Harmony Day: A chance to connect, reflect and walk together

We all smile in the same language. Living together in harmony. Everyone belongs.

Those were some of the sayings hung up around the CatholicCare Refugee Hub on Tuesday 21 March as staff, volunteers and clients gathered to celebrate Harmony Day.

The event saw people of all ages from all walks of life come together and share stories from their culture and background.

Refugee Hub Team Leader Mirja Colding-Moran was proud to facilitate the event.

“It was beautiful to see so many of our client families enjoying themselves together at the Hub and be able to showcase and celebrate their beautiful cultural heritage together through food, music, dance and conversation,” she said.

“We were particularly moved by the fact that some of the people we support felt comfortable enough to come up and share various impromptu cultural performances with such a large audience of diocese staff, volunteers and families from our community.”

People connected over food from their different cultures, with everyone bringing a plate to share.

We got to try Congolese Mandazi, Swedish Saffron Cake, Afghani Sweet Rice Pudding, New Zealand Mallow Puffs and several other treats.

The event recognised our community’s diversity and our commitment to inclusiveness, respect, and a sense of belonging for everyone.​

“We support people from all corners of the globe and from all walks of life on a daily basis, and we really appreciate all the different perspectives, languages, cultures, religions and experiences that people bring to the Hub,” Team Leader Mirja Colding-Moran said.

“As a team, we learn and grow every day because of this diversity. We strongly believe in the Harmony Day notion of ‘everyone belongs’ and we value everyone we support as a person, regardless of their background.”

The team is already looking forward to next year’s event as we continue to empower people from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds to build a future in Australia.

“We love what we do and we feel privileged to get to know and support so many families from all corners of the world,” Mirja said.

“We find the resilience, strength and determination of people from refugee backgrounds incredibly inspiring.”

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