By Sahar Foladi
A rich cultural festival was celebrated on Sunday by the Tamil and wider community of Dandenong.
Thai Pongal is a thanksgiving to the nature celebrated by Tamils in India and Sri Lanka.
This festival has been celebrated as a community since 2011, first by Casey Tamil Manram and now renamed as Tamil Festival Australia, where a collective effort by multiple organisations help to create this platform to continue the Tamil heritage and engage with the wider community.
Chairperson of Tamil fest Australia, Sivasuthan Kulendrasingam said 17 organisers came together to host this event.
“We tried to make it an event that entertains any multicultural from any community. It’s a good cultural experience at the same time.
“Nature can bring other multicultural community together and same time we can share the Tamil heritage with other communities,” he said.
The Tamil community households brought their pots to make sweet rice pudding from freshly harvested rice to offer to nature as thanksgiving.
The day was full of entertainment including, jumping castles, number of rides, photo booth, cultural dance, meals and songs.
Mr Kulendrasingam said, folk artists from India will be attending and showcasing instruments and dances.
“We had a lot of food stalls, retail stalls, Auskick had a demo session at the event.”
The decoration of the festival was made to reminisce the way of a farmer’s life, as many Australian Tamils have experienced back home.
“There were decorations with banana trees and sugarcanes.
There was a hut, to symbolically note the hut was made with wood which gave the experience as whatever you see in the homeland in Sri Lanka,” Mr Kulendrasingam said.
Traditional welcome drinks were also given to locals made with milk water and Mr Kulendrasingam explained it’s the same milk water farmers’ drink.
Tamil fest Australia had applied for community grant which was recently accepted with $1000 grant from 2021 for the next four years to support their work in the community.
Mr Kulendrasingam said this is recognition, responsibility and a motivation for them to do better.
“We could plan the event better and make it grand. It’s a big responsibility but we have a commitment to deliver and it has motivated us to add value to this multiculturalism.”
Mr Kulendrasingam said the grant will help them to improve in every aspect.
“We’ll get more help by outsourcing and get help professionally, bring in good artists and improve the sound system.”
Right now the festival is organised by a group of around 80 volunteers who’ve worked hard to put everything together for the wider community to enjoy.
