CONTAGIOUS HENNA
By Gulhan Yoldas
Community Engagement Facilitator
Al Siraat College
My mum loves henna! On the night before our very first Eid here in Australia back in the late 80s, my mum mixed some henna paste in a bowl and decorated my palms and fingers as is our tradition. She gently wrapped my little five-year-old hands in soft mittens and told me to quickly go to sleep so we can wake up bright and early for the Eid’s family Celebrations the next morning.
My mum loves henna! On the night before our very first Eid here in Australia back in the late 80s, my mum mixed some henna paste in a bowl and decorated my palms and fingers as is our tradition. She gently wrapped my little five-year-old hands in soft mittens and told me to quickly go to sleep so we can wake up bright and early for the Eid’s family Celebrations the next morning.
Monday morning at our local school, the responses were terrible and confused me. As we entered the classroom children complained to the teacher, ‘Miss! Miss! Gulhan’s hands are dirty, she has to wash them!’. ‘Miss! Gulhan didn’t wash her hands, they are disgusting!’ ‘Miss, I don’t want her sitting next to me with her hands like that, I don’t want to get sick!’ Then the teacher finally told me to go wash my hands… with soap.
Henna could take a month to wear off. After trying desperately to wash off my henna prints from my hands, and inevitably failing, I remember dragging my feet back to class and trying to explain in a 5 year old migrant’ s broken English what Bayram is (the Turkish word for Eid) and what Kina is (the Turkish word for henna) to my teacher. We had cultural differences, we had language barriers, she wasn’t too interested in understanding what I was trying to explain, and I ended up sitting back in my seat. The child sitting next to me, moved to another seat in fear of catching this perceived ‘Contagious Henna’ from me. I didn’t want henna on my hands for a long time after that.
Fast forward thirty odd years and this year in 2019, a few days before Eid, I surprised my mum with a booking with an incredibly talented local traditional Pakistani henna artist. The henna artist decorated my mum’s hands and feet with the most beautiful designs. She then decorated my hands and each of my three excited daughters’ hands as well. We went home trying not to smudge the beautifully elaborated artwork henna now displayed on our hands.
The next day, as we walked through the main entrance at Mernda Village kindergarten with my four-yearold daughter, Lale, I remembered my first day at school with henna and I cringed a little at the thought of how her day might go. My daughter ran up to her teacher with excitement and her hands in the air, ‘Look Aleesha! Look at my hands!’ Her teacher took both Lale’s hands in hers and matching her excitement said, ‘Oh, wow Lale! Did you get henna on your hands for Eid??!’ Lale simply beamed a big happy smile and nodded… and I exhaled a sigh of relief and gratitude.
My role at the College
As a Community Engagement Facilitator for Al Siraat College my main priorities include:
1. Increasing social cohesion amongst the school community, the parents, students and staff,
2. Connecting our school community with the broader community and forming sustainable partnerships and lastly,
3. Developing our students, especially our girls, as spokespeople for our community.
At Al Siraat College we’re an incredibly diverse community representing approximately 60 different ethnicities. These range from people from refugee backgrounds, newly arrived migrants, to indigenous Australians. I love developing projects that break barriers, connect communities, facilitate learning of new skills, supporting new families, celebrating milestones, achievements and celebrating our culture. I simply watch friendships form, and the community growing and thriving. It’s very humbling and rewarding to be able to do this as a job, so I feel very blessed and grateful.
By Glhan Yoldas