Ministers commemorate St David's Day
Sunday, 1 March 2009
Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Chris Evans, offered their good wishes to people of Welsh descent celebrating St David’s Day across Australia on Sunday.
St David’s Day, which commemorates the patron saint of Wales, has been a national day of celebration for Welsh people since the 18th century, featuring parades, festivities and singing.
Ms Gillard and Senator Evans both claim Welsh ancestry but neither has a talent for singing.
‘Like many Australians, I claim an ancestry outside this country. My father is a Welshman and we migrated to Australia when I was a young child,’ Senator Evans said.
‘Our Australian multicultural society allows us not only to be proud Australians but also to be proud of our cultural diversity and St David’s Day gives me an opportunity to reflect on my Welsh heritage.’
Early Census records indicate there were about 1800 Welsh-born in the colonies by 1851 and now, according to the 2006 Census, some 113 250 Australians claim Welsh ancestry.
There were Welshmen among Captain Cook's crew on his early voyages and some of the early convict arrivals were from Wales. Among the Welsh convict arrivals of the 1830s were leaders of the emerging trade union movement in South Wales.
‘In 1838, David Jones, a Welsh-born immigrant, opened what is now Australia’s oldest department store in Sydney,’ Senator Evans said.
‘Another Welsh immigrant was the Reverend Howell Witt who was an author, an actor, the Bishop of North-West Australia and the Bishop of Bathurst.’
Minister Gillard said her experience as a Welsh migrant to Adelaide in 1964 has been an influence throughout her life.
‘My strong belief that every Australian child should get a world class education, no matter what their background, is firmly grounded in my experience as a migrant,’ the deputy prime minister said.
‘The Australian people welcomed my family with open arms, despite our lack of the Welsh singing gene.’
URL: http://www.minister.immi.gov.au
/media/media-releases/2009/ce09022.htm
Last update: 02 March 2009 at 10:14 AEST