As Migrant Sunday approaches, The Record speaks to one of Perth’s most vibrant Catholic communities.
By Robert Hiini
The first week in Australia was a difficult one for the Western Australian Indonesian Catholic Community’s (WAICC) vice-chairman, Hasan Sidi and his family, particularly for his two children who could barely speak or understand English.
The 40-year-old geophysicist and his wife Christina Feby both had a background in the language with Hasan having completed his Masters studies in Brisbane while Christina, a consumer-product marketer, had worked for a number of multinational companies where English was a necessity.
Five years on and Hasan says that like so many migrant families, his son and daughter speak better English than he does.
He was one year into his life in Australia before he heard about the vibrant, 400-family strong community of Indonesian migrants who celebrate Mass together in Bahasa Indonesia every Sunday at St Benedict’s Church in Ardross.
Founded in 1992, the WAICC – formally, a private Association of Christ’s Faithful – is made up of mostly Indonesian-born ex-pats from the country’s largest island of Java.
While immigrants from Indonesia have been making Australia their home since the early 1970s, many of the community’s members fled the political instability that rocked the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation in the late 1990s.
The community recently celebrated their ongoing connection with their home country by holding a Mass on Indonesia’s Independence Day at Pater Noster Church, Myaree on August 17 – a Mass celebrated by their chaplain of the past three years, Fr Ari Pawarto O.Carm.
The ethnic community is one of the most vibrant and organised of its kind in Perth, according to Fr Blasco Fonseca, Perth’s Vicar for Migrants, with the community producing a monthly Indonesian-language magazine to keep community members informed as well as including articles on Catholic faith and spirituality. The community aims not only to strengthen the Catholic faith of its members but to unite Indonesian families in their shared culture; to offer support to new Indonesian migrants who have little knowledge of local customs; and to provide ways of introducing Indonesian culture to the general Australian populace.
With its own liturgical, social, charismatic and devotional committees and ministries, the community is also home to the Indonesian Catholic Youth Organisation (ICYO) which is made up of students and young adults who convene formation groups and events as well as maintaining a choir of some renown.
On August 18 the ICYO choir performed by invitation at the Indonesian Consulate’s Independence Day celebrations in Perth, attended by State Health Minister Dr Kim Hames MLA, representing the Premier of WA that evening.
For the purposes of providing pastoral care and support, the community has divided the metropolitan area into five regional areas – each with at least one coordinator.
Four of those are south of the Swan River due to the concentration of Indonesians in suburbs such as Winthrop, Willetton, Leeming, Booragoon, Attadale and Applecross. Most of the practical support the community provides to new Indonesian migrants comes in the form of advice and guidance, particularly in the areas of housing and schooling.
Hasan Sidi says that most Indonesians back home are not used to renting or mortgages with the price of housing being significantly more affordable than in Perth’s supply-poor market.
Hasan says that the community’s next big goal is to establish a centre of their own to continue to build and accommodate the growing community.
There are now six families in the community who have children about the same age as his, giving parents and children alike a
chance to grow and develop together.
– www.waicc.org.au