Tamils unite

BY MALAVIKA SANTHEBENNUR

There is no better way to celebrate the beginning of a new year than by getting together with members of your community and spending the day singing, dancing and celebrating one’s rich culture.

And that is exactly what the Tamil community did on Sunday, April 22. Rain and clouds didn’t seem to hold the community back from coming together to cheer for their culture and language. Despite a gloomy, cloudy day, the Tamil community turned out in full force to celebrate ‘Sydney Chithirai Festival’, a fair organised by the Tamil Arts and Culture Association (TACA Sydney). Formed only in October last year, the association united Tamils from all countries like India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, Fiji and Mauritius for a grand celebration of the Tamil New Year.

Held at Castle Hill Lower Showground, the fair attracted about 2000 people, young and old and celebrated the festival of Chithirai. Chithirai is the first month of the Tamil calendar and is a festival that spans a month for the Tamil community.

Music and dance are staples of the Tamil community and this fair was no exception. The highlight of the event was the much awaited recital by renowned Tamil folk artists, Dr Pushpavanam Kuppusamy and Anitha Kuppusamy. Performing for the first time on Australian soil, the celebrated couple are loved by Tamil communities around the world for their simple ways of conveying moral messages through singing and storytelling in the folk music genre. They aim to convey the message of upholding the ancient Tamil tradition and culture to the children and youth of the community. They did so beautifully in their Sydney tour. The audience, from young to old, found themselves tapping their feet, clapping their hands and dancing merrily to the beat and rhythm of their traditional music from the rural Tamil landscape.

Before the songs of this famous couple, the cultural show was inaugurated with the Tamil anthem, which pays respect and prays to the Tamil mother and soil. The Australian national anthem was also sung, paying homage to the country we live in. An instrumental item followed, with a rendition on the nadaswaram and thavil, two popular instruments in Carnatic Music.

Anagan Babu, one of nine founding members of TACA Sydney, said that when they formed the association, they conducted a survey among the Tamil community to gauge their expectations about what they would like to see happening in the Tamil community. This got him and other members of the association thinking about how they can unite all Tamils living in Sydney, not just Indian Tamils.

“What we were thinking is there are so many associations in the community. They are different small associations. But we wanted to make ours different and have a strong Tamil association,” Mr Babu said in an interview.

“With members from countries like Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Fiji, our numbers are strong – and our members all feel like they belong. For example, we have Tamils from South Africa who don’t read or write the language but they are still of Tamil origin. Our first function brought all Tamils in Sydney together”.

Mr Babu said that he and his colleagues in the association wanted to organise an outdoors function where large numbers of people could attend. His inspiration was the United India Association yearly fair, where thousands of attendees come from all states of India. He hopes this can become an annual event.

Being the first month of the Tamil calendar year, the Chittirai Festival is celebrated on a massively grand scale in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. Hundreds of thousands of people turn up and participate in festivities that last a month. It is one of the longest lasting festivals. TACA Sydney managed to mobilise the Tamil community through media support from the Australian Tamil Broadcasting Corporation and other media outlets, which promoted the event to the wider community. They also approached other Tamil organisations and associations, who were all very supportive. In