When Harmony and Peace Come Together Through Rugby League

‘If we can play together and make music together, then we can co-exist, no problem,’ says Bob, a recent retiree who joined the advocacy group Moving Forward Together out of concern for the state of the world he is passing on to the next generation.

His words capture the spirit behind the National Rugby League’s (NRL) In League In Harmony gala day, which brought together a diverse group of Australian students from five New South Wales (NSW) secondary schools for a day of games, drills and skill-building, after each school completed the Institute for Economics & Peace’s (IEP) Positive Peace activation training.

The gala day opened with a Harmony Walk, held as part of Moving Forward Together’s ‘Stop the Hate Mate’ campaign, in which students and educators walked together as a show of unity, respect, and shared values. Students then competed in games and a drills competition, with two winners, one from the boys’ group and one from the girls’, each awarded a free jersey.

The NRL’s In League In Harmony gala days have run for 13 years as part of its multiculturalism program, supported by Multicultural NSW, and this event was held in conjunction with Moving Forward Together.

The gala day followed a partnership between the National Rugby League and the Institute for Economics & Peace to deliver Positive Peace training in local secondary schools.

The training uses IEP’s Eight Pillars of Positive Peace as a practical framework for building resilience and resolving conflict, and asks students to develop ‘Peace Projects’, which are submitted to a committee of NRL officials, IEP staff, and community members. The winning project receives a small NRL grant to bring it to life. Current ideas include a school-wide Harmony Day to unveil a new mural, an accessible community gym, and a multicultural festival. Students from Ryde High School, who proposed the gym, said: ‘We want everyone to be able to use it.’

Organisers say these activities build social cohesion and community resilience across NSW, particularly by connecting students across age, gender, and cultural lines, as borne out in how participants described the day.

A teacher from Warrawong High School said the training gave junior students in Year 7 a chance to connect with older students in Years 10 and 11, adding: ‘They usually never mix like this.’ Warrawong students proposed their own Peace Project: a school-wide Harmony Day focused on students learning English as an additional language, who are often separated from the rest of the student body. ‘We don’t want them to feel left out,’ one student said.

A student from St Clare’s Catholic High School said the training brought new friends together and taught them to ‘respect each other better than before’, while a student from Plumpton High School said it ‘taught them about themselves’. Many students described the gala day as a rare chance to meet young people from outside their usual school, age group, or gender, whose paths might not otherwise cross. A student from Menai High School put it simply: ‘You can really see the difference from across the river.’

Following the collaboration between the IEP and the NRL, new partnerships are emerging between the IEP and local sports clubs, extending Positive Peace training to a wider audience across NSW.