Swan Hill Rural City Council capped off Harmony Week celebrations by welcoming 14 residents as new Australian citizens.
The ceremony, at the Town Hall last Friday afternoon, included a Welcome to Country, speeches from Aunty Deb Chaplin, and Swan Hill Mayor Stuart King.
There was also a performance from the Fijian entertainment group singing “the bula song”.
The new citizens hailed from many parts of the world including Vietnam, Namibia, Afghanistan and New Zealand.
Cr King presented each citizen with their citizenship certificate after they recited the Australian Citizenship Pledge.
Liu Yi, who came to Australia as a child, has now become a citizen in her final year of high school.
Ms Liu, who came from Vietnam, who has overcome cultural and language barriers, was congratulated by her school friends.
“Even though everything is new to me, I love seeing that there’s people from many different cultures here,” Ms Liu said.
“You can learn a lot of things from different people here because this environment is respecting of different cultures.”
Elizabeth Banza, from Namibia, agreed that Australia’s multiculturalism made it easier for her to call it home.
“It makes it effortless to belong,” Ms Banza said.
After coming to Australia 10 years ago to study, Ms Banza was excited to become a citizen.
“One thing led to another, and eventually Australia just became home,” she said.
Ms Banza said that the freedom and access to over 180 countries that an Australian passport provides was best thing about becoming a citizen.
“I love to travel and having an Australian passport is just a great advantage for those of us who love travelling.”
“You can go to so many countries without the hassle of paperwork and waiting on visas,” she said.
Monique Coleman has been living in Australia for 11 years and is proud to finally be able to call herself a citizen.
“As someone from New Zealand, it’s been a long time coming,” Ms Coleman said.
“I’ve married an Australian and my child was born here so they’re both citizens and I just wanted to be a part of the team as well,”
“There are also better opportunities and wages here.”
“And I’ve really enjoy Swan Hill and have made it my home. It’s a good place to be.”
