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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-11-13 Daily Xml
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SAMAHAN FILIPINO-AUSTRALIAN SA

Mrs VLAHOS (Taylor) (15:38): I would not. I need to keep my numbers for speaking up, because we are all under scrutiny in this place as we know from InDaily. I would like to speak today about an important part of the community in Taylor which has been affected by the recent typhoon that hit the Philippines. I would like to speak about the Samahan Filipino-Australian SA group. The Filipino community in my area is an important part of the community. It is around 350-odd people and they have claimed Filipino ancestry on the census data in my electorate, but there are also hundreds of other Filipinos who are here in Adelaide working on 457 visas.

Groups like Samahan are an excellent way for local Filipino Australians to link with the broader community. Samahan is a word from the Filipino language or, more precisely, Tagalog, and it roughly means 'community' Samahan Filipino-Australian SA took its name in 2010 with the goal of promoting and preserving the cultural heritage of Filipino Australians in South Australia. They have always performed traditional Filipino dances across the state at various festivals. Most recently, Samahan performed at the Multicultural Festival in Rundle Mall on 3 November.

Many of the people on this committee are in my electorate and I would like to acknowledge and praise the work of the Chair, Mark Betts, the vice chair, Rimas Stankevicus, treasurer Sunshine Carumba, dance coordinator Regina Betts, and committee members Roasida Stankevicus, Nancy Hall and Teresita Lloyd. The rest of the community was also very generous in its hospitality when I attended the 2013 annual foundation ball earlier in August. It was great to see the dance troupe perform in full traditional regalia in several performance over the night, changing costumes and educating many of us as to the breadth and depth of different cultural identities within the Filipino nation.

Undoubtedly, there would be many people in the area of Taylor who have been closely affected by super typhoon Haiyan, which has just swept through the islands with an estimated 10,000 casualties. Haiyan devastated large parts of the Visayan region of the Philippines, in particular the city of Tacloban and the island of Leyte. Many of these people have connections to my electorate and I see them at block rosary events. I have no doubt that they are praying for their relatives, for their safekeeping and for their communities. My thoughts and prayers go to their relatives and loved ones who are affected by this tragic event.

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