authentic sounds of l’organetto (button accordion) and il tamburino (tambourine). It was a wonderful opportunity to share our Italian culture with others of diverse backgrounds and in turn receive theirs. We were also very much reminded of the plight of the migrant when a newly arrived Afghan performed, having recently crossed the border to Iran before making his way to Australia to escape the Taliban only weeks ago.

It was a stern reminder of what we went through to get to where we are as a nation and an indicator of what we want in our future.

Incontro con la direttrice dell’ICE sistema Italia forte e compatto

Durante la mia visita negli uffici dell’Italian Trade Agency a Sydney ho incontrato la direttrice dell’ICE per l’Oceania Simona Bernardini e si è discusso il piano economico delineato dall’Australia che prevede una forte crescita nei settori dell’infrastrutture, delle industrie della difesa e dell’energia sostenibile.

Abbiamo sottolineato anche qui la necessità di avere un rafforzamento adeguato del per-