Songs from Vietnam, dances from Mozambique and party games from Sri Lanka took centre stage at La Trobe University’s Harmony Day celebrations in Bendigo on Wednesday.
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The event was an opportunity for Australian-born students and international visitors alike to learn more about the cultures from which their classmates originate.
The campus’ student union building also hosted a smorgasbord of foreign treats, with Swedish students Hanna Andersson and Flutura Gashi providing guests with the chance to taste food from their Scandinavian homeland.
Ms Gashi, a community development student from Malmo in Sweden’s south, said she was eager to share her country’s culture with the day’s attendees, offering visitors a taste test of licorice and dumplings.
“It’s a great opportunity to see where everybody’s from and get to know their food and traditions,” she said.
Ms Andersson told the Bendigo Advertiser her time in the central Victorian city had been pleasant.
“Everyone is so nice and helpful,” she said, explaining she felt regional communities were even more curious about the experiences of overseas-born visitors than those who lived in culturally-diverse metropolises.
James, a Fijian urban planning student dressed in the pale blue hue of his nation’s flag, also described his two-and-a-half year stint in Bendigo positively.
“I spent a month in Melbourne when I first arrived, but I think Bendigo is a bit more relaxed, like home,” he said, standing over a wooden bowl from which kava – the mud-brown island drink known for its sedative qualities – might normally be served.
Loddon Campase Multicultural Services executive officer Noemi Cummings, who spoke during Wednesday’s event, commended the university for its support of international students.
Her organisation recently secured funds from the state’s Department of Economic Development to build connections between visiting students and the Bendigo community.
“It’s important to reduce their feelings of isolation,” Ms Cummings said.
The diversity inside the Bendigo university campus is matched by a growing number of overseas-born people choosing to call the city home. About 7 per cent of the city’s population was born in a country other than Australia and about 2000 residents speak a language other than English inside their homes.
The City of Greater Bendigo council adopted a diversity plan in July, with representatives from the municipality saying the document would reduce discrimination and take advantage of the economic potential that came from hosting international visitors.