A beautiful Thai Pongal celebration in Parliament yesterday 🌴 I was honoured to co-host this event with my parliamentary colleagues, alongside Sivasuthan and other partner organisations of the Tamil Festival Australia.
Thai Pongal is a harvest festival celebrated by the Tamil community, thanking the Sun, Mother Nature and the various farm animals that help to contribute to a bountiful harvest.
It’s also a time to connect with and celebrate the 40,000 strong Tamil diaspora in Victoria. The Tamil community in Sri Lanka faced persecution and oppression, so was wonderful to be alongside the community, celebrating their culture & strength by sharing food, dance and song.
It was also lovely to have Samantha Ratnam a staunch Tamil advocate and pillar of the Tamil community who pioneered this celebration.
Happy Pongal!
(P.S. let’s bring more community events into these colonial halls of power – it needs it!)
