By Eimear McCaighy:
As part of Diversity Fest, the Western Sydney University Bankstown Campus held a small festival on Tuesday 20th September. The festival was a monumental success with the free Halal Snack Pack easily being the hit of the day. The event included food and music from different cultures and nationalities and stalls representing the Pacific Islands, the LGBTQI community and the student representative council to name a few. These stalls provided activities for students to participate in such as games and face painting.
The affair educated people about diversity whilst still being enjoyable. At the Pacific Islanders stall students attempted to pronounce words in other languages and were rewarded for their achievement. Throughout the festival, people were asked to define diversity, answers varied from “acceptance of every culture” to “understanding and embracing each other’s differences” to simply defining Australia as diverse due to multiculturalism.
As the festival finished and people left, everyone was talking about the day which appears to have been a complete success. The day was entertaining, educational and each person walked away with knowledge of a new community, culture or understanding of diversity. Overall it was a well-programmed function.
