00:00Students of Holy Faith Convent in Pinal flaunted their natural afro hair last week for Melanin
00:27Monday, day one of the school's African History Week.
00:31This video has been viewed over half a million times online, shared thousands of times and
00:37has hundreds of positive comments on the post.
00:40Coordinator and history teacher at the school, Ms. Serene Joseph-Hamlet says it has encouraged
00:46the girls to not only embrace their heritage, but embrace who they are as well.
00:52It kind of confronts, if I can say that, the historical stigmatization of afro-textured
01:00hair and the girls are now able to acknowledge the fight against discrimination and promote
01:06self-love and acceptance in the face of past and, just sad to say, present prejudices.
01:14Mrs. Joseph-Hamlet says wearing their hair in this way had long been against many schools'
01:21internal rules, including theirs.
01:24But since encouraging the students to embrace their culture, and in keeping with the Ministry
01:28of Education's Cultural Transformation Drive, this particular policy at their school has
01:34been relaxed.
01:35Generally, it's supposed to be, you know, comb back and that kind of thing.
01:41That would have been the rules for the school, but as we, you know, step forward into this
01:46and embracing who we are, we have loosened that a bit so girls are able to wear, even
01:55outside of afro, to wear their natural hair and wear it proudly.
02:01Last week, the school had a different theme for each day of the week.
02:05Melanin Monday was followed by Tribal Tuesday, Wisdom Wednesday, Theatric Thursday and Freedom
02:12Friday.
02:13Students wore head wraps, painted their faces, were quizzed on African history, African drummers
02:19were invited to the school, and the week closed with students wearing full African attire.
02:26When I think about the purpose of what we do, I think about creating a space where we
02:30can first reflect on the struggles that, you know, African people would have endured, inclusive
02:37of the legacies of slavery, colonization and, of course, systemic, sorry, racism, and
02:44to be able to celebrate a week like this, in particular the Afro Day on Melanin Monday,
02:53it honors the triumph of those who would have fought for freedom, for equality, for civil
02:59rights.
03:00The school plans to repeat its week-long celebrations annually.
03:05Cindy Raghuban Tika Singh, TV6 News.
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