By Dr Bibiana Chan
Live in Harmony’ Pop-up Stall
CFS will be hosting a ‘Live in Harmony’ Pop-up Stall on Sat 13/3 to celebrate the 22nd year of this Harmony Day Movement. Wear something orange to brighten your day and say ‘How are you? Nǐ hǎo ma? Aloha!’ to a stranger on 21st March – Harmony Day! This choice of the day is to coincide the United Nation’s International Day of Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
The Harmony Day theme colour ‘orange’ is a warm, up-lifting colour. In contrast, its complementary colour ‘blue’ is associated with sadness. I recently watched a short film *, “Sadness – Depression Short Film (2019)” written and directed by Elena Walton for her HSC that aims to shine a light on the reality of depression. This film placed 1st in HSC Design and Technology at MacKillop College 2019. Elena’s mum, Louisa Petrou, played the role of the mum of a teenager in this film. I recently received a Facebook message from Louise to thank me for my 2008 journal article (reporting major findings of my PhD research) which she found very helpful for her assignment about mental well-being of elderly Chinese-Australians. We had a few exchanges on the current scene of Australia’s mental health services. I mentioned that I started Community Flower Studio in Sept 2019 and found it more rewarding than punching numbers inside the Ivory Tower. Louise told me she used to own a flower shop at Bondi Junction and was now studying a Graduate Diploma in Psychology. She sent me a photo of a bouquet she arranged recently and I sent her the link to the CFS Newsletter. I think this is a great story of Intellectual-Cultural Exchange – in Florist’s style! *https://www.youtube.com/watch?fbclid=IwAR3pwfHjYruLxFZJ8wPn5IaCO1cguvX07KB0ojsEBcQpk6NuEMBMVcRaNWM&v=IQPLrwVZmkQ&feature=youtu.be