Page 2970 - Week 08 - Thursday, 17 August 2017
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motor racing track or whatever your favourite sport is playing and support a local women’s team.
I would briefly like to thank Kiara and her dad, Jason, for inviting me back out to the Canberra Kart Racing Club this Sunday to watch the girls yet again beat those boys around the track.
Multicultural events
MS ORR (Yerrabi) (5.57): I rise today to speak about my recent activities with the multicultural community. A couple of months ago I was fortunate enough to represent the Minister for Multicultural Affairs at the Federation of Chinese Culture of Canberra Chinese School Cultural Day. There were several dances, musical performances and a Chinese dragon dance performance, among many others. After the performances I had the pleasure of joining in a traditional Chinese tea ceremony.
A few weeks later I also had the opportunity to attend a ceremony hosted by the Australian School of Contemporary Chinese, the ASCC. I had the pleasure of welcoming a delegation of 40 students from the ASCC’s friendship school, No 2 Middle School, affiliated to Shandong University. These schools have a relatively new relationship, beginning their delegation exchanges in 2014. The school expects their exchanges will continue to grow since the opening of the International Cultural Centre of Australia and the Trilong International Travel Service earlier this year.
China is one of Canberra’s key international partners and is at the heart of the ACT government’s international engagement strategy. There are more than 6,000 Chinese students studying in Canberra and our city is home to more than 15,000 residents of Chinese heritage. Mandarin is the second most spoken language in Canberra, other than English.
I was also able to meet with the Indian community in June when I attended the Telangana Association cultural night. The evening celebrated the culture of the Telangana community and acknowledged the foundation of the Telangana state in 2014, which is the most recent Indian state to be created. While boundaries and borders can change quickly, the language, the culture and the community that the Telangana Association represents has remained firm, and it was a pleasure to join the Telangana community to celebrate this.
Later in June the Indian High Commission and the Federation of Indian Associations ACT hosted a yoga event to celebrate the International Day of Yoga. The United Nations General Assembly declared the day three years ago in recognition of the 5,000-year old practice which originated in the Indian subcontinent. It was great to join representatives from the High Commission and the Federation of Indian Associations ACT as well as all the participants on the day to celebrate an ancient practice that aims to transform both the body and the mind.
Just this week I had the pleasure of attending the celebration of the 70th anniversary of India’s independence. It was great to meet some of my constituents and other
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