Australian Sikh Games

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (15:40): As someone closely connected with the Sikh community in South Australia, I am very proud that the Sikh Games has been named the Adelaide City Council's Community Event of the Year. Every Easter, this remarkable mix of sport and culture, held on rotation around Australia, gets bigger and stronger, but Adelaide's hosting of the multisport event took things to a whole new level in 2024.

Nominating the Sikh Games for the award was one of the easiest tasks I have had in the past year. I cannot speak highly enough of the truly multicultural event. It brought together more than 150,000 people, many of them visitors from interstate and even overseas, for a peaceful celebration of sport and culture. They watched 4,000 athletes from around the world participating in 14 sports, including cricket, world football, touch football, athletics, netball, basketball, volleyball, hockey, athletics and even golf. Several of these sports—cricket and hockey in particular—have developed a great sporting rivalry between India and Australia. In Adelaide, it does not take much to encourage people to go to live sport, and the good natured rivalry for these contests was part of the magic.

Then there is the remarkable sport of kabaddi, which Australians have already taken to their hearts and is a sport which attracted huge attention here last year. Outside of the Indian community, most people have not even heard of kabaddi, but they left wanting to see more of it. Played on a field, kabaddi at first glance looks like a cross between rugby and wrestling, yet it is nothing like those sports. It is a fierce and fast game in which a player has to tag the opposition without being tagged, and it simply captured the imagination of a brand new audience.

I must say it is probably one of the most aggressive games I have watched. I remember one year when it was actually cancelled because of the physical activity between the players, and this year, sitting up on the stage, for whatever reason it burst into quite a physical contest between the individual players, but it was quite a spectacle.

The people I spoke to at the event were mesmerised by the traditional sport. It was one of the great takeaways for the huge crowds across the long weekend. Many of these people were interstate visitors, adding plenty to the local economy. In 2024, the Sikh Games attracted athletes from around Australia, 120 clubs in all, as well as competitors from New Zealand, the UK, Canada, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and of course India. The atmosphere at Ellis Park, off West Terrace, and at a range of other sports grounds was electric.

One of the foundations of Sikhism is that they look after the vulnerable and feed the poor. As a tradition, they actually feed not only all those people who come as participants but also those who come as spectators. On this occasion they fed I think about 110,000 people over the four days. They had huge kitchens, huge places to eat and they fulfilled this arrangement with military precision.

Sports were played not just at Adelaide High School grounds but also at North Adelaide Golf Course, Gepps Cross, Parafield Gardens, Victoria Park, Angle Park and Unley. While the competition was fierce, we also witnessed a great sense of community and wellbeing and a welcoming atmosphere at all the sporting contests. Many people were visiting some of our sports grounds for the first time. The combination of outstanding venues, international competition, community and the best of Indian food was unbeatable. The success of the games is a credit to the Australian and South Australian Sikh community.

Putting on the 2024 Sikh Games and making them so successful came down to a great community effort by members of the South Australian Sikh community. President Balwant Singh, Cultural Leader Rajwant Singh and the committee members of Harjinder Singh, Parminder Singh, Sukvinder Singh, Mahanbir Grewal, Harpreet Saini, Isha Nagra and Jazmine Pangly did a remarkable job in bringing the whole event together and so did a wonderful team of local sports coordinators, all members of the Sikh community, in seeing to it that everything ran like clockwork. The Adelaide City Council award is a well-earned recognition of their great work. Perhaps the greatest reward, however, was seeing cultures and communities come together to celebrate what the Sikh population has brought to South Australia.