Becoming Citizens

A few weeks ago, Andrew and I had the privilege of attending an Australian citizenship ceremony as our friend Karen and her family (from South Africa) were becoming citizens. They have been in Australia for 5.5 years now, and it was finally time for them to get it.

The ceremony was held outdoors at Rocky's "Heritage Village." The mayor and officials spoke from underneath the gazebo, alongside a huge cardboard cut-out of Queen Elizabeth... see if you can spot her above.

All the people becoming citizens (and us, the audience) sat underneath these huge tents facing the gazebo. The people becoming citizens were broken into two groups: those who had "under God" in their citizenship oath, and those who didn't.

It was interesting b/c many of the people becoming citizens wore clothing from their original countries (eg- see the guy in the yellow shirt above?... he's wearing this skirt/wrap... not sure where from). In the mayor's address, he made sure to say that becoming a citizen of Australia does not mean that you forget your original country, or that those memories are lost. I bet this was comforting for some of the people who came to Australia b/c of unsafe conditions in their home countries (as opposed to us who are here purely for the awesome warm weather!)

Here's Karen, her husband, and three boys getting their citizenship certificates and shaking the mayor's hand. It was a bit of an emotional experience.


Andrew works under Karen (she is the Math coordinator at our school) and she's been a great friend to us, so it was special for us to be there for her.

After the ceremony they had a "parade of nations" through Heritage Village... so many countries carrying their flags and dressed in their national dress.

All in all it was a great experience to witness!