Harmony Week Event

UNSW Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ian Jacobs, invites students and staff to come along to an event on the library lawn at 11am on Thursday 21 March to mark Harmony Week and reiterate our university’s commitment to a peaceful and harmonious campus.

Professor Jacobs noted that in the first part of 2019, the world has seen too many examples of division in our world, along religious or ideological lines.

“The horror of the appalling, senseless attack on innocent people in Christchurch last week can lead us to despair about the future of humanity.

We can take some reassurance from the shared wish of the overwhelming majority of people around the world to live together in caring, mutually understanding and supportive communities.

That is a core part of the ethos of the UNSW community – our community brings together people from over 120 nationalities, beliefs and cultures. We have an unwavering commitment to mutual understanding, equity, diversity and inclusion.

Our thoughts are with the victims of violence in Christchurch and wherever else it has occurred. We share the pain of our Muslim community, and all who are deeply affected by this.

There will be several student and staff events to show solidarity and support in the next few days.

I hope that many of the UNSW community will join me on the library lawn on Harmony Day on Thursday. It will be an opportunity to make clear our commitment to a world in which people of all races, nationalities, religious beliefs, and of no belief, live together peacefully and in harmony.”

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Harmony Day and signals the renaming of the celebration to Harmony Week which will run until 21 March, the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.