Press Releases
Racial Harmony Day Celebrations 2011: "HOME: Joint Hopes, Shared Memories"
Racial Harmony Day Celebrations
On 21 July each year, schools in Singapore commemorate Racial Harmony Day (RHD) to mark the anniversary of the 1964 racial riots. On this day, students will reflect on and celebrate Singapore as a harmonious society built on a rich diversity of cultures. Since its inception, this commemorative event has helped to promote inter-racial understanding among our students and is an important part of our national education.
This year’s RHD theme is “HOME: Joint Hopes, Shared Memories”. It seeks to bring together projections of our future as a nation (Joint Hopes) and share recollections of our past moments of joy with our friends from all the different races (Shared Memories). The RHD celebrations are a reminder that promoting social cohesion and racial harmony requires collaborative efforts from our educators, students and stakeholders, such as parents.
Political leaders from the Ministry of Education will be taking part in the following schools’ RHD celebrations:
| Political Leader | School |
|---|---|
| Mr Heng Swee Keat, Minister for Education | Rivervale Primary School |
| Mr Lawrence Wong, Minister of State for Defence and Education | Serangoon Garden Secondary School |
| Mr Hawazi Daipi, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Education and Manpower | Assumption Pathway School |
| Ms Sim Ann, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Education and Law | St Hilda’s Primary School |
RHD Activities at Rivervale Primary School
My People, My Home—Launch of the Collage: Our Shared Memories
Mr Heng Swee Keat, Minister for Education, will launch the digital collage of shared memories at Rivervale Primary School during the RHD celebrations.
The theme of Shared Memories is achieved through the Racial Harmony Photography Competition organised by Rivervale Primary School for all primary and secondary school pupils. Participants captured symbolic moments reinforcing racial harmony messages and the building of the Singapore Home. Photographs taken by Rivervale Primary School pupils on the school’s National Education islandwide trail will also be included in the digital collage. The trail to heritage sites and selected venues has been a flagship programme of Rivervale Primary school since 2000. Pupils use iphones to upload digital photographs and contribute to real-time blogs when they go on the trail. To date, more than 4,300 participants have participated in these trails.
These shared memories will form the digital collage which will take the shape of the Singapore island. Key heritage grounds and landmarks will be included in the collage to enable pupils to appreciate Singapore’s unique aesthetic, cultural, and historical heritage. The collage symbolises the Joint Hopes that we have and reminds every one that the nation is built upon the underlying tenets of tolerance and mutual respect, and that whether young or old, everyone has a part to play in fostering a harmonious community.
Twinning Schools Teleconference on RHD
Minister Heng will also visit a booth in the hall where Rivervale Primary School pupils will be sharing on the topic of “Racial Harmony in my country” and the different cultures, with their twinned schools in Hong Kong and Surabaya via teleconferencing. Students from these schools will learn from the Rivervale Primary School pupils, the importance of preserving racial and religious harmony and building resilience in order to be responsible global citizens. Through the interactive on-line discussion and presentation of the different cultures, pupils will learn to express their ideas and communicate with the others using multimedia.
RHD Activities at Serangoon Garden Secondary School
Launch of Serangoon Garden Timeline Exhibition and Guidebook
Mr Lawrence Wong, Minister of State (MOS) for Defence and Education, will launch the Serangoon Garden Timeline Exhibition and Guidebook. The exhibition will bring the shared memories of Serangoon North to life with photographs featuring different racial interactions among the old Serangoon North community around the school. These will help students to understand the heritage of Serangoon North and develop greater understanding of the different racial groups and feel proud of the community.
The exhibition will also feature different ethnic and religious landmarks in the present Serangoon North, and provide an avenue for the students to imagine the future Serangoon North. It will display models and paintings that the students created based on how they had imagined the future Serangoon North. The guidebook will be an additional source of information with descriptions of the various places of interest in Serangoon North.
Visit to the Ethnic Village
MOS Wong will also view the exhibits at the Ethnic Village in the school hall, where there will be five Cultural Exhibition Booths featuring the Chinese, Malay, Indian, Peranakan and Eurasian cultures. Themed Celebrations, the booths will highlight a significant celebration of each ethnic group. In line with this year’s RHD theme of HOME: Joint Hopes and Shared Memories, the booths will provide a comparison of the way the celebration was held in the past and how it is celebrated now. Traditional artefacts of the various cultures’ celebrations, ranging from beautiful costumes, to beaded slippers, the keris and flower garlands will be on display. There will also be hands-on activities, such as garland-making, henna drawing and Chinese calligraphy, for students and guests to engage in.
RHD Activities at Assumption Pathway School (APS)
Lighting up of the APS Light of Hope
Senior Parliamentary Secretary (SPS) for Education and Manpower, Mr Hawazi Daipi, will light up the APS Light of Hope, which is symbolic of a bright future for APS. The APS Light of Hope will form part of a kolam design, which is an aspect of Hindu Indian culture. Although APS is a Catholic institution, it welcomes and embraces students from different racial and religious backgrounds. APS believes that National Education should be an integral part of the common ethos and philosophy of every school member.
RHD performances
The RHD performances aim to create a greater awareness of the different cultures so as to further strengthen racial and religious harmony among students in the school and the community. The performances include:
APS Percussion Drums performance, where various drums from the different cultures are used; Hair Fashion Show, where hairstyles from different cultures are featured; and Fusion dance, where elements of different multi-racial dances are fused together.
SPS Hawazi will also put the finishing touches to the ‘APS Colours of Harmony’ artwork, which is created by APS’ student councillors. The artwork has four colours, similar to the colours of the school logo, with each colour (red, green and yellow) bearing significance for the Chinese, Malay and Indian students in the school, while blue is deemed significant for the Catholic tradition.
Ethnic Food Demonstration and Traditional Games at the Courtyard
The Ethnic Food Demonstration will be presented by the APS students from the Baking Practices course. The demonstration will revolve around ‘bread’ and how bread is used in the different ethnic communities’ cooking to give the dish a unique identity, while still maintaining a thread of similarity across the different cultures.
Students and participants will also take part in traditional games, which brings about the ‘Shared Memories’ of yester-years. The games also highlight the school values of adaptability and resilience and help to bond the different ethnic groups and promote harmony among them.
RHD Activities at St Hilda’s Primary School
Launch of the Tampines Project (Joint HOpes, Shared Memories)
Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Education and Law, Ms Sim Ann, will launch the Tampines Project, a roving exhibition that captures students’ memories and hopes for Tampines New Town. This project is an exploration of Tampines’ rich heritage, the harmonious bond and inter-racial friendships shared by the residents, along with an appreciation of the food and traditions from the various ethnic groups. The project also helps to develop rootedness through understanding the history of Singapore and appreciating the history of Tampines Town.
Racial Harmony Carnival
SPS Sim will also tour the Racial Harmony Carnival where there are booths to feature rich ethnic cultures through traditional food sampling and traditional games. There will be cooking demonstrations of local ethnic food such as Dumpling, Turmeric Glutinous Rice and Idli as a way to celebrate inter-racial friendships and ethnic diversity. The parents from the Parent Support Group and National Education Ambassadors will also be preparing traditional food. Parents are important role models and the PSG members provide an excellent example of inter-racial friendship and respect, as well as community spirit, to their children.