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PRESS RELEASE
Soccer and Tug of War: Africans visit Thirroul
It was a striking scene: some 200 Africans from Sierra Leone, many now residents of Blacktown, playing soccer and tug of war on the grass near Thirroul beach. This was how this year’s Australia Day festivities were celebrated in this typically Anglo suburb in the Illawarra’s north.
As well as from Blacktown, the group comprised residents from Auburn, Granville, Merrylands and Bankstown.
Three bus loads of the Sierra Leoneans travelled the gruelling four hour-long return trip, all in the name of integration and enjoying the Australian festive spirit.
Community worker Bintu Kamara, from SydWest Multicultural Services Inc, organises this outing annually. She said a partnership with Wan Word, a Sierra Leone women’s group also made it possible.
Ms Kamara says: “It is important for our community to react directly with the broader Australian community and to integrate with it. It is important for the new, and even older settlers, to get the feel of Australian culture; to participate in it; to know Australia Day is an important day for every community, not just the Anglo-Saxon one.”
She said her aim in holding this event, which commenced in 2004 has been to continue to instil these ideas in the Sierra Leone people who settle in Australia, to last from generation to generation.
Ms Kamara says it is also good for other Australians to see a large group of Africans involved in the festivities, as they may not have ever seen such a group before.
She says when the Australian Flag is worn by a member of the Sierra Leone group it shows that they feel at one with the culture.
“If they put on the flag it symbolises they feel part of the community. You wouldn’t put that on if you didn’t have that feeling.”
Manager of SydWest MSI, Susan Vogels, says the Sierra Leoneans who settle in Sydney’s Western Suburbs have shown a remarkable ability to adapt into the broader culture easily, and thrive in this culture.
SydWest Multicultural Services Inc is based in Blacktown and provides advice, services and activities for the settlement needs of refugees and humanitarian entrants in Sydney’s Western suburbs.
Wan Word is a group of Sierra Leone women formed to support each other. They organise information sessions and outings for the Sierra Leone community.
Contact details: Promotions, Anne Howell, SydWest MSI and Community Worker Bintu Kamara SydWest MSI (02) 9621 6633.
Tel: (02) 9621 6633
Fax: (02) 9831 5625
Email: info@sydwestmsi.org.au