Sri Lankan Australians in NSW becoming a credible community.
Early migration of Sri Lankans from their native land to Sydney was in the seventies, with a few families settled in earlier.
There were about 30 families in Sydney living in the city and the suburbs, and most of them were professionals, teachers, and a few businesspeople.
Meeting most weekends to get together and enjoy a good tasty spicy rice and curry was something that we looked forward, to feel home away from home. We had not collected enough money to purchase cars, but public transport was the mode of travel.
So, getting down at the closest railway station, walking along the roadside, until the smell of dhal curry and Basmati boiled rice emanated, and that was the signal to spot the location of the home we were visiting for lunch. We never checked the number of the premises, but the aroma from the cooked food was good enough to spot the location.
The beverage was brown label followed up with a singsong, whilst the host lady prepares the table for the feast.
Very enjoyable novelty moments, but unfortunately with better settled conditions we tendered to select our friends and formed into groups. By then, we had purchased our vehicles, and searching for a parking spot on the street was the only problem.
During summer in 1973, the cricket minded Sri Lankans with their families and with others, got together for a cricket encounter at the WH & O Wills Company ground in Randwick.
After the match, the party started, and Dr Tico Perera who had settled down in St. Mary’s, was present at this rendezvous, though did not play cricket, proposed to form an association.
With the drunkenness all agreed that late Dr George Ratnavel, a neurologist specialist in Sri Lanka, who had just settled in, to be elected as the President with one voice, in absentia, and the association was named,” Sri Lanka Association of NSW.
A committee was elected same evening, and with years the association grew with a membership of over hundred.
Cricket matches, picnics and subsequently an annual dance were organized. The dance organized annually was called the ‘Winter Ball’, though not strictly organized during the cold winter months.
One incident I recollect was in 1975, dinner organized by the committee of the Association, at the Italian restaurant in Glebe on the road to Balmain. The function Centre was upstairs, and the restaurant was on the ground floor.
Late Dr Leslie Fernando, as usual, after a few drinks starts dancing and singing Baila as loud as ever.
The Italian restaurant owner and staff, informed the police, came rushing upstairs to check whether there was a fight, and they realized that Sri Lankans do enjoy like the Caribbean’s- singing loudly to loud drumbeats.
Winter Ball
The annual ‘Winter Ball’ organized by the SLA became popular. Venue was a 5-star hotel, or prominent Golf club hall, other recognized public venues, and a minimum of 200 couples would attend those events. At one stage two dances for the year was organized.
Open Seniors Day
One recent event organized by the association was the Seniors’ open day, monthly event for all senior Sri Lankans, irrespective whether they have been members or otherwise.
Over 70 senior couples join in the activities, such as group singing, playing carom, cards, ending up with a lavish lunch sponsored or from the association funds.
This was the brainchild of Sam Masachchi, when he was the president, three years ago.
Birth of the Sinhalese Cultural Forum
About the year 1990, Soma Disanayake, presently in Sri Lanka, director of many Sinhalese films, screen writer and producer, wanted to have a Sinhalese cultural division affiliated to the existing Sri Lankan Association of NSW to foster and promote Sinhalese cultural events in Sydney.
Objections were raised, and it was revealed that the Association forms the Umbrella Association, common to all Sri Lankans, including Burghers, Tamils, Malays, Muslims, among others.
Soma broke away from the Association and formed the Sinhalese cultural forum in 1990. This forum with time became one of the leading Sri Lankan community organization in Sydney. One of the charter members was Don Wickrama AM, named the cultural community as the Sinhalese Cultural Forum, and as a legal person formulated the constitution.
By then the Sinhalese community had grown and there were over and in the 2016 consensus there were 26,235 people in NSW with Sri Lankan ancestry
There were times when cultural events were organized conjoint with the Sri Lankan Association, and most of the stage cultural dances and plays presented were par excellence, equal to such events in the home country.
The annual ‘Sunfest’ carnival to represent the Sinhala and Tamil New year celebrations was a great success, attended by all members of the community.
With time, the same group of the community formed the Sinhalese Cultural Centre, a charitable non-profit company limited, about the year 2015. The purpose of this cultural Centre was to build and manage a facility to conduct current cultural and educational activities undertaken by the Sinhalese Cultural Forum (SCF), and the latter, a sole member of the Sinhalese Cultural Centre (SCC).
Rapid progress has been made to renovate an existing structure as the Centre for the cultural activities, in Cacia Avenue, Seven Hills, and the facility will be declared open in April this year.
This would be a proud achievement and an epoch-making historic event that all Sinhalese and other Sri Lankan communities should applause. Most of the hard work and planning have been done by the committee, including Nihal, Upul. Renuka, Pramuk, Daya, Sunil, Don Wickrama, and others.
Funds have been collected by organizing food fairs, and food take away events, and more such fund-raising events need to be planned in the future.
The Cultural Centre will be the proud possession, and achievement of the Sinhalese community in NSW. Although, it is registered as a Sinhalese charitable organization, all other communities will have access to the facilities.
With blessings from the writer-Dr. harold Gunatillake
