Harmony Youth Summit 2026: Be Seen, Be Heard, Belong
On August 8, CMY, in collaboration with Victoria University, held our 6th Harmony Youth Summit at the university’s St Albans campus. Over 80 students were treated to workshops, a cultural exchange and a panel of experts in a full day of connection and learning.
The Summit is a youth-led event focusing on building leadership skills, multicultural success and strengthening a sense of belonging for Year 10-12 students across Melbourne’s West. This year’s event was a joint effort from four of CMY’s youth leadership programs: Jamma, Le Mana Pasifika, WYPIN and the Metro YAG. Each group had been meeting weekly at our Sunshine office to plan the event, settling together on the summit’s theme: “Be Seen, Be Heard, Belong.”
The day kicked off with an opening address by four MCs representing the four leadership teams. Jeremiah, Tina, Lyana and Ahmad ran us through the packed day schedule and introduced VU Student Ambassador and proud Yankunytjatjara man Denzel James for an Acknowledgement of Country.
Schools were then split into workshop groups led by CMY volunteer youth leaders while teachers were also treated to their own workshops led by CMY’s MY Education and Youth Participation facilitators. The school workshops centred around the theme of the day, prompting students to reflect on their own culture and belonging.
Some students reflected on the workshops saying:
“I enjoyed making new friends here and socialising with the community.”
“What I liked about today was everyone coming together.”
“This is my second time coming here, the activities and bonding with other people is what I’ve liked the most.”
A teacher also touched on the importance of educating teachers about racism in schools, saying “you don’t know what you don’t know.”
After a big lunch, everyone headed to the lecture hall to take part in an awe-inspiring cultural exchange led by the Jamma and Le Mana Pasifika teams. Eight South Sudanese dancers connected to Jamma danced around the lecture hall to toe-tapping music, accompanied by claps from the audience. After a few numbers, the audience was compelled into a massive dance circle of students, teachers, and staff. It was a beautiful moment of connection where no matter your background, people just danced and laughed.
This was followed by a trio of Pasifika dancers from the Le Mana program who showed off their traditional clothing and dance in style.
Once everyone was settled after some moving dance performances, it was time for a panel discussion from three young leaders. The first speaker was Haki Pukeroa, a Youth Justice Lived Experience Mentor here at CMY. He spoke of his own experience with youth justice and incarceration in New Zealand, sharing his own advice to the young people in attendance.
“Stay positive in who you are and find your passion and when you find your passion, run with it and enjoy it,” said Haki.
“As soon as I started focussing on myself and I started building the relationships that I had broken in my culture, that’s when I started building momentum in my life.”
Next was Denzel James who spoke of his own experience as a First Nation’s person growing up in regional South Australia. He talked about his advocacy work and gave some words of wisdom around how to advocate for yourself as a marginalised person.
“Be the voice and not the microphone,” Denzel said.
“Just follow your heart. Follow where you actually want to see yourself going. Don’t step down for nobody, even if it takes a bit of your voice, stand up.”
The final speaker was Lavei Tukuafu, a leader from the Le Mana program. Lavei talked about her upbringing in Melbourne’s West and her schooling experiences. She had a life-changing experience with a mentor who helped her unlearn the internalised racism she learnt from school teachers. She explained this life lesson through an analogy about a scrunched-up and dirty dollar note.
“It doesn’t matter what you go through. It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve been thrown to the floor and scrunched up, being called things cannot take away your value,” Levai said.
“Once that was spoken into my life, it was like every piece to the puzzle that were all jumbled up just came together and everything made sense…if one person can make such a significant impact in my life, imagine how many people could do that if they just spoke to each other more.”
The Harmony Youth Summit is supported by and made possible thanks to partners Victoria University, Office for Youth, Engage, Department of Families, Fairness and Housing and the Victorian Government.