By DARRYN SMITH
Dozens of students from Noosa District State High School plunged their hands into brightly coloured paint on Friday to celebrate cultural diversity for Harmony Day.
The students were creating one of two multi-coloured hand painting masterpieces with the help of school chaplain Shane Briggs.
Shane said the students decided to celebrate Harmony Day by creating two eye-catching art pieces including a cobweb-like installation of coloured wool and a mural painted with handprints on a door.
“The cobweb was made by the students to represent the students’ different cultures and belief systems all working together,” he said.
Year 12 students Danielle O’Brien and Rebecca Williams spent more than six hours creating a large part of the web-like installation.
“We have been organising this for Harmony Week to represent our school and how people should come together,” Danielle said.
Shane said the handprint mural was to represent people coming together, celebrating the diversity of colour representing the student’s cultural backgrounds and belief systems.
A glass section of the door has been left blank to feature posters of humanitarian projects, the first of which will be in aid of the crisis in Vanuatu.
Harmony Day is celebrated on 21 March and is also known as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and has been celebrated since 1996.
Shane said there is a lot of disharmony is the world today and that is why it’s important to practise tolerance.
“In our world today there is obviously a lot of disharmony because of people’s belief systems, but I think if we aim at understanding and having dialogue about working together, we would go a long way toward peace in our communities and appreciating each other’s diversity,” he said.
