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Harmony Day is a celebration of our cultural diversity – a day of cultural respect for everyone who calls Australia home.

Harmony Day is held on the 21 March each year, and the day coincides with the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

The message of Harmony Day is ‘everyone belongs’, the Day aims to engage people to participate in their community, respect cultural and religious diversity and foster a sense of belonging for everyone.

The NSW SES is made up of a diverse range of volunteers from many different cultural and racial backgrounds. That’s one of the special things about volunteering for the NSW SES, it is an inclusive emergency service which encourages people from local communities to get together to protect their communities in times of storms and floods and also create unique friendships and in turn, share their diverse backgrounds.

Meet 23 year old Natalie Matti. Natalie is the volunteer Deputy Team Leader of the NSW SES Fairfield Unit in Sydney’s South-West and has been a member for over three years. Natalie is of Assyrian background and moved from Iraq where she was born, to Australia with her family when she was four years old.

“My family and I moved from Iraq to Australia when I was just four years old as there was unrest in the country and we wanted to leave before it got too bad. We chose Australia for a better life. Unfortunately we have never been able to return to Iraq even for a holiday as the situation in Iraq has always been too unstable,” said Ms Matti.

“My parents, my brother and I originally moved to Melbourne where we already had family living and then we moved and settled in Sydney where my parents worked, we attended school and my little sister was born,” continued Ms Matti.

Since joining the NSW SES Natalie has undertaken roles she never would have dreamed of in her everyday life in real estate Strata Management.

“So far with my time with the NSW SES I have received chainsaw and drive operational vehicle qualifications and have also undertaken the Urban Search and Rescue course.

“My favourite thing to do in the NSW SES is to get out there when the weather is terrible and to help people whose properties have been damaged due to storms and floods. I love getting on a roof and repairing damaged roofs and using a chainsaw to cut branches down. This is something I would never have imagined I would do,” said Ms Matti.

As Fairfield is quite a multicultural area with many people from different cultural backgrounds, Natalie’s ability to speak the Assyrian language and understand the Arabic language has been a huge benefit to her local NSW SES unit.

“I can speak Assyrian and can understand Arabic which is really helpful when we have been called out to respond to storm and flood jobs at resident’s homes who speak Assyrian or Arabic. This way I can communicate to them and there is no language barrier,” Ms Matti said.

Click here for more information on how you can become a volunteer