Australian High Commissioner Margaret Adamson, on Tuesday, commemorated ‘Australia Day in Spring’ with a festive reception in Islamabad featuring truck art and Sufi music.
Adamson featured truck art and Sufi music on the occasion and believed, “Music and art are a perfect way to celebrate the connections between Australia and Pakistan because they embody the vibrant creativity and cultural diversity of both countries.”
The reception was attended by eminent personalities from the government as well as diplomatic corps, media, business and development sectors.
Artists from a Karachi-based organisation, Phool Patti, captured images of Australia in the booming colours, flowery patterns and taglines of truck art for the event. While an Islamabad-based Sufi rock musician, Abdullah Qureshi, mesmerised guests with a fusion of Pakistani and Australian music.
Australia is helping Pakistani women reach their full potential: high commissioner
The high commissioner maintained that she was delighted to present the colourful Pakistani traditions; infusing them with Australian songs, wildlife and landscapes. She talked about the mutual history that the two countries shared along with the challenges they were working together to overcome.
“Australia and Pakistan share a Commonwealth heritage and federal systems of government, and are both endowed with vibrant cultural diversity, fragile environments, rare biodiversity and ancient civilisations to protect,” she further added.
Pakistan has long enjoyed support from Australia in its projects pertaining to social and economic development. In this regard, Adamson noted that Australia used its own experience to help Pakistan in its agriculture sector, build on its potential for employment and growth, and also in its sustainable management of water resources.
She also talked of efforts to back Pakistani women and girls to reach their full potential as equal members of society.
Australis has enjoyed formal bilateral ties with Pakistan that date back to its creation as an independent state in 1947. However, this relationship goes back to the 1800s when cameleers from Balochistan had helped open up Australia’s Outback. The envoy then pointed out that today, over 60,000 people of Pakistani origin lived in Australia while thousands of Pakistanis chose to study there.
“These all add up to a solid foundation for our friendly relations and cooperation,” she added.
Published in Daily Times, February 27th 2019.
