The national event celebrates multiculturalism and minister for citizenship and multicultural affairs Alan Tudge said 3500 events were expected to take place in schools, workplaces and public venues around the country.

Bendigo South East currently boasted people from at least 70 students from 25 different nationalities.

The Student Representative Council spearheaded the event.

School captain Will Mandersloot said it was a way to feel accepted.

”I believe that if we don’t recognise our differences then people aren’t special anymore,” he said.

Will said it was important to celebrate diversity in all its forms, not only its cultural variants.

“We’ve also got lots of other smaller projects that have been sparked by this one. The student representative council has some other plans that will come later this year,” he said.

Student support centre facilitator Ange Tremain said some of those plans would tie in with a Safe Schools program message that recognised who people were, what they were like and who they loved.

Today’s event saw students enrolled in Chinese, Indonesian and German classes join Indigenous classmates to showcase different cultures and to raise money for World Vision child sponsorships. A sausage sizzle raised money for an upcoming excursion to Villers-Bretonneux.

Activities included versions of traditional games from Indigenous nations around Australia, which the Bendigo District Aboriginal Co-Operative helped run. 

The day also included food cooked by students studying foreign languages.

At the Indonesian food stall Laura Higgins, Abi Sartori and Shameka Russell had helped cook and sell noodles.

It was their first time taking part in Harmony Day celebrations and they had discovered one of their teachers, who was from Indonesia, had a talent for cooking.

“It was a good experience being in the kitchen with her, and learning about her culture too,” Abi said.