Cultural Diversity Week: 18–24 March 2024
Every year Victoria celebrates Cultural Diversity Week. It is a chance to embrace and explore the incredible multicultural community that has developed in our state; home to 314 different ancestries speaking over 290 languages. This year’s theme is ‘Our Stories – Celebrating Together.’
At YPRL we will be inviting our members to join us as we host a series of events celebrating the wonderfully diverse cultures that make up our rich and vibrant community.
All our events are FREE and we encourage you to attend as many as you wish – making note that some events do require booking. Check our website for all the events at our various branches.
Here are the events that we will be hosting at different branches – We would love you to come and join us!
Monday 18 March
1.00pm - 3.00pm at Whittlesea Library
The Art of Islamic Tessellation: Learn to form air-dry clay into tiles and imprint arabesque and geometric patterns and experience the art of Islamic Tessellation. Create your own tessellated tile. All materials supplied.
1.00pm -2.30pm at Mill Park Library
A Taste of India: In this cooking demonstration, you'll learn about Ayurvedic Indian recipes with Julie from Green Karma. Join in and discover the benefits of traditional Indian cultural food, enjoying tastings and take home recipes.
Tuesday 19 March
10.00am - 2.00pm at Diamond Valley Library
This a special day filled with enriching activities showcasing the beauty of the Chinese Culture including a Tai Chi workshop (10.00am - 10.45am), Dumpling Demonstration and Tasting (11.30am - 12.00pm) and Ballroom Dancing (1.00pm - 2.00pm).
6.30pm - 8.00pm at Watsonia Library
Chinese cooking demonstration: Jean Silk will guide attendees through the process of creating Hokkien Char (stir-fried yellow noodles with prawns) and pan-fried vegetarian dumplings.
Wednesday 20 March
1.00pm - 2.00pm at Mill Park Library
Where do we come from? Celebrating who we are and where we come from. Do you have photos, family heirlooms, or favourite objects that tell us about where you come from? Bring them along and share your stories with other members of the community.
Thursday 21 March
10.00am - 11.00am at Eltham Library
Feng Shui Tips for the Year of the Wood Dragon: Feng Shui expert Salwa Abboud from Effortless Living will give you tips on how to make this exciting year work for you! Use Feng Shui to align your surroundings in 2024, the Year of the Wood Dragon.
3.30pm - 4.30pm at Lalor Library
Harmony Day Intergenerational Art Mural: Celebrate our diverse community through art in this intergenerational Harmony Day session. Grandparents, parents and children are all invited to create something. We will finish by making a wall display of everyone's artworks to celebrate Cultural Diversity Week and Harmony Day.
4.00pm - 5.00pm at Diamond Valley Library
Dances of the World: Let's dance... have you ever wanted to learn how to dance the Cha Cha, Salsa, Merengue or Zorba? Travel the world using your rhythm and feet as we explore different dance steps from around the world.
7.00pm - 8.30pm at Mill Park Library
A Taste of China and Thailand: Learn about Asian culture through food and tastings with Jean from Jean's Asian Cooking. Jean will demonstrate mouth-watering recipes from China and Thailand. Then take home copies of the recipes to try them for yourself.
Friday 22 March
11.00am - 12.00pm at Eltham Library
Chinese Line Dancing and Tai Chi: The Eltham Chinese Senior Citizens group will guide you through a Tai Chi session using slow, intentional movements in a mindful meditation. You'll also get to try Chinese Line Dancing which is a great activity for beginners with simple repetitive movements set to popular Chinese music.
2.00pm - 3.00pm at Mill Park Library
eBooks and eMagazines in Your Language: Find out how you can access free eBooks and eMagazines in different languages with your library membership. Please bring your own mobile device.
International Film Festival at Lalor Library
Join us each weekday from Monday 18 to Friday 22 of March for our International Film Festival, featuring films in the following languages:
- Monday 18 March, 6.00pm—8.00pm, Cultural Diversity Film Festival: Spanish
- Tuesday 19 March, 10.00am—12.00pm, Cultural Diversity Film Festival: Italian
- Wednesday 20 March, 6.00pm—8.00pm, Cultural Diversity Film Festival: Dari
- Thursday 21 March, 6.00pm—8.00pm, Cultural Diversity Film Festival: Chinese
- Friday 22 March, 12.30pm—2.30pm, Cultural Diversity Film Festival: Japanese
We finish the week with a special live Chinese Cultural performance by the Whittlesea Chinese Association Butterfly Dancers and Rainbow Choir on Saturday 23 March from 2.00pm—3.00pm at Lalor Library!
Please note that bookings are essential for the majority of activities and the places are filling up fast!
Whilst Cultural Diversity week is a chance for all of Victoria to explore and celebrate the multi-faceted and diverse cultures of our state, here at YPRL our collections team works diligently to provide our diverse community with access to a large selection of offerings be it children’s picture books, adult fiction, movies or digital library access every day of the year!
We have a large LOTE (languages other than English) collection featuring Chinese, Vietnamese, Greek, Italian, Macedonian, Arabic, Punjabi, Hindi and more. You can explore by searching our catalogue online or visit your local branch – our friendly staff will point you in the right direction!