Horowhenua College celebrates diversity with an annual flag ceremony

Horowhenua College students prepare to enter the hall for the annual flag ceremony.

The melting pot of cultures that is modern-day New Zealand was celebrated at a Levin secondary school this week.

Horowhenua College held its third annual Flag ceremony, where representatives of each country or culture walked into a full assembly waving their flag, while fun facts about that country were read aloud.

The flags were then hung in the hall. National anthems were played as the different flags entered the hall.

Horowhenua College principal Grant Congden said there were 39 different cultures represented by students in the school.

He was proud that the school had a ceremony set aside each year to celebrate that diversity.

The school had a long history of hosting exchange students from different countries who were integrated into the school and the New Zealand culture, and students from his school exchanged with other countries.

Cultural prefects organised the ceremony. One of the organisers was Patrick Galea, who typified multicultural New Zealand. He was born in Malta, spent time in Australia, before moving to New Zealand and attending Horowhenua College.

Christina Cameron was on a Chile exchange and said the ceremony was a way of showing and celebrating the diversity of culture within the school.

It was a colourful parade as the celebration this year also coincided with the school's mufti day, which many students wore traditional clothing unique to their own heritage.