Sunday, February 23, 2014

Oasis Wimmera Riverside Picnic 2014

The Riverside Oasis Wimmera Picnic 2014 was a huge success! Lots of WOW artists and their families turned up for an afternoon riverside picnic at my place, situated on the edge of the Little Desert and Dimboola. Perfect weather, fine multicultural food on offer, two boats, one floating mattress, one floating yoga ball, a jetty = plenty of laughing, squealing, jumping, diving, swimming, boating, eating, chatting, photographing and mingling...



































For the final stage of the picnic, I presented "Certificates of Appreciation" to the WOW artists, awards issued by Horsham Regional City Council. I took the opportunity to talk about the dream of ending mandatory detention in Australia, about the Light the Dark vigil going on all over Australia tonight for Reza Berati, who was killed last week in our detention centre on Manus Island, and for the 63 unprotected asylum seekers who suffered injuries there as well. I spoke about the continual need for diversity, tolerance and cultural education in Australia...and a massive appeal from Australian citizens to stop the current government from continuing their atrocious treatment of asylum seekers who are fleeing from terrible home situations to find safety. I thanked everyone for attending and making the picnic a great celebration, and expressed my desire for more culturally diverse collaborative projects in the future. 
More photos of our picnic in the online Dimboola Courier.