The raging success of last weekend’s Riverlights Multicultural Festival shows what is possible when we, as a community, embrace each other’s differences.
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Thousands of people gathered in Central Maitland on Saturday afternoon for the annual festival, which stretched into the evening and culminated in a breathtaking lantern display that lit up the Hunter River.
Instead of a giant dragon lantern, which was the centre-piece of last year’s festival, organisers gave a nod to Aboriginal Australian cultures by setting a huge Rainbow Serpent lantern afloat to make its way down the river.
In its fifth year, the festival showed no signs of getting old or tired – attendance numbers and the enthusiastic and good spirit of punters at the event were testament to that.
Aside from being a fantastic afternoon and evening out with friends or family, the festival was also a demonstration of the benefits of embracing diversity, particularly cultural differences.
From the delicious cuisine, cultural dancing and music and colourful attire, Riverlights was a shining example of how people can come together and embrace the spectrum of differences that contribute to their community’s character.
It was a chance for people from a range of backgrounds to share their stories and history with others.
“It was a wonderful event, yet another great success for Riverlights,” the Mayor of Maitland, Cr Peter Blackmore said.
“It was fantastic to see such a large crowd, particularly so many in their native dress, performing their dances and with the food on offer.
“I think more people are talking about [Riverlights] now.
“It was a massive crowd, I just couldn’t get over how many people there were.”
The challenge, now, is to make sure we keep that spirit of embracing diversity alive and thriving in our city.
Often, it can be too easy to slip into the mentality of “us and them” when considering people of other cultures who come from foreign lands – especially in the current political climate across the world.
But Saturday’s festival shows how binding it can be for communities to embrace diversity and how much we have to gain by sharing cultures.
It was an example of how differences can bring people together rather than divide.
