Unpacking the concept of sewa

conference Elevate faith can guide best professional life

CONTRIBUTIONS OF SIKHS TO

Australia

'Economic Impact of Sikhs 2019' at the Elevate findings of the report are as follows.

Productivity n 87% of the Sikh population above 15 finish secondary school, compared to 52% of the Australian population n 70% of working aged Sikhs in Australia were employed compared to 56% of the overall working-age population n Sikhs contributed $8.1billion to Australia’s GDP in 2016 n Australian Sikh GPD contribution grew 6 times between 2006 and 2016

BY PREETI JABBAL

Ghirija Jayarraj’s perspective comes in part from being an Australian filmmaker, and in part being an Indian classical dancer. For the most part, though, it comes from being an eternal optimist.

All three elements went into the making of her award-winning short film Touch (2017). Based on asylum seekers, the film continues to resonate nearly two years after it was made, having just come off yet another round of screenings at Perth and at Melbourne.

In between, it travelled the world, winning the Best Short Film award at Calcutta International Cult Film Festival 2016, the Best Actress award for lead actress Kani Kusruti at the Creation International Film Festival 2016, and screening at the Global Cinema Film Festival of Boston 2017.

According to Ghirija, she is essentially an artist not an activist, however it was important for her to tell the story of asylum seekers from a humanitarian angle. “Cinema is an influential medium that enables people to understand the gravity of the situation,” she told Indian Link. “My film is not an attack on anyone or anything; it just tells a story honestly.”

She continued, “Asylum seekers deserve a chance just like you and me. They are people with human emotions and have gone through so many traumas where they come from and when they come here they still don’t get a chance to live. We need to have empathy for them, we need people to be aware of this topic and we need to find ways to improve the situation.”

Sharing her experience on the making of Touch Ghirija revealed she wrote the script in two days flat.

“I tend to jump into things without thinking!” she laughed. “All I knew was that I had a story to tell. Having written it, I sat on it for some time and then rehashed it. At that time there was a threat of Ebola Virus going around. My friends warned me not to travel but I jumped on a plane nevertheless and flew to Kerala in India to shoot the 22-minute film. It’s amazing how similar Kerala’s culture is to Sri Lanka and I was more comfortable shooting there.”

It took another year for the final product to take shape.