Deputy Principal
Harmony Day
On Friday we celebrated Harmony Day at the College. This aligns with our Touchstone of ‘Inclusive Community.’ I told our students that while it is important that we celebrate Harmony Day, it is something we must experience every day, not just one day of the year. Recently we have seen in Rugby League, Spencer Leniu being suspended for calling Ezra Mam (First Nation player) a ‘monkey.’ The Roosters forward admitted to calling Ezra a monkey, but he claimed that he did not know that it was a racial slur. Although I do not know anything about Spener Leniu, I do not believe that in 2024 a young man of his age does not know that what he said was a racial slur.
A few days later, Haumole Olokau’atu from Manly came out and talked about how he has been called ‘coconut’ on the field and that he basically just shrugs it off. I asked the students about their thoughts on what kind of message this sends and tried to get them to see that this could also be that Haumole does not know how to deal with it and could be afraid to stand up against the racism.
It has also only been over the last few years that our Pacific Island players have been comfortable enough to ask broadcasters to pronounce their name the way it should be and not to anglicise their name.
Another player, Jerome Luai, has also come out and said that he now looks at the saying ‘what happens on the field, stays on the field’ differently and that he supports players who speak up about racism. I have not experienced racism so I cannot place myself in the shoes of those who have. However, I challenged our young men, some of whom openly joke around and call each other ‘Lebs’ to stop doing it. It sends a confusing message that it is okay to be racist when it is a joke amongst mates but depending on who says it, it is not a joke. Some of our young men find it hard to interpret social situations and having a joke by denigrating someone’s cultural background sends the wrong message.
We have seen this all before in Australia when Adam Goodes, one of the greatest players to ever play AFL, was hounded out of his chosen profession due to his Indigenous heritage and the fact that he called out the racism that still exists in this country. Our Junior School Captain, Marcus Donovan, spoke to the whole school last year about this topic. We cannot claim ignorance of these topics and indeed ignorance is not an excuse.
Words have meanings and words hurt. We need our young men to be courageous and call out racism. We need to celebrate all the cultural backgrounds that we have in this school that make us all Australian. We need to make every day Harmony Day.
As I always say about this community: “We don’t tolerate difference. We celebrate it”.
Adrian Byrne
Deputy Principal