The theme for Victoria’s 2023 Cultural Diversity Week held earlier this month was Our Past. Our Future: Celebrating and reflecting on the contribution of our multicultural communities.
We are very proud of U3A Nunawading’s diversity, which is reflected in all aspects of our operations. Many of our Class Leaders, Reception Desk Volunteers and Committee of Management members were born overseas.
Our membership is among the most culturally diverse in the eastern region with members coming from almost every continent. According to the information our members give us when enrolling they were born in almost 70 different countries.
Many of our almost 50 language classes are offered by native speakers, we have dance classes based on Philippine, Chinese, Greek and Arabic cultures and we even have a Cantonese Opera class. And to assist our members who wish to improve their English, we offer 16 ESL classes from Beginner to Advanced.
Australian Harmony Week was also held in March to recognise our nation’s diversity and bring together Australians from different backgrounds. It’s about inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone – very much in line with U3A Nunawading’s values.
Many thanks to all of our members who took the trouble to wear their national costume in March and to Paulina Chong for providing the images promoting cultural diversity that were shown on the screens around the Hub. See the gallery of photos.
Hina Matsuri
The third of March is Hina Matsuri (Doll Festival or Girls’ Festival) in Japan, when people pray for the happiness and healthy growth of girls. Families with young daughters mark this day by setting up a display of dolls inside the house.
The dolls wear costumes of the imperial court during the Heian period (794 – 1185) and are placed on a tiered platform covered with red felt. The displays are of five or seven layers. The top tier is reserved for the emperor and the empress.
On this day, girls go to shrines wearing colourful kimono and a cape-like garment called a hifu over their kimono.
Above right, Assistant Class Leader Chieko Kawakami is pictured in a beautiful kimono with her precious emperor and empress dolls. Also in the photo is a small Perspex box that was displayed on the Reception Desk showing Class Leader Yvonne Desousa’s little set of dolls given to her by friends from Japan as a flat pack, shown in more detail to the left. Yvonne assembled it and made all the origami figures.
Website accessibility
To assist visitors to our website u3anunawading.org.au who are not so fluent in English, we now have a Translate button that offers Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Hindi and Vietnamese versions of our website content. This innovation was introduced earlier this month and is another example of our U3A’s inclusive culture. Here are instructions on how to use the Translate button.
<- Previous
Next ->