The first Sri Lankans who came to Australia were perhaps those who were brought over from Galle area, in the 1880s, for employment in plantations and in the pearling industries in northern parts of Australia. But while the "White Australia Policy" existed many Burgher families came over. With them came Sinhalese and Tamils who were allowed in, because they were married to Burghers or could prove they had the required percentage of European blood. After the "Sinhala only" cry was raised in 1956, more and more Burghers migrated to Australia. But with the "White Australia Policy" being done away, (thanks to the Whitlam Government in the early 1970s), more Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim professionals were allowed to migrate. In the 1970s with the Standardisation of marks at University Entrance Examination, more and more professionals began to leave Sri Lanka. Although the Standardisation was done by the government in good faith, to help children from disadvantaged schools with poor Science facilities etc, it disadvantaged children from the bigger schools. Thus professionals, Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim, whose children studied at these bigger schools in the cities, and those who could easily get jobs abroad, due to the free-English education liberally given to them by Sri Lanka, decided to migrate to countries where their children could escape "Standardisation" and get into any profession they desired. Those who came to Victoria in the 1970s and 80s were soon introduced to the Sri Lanka Club of Victoria which later changed its name to Sri Lanka Association of Victoria. There were Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Malays and Burghers in the Club. The ethnic problems in Sri Lanka started in the 1980s. Some of us in the Sri Lanka Association and the Overseas Sri Lankans Organisation for National Unity, attending meetings with Immigration authorities, were surprised to find there were several Burgher, several Tamil and several Muslim associations, each speaking on behalf of their people, to get them over as refugees, but there wasn’t a soul to talk on behalf of the Sinhalese. The "Sri Lankan Associations" could not speak for any one ethnic group. The reality dawned on us! Though we had tried to maintain ourselves as Sri Lankans, we had to accept the fact that something had to be done on behalf of the Sinhalese. No one had bothered promoting our culture, the Buddhist religion or our language among our people in this country of adoption. To Australians we were just "Indians." They had heard of the famous "Ceylon Tea", and the European migrants remembered coming through "Colombo harbour!" But our Saris were "nice Kaftans!" Our fluency in English even made an Irish doctor ask whether our mother-tongue was English! Sinhala children were growing up here with no religion, neither learning Christianity in School nor Buddhism from their parents at home. It was mainly adults who came to the one Buddhist Temple the Sinhalese had at Richmond. Further the children did not speak any Sinhalese, and parents were not bothered. We wondered what they would say if someone asked what their mother-tongue was!! We, who had grown up with a religious background, and knew the importance of religion during the growing years, felt sad and guilty. After discussing this for months, some of us, including H.L.D.Mahindapala, Karu and Ramani Liyanaratchi, Kingsley and Marina Ediriweera, Rodney Arambewela, Olga Mendis and others, invited the elders and important people in our community to the Richmond Buddhist Temple on 1st January 1988, and asked their opinion - whether we should also start a "Sinhala Association." Their unanimous "yes" given after discussing our suggestion, gave birth to the Sinhala Cultural and Community Services Foundation. It was Incorporated in June 1988. One of the elder members, Mr K. Harischandra was invited to be our first President. BUDDHISM AND SINHALA CLASSES - One of the first steps we took was to begin Buddhism classes at the Richmond Temple in April 1988 - perhaps the first in Australia. Mrs Susan Holten, Dr Mervyn Mendis, Dr Sathis Wimalajeeva and Tissa Weerasuriya, were the first volunteer teachers. Rodney Arambewela helped later. Soon we added Sinhala classes to continue after the Buddhism classes, also with volunteer teachers, again perhaps, the first Sinhala classes in Australia! Classes were held on Sunday afternoons and the children had to sit on the floor at the Temple. Bhadra Kariyawasam, Devika Rupasinghe and Ranjani Silva were the first Sinhala Teachers. By the end of 1989 we heard about the Victorian School of Languages, which at the time was running language schools in over 50 languages, with classes being held on Saturday 9am to 12 noon, and in government school-rooms. We were more than happy to hand over the Sinhala classses to the government-run VSL in 1990. Later on Ramani Liyanaratchi, Metha Karunaratne, Kusumi Soysa, Manthri Karyawasam, Karu Liyanaratchi and Saman Subawickrema and others also joined as teachers. Then we faced the problem of having Sinhala classes on Saturday and Buddhism classes at the Temple on Sunday afternoons. Realising the inconvenience to both the children and their parents, we spoke to the Principal of the Oakleigh High School where the first Sinhala School was being held, and arranged to continue Buddhism classes after 12 noon on Saturdays in the same class rooms. This was quite an expense. We had to pay rent for the classes and we had to Insure the children against injury for the time the Buddhism classes were run. However our Committee unanimously approved this extra expense. But when in 1994 Richmond Temple moved to more spacious buildings in Malvern East, we felt the time had come to hand over the Buddhism classes to their rightful owner - the Buddhist Temple. In 1994 we were fortunate to have Sinhala recognised as a subject for the VCE (University Entrance examination), perhaps the first time Sinhala had that distinction outside Sri Lanka! We thank Bhadra Kariyawasam for working on this. Twenty-four children offered Sinhala that year and nearly all of them did well, thanks to the teachers. This was a reward for the efforts made by the Sinhala Cultural Foundation- a reward we are proud of, and an honour to our small Sinhala community in Victoria. There were a few non-Sinhala Sri Lankan students among this twenty-four. That year we succeeded in getting another Sinhala School started at Endeavour Hills. We had a small opening ceremony with the lighting of the oil Lamp, and a Sri Lankan dance performed by our children, and we were able to thank in person, the Principal of VSL, Dr Gill Freeman, Manager, Roger Langdon and Supervisor, El Fonso Abdalli. We will fail in our duty if we do not thank Mr M.D.S.Perera of Flower Road, Colombo. During a casual introduction, when he was on a visit to Melbourne, we told him of the need to get Sinhala books and dictionaries for our children. He generously complied with our request, with no cost to us. When we phoned to thank him for the gift, his reply was, "What more do you want?"Such generosity is hard to find today! Top Scorer Acheivement Awards and Premiers Award: Every year since 1994 our children who offered Sinhala for the VCE did well. But last year the Victorian government initiated a system of Awards. Thus 212 students at the Victorian Language Schools, who had got over 80% in the various Ethnic languages they offered for the VCE last year, were given "Top Scorer Acheivement Awards." Among these were three Sri Lankan girls, Dinusha Amaratunge who got 100%, and Shyami Fernando and Asanka Dewaraja who got over 80%. Dinusha was one of six students in Victoria who. also won the Premier’s Award for getting 100%. All these were, indeed lovely 10th Birthday gifts for our Cultural Foundation! Congratulations, students and teachers. Sri Lankan Dancing Classes: Recently we have arranged for Sri Lankan Dancing classes for our young people. It is heartening to see parents and children attending these classes. We are grateful to the teacher Mrs Gnana Magamanage, who proved herself to be an excellent teacher when, within a matter of weeks she produced the many beautiful Dance items which became part of Sri Lanka’s 50th Independence Anniversary Celebrations. We have been successful in getting a working Visa for her to stay on and teach more dancing to our children. We thank her and all those children who performed. We were also lucky this year to get a big Rabana, gifted to us by the Minister for Cultural Affairs, Hon. Mr Lakshman Jayakoddy. We are very, very thankful to him. It was a sign that the work we are doing is appreciated in Sri Lanka too! Besides we were really lucky to be ble to get it across without any hassles. Thanks to Deepal Abeyratne! RADIO PROGRAMS : In 1988 our Foundation became involved with the new 3ZZZ Radio Station which was started by the Ethnic Communities Council. When the Station began its programmes, having one of our founder members, Olga Mendis, in the first programming Committee, (who for the last 6 years is Hony. Secretary in the governing Council of 3ZZZ), helped us to get two hours on Sunday morning for a Sri Lankan Program. After a few months we got the name changed to Sinhala Program. Through this we have been able to provide News from Sri Lanka, Community announcements, educative programs and Current Affairs programs for our people. These programs inform our people about what our Sinhala Cultural Foundation is doing, which has helped us to save time and money printing and sending Newsletters! The Sinhala Cultural Foundation sponsored this program, buying the equipment needed to record programs, headphones, cassettes etc. Upa Upadasa who was a member of the Cultural Foundation was invited to do the Radio Program with the help of others like Bandu Dissanayaka, Sarath Witanatchchi and Daya Dayananda. Kingsley Ediriweera who was our Vice President for several years did the English News and Marina Ediriweera who was Hony. Financial Secretary from the beginning did English Announcements, which later were done by Sue Moldrich, while Swarna Upadasa did Sinhala News and Tilak Weerakkody did Sinhala Announcements. Tilak Wijewardene, Asoka Dantanarayana, Gamini Adikari, Olga Mendis and others helped with discussions for the Program. The Foundation spent over $ 4500.00 at the start to buy recorders etc, and later bought a Fax machine to get News from Colombo. In May 1997 we were able to get another hour for an English Program for the benefit of Burghers, Muslims and older Sinhalese who are not fluent in Sinhalese. Vijaya and Himali Karunasena, Daya Silva, Saminda and Milinda Arambewela, Arjuna Punchihewa, Amanthi Kariyawasam, Srimani and Deepthi Kurukulasuriya, Namalka and Nadeeka Arambewela and Saman Buddhadasa have helped to carry on this program while Mr H.L.D. Mahindapala has helped with Current Affairs programs and Mr Dallas Achilles with Social Security programs. We thank all those who helped in these Radio Programs and we Thank 3ZZZ for giving us these programs which have enabled us to provide a service to our people. News from Sri Lanka :Getting News from Sri Lanka was a problem. Fortunately Mr M.G.Mendis of Kirrillapone offered to do it for us. Right from the beginning he used to buy and read through 2 or 3 Newspapers every day and cut out important news- items and put them together after work on Friday night. As he was doing it at his own expense, in the first 3 years, he had to use Public Fax offices after 10pm to reduce costs. Neither the Cultural Foundation nor the Radio Station could finance the faxing of News at this stage. After about 3 years the Sinhala Cultural Foundation bought a fax machine for him. We thank him for tolerating us, waking him up at 4am or 5am (SL time) when faxes received here on Saturday morning were not quite clear! Sri Lankan Television Program on Channel 31: Our Foundation began screening Television Programmes. The first we put out on Channel 31 in 1994 was "Introducing Sri Lanka through its Dance forms." It was quite an expensive project for us, costing over $1500. Nevertheless it was worthwhile, promoting Sri Lanka, and giving our young children a chance to see themselves on TV. We thank Nimal Alwis for doing the photography at this, and at many of our functions. A welcome Dance, Kala-gedi Dance, Goyam Kapuma, Saraswathy Pooja, Tea Pluckers Dance, and Kaffrina Dances, with one dance to the tune of "Manaramya Dharshaniya Lanka" with children representing the four ethnic groups, paying homage to Mother Lanka, were performed. We thank Bandula and Padmini Gunasekera for sponsoring these programs (and several of our other activities), and Pushpa Liyanage, and Champika Mendis for training the dancers, and the dancers and their parents for helping in this project. Since then we have had other TV programs. Our aim is to promote Sri Lanka’s attractions. The program on "Holy Mountain" was so good, that Channel 31 repeated it a second time, without cost to us. Recently "The isle of Serendipity" was shown. We hope to have more regular programmes to promote our beautiful motherland. Educative Programs for older Sri Lankans: We have held several work-shops for older Sri Lankans on various topics: "Job Search"; "How to write a resume" and "How to present and face an interview" etc. Similar topics had been covered in Radio Programs too. We hope to begin shortly, another series of Workshops such as "Getting the next job" and "how to start a small business" etc. SENIOR CITIZENS PROGRAMS: Around 1992 we realised that most of the elderly in our Community were not able to participate in the Social activities in the community. During week days, they looked after the homes and the grandchildren, while the sons and daughters went to work. At weekends, either they had no transport or their children were too busy to take them out. One lady even said, "After coming here, my daughter has become a daughter in law!" These reasons moved us to start the Senior Citizens Day Centre. We have had Burgher, Muslim and Tamil Seniors joining us. Nothing is charged from anyone, but those who wish can become members of our Foundation at Concession rates. During cold months we get the Seniors together in a hired hall once every four or five weeks from 10 am to about 4 pm. Morning tea, lunch and afternoon Tea are provided. Some of the Seniors themselves volunteer to bring food. We arrange for a talk on Health topics, Social Security or Immigration topics or some Cookery demonstration, (sometimes by one of them), and often show them a Video, or arrange a sing-song. But they really seem happy, and quite contented just to sit together talking to people of their own age. During the warm months we take them out on Day trips. Here too it is very satisfying to see them enjoying the singing of old songs and chatting to each other, more than looking around the places we take them to. The Werribee Mansions, A Yarra River Cruise, A Pokies trip to Echuca across the NSW border, a day in the farm at Foster belonging to Dr Chatra and Danasiri Weerasinghe; a barbecue in Jells Park, Trip to Eildon to see the Snow, a visit to the Ballarine Peninsula and the Fairy Park, The coal mines in Walhalla, a visit to Ballarat Gold Mines; A visit to Bendigo, A trip to see a coal mine and the milking of cows by machines in Leongatha, are some of the many places they have been taken to. Together with others in our Foundation, they have taken part in fund raising concerts, singing of Christmas Carols and Bakthi gee. This year’s Bakthi gee performance was so good they were invited to perform at three temples. We thank those who have given talks to them-Dallas Achilles, Dr Chatra Weerasinghe, Dr Doreen Jayamaha, Dr Lal Ranaweera and all others who have given talks or helped us in various other ways, to make this program a success. This certainly has been one of our success stories, and we are very happy we were able to do this for our Seniors. CULTURAL PROGRAMMES : Sri Lankan Cultural activities had been rather neglected. Hence since 1988, we have devoted a lot of time and money for this. We got down from Sri Lanka, quality Sinhala Films to screen for the benefit of our people. Nanda Malini, Dr Amaradeva, Lata Walpola, her son Suneth, Jagath Wickremasinghe and Manoj Peiris, Abeywardene Balasuriya, Niranjala Sarojini; Freddy Silva, H.R.Soysa and Neela Wickremasinghe were some of the many Artists we have brought over. Most of these Artists and Films we share with Sri Lankan Cultural Associations in other States, with whom we have established a good rapport. Although we have incurred financial losses when we got down groups of Artists, we feel we have done a service to our people. For the community to get together, Family Nights are organised. They are very popular. By 10.30 pm there is no one seated! Every one young and old are on the floor, swaying to the Baila tunes produced by our friends- Daya Silva, Ranjith and Ruby Wickremsinghe, and Lakshman and Shyama Gunawardene . We also support Community functions such as the Sinhala and Tamil Avruddu Celebrations, and Independence Celebrations etc. This year we donated the cost of hiring Box Hill Town Hall for the Fiftieth Independence Celebrations. We have provided Cultural items requested by various other ethnic groups, and also at functions of the Ethnic Communities Council, 3 ZZZ Radio etc, and they have been , appreciated. For this we thank Pushpa Liyanage, Champika Mendis and Devika Rupasinghe. We must add, that at one of the functions at ECC, after a Sri Lankan Dance performed by Angie Liyanage, the chief guest, Prime Minister Mr Bob Hawke invited her for a dance, making Angie perhaps the first and only Sri Lankan lady who had the priviledge of being asked for a dance by an Australian Prime Minister! In addition in 1993 we staged "A Pageant on the 2500 years of Sri Lankan History" from King Ravana to Independence. This was attended by many non-Sri Lankans who were quite happy that they were treated to a good slice of our great past. We received many letters of thanks. The 130 odd people who took part, did an excellent job. Sri Lankan Dances and Slides were used where appropriate to make it more interesting. We thank all those who took part and all who helped in many ways to make it such a success, and gave us an opportunity to show the young children our great history.. COMMUNITY SERVICES have taken an important place in our activities. Although one of the important aims we had when we started the Foundation was to set up a Cultural Centre, we had to put that idea on hold, (temporarily we hope), when we found that our war-torn, bleeding motherland and our community needed our help. Most of the Funds collected from Film shows, Concerts and Food fairs run by us, and from donations from our people, were given to charities in Sri Lanka and Australia. DONATIONS: We have sent over $66,000 in cash to Sri Lankan Army hospitals, Weera Sebala, Dharmavijaya, Sri Lankan orphanages, Swarna Sanka Festival, and other charities. In addition through Sri Lankans like Tilak Weerakkody we have sent over $200,000 worth of Hospital equipment, beds, wheel chairs, disposable syringes, needles, and medicines etc to the Army hospitals. The Army Commander remarked that one consignment sent to the Army Hospital was worth over Rs 2 million ($80,000)! We thank Tilak and others who helped us obtain wheel chairs etc, and all the Drug Companies who helped us to get urgent medicines to send to Sri Lanka. In freight alone we have spent over $10,000. To send sniffer dogs to Sri Lanka we spent $2,400. In addition we have helped many Sri Lankans in Melbourne who have had financial problems, Immigration problems, family problems etc. Most of the Sports Teams who have come to Australia have been given donations by us -the Disabled athletes who came to Darwin, the Deaf Cricket Team, the Gymnastics Team, the Netball Teams that come every year and so on. We are represented in Ministerial Committees in Health and Immigration. We have joined and contributed in whatever way we could to assist in activities where Sri Lanka’s name had to be protected and defended. To undertake and carry out all these activities has been possible because we had a very hard working and united Committee, most of whom have been founder members and willingly continued to remain in various Committees. year after year. They volunteer to undertake and carry out the various jobs without being told. But nothing would have been possible without the enormous backing and response we get from our Sri Lankan Community. They know everything we do through Radio announcements. They have trusted us implicitly with the large funds we collect from them. How else could we have collected over $8,000 within four hours at a Food Fair for the Army Hospital? We hope we have honoured their trust. OUR THANKS : We thank Mr K. Harischandra for consenting to be our President in the first year, and the following who have been in various Committees in the past 10 years: Karu Liyanaratchi, H.L.D.Mahindapala, Kingsley and Marina Ediriweera, Tilak Wijewardene, Gamini and Devika Adikari, Ramani Liyanaratchi, Malini Jayasinghe, Champika Mendis, Neelika Kottachi, Chitra Wijesinghe, Padmini Gunasekera, Sue Moldrich, Debbie Silva, Olga Mendis, Daya Silva, Asoka Dantanarayana, Kitsiri Hettihewa, Sol Fernando, Chandra Rampala, Arvinda Rubasinghe, Rodney Arambewela, Ranjith Wickremasinghe, Asoka Dantanarayana, Morley Perera, Cyril Wijesinghe, Nimal Jayalath, Uditha Senanayake, Arvinda Rubasinghe, Upa Upadasa, Bandu Dissanayake, Sarath Witanachchi, Daya Dayananada, Polly Weerakkody, L.B.Ekananayake, Ranjith Soysa, Gamini Perera, and Gamini Fonseka. Whatever they have contributed is highly appreciated.(We are sorry if any names have been omitted.) We thank Mr H.L.D. Mahindapala for representing us in political discussions in Melbourne and interstate, and for the many useful and very popular Current Affairs discussions he has done for our Radio Programs. We also thank Dallas Achilles who has done many Social Security Programs for us. A special thank you to Devika Adikari, and all those Sri Lankans, including our Senior Citizens who always prepare lots of food for our various functions. Our special thanks to Swarnamali Seneviratne, her husband Upul, Daya Silva, Ranjith and Ruby Wickremsinghe, Lakshman and Sharma Gunawardene for providing us with music on several occasions, Pushpa and Mervyn Liyanage for helping with dance items for our functions, Nimal Alwis for being photographer at most of our functions, Tilak Weerakkody for having helped us to get the large amounts of Hospital equipment we sent in our name to Sri Lanka and to Deepal Abeyratne for helping us with freight. Our special thanks to Darrel Koch and David Jayatilleke who have helped us in printing work from time to time, including the printing of this Souvenir. |