Harmony Week 21-27 March 2022

Many of our ANU colleagues are from a culturally or linguistically diverse background. Harmony Week (21-27 March) is a reminder that we are lucky to have such cultural richness, and is an invitation to celebrate our diversity, for everyone to feel like they belong – not just during Harmony Week, but all year round.  

Here are some ideas for how you can celebrate Harmony Week in your local area: 

  • Create a commitment board and invite staff and students to commit to one step they will take to help promote inclusivity and respect 

  • Go orange and encourage staff and students to wear something orange, the colour of social communication, meaningful conversations, freedom of ideas and encouragement of mutual respect 

  • Create opportunities for staff and students to share their stories – this can include sharing memories of cultural events, ceremonies or travel but also stories about family history and what it’s like to be part of a specific culture 

  • Collect your colleagues’ favourite songs from around the world and create a multicultural playlist 

  • Put up a map of the world and invite staff and students to put a pin on the country their family is from (or for smaller groups/areas, places that they have visited) 

  • Organise a culture trivia event or activity 

  • Collect recipes from staff and students for a multicultural cookbook 

  • Invite your colleagues to bring along art and cultural items such as traditional clothing, games etc to a multicultural exhibition 

  • Ask staff and students for their favourite foreign-language film (ideally one for which subtitles are available) and create a multicultural movie guide 

Harmony Week is also a great opportunity to reflect on what harmony means to us, and how we – as ANU staff – can contribute to creating a culturally diverse and inclusive workplace. Let’s continue to work together on creating a safe and inclusive ANU where everyone belongs!  

ANU offers a range of facilitated and self-paced learning opportunities around cultural awareness, diversity and inclusion and more offerings will be added over the coming months: 

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