URS R EDUCING VULNERABILITIES

Asha Bhat, OAM

For service to the Indigenous community of Western Australia

CEO of Southern Aboriginal Corporation (SAC) Asha Bhat feels her Indian background has helped her connect with Australia’s Indigenous community.

“I have found much commonality with our culture and First Nations cultures in terms of family values, dealing with loss and grief, using informal ways of working etc,” she said while speaking with Indian Link.

Asha has been working in Indigenous Affairs for the last 14 years. And for this work, both paid and voluntary, and her dedication and achievements in this field, she has been awarded the Order of Australia Medal this year.

“I feel quite honoured and humbled to have won this award,” she said. “Like everyone else who lives in a regional community, I try to do my bit.”

The Bangalore-born Asha moved to Albany in Western Australia with her husband and son in 2008. Here she took a job as Finance Officer with Southern Aboriginal Corporation. Here, she became acquainted with issues faced by the

Aboriginal community and their needs.

She was recruited as CEO of Southern Aboriginal Corporation in 2013. It was a time when the organisation needed stability and integrity, and she has been able to bring reliability and accountability to the system.

The organisation provides leadership in housing, homelessness, family and domestic violence, suicide prevention and health promotion.

“These areas disproportionately affect the Aboriginal community. I do not shy away from challenges but continue to look for my next challenge to maximise support to the marginalised group.”

Asha is a very strong advocate for diversity and inclusion.

“As a migrant woman who witnessed much social disadvantage growing up in India, I have always been passionate about contributing to a fairer world.”

Asha also volunteers for a number of charities and sits on several boards and committees. Living in a regional area, she has experienced discrimination at the higher levels of employment and found it extremely challenging to break the glassceiling, she revealed.

Yet she has been able to guide her organisation to much success.

“My proudest achievement is leading the expansion of the Family Violence Prevention Legal Service Program to South West, Wheatbelt and Perth metro regions. This has enabled us to support the most vulnerable group of women who are victims, or at risk of family and domestic violence, requiring legal assistance to increase their personal safety and reduce their vulnerabilities.”

For Asha, a natural progression was to become a volunteer team leader (WA) for Share the Dignity, a not-for-profit which provides dignity to women and girls fleeing domestic violence and are at risk of becoming homeless. “I feel very privileged to be contributing to this organisation,” Asha said with much humility.

Like all effective CEOs, Asha is paying attention to management succession.

“I have already started working with Indigenous youth, mentoring them. My aim is to strengthen Aboriginal leadership within SAC and build the next generation leaders to lead the Corporation,” says Asha.

Asha’s commitment to her work has seen her win much acclaim in the wider community, such as Citizen of the Year

Cricket Statistician Extraordinaire

Kersi MeherHomji, OAM

For service to the multicultural community, and to cricket

This may be the first time an OAM honoree has burst into song when hearing the news. KersiMeherHomji claims he felt compelled to sing the Pankaj Mullick song Aaj apni mehanato ka badla mil gaya (Today I receive the rewards of my hard work) when he heard he had been honoured with the OAM.

Kersi’s love for cricket is well-known not only in Sydney’s Indian community but in the broader mainstream as well.

Describing himself as a “poor cricketer”, he seems to have made up for the lack of sporting talent by writing prolifically about the game, for almost 60 years now.

“Cricket is a large part of my life,” he told Indian Link. “I have written in cricket magazines in India, Australia and England, giving my opinions without favour or prejudice.”

As a cricket tragic, Kersi’s strength has been statistics. He can rattle off any manner of cricket numbers, leaving you marvelling.

“Yes, I enjoy gathering and sharing interesting cricket information,” Kersi said in the quiet manner of a deeply involved academic. “I have written 16 books on cricket. Amongst them are serious ones like Cricket’s Great Families, Cricket’s Great Allrounders, The Waugh Twins, Cricket’s Great Controversies, and quirky ones like Out for a Duck, Nervous Nineties, Six Appeal, Cricket Quirky Cricket. My latest is titled From Bradman to Kohli: The Best of India-Australia Test Cricket. It has forewords by Sunil Gavaskar and Allan Border.”

Kersi Meher-Homji sees India-Australia cricket as a great unifier in a larger sense. “Both Indians and Australians love their cricket. It does bring them together. It hasn’t always been smooth sailing, with controversies galore in the past, but it is much better now.”

Talking about his early days in Australia, Kersi recalled, “Coming to Sydney in 1970 with only $50, without a job, and with a pregnant wife (Villie) by my side, we faced initial problems. But we were helped by friends. Although a postgraduate in virology I got my first job as a school teacher in Blacktown, a long travel every morning from where we were living. The warmth and friendliness of students and other teachers made me decide quite quickly that Australia is my country of choice. Even though I taught there for only three weeks, the students were in tears to find out that I would be leaving to take up a job as a virologist in Sydney University.”

Soon Kersi moved to a higher job at the Australian Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service (ARCBTS) NSW, as a Quality Control Officer, working with HIV and Hepatitis viruses.

Here, his research on poliomyelitis, small-pox, hepatitis and HIV viruses

Award in the city of Albany (2017), Women in Business award (2020) and the Pro Bono Australia Impact award (2022). The local Indian community also felicitated her, giving her the Personal Excellence Award in 2019.

Going forward, she hopes her OAM will help her amplify the voices of Indigenous as well as migrant communities.

“When I came to Australia I found I needed to completely re-establish my professional and personal life in an environment that didn’t particularly support migrant Indian women. My sister Geeta supported my family and guided me initially. An achievement of this level simply would not be possible without the love and support of my family.”

It is clear from the passion with which Asha Bhat OAM speaks, that she will continue her work to make a difference in the lives of disadvantaged people.

Vinaya Rai resulted in many publications in reputed scientific journals.

These of course were in stark contrast to the writing he was doing for The Times of India, The Illustrated Weekly of India, Sportsweek and S portsworld in India; The Cricketer, The Wisden Cricket Monthly and SPIN in the UK; The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, The Sun-Herald, Australian Cricket and Cricketer Australia, and The Wisden Cricketer in South Africa.

Ask Kersi which national cricket team he supports, India or Australia, and he’ll reply without hesitation: “Both; but India, just a little bit more.”

As a devout Zoroastrian, Kersi is a pillar of Sydney’s Parsi community and one of the founders of the Australian Zoroastrian Association in 1971, only months after his arrival. He continued to be editor of its publication Manashni until 2000.

Kersi claims he has enjoyed each of his 52 years in Sydney. “I’m proud to be an Indian-Australian.”

He advises new migrants to be similarly proud of their new identity.

“Be proud and happy that you are in a wonderful country where your hard work will be rewarded if you do your best.”

Pawan Luthra