Celebrate Victoria’s Cambodian Community At The Immigration Museum

Celebrate Victoria’s Cambodian community at the Immigration Museum

A one-day festival celebrating Victoria’s Cambodian community will be held at the Immigration Museum on Sunday 14 September 2008.

Cambodian Festival at the Immigration Museum will offer the chance to experience food, music and dance performances, family activities and a historical perspective on Cambodian migration in Melbourne and Victoria.

The Cambodian community and the Immigration Museum invite all Victorians to meet the community and experience Cambodian culture and traditions.

Activities on the day will include:

• Cambodian dance and music performances by groups including Khmer Angkor Dance Group, Cambodian Elderly Citizens, Hampton Park Primary School, Coomoora Secondary College and Somneang Selly Phakor band.
• Cambodian food provided by Purple Orchid and the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre.
• Traditional games – enjoy a game of Khmer chess and see Westall Secondary College present traditional Cambodian games.
• Children’s activities including colouring Cambodian folk characters.
• Demonstrations, including cooking demonstrations and how to dress in Samput Jong Kben.
• A Bridal Parade of traditional costumes and Nhaleap Nhim’s Cambodian Wedding Band.
• A film about the history of the Cambodian Christian community in Victoria.
• Photos of Cambodia and its people

• Community information displays from organisations such as the Cambodian Association of Victoria, Khmer Community of Victoria, Cambodian Buddhist Association of Victoria and Cambodian Women’s Group.

The majority of the Cambodian community arrived in Australia during the 1980s as refugees escaping the Khmer Rouge Communist regime, which killed two million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979. They mainly arrived under the Humanitarian program.

Around 34% of all Cambodians who migrated to Australia settled in Victoria. The 2006 census recorded 9790 Victorians born in Cambodia, which is 0.8 per cent of all Victorians born overseas. The Greater Dandenong area is home to 45 per cent of Victoria’s Cambodian population with others spread across Richmond, Footscray, Nunawading and the Moorabbin/Chelsea areas.

The Cambodian Festival is one of three cultural festivals that the Immigration Museum develops annually in collaboration with Victoria’s culturally and linguistically diverse communities.

Cambodian Festival
Sunday 14 September 2008, 11am – 4pm
Immigration Museum, 400 Flinders Street Melbourne
Children and Concession FREE, Adults – museum entry applies

Immigration Museum, 400 Flinders Street, Melbourne. Open daily 10.00am – 5.00pm.
For further details phone 13 11 02 or visit museumvictoria.com.au/immigration museum