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BAWA Annual Cultural Night 2025

Senator Varun Ghosh,
Zaneta Mascarenhas, MP,
Yaz Mubarakai, MLA,
Dr Jag Krishnan, MLA,
Councillor Tarun Dewan,
Councillor Keyur Kamdar,
Councillor Paul Tucek,
Councillor Shen Sekon,
Other dignitaries from the community, today’s performers and the audience,

Kaya, namaste, shubho shondha, very good evening.

I acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land, the Whadjuk people of the Noongar nation, and, on behalf of the Indian community, pay my respects to their Elders - past, present and emerging.

Today is a very special day of Rakhi Purnima. The tradition of tying rakhis is roughly akin to that of the modern friendship band, symbolising the ties of love and duty between brother and sister, upholding the delicate balance of social order through the bonds of compassion and commitment. During the Indian freedom struggle, the Bengali poet and Asia’s first Nobel laureate in literature, Rabindranath Tagore seized on the symbol of the rakhi to unite religious communities in 1905 to rally the people of Bengal against the Partition of Bengal. It has since become a powerful symbol of unity cutting across all genders and identities.

On a lighter note, so powerful is its symbolism, that young boys are known to avoid the girls in their neighbourhood on this day for fear of being converted to a rakhi brother and hence abandon all hopes of a more romantic nature.

I thank the Bengali Association of Western Australia for inviting me and my family to join you in your Annual Cultural Night 2025. I must congratulate Amit Bhattacharjee, President of BAWA and his entire team for organising the BAWA Annual Cultural Night 2025 to continue the rich tradition since its first edition in 2020. It has been a long journey this far through various avatars for the community, since the first Saraswati Puja held in the true Bengali tradition of the baroari pujo at the Morley Community Hall in 1976.

I thank the people and government of Western Australia for providing a welcoming home away from home for the Indian community to work and flourish in. I hope that you have found Australia a richer, vibrant and more diverse place with the different voices and experiences of the different people arriving at your shores.