Traditional dancing at A Festival of Lights. Picture: Carmel Zaccone
Sunraysia’s inaugural A Festival of Lights brought together the Sunraysia community for a night of food, entertainment and breaking down cultural barriers. Melanie Whiting explores how the celebration came to be and its significance to the Sunraysia Indian Association and broader community.
Moving to a new town can be tough, especially when it’s more than four hours away from the closest capital city, and in a country you’ve only lived in for five years.
But that’s exactly the challenge Venu Annam, originally from India, faced when he arrived in Sunraysia two years ago.
In October, as president of the incorporated Sunraysia Indian Association, Venu helped put his culture on centre stage for “A Festival of Lights”, a celebration known in India as “Diwali”.
In October 2016, Venu was new to town and celebrating Diwali with friends and family when they came up with the idea of the festival.
A few months later, the Sunraysia Indian Association was incorporated, with the group to host two public events each year – Diwali in October and the Indian New Year in April.
“The first purpose of the association is to bring all the Indians living in Sunraysia together, and we also have a second purpose, to integrate us into the Australian way of living and integrate Australians into our culture,” Venu says.
Through the association, he hopes to help other people who, like him, moved the area not knowing a single person.
“I spent five years in Sydney and then some circumstances of life changed and I was looking for a regional town to live in,” Venu explains.
“Until then, I only saw Mildura on an orange juice bottle – I didn’t know where Mildura was.” Venu applied for a job with Lower Murray Water and stayed a week in the region, but not before checking Google Maps to find out where he was going in the first place.
During his stay, he was impressed with all the region had to offer, the slower pace and country charm was a welcome relief from the hustle and bustle of Sydney “I had almost had enough of the big cities,” Venu admits.
“But if I’m going to move my family over a 1000km distance, I need to make sure that town has all the basic facilities.
“I wanted to speak to somebody, so I actually stood outside the Indian shop and kept smiling at everybody.” It was there he met a stranger-turnedfriend who he credits with his decision to move to Mildura and the early concept of the Sunraysia Indian Association.
“I was thinking, if somebody else comes here, that person may not know anybody else so we need some sort of organisation to help people who come here,” Venu says.
After months of planning, the association pulled off an event unlike any the Sunraysia community had seen before.
The night kicked off with the traditional ritual of “Lighting Diyas”, followed by cultural performances, traditional Indian food and a fireworks show to close the event.
“There are some families who planned to go out of this region that are now staying here because they can enjoy all the cultural events,” Venu says.
