The international festival of language and culture was held at the Sydney Opera house on April 17. I was honoured to be attending this event and supporting a global commemoration of peace.

This was the 14th event and the 14th year this event was hosted. Children from all over the world enter a competition, the winner in each country attends this event to represent their own country. There is no overall winner but performances from all over the world are recognised and celebrated. It is important to note that these events have changed over the years due to political hostility. Originally called the Turkish Olympics, meaning that primary and secondary students from all over the world would be singing in turkish or dancing to Anatolian folk dances. The shift in languages occurred naturally as the Gulen Movement expanded and needed to accommodate for a larger audience. The Gulen movement is a movement that originated in Turkey, they are known for opening schools all over the world hence the spread of the turkish language. Once a loved movement, public opinion of the movement or Hizmet has changed drastically. The IFLC used to be hosted in turkey as a reward for students who grew up surrounded by the turkish culture to experience the country and its people first hand. In recent months, hostility towards the Hizmet has increased since the president of Turkey has accused the movement of being a parallel state. The IFLC meant much more this year than any other year, showing that in the midst of controversy and accusations, we stand strong and pray for peace.

The event was hosted by George Donikian and Sarah Abo , with the governor general, the governor of NSW, the minister for foreign affairs and many more esteemed guests present.During the event, I was mesmerised by the different cultures coming together as one. Australian singers were backed up by Thai dancers, African dancers collaborating with European singers… on that stage  language, culture and religion did not matter.

This event reaffirmed my beliefs once again, the future is in our hands and by doing little we can do so much. Beyond politics and movements, this event should be recognised for how much they change peoples lives. Through music and dance we can see that we are not that different, social and cultural boundaries are crossed. Hence why dialogue and communication is vital for peace and understanding. Often, we don’t leave our social circles… all of our friends are of the same religion, culture… this is not a bad thing per se but we have to leave our comfort zone and interact with different people to expand our literal world view. Music and dance is one of the many ways to communicate, but most definitely not the only way. The students in attendance taught me that you can be from all over the world but you can still have many things in common. The students shared a passion for performance and together their energy and excitement was contagious.

Heres a few of my favourite performances…