Australia celebrates Harmony Day

Australia has set aside a day since 1999 to recognise and celebrate the country's cultural diversity.

(Transcript from World News Australia Radio)

The theme of Harmony Day, 2013, is Many Stories - One Australia.

Every year on March the 21st, Australia celebrates a day of cultural diversity.

Known as Harmony Day, it coincides with the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

In 2013 the theme is Many Stories - One Australia.

Australia has set aside a day since 1999 to recognise and celebrate the country's cultural diversity with a series of events.

Harmony Day focuses on sharing aspects of the various cultures, faiths and languages that make up the nation.

One of Australia's most successful and renowned authors, Thomas Keneally, has been named the 2013 Harmony Hero, a representative of the day,

"Each Australian has a unique story to tell and each of our 22 million stories is an important part of Australia's past, present and future. And so we all sit at the table of the Commonwealth of Australia and we respect each others' stories."

The head of the Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils of Australia or FECCA, Pino Migliorino, says Harmony Day presents an opportunity to celebrates the benefits of multiculturalism.

But he says the sole focus shouldn't be on sharing of cultures.

"The message is that diversity is important for us but important to suggest that diversity poses challenges and requires resources and attention and you can't really take the benefits without actually investing in making sure that we can maximise the benefits. My concern about it is that it's totally focused on the sharing of the culture which I think is positive but it should also be focused on the set of rights that we bestow on citizens because they are in Australia."

Mr Migliorino says Harmony Day is a also a good time to consider the settlement issues that migrants and refugees face on their arrival in Australia.

He says it's beneficial for Australia to enabling them to be more capable of participating in, and contributing to, society.

"What could be done more is actually looking at the resources which are needed to ensure that people settle as well as possible and that the opportunities are maximised and that is very much to do with employment issues, housing issue. The types of things that the more we support migrants on arrival, the quicker they'll be able to settle and indeed contribute to the economy and the society generally. So, I am always concerned about and interested in the government's response to diversity as part of its normal day-to-day activities and ensuring it has the capacity to maximise opportunities for ethnic communities."

Chief executive of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, Vic Alhadeff, says his organisation strongly supports Harmony Day.

"Our mandate is about promoting social inclusion, social harmony and we do so through the prism of the Jewish experience but we do so in a very broad, multi faceted context so where we work hard in bringing together representatives of ethnic groups, religious groups, cultural, faith groups across the community irrespective of colour, irrespective of background with the very firm principle that we all have a right to be who we are and that we all have a duty to speak against racism."

Mr Alhadeff says anti-racism strategies should start in Australian schools.

And he says an important component should be making sure that Indigenous students are directly involved.

"The benefits would be mutual for non-Indigenous students to get to know Indigenous students face-to-face, to exchange views and to hear what the issues are and equally for Indigenous students to mix in a very safe environment with non-Indigenous students and to exchange views."