MEGANTHA Kiruwi may live more than 3000 kilometres from her parent's native Papua New Guinea, but the country still plays a central role in her family's life.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
They speak the language at home, wear traditional dress to church on weekends and celebrate the country's foods.
On Wednesday Megantha brought elements of her heritage out of the house and into school, as part of the Wallsend college's Multicultural Day.
"I love it, it's just so good to see everyone dressed up," Megantha, 17, said.
"Some people I didn't know they were part of that culture until today. We don't get to see that side of people when we're all in uniform.
"It makes up a huge portion of who I am."
The school's more than 800 students from 34 countries were encouraged to wear national dress for the event, which also included a flag parade, traditional dances, speeches and a lunchtime feast of Italian, Turkish, Indian, Chinese, Thai, French and Middle Eastern food.
Year eight Iraq-born student Nada Al-Omary, 13, spoke at a school gathering in March where staff and students paid tribute to the victims of the Christchurch mosque massacre and reflected on the importance of standing up to hate speech.
She suggested in a recent conversation with the college's religious studies coordinator Carmel Roennfeldt the school could host an event to embrace its diverse multicultural community and so students could share their cultures.
"We are all the same inside," Nada said.
"We have our own differences but they're not weird or unusual, they're fascinating.
"To anyone out there trying to hurt other people because they don't accept them? We accept them.
"We accept differences, we don't care about differences.
"We are all humans and what you [who perpetrate violence] do is not accepted."
College captain Isaiah Broad, 17, has Fijian and Nigerian heritage and has lived in England and Sweden.
"We want people to be proud," he said.
"We co-exist and we all really benefit from that.
"You don't have to travel that far to see the amazing cultures of the world, we have them right here and that makes us great.
"If we have 34 cultures in our school how many would we have in our neighbourhood, our community?
"It's 'Australians all let us rejoice' - not just those who came with Captain Cook, it's all of us rejoicing.
"Diversity does not exist in Australia - Australia is diversity."