Multicultural Recognitions and Celebrations

Youth Leadership Program - By The City of Greater Dandenong 

Leadership is about the art of motivating, influencing, and directing people so that they work together to achieve the goals of a team or broader organisation. On Monday 23rd May 2022 during Period 2, Community Engagement Ambassadors at Lyndale Secondary College were given the opportunity to attend a Youth Leadership Workshop run by the City of Greater Dandenong Council. The delivery model of the workshop included public speaking and goal setting. Which aimed to empower our students to face their fears of public speaking and help build their confidence in their abilities, skills, and beliefs. Students were given individual feedback after they presented a short speech on their favourite hero, allowing every student to not only self – reflect but also get professional feedback to further improve themselves. Overall, it was an amazing opportunity and experience where every student developed a positive outlook towards any challenges that comes in life. As we are the youth of today and leaders of tomorrow!

By Yatinjot Kaur SIVIA – Year 11

Anti-Racism Workshop – By Afri-Aus Care 

On Monday  23rd May during period 3,  we were fortunate enough to undertake an anti-racism workshop which was conducted by Afri-Aus Care team. We were lucky to have Ladan Ahmed and two other students from Narre Warren South P-12 College who facilitated the workshop. Throughout this workshop, we also had Aunty Selba Gondoza-Luka, who is the founder of Afri-Aus Care, a Not-For-Profit Organisation, which provides Culturally Appropriate support services to African Australians and those from other CALD backgrounds. As a prominent community leader, Aunty Selba came to as a representative to teach about the legacy of “Ubuntu” which translates to the meaning of “I am what I am because of who we are”.  This terminology is used as  a quality of the human civilisation to scale equity within society. During this workshop, myself and other students developed a detailed understanding upon racism and the different types of racism that affects our society. We also participated in mini games during that session and were rewarded for expressing our thoughts around this topic. As a member of the African-Australian community and also as an individual who has experienced racism, I would like to acknowledge that this workshop brought us together as one, it was effective as it taught us how to manage and respond to racism using a method distract, delegate or direct. My personal favourite part of this workshop was the racism family feud activity. 

Watch the workshop video here: 

By Lubna MUSA – Year 11 

Africa Day Celebration

On the 26th of May, Lyndale Secondary College celebrated Africa Day - a day celebrated by many Africans around the world, with a display of the diverse cultures, clothing, and food within the African community. More specifically, Africa Day highlights and commemorates the founding of the Organisation of African Unity fifty-nine years ago on the 25th of May in 1963 (which was the precursor to the African Union). It was in fight against colonialism and apartheid (Apartheid is a system of legislation that upheld segregationist policies against non-white citizens in South Africa) and to defend the sovereignty and independence of Africans.

As Lyndale Secondary College has a wide range of African background, the Community Engagement Ambassadors were able to plan and execute Africa Day Celebration on May 26th, which marks the first Africa Day at the school.

The day started at lunchtime with our co-hosts Melissa Milanzi (year 12) and Mosab Adam (year 8), who introduced the subsequent acts and special guests who came to our school to celebrate the day with everyone - a day special to the students of African background. We had performances from students like Mark Machar-Wang, who delivered an outstanding performed by rapping, and Victoria Dougali, Melissa Milanzi, Sandra Elias, Sandrine Mbabazi and Nyachout Koang, who performed a spectacular Afro-beats dance.

Special appearances from Aunty Selba Luka-Gondoza - CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of Afri-Aus Care - had a many insightful and insipirational words to share along with poet and journalist Mariam Kosley shared some of her poetry about her experiences. African Star Dance and Drumming company brought the heat with their dance and drumming skills and Damian Seddon came with a mix of African and hip-hop dance and managed to teach the crowd a little African dance as well.

To fulfill the day with a sense of pride and happiness, the celebration finished with African food catered by a Local African caterer who provided a variety of African delicacies and dishes, plus a two-tier cake and many delicious cupcakes delivered by Samar’s Cakery, a baking business by a self-employed teen baker.

Watch the Africa Day Celebration video here:

By Melissa MILANZI – Year 12 and Anuthra THENAHANDI – Year 11

Ministerial Visit to Afri-Aus Care - State Minister for Crime Prevention and Community Safety

On the 3rd of June, four African-Australian Lyndale Secondary College students had the privilege to be a part of Afri-Aus Care’s welcome of the State Minister for Crime Prevention and Community Safety, The Hon Natalie Hutchins. Amongst us was also Dr Tien Kieu who is a Member of Legislative Council for South East Metropolitan Region. I was honoured to be part of the student representing our school, the event was very successful and the community ubuntu concept shared by the non-profit organisation was shared amongst all the guests. It was lovely to see the success of African-Australian Mamas who are being greatly aided and are giving back to the community all through Afri-Aus Care which is among the groups' various programs and projects. They also lead a youth and schools' program to support the confidence of African-Australian students in schools to pursue their aspirations which as an African-Australian student means so much to me and helps me feel supported to strive and do what I am passionate about.

By Danya DAOUD – Year 11 Student

‘Lyndale Speaks’ Podcast VIDEO – Interview with Mariam Koslay 

On Thursday 26th May 2022, ‘Lyndale Speaks’ Podcast host Danya Daoud ( Year 11 student), had the opportunity to do a sit-down interview with the multi-talented Mariam Koslay from the Department of Education and Training. Ms Koslay is a Poet, Writer and Social Worker who by profession works as a Communications Manager at Parkville College which is a school that operates outside of Victoria’s youth justice system. In this episode, Ms Koslay talks about culture, identity, growing up in Australia and her visit to Africa as a journalist. Our College community is looking forward to be working in partnership with Ms Koslay to support our students in terms of cultural safety, media training and leadership 

Watch the latest episode here:

Monga Mukasa

The School Community Liaison Officer

Indigenous & Multicultural Coordinator