The Griffith Multicultural Festival is a celebration of our any cultures that for the last ten years has ingrained itself into Griffith’s community.
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For Carmel La Rocca, organising this event became a way for her to encourage others to embrace their traditions, especially the young.
“It’s a real focus on tradition, identifying with and participating in culture, which is about embracing traditions – no matter if you’re Indian, Australia, Italian, our identity is deep-seated in our collective psyche,” Mrs La Rocca said.
“It started in the first place with discussions in the community, who felt that by having this festival it would get the youth to learn about and embrace their culture.”
Reverend Samuel Tolai said Samoan community was greatly anticipating this year’s performances.
“They are very excited, and have been practicing well,” he said.
“It is a great thing for the young ones to be involved in, as it is a learning experience, making them proud of their heritage and breaking down those barriers within the community.”
He said for Samoans growing up in Australia, they are considered Samoan here but back in Samoa they are considered Australia.
“It’s about reconciling those two identities for a better understanding of who they are.”
The myriad of performances on Saturday include a debut show of belly dancing, traditional Tongan, Samoan, Filipino, Indian, Fijian dance groups and Kiribati.
The much-loved spaghetti eating competition will once again be a highlight, a new show of a mini fashion parade with traditional garb, a flag parade accompanied by piano accordionists, with the raffle draw to conclude the performances.
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There will also be stalls selling the likes of Ukraine Babushka dolls, and food aplenty, including but not limited to Chinese, Nepalese, Tongan, South African and Filipino, with a sausage sizzle for the not-so-adventurous.
The festivities at Memorial Park will commence at 10.30am and continuing on until 3.00pm on Saturday October 13.