The Macedon Ranges had 31 of its residents obtain Australian Citizenship last Tuesday night at the Kyneton Town Hall.
The new Australians hailed from the UK, Albania, Thailand, New Zealand, France, Columbia, Germany, China, Brazil, India, Turkey, Ireland and Sri Lanka.
To be eligible for citizenship, one has to live in Australia for a minimum four years, and many of the recipients who spoke to the Express – with thick Australian accents – said they had lived here for decades and already felt at home. For others, it was an emotional moment.
Simran Khaira immigrated to Australia seven years ago from India and said she finally felt as though she belonged.
“We did a lot of hard work when we were immigrants and came here,” Ms Khaira said.
“And I think I feel more confident now, being an Australian. I feel like I belong here now. The belongingness comes after you become a citizen. My daughter is already Australian, so I can see the confidence in her already. But now I can feel the confidence too. So yeah, I feel so good.”
Mayor Dominic Bonanno, a first generation Australian, presented each person with their official certificates and gifted them a native Tucker Time Cherry Ripe plant, while family and friends watched on and waved Australian flags. His speech included an anecdote of his own family’s journey from Sicily to Australia.
“I was born in Footscray as a first generation Australian from Italian immigrants. They worked hard to provide their children, my brother, sister and I, with a better life than they had in the mountains of Sicily,” Cr Bonanno said.
“I was young, growing up in the western suburbs of Melbourne among my Aussie friends, Shawn, Brad, Chris, and here I was; Domenico. I felt ashamed or embarrassed, I’m not quite sure which one it was but I felt like I didn’t belong. So I started using the Aussie version of my name, Dominic.
“It is only after the recent passing of my parents, that I realised, I was wrong. I do belong and I shouldn’t feel embarrassed or ashamed of my name, and neither should you.
“Becoming an Australian citizen does not mean forgetting your country of birth, or the country where you grew up, or its customs and culture. What it means is a commitment to Australia as your home, where you can bring your own background and story to enrich our multicultural society, and share your knowledge and experience with your fellow Australians.”
Deputy mayor Kate Kendall was born in England and migrated to Australia at 10 years old. She gave her own definition of what she believed it meant to be Australian.
“I think mateship,” Cr Kendall said.
“I think it’s such a beautiful quality of Australians and I think that comradery to always look out for each other, to be almost anti-status. We all come together as one under that unified vision of mateship.”
