Tuesday, July 14, 2020

Melbourne School Amends Uniform Guidelines to Allow its Sikh Students to Wear a Head Covering in Accordance With Their Religious Ethos.

                  Harsanjog Singh (R) with his parents and sister
It all began four months ago with a campaign started by a handful of Sikh families associated with Good News Lutheran College in Melbourne’s western suburb of Tarneit.
It has culminated with this Christian denominational school accepting and implementing a request made by Sikh families to allow their children to wear a patka (headwear worn usually by young Sikh boys) or a turban as part of the school uniform.
School principal Fiona McAullife, considered instrumental in this change.She said “through diversity we can express the totality of God’s human creation and be blessed with an assortment of perspectives and gifts.”
“Not long after I arrived at Good News Lutheran College at the start of this year, it was brought to my attention that this was a problem. After some research, I discovered that this had been a problem for a number of years and that our uniform guidelines did not mention headwear. It seemed that there was an ‘understanding’ rather than a direct instruction that the patka was not part of the uniform,” says the school principal.
“I was surprised by this understanding as it is not in line with our Lutheran beliefs around inclusivity. It was discussed at an Executive Leadership meeting with all members in agreement that we should include a statement: ‘Hair accessories or religious/cultural headwear (e.g. turbans, patkas) are allowed in College colours (navy, teal, white and black) with no other decoration’,” Ms McAuliffe adds.
Ms McAuliffe says that all 44 of her school’s Sikh boys will have the freedom to wear a patka or a turban in school colours.
“I’m feeling very proud now that I can wear my patka. I’ll tell my friends from other cultures that this is the Sikh culture, that all religions are one,” says the 10-year-old .
His mother says she was optimistic about a positive outcome because she has "seen Australia change" during the past 10 years that the family has been living here.

Dr.Gurdeep Kaur
Associate Professor
Sri Guru Nank Dev Khalsa College
University of Delhi


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