Your Lifestyle

Still Inspiring: August - Indrani Doloswala

I came to Australia from Sri Lanka as a diplomatic wife with my husband and two children. It was a very rewarding life but unfortunately I lost my husband years ago. I was left to bring my children up myself and I decided to stay here in Australia.

My children were studying very well and I thought if I go back to Sri Lanka I may not be able to do the things that I do here. My daughter is a chemical engineer now and she is married to a charming young man who is also a chemical engineer. My son is a PHD in economics. I am very proud of them. I live with my daughter and her husband and help with my two beautiful granddaughters. We have a tradition of extended family. Even my son-in-law, who is an Australian, he values that.

I started my community work in Canberra and so I continued all the way along and still I'm doing that until the day I die. Whatever community work I do, it is very special to me. It is no big deal. I don't raise funds or anything like that. What I do is raise issues for the government to know and think about and take appropriate action. For example, there are many migrant communities that would like to keep their cultural heritage and language but they're too small to have an organisation. So what I suggested was that the government could help these people to form language associations and then they could get together and share their expertise and that way they could help each other and start their own language schools. And keep their language and cultural heritage continuing in this country and at the same time embracing the Australian language. I think that is very important.

I did this myself for a Sinhala Language School for the Singhalese community. I couldn't get anywhere at the beginning, I didn't have a big backing from other organisations, so I started with my own Singhalese School. I did a course called Advanced Studies in Community Language Teaching because I am not a teacher, I am a counsellor. So I thought I had to learn the proper way of teaching. I started a school in Wollongong and I started one in Darwin too. There are a lot of Singhalese people in Australia. I wanted the school for children like my grandchildren - children from mixed marriage families. And for Australians to learn another language. All the little children they call me ‘Athamma' which means Grandma. And we had a little cultural dancing and singing and they really had fun and they really enjoyed every minute of it.

I have also worked as a Cultural Inclusion Advisor for Early Childhood in Darwin. And I worked with a family programme that was all about educating people to get help in domestic violence situations.

In small migrant communities, people don't always know how to recognise family violence or how to get help and therefore they suffer sometimes. They suffer a lot. They don't know what to do. And sometimes because of the cultural background, they won't say a word because it's a disgrace to the family. I was representing Sri Lanka and the Indian sub-continent, trying to get those little groups to understand that there is help available. There are a lot of service providers if we know about them. And I suggested that the name should be changed from Family Violence to perhaps something like Family Well Being. ‘Violence' is perhaps too daunting for many migrant families. ‘Family Well Being' means there is help for both sides, husband and wife. And I think that way more people would come to get help.

I recognise me as a blend of the east and the west because of the culture I was brought up in and the culture I picked up from here. I try to use what I know to bring people together. I always say now that by birth I am a Sri Lankan and by choice I am an Australian. I am very proud of my two cultural heritages.

Newcomers to this country need tolerance, understanding and acceptance. Australia, being a White Australia Policy country at the beginning, has come a long way I think. And each government that comes to power does respect the other cultures a little more. I think we are doing very well but there is still a long way to go.