Giving back to Australia
By PETER McGUIGAN
Remarkable stories of struggle and achievement in the lives of people from ethnic backgrounds punctuated The Salvation Army’s multicultural media launch in Sydney on Friday 5 May. A common thread through their journeys had been the Salvos’ care, both in times of crisis and in their aftermath.
The event was attended by representatives from many ethnic media organisations as well as business and community leaders from Sydney’s multicultural community and Salvation Army personnel. Event organiser Sheba Nandkeolyar, CEO of leading marketing company MultiConnexions, spoke of a time in her life when she had called on the Salvos for help in Calcutta (now Kolkata), India.
As a student
“When I was 20 and doing my MBA,” Sheba said, “I picked up an unpaid internship in Calcutta and couldn’t find any place to stay. Then someone suggested I try The Salvation Army. ‘Aren’t they for the helpless people?’ I said. ‘But isn’t your situation helpless?’ she replied.
“So, I called The Salvation Army on a landline as we didn’t have mobiles in those days. I will never forget what followed. I said, ‘Do you have a place for me to stay?’ They said, ‘No, but come along tomorrow and let’s chat.’ The next morning when I went to The Salvation Army, they said, ‘We have a place for you, but it’s dormitory accommodation; are you okay with that.’ ‘Absolutely,’ I said.”
But recovering addicts were also placed in the dormitory, and the Calcutta Salvos said Sheba would need her father’s permission. So, she rang him on their landline, and when he answered, they took the phone off her and sought his permission for Sheba to stay. “My father replied, ‘This is excellent! Maybe she will be able to change somebody else’s life.’”
Sheba also told of how grateful and humbled she had been the previous week when awarded The Salvation Army’s Eva Burrows Award at the launch of the Red Shield Appeal in Sydney. The award was given for her outstanding service to The Salvation Army in facilitating the multicultural launch of the Red Shield Appeal over two decades resulting in millions of dollars’ worth of ethnic media exposure at no cost to the Salvos.
Multiculturalism matters
Guest speaker Jodi McKay, former Leader of the Opposition in NSW and now Chair of the Australia India Business Council, recognised Australia’s Indigenous Peoples as the original owners of our land. Jodi said that everyone else, “every single one of us”, were immigrants and that in her time as Leader of the Opposition, she had chosen the Multiculturalism portfolio for herself.
“I believed that I needed to demonstrate that we were about inclusivity, about everyone belonging, recognising and celebrating each other … our languages … religious practices … cultures … foods … clothing …
“For me, knowing that The Salvation Army has a multicultural launch is incredibly important in two ways. One, it sends a strong message that multiculturalism in this great country we live in matters. That it’s about tolerance, harmony and accepting each other. [I see] these as the fundamental principles, the values the Salvos hold dear.
“The second way is that [holding this event] recognises not everyone receives their information in the same way. And it’s usually because of language. Newly arrived immigrants particularly often don’t understand the role of the Salvos or what it means when someone knocks on their door at Red Shield time or about the incredible work of the Salvos … It’s about making sure all people understand and, therefore, that all are valued.”
Recognition
During her address, Territorial Commander of The Salvation Army Australia Commissioner Miriam Gluyas told the story of her encounter with an African family in Auburn, considered one of the most multicultural suburbs in Australia.
“This is my kind of room,” Miriam began. “I love the people of the nations. I was once posted from Newcastle, where it’s 97 per cent white Aussie, to Auburn, where it’s quite the opposite, and I loved it. I also loved my time serving in Papua New Guinea. It was the most amazing experience of my life.
A Salvation Army mission comprising people from 40 different nations. Friends, that’s who we are. We are hope givers and hope bringers. – Commissioner Miriam Gluyas
“Fifty-one per cent of people in Australia now come from other nations. When I was at Auburn, we were a very white Salvation Army, and I said, ‘God, you’ve got to bring some people from the nations.’ And then, one Sunday some Africans wandered into our building, heard the songs we were singing and stayed. They had nothing. They had come through two refugee camps where the kids became seriously ill.
“They turned up on our doorstep, and we loved them immediately; we heard their stories, and it broke our hearts. And we learned how to love well. But these beautiful people who came with hearts to make a new beginning struggled with recognition. Their degrees were not recognised, they had to learn another language, they had to go back to college – and they did it, and they did it with such grace.
“When I left Auburn, people from 26 nations were part of The Salvation Army there, and I understand that number now to be 40-plus. Can you imagine that? A Salvation Army mission comprising people from 40 different nations. Friends, that’s who we are. We are hope givers and hope bringers.
“What I really love is that in the one family who originally came to us with nothing – no work, no housing – one of them is now a community engagement officer, one of them is a head of nursing and the other a social worker. They restarted their lives and now give back to Australia every single day.”
Miriam apologised for the discrimination many migrants and refugees had experienced since coming to Australia. She thanked them for the contribution they now give to making Australia a better place for all and for the great variety they bring to Australia. Finally, she said, “And we love you each”.
Giving dignity
Captain Tara McGuigan, Assistant Public Relations Secretary and Relationship Manager for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Communities NSW/ACT, likened the experience of many migrants and refugees in Australia to being bowled a ‘googly’ in cricket. “You might get bowled out once or twice, but you always come back for the second innings,” she said.
Tara shared about her experience on the island nation of Nauru, where The Salvation Army looked after the welfare of asylum seekers. She had been a member of the first team of Salvation Army personnel to arrive on Nauru in 2012. “Plane after plane of asylum seekers started arriving,” she recalled. “One of them was filled with Iranian men. When they arrived at the detention centre, the first man off the transfer bus looked around at the conditions and started yelling, ‘We are not animals. We are not animals.’ He was upset. He was angry. He was dishevelled.
“Friends, we are here to bring dignity to people’s lives. Our team got around this man. We sat and talked with him. He calmed down and started crying. He shared his story, and it broke my heart. I am still so moved when I think of this scene [witnessed by hundreds of others] … But Ahmed [not his real name] now has residency in Australia. He’s established and set up his own business. His children and his family are here. The children are doing well in school, and one day they will be leaders giving back to this country.”
A new start
As a young girl, testimonial speaker Durga Owen experienced family separation and fear for her life during the decades-long civil war in Sri Lanka. At one point, an opportunity opened for them to travel to Australia by plane, and they took it, not knowing what might await them.
Upon arriving in Sydney with her mother, Durga said all they had was what was in the suitcases they had brought with them, and they endured 18 months of struggle and trauma. Her father, a lawyer and educator by profession, was in a detention centre in Switzerland.
It was the 1990s and, after their early hardship, they were given access to a small flat in O’Connell Street, Parramatta. “I was 11-and-a-half years old having been released from this very traumatic year and a half in my life,” she said. “I remember standing in this tiny apartment with not a single belonging other than a bag of clothes …
“I saw my mother, the strongest woman I know, break down that day. Through all the years and the ordeal of displacement, I had never seen her cry,” said Durga. “And then she remembered someone telling us we should pay a visit to the Salvos … Three days later, a Salvos truck arrived with everything we needed in that home and for our new life in Australia.
“This meant much more to me than furniture only, a voucher only or food only. It brought me a sense of purpose as a young person. It brought me hope. And this is what The Salvation Army does. It brings hope – that there is someone there in your time of need, and it doesn’t matter who you are. Often you don’t hear about their work because it is quiet and silent and respectful of the dignity of the people they serve.”
Durga, now a lawyer herself and who lectures in law at the Western Sydney University, said this experience of the Salvos helped establish in her a view of what true success is: “A lifetime of service to others.”
Secretary for Communication Colonel Rodney Walters concluded the event by recognising the power of the stories that had been shared. “I love the fact that we have a big God who created us all … We are all Australians,” Colonel Walters said. He then prayed, thanking God for the people in the room, for “who they are and for what they have given to Australia”.
Networking opportunities were another feature of the event, creating a buzz effect as people connected with each other and the Salvos’ 2023 Red Shield Appeal campaign: “So nobody struggles alone.”
