Multiculturalism
Celebrating Diversity 2021

Culture is what we know as shared ideology, traditions and experiences. Our culture is something special to each and everyone of us, it connects us with others, and strengthens the bonds between us with love and influence.

We are all individual and unique as humans, we have different appearances, different ideas, different likes and dislikes, but culture is something that allows people to join together, to share our individuality, and allows us to connect with people who we can develop trust and bonds with.

At Epping Secondary College, we are blessed to be such a diverse and multicultural community. The list of different cultures, religions and ethnicities is prodigious, and that is something we should be proud of and embrace! Each and every culture has its own beliefs and rituals which are unique to them, but when we share these ideas with each other, it allows us as individuals to grow and continue to learn and better our own knowledge and perspectives on ourselves as well as others.

For myself, culture is a concrete component of my life. It has helped build me into the individual I am today, it provided me with a sense of love and peace by those who surrounded me, and shared their knowledge with me, whilst still allowing me to develop my own perspective on life.

Culture is something personal to us, and it should be celebrated and embraced. Never be ashamed of your culture, cherish it and show it off!

Be proud of who you are and where you come from always.

Very recently, I was thinking of…. you could say “rules” … and how much I follow them, because despite not being in the country of my background. I still had an obligation to follow the same traditions, an example EID, and although it wouldn’t be the same as my home country.

You know without the large crowds, lots of food and laughter, It’s all in my heart. Thankfully I had the opportunity to visit my home-country, Syria, again in 2019 ( before corona hit) and got to experience everything that they do differently and the same as us. I cannot explain the feeling of all this, and those who have a background would understand the feeling of being with family and embracing your culture.

I believe that we should all respect each other’s culture and welcome it into our school with open arms and even if we don’t agree with certain things, that’s okay, because we all have the right to believe what we want to believe and still be respectful of other’s beliefs.

The idea of culture is very beautiful - it’s something we can celebrate and it brings communities together and promotes diversity. I celebrate Eid and Ramadan and the way we get to commemorate the religion and incorporate our culture into our daily lives is something special. It makes me, us, who we are, and it shouldn’t be forgotten. We must value it. We should be open to furthering our knowledge about our culture so that we can connect to our roots. Also we should try to be open-minded and learn about other cultures that are also present in the world and see the diversity, and hear the unique words.

And remember we are all human.

Mariam Mohammad

I am a South African born Australian who moved here in 2010, the transition wasn’t too hard as the cultures are fairly similar. My culture revolves predominantly around sports and outdoor activities which Australia does as well.

Both nations are one of the sportiest in the world and both nations pride themselves on their outdoor leisure possibilities like beaches, mountain ranges and bright, warm and sunny weather.

Our culture revolves also around the idea of the Brai (BBQ) which consists of the traditional boerewors, pap and occasionally we throw some biltong and droewors in there. This is the time where we get together and spend a lot of family time together. My culture means a lot to me as it brings all facets of my family together and I take absolute pride in my culture as it is a big part of me and my life.

Karla Roets