celebrate Diwali in Australia
Look around our suburbs and workplaces, and it’s clear that Diwali has come a long way in Australia. celebrate Diwali in Australia
Once, celebrating Diwali at work meant bringing a box of mithai to work, and explaining why you were dressed for a wedding on a Tuesday.
Today, we have corporate Diwali functions, landmarks lighting up, politicians sending greetings, and colleagues who know the difference between a samosa and a jalebi.
Once, Australians asked what Diwali was. Today, they ask whether there’s a dress code!
And that tells us how much Australia has changed.
When many of us first arrived, being Indian was something we often had to explain.
Gradually, Australia has discovered that we bring more than curries, cricket and colourful festivals (although those are three excellent contributions).
I was reminded of this recently when I interviewed Opposition Leader Angus Taylor.
I expected to discuss the economy, migration and Australia’s relationship with India. What I didn’t expect was to discover an Indian connection in his own family! A reminder that our connections sometimes run deeper than trade statistics and diplomatic statements. Sometimes, they’re sitting right there in our family trees.
Yet turn on the news or scroll through social media, and you might imagine our two communities are suspicious of one another.
In our daily lives, we work together, build businesses together, and increasingly marry into each other’s families.
Of course, prejudice exists. But the loudest voices online don’t necessarily represent the majority.
Social media amplifies our differences. Real life reveals our connections.
If social media accurately reflected Australia, some of us would have stopped speaking to one another years ago. Fortunately, real life has better manners!
Indian-Australians contribute far more than jobs, skills and economic growth. We bring relationships, perspectives, cultural understanding and different ways of solving problems.
And Australia has changed us, too.
We haven’t simply transplanted India here. We’ve created something new: an Indian-Australian identity, with its own humour, habits and contradictions.
Our children might eat Vegemite at breakfast and achar at dinner, then carry that wonderfully mixed perspective into their working lives.
That’s not a contradiction. It’s an advantage.
Australia’s multicultural success isn’t simply that we’ve learnt to tolerate differences. It’s that we’ve started borrowing the best bits.
We’re no longer just living alongside one another. We’re becoming part of one another’s lives and futures.
Which brings us back to Diwali. celebrate Diwali in Australia
Diwali celebrates light overcoming darkness, knowledge overcoming ignorance and hope overcoming despair.
Sometimes, the darkness between communities isn’t intolerance. It’s simply not knowing enough about one another.
And the light needn’t be a grand gesture. It can be a conversation, a friendship, a business partnership or an invitation to share a meal.
So this Diwali, let’s celebrate not just the traditions we’ve brought to Australia, but the future we’re building together – one where heritage and home aren’t competing loyalties, and diversity becomes a source of opportunity and understanding.
Perhaps Diwali’s promise in Australia isn’t simply that we light up our homes and public buildings.
It’s that, little by little, we light up each other’s worlds.
May the year ahead bring happiness, health and prosperity to you and your families – and may our friendships grow brighter.
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