The Harmony Group
The Harmony Day Group was established in 2001. The first activity of the Harmony Group was the Harmony Day Conference which attracted considerable social and political attentions on 23rd March 2002. Members of State and Federal Government, Church representatives, UNE Vice Chancellor and a few leading academics presented their speeches and articles in this conference.
In addition to the regular Harmony Day (21st March) and the International Day of Peace celebrations, the Harmony Group, in conjunction with the Department of Education and Training, proudly included strategic dimension to its activities by organising regular Harmony Writing and Drawing competitions in schools and high schools in this region.
The Harmony Group has been organizing Harmony Day and the International Day of Peace celebrations, multicultural gatherings and conferences, multicultural concerts, weekly multicultural radio programs and harmony education in schools and high schools. Harmony education has been organised by introducing people of various cultural backgrounds to schools to talk about customs, celebrations, history and culture of their countries of origins with the focus being on celebrating differences.
The Harmony Group believes that while we are living in a world with remarkable deprivation and oppression, people of (cultural, religious, political and economic) differences are more closely linked to one another than ever before. The monopolistic and conservative attitudes of the past, which have been working and protecting different groups and societies for centuries, do not work any more. To establish a sustainable social system, an inclusive and holistic understanding of the human society is required. In short, for human society, there is either a collective future or no future.