Mollie Morris summed it up perfectly when the 11-year-old explained Harmony Day as “about people from different backgrounds, with different coloured skin and from different regions, coming together to have fun and to put their differences aside”.
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Mollie, an Australian with Polynesian heritage, is part of the Plattsburg Public School’s Gilpiyn Dance Group, which performed at the Harmony Day BBQ at Newcastle Library on Friday.
Newcastle-born Cary Lee, an Australian with Chinese heritage, released his illustrated book Inviting Harmony, which introduces the values of belonging, diversity and multiculturalism to children aged four to eight.
“Growing up in Newcastle I never felt like I was Australian or Chinese,” he said. “Australian People would ask, ‘Where are you from?’, and Chinese would say, ‘I don't understand your Australian accent’.
It is Mr Lee’s first book but he thought he “would give it a crack” to introduce the concepts of belonging and diversity to his six-year-old daughter.
The 37-year-old has been volunteering and working to promote multiculturalism in Newcastle for the past 15 years and has seen the changes but said “to think that there is no racism at all is a bit naive”.
“It's an exception rather than common place now though,” he said.
Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes described Newcastle City Council as “very, very committed to cultural inclusion”.
“We are a welcome to refugee zone and a caring and inclusive community. Doing everything we can to make Newcastle a better city to live in for people of all different backgrounds is one of our key objectives,” the Lord Mayor said.