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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-10-31 Daily Xml
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Dozynki Harvest Festival

Mr FULBROOK (Playford) (15:22): I rise to say a warm dziekuje, or thank you, to the organisers of last weekend's Dozynki festival. For those unfamiliar, Dozynki, or harvest festival, has been a mainstay of the Polish community in Adelaide since 1979. In Poland, festivals date back to as early as the 16th century. Traditionally, farmers would celebrate the year's labour with a holiday after the crops, mainly grain, had been harvested. This would be done by landowners, who would organise festivals to reward their labourers and to celebrate bountiful crops.

The festivals usually involved lots of eating, drinking and dancing. I am pleased to report that nothing is lost in its modern-day iteration, especially in Adelaide. While I know Dozynki festivals are celebrated in the US and, naturally, Poland, I understand that our local festival is the only one of its kind within the Southern Hemisphere.

Given its national, arguably international, significance, it is no surprise it attracted visitors from around Australia, including Marcin Kawalowski from the Polish embassy and, from Brisbane, Henryk Kurylewski, President of the Polish Community Council of Australia—noting that you should forgive my Anglo tongue. I know that Minister Szakacs, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and I enjoyed their company, and I am pretty sure they will not object to me saying how pleased we were to have them join us in Adelaide. Following these dignitaries through the gate were over 4,000 locals, who had a fantastic time celebrating the best of Polish culture.

As I alluded to in my social media post, this was a great opportunity to soak up the fantastic weather and enjoy a zywiec, sample some fantastic vodka, and gorge on some pierogi and paczki and fantastic smallgoods, which I can happily say if you know where to look are readily available across Adelaide. I do not think this house needs to know what I ate on Sunday, but needless to say, I, along with my wife, my son, my nephew and my mum, did not need dinner when we made it home.

Beyond food and drink, there were countless activities for all to enjoy. Beginning with the morning Mass, the full program included lots of dance, traditional dress, music, art and crafts, a petting zoo, a Royal Flying Doctor Service flight simulator, and even a Polish pronunciation session, and a lot more than just that. Thanks also to the folklore ensemble Syrenka who flew in en masse from Sydney. It was wonderful to have you here.

There are a lot of people I feel need thanking for the event. Minister Szakacs did a fantastic job opening it and I can understand and appreciate his words on the necessity for those with an eastern European connection, in his case Hungarian, to rely on each other for a decent supply of food. To this day, I have to admit that I do look in horror when I see my son eating smiley fritz.

It was a bipartisan effort, with the Deputy Leader of the Opposition highlighting the stellar work of the Polish community standing shoulder to shoulder with their Ukrainian neighbours—sentiments I believe all members of this house would quite happily support. I also want to acknowledge and thank Minister Bettison for arranging funding through her portfolio and the many sponsors from the business community for their support in ensuring this fantastic event could happen.

My biggest thankyou goes to Josephine Conradi and the organising committee of Andrzej Trepa, Edward Dudzinski, Tracy Lo, Natalia Dworniczek, and Kasia and Michael Kroker for their hard work in pulling together this brilliant event. This exceptional team of volunteers worked tirelessly, often through the night, to ensure its success, and I do not think there would be a single person from the 4,000-strong crowd who would disagree that they have done their community very proud. Like so many of us in this room, we all want the heritage of our descendants to remain vibrant and something we can all be proud of. While as a government we have boosted funding significantly on this front, we know we cannot succeed without amazing volunteers like Josie and her incredible team.

Before finishing, this is an opportune moment to remind the house that the hub of Polish activity in the state, Dom Polski, is celebrating its 50th anniversary on 9 December with a gala dinner planned. I am looking forward to being there and I encourage members of this house to join me. With 18,000 South Australians with Polish heritage in South Australia, myself included, it is great to see that like so many multicultural communities in our state, our heritage is alive and kicking.

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