Recently, I witnessed something Australia has lost – and urgently needs back.
I was in Kuala Lumpur, sitting quietly in the corner of my father’s VI (Victoria Institution) school reunion. Class of 1963-1969.
My dad – the only Sikh man here in a turban – is being greeted with such genuine respect.
They remember him as a school prefect. Captain in hockey, soccer, athletics. A leader even as a teenager.
The look in their eyes when they see him – pride, belonging, connection – is almost sacred.
And then something happened that cut me straight to the core.
They all stood up… and sang the school song.
Every word.
Sixty years later.
Still in their hearts.
This is what school should be.
Not curriculum documents and rubrics.
But identity.
Belonging.
Respect.
Pride in who we are and who we walked beside.
Malaysia is deeply multicultural – Malay, Chinese, Indian, Sikh, all faiths – yet they have never lost a sense of cultural cohesion.
They have differences – but there is a baseline of shared identity that creates unity.
This is why a reunion 60 years later is not merely a dinner – it is reverence.
And I’m realising – painfully -how much this is missing in Australia.
We no longer build school spirit.
We have no real traditions.
We have no intentional pride-building rituals.
Ask most Australian students today to sing their school song – if one even exists – many don’t even know there is one.
We need to bring back:
• school songs
• school values lived, not laminated
• house rivalries that build belonging
• respect for teachers and principals
• alumni who return not just to reunite – but to honour
This is how we build connection and national pride.
This is how we embed Cultural Intelligence from childhood.
This is how we produce adults who stand tall – grounded in who they are.
Watching these elderly men embrace my father with such love and honour, I am reminded that when you build belonging early, the world never takes it away.
Australia – we need to start again.
From schools.
From identity.
From pride.
Maybe the thing we all want – unity – is not as complicated as we’ve made it.
It might simply begin with… a school song.
