WHS is having its first culture day where the cultures and heritage of our community will be expressed through traditional cultural dress, food, music and panels, throughout the day.
One aspect of the day will be the much-anticipated fashion show, showing off the depth and beauty of many cultures’ traditional clothing. Fashion is how we express ourselves, and having the opportunity to show a part of your heritage through how you dress is an enriching and beautiful form of self-expression. Most importantly, this day will permit us to learn more about the members of our school community, as seeing the various heritages and cultures on display will deepen our understanding of our peers. This is such a special event that everyone can participate in, from dressing up and sharing their culture to simply learning new things about others and celebrating together. To get a more personal feeling of what this culture day signifies to others, I spoke to Fara and Simonna and Erica.
Fara will be wearing a Lehenga to represent India and Persia and she explained how wearing her Lehenga ‘brings memories of weddings or special events because often in South Asian countries and cultures, people wear lehengas to weddings; ‘it just reminds me of dancing at weddings and having fun,’ she says. Fara described her outfit as having ‘quite a puffy silhouette, and its two pieces, the top is short and fitted and the skirt has diamonds and bright colours, it’s quite youthful.’
For Erica language and food are some of the ways she can connect to her Italian heritage, she explained how ‘One of my favourite parts of my Italian heritage is the food because my mum is such a great cook. My favourite dish is parmigiana – its roasted aubergine with mozzarella and tomato sauce. Whenever I visit my grandparents, my nonna always gives me recipes and she’s always saying try this and this, so we cook together whenever she comes over and we’ll make homemade gnocchi.’
Having a heritage that is different to where you live can be hard to navigate. Finding aspects of your life that incorporate bits your of culture is a way of connecting to your heritage. I asked Fara what it feels like to live in a different country to where her heritage is from and she told me, ‘it feels quite different being a third culture kid and living in a different country to where I grew up and am originally from, but I can bring pieces of it with me like the food I eat every day or just slipping in words from a different language with my parents. My culture and heritage are always part of my daily life, whether it’s my morals or how I’ve been brought up, or just the way I do certain things.’
Culture day is a time to share these parts of your heritage that you would usually just find at home or at special events, such as sharing recipes and traditions and wearing traditional dress. I asked Simona why she thought culture and heritage was important and should be represented at school, to which she replied, ‘For me, it’s so important to show my culture and personally, showing and expressing my heritage has been such a journey for me in this school. In year 7, walking in and being the only black girl in my class was such a big shift for me, coming from a very diverse primary school. So I think in year 7, 8 and 9 I was more reserved in showing my culture and I was a bit embarrassed of it. I think it was year 10 and 11 when I really accepted myself and found my identity and connected with my culture. So culture day has come at a really important time to me, I can now show off who I am completely’.
