Tuesday, 4 February 2020
The Great Hall, University of Sydney
Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC QC

I thank Consul-General Mr Bandara for his invitation to join the Sri Lankan community in its 72^nd Independence Day Anniversary, celebrated here on Gadigal land - a land with a 65,000 history of a continuous living civilization  - a land on which more than 200 cultures now walk with over 200 Indigenous Nations. 

I would also like to express my appreciation for the extraordinary generosity of the Sri Lankan community in responding to the needs of those affected by bushfires, expressed in so many ways:  from your prayers, to providing meals for the firefighters and to holding community events to raise significant funds for the firefighting and recovery effort.  That is a wonderful demonstration of community working for and with community.  

The historical and social paths of Australia and Sri Lanka have both criss-crossed since our first encounter in 1816, when Drum Major William O'Dean (a Ceylonese man of Malay descent) arrived in Sydney on the transport ship, Kangaroo. In 1803, O’Dean, a Non Commissioned Officer of the 1st Ceylon Regiment, switched allegiance from the British Crown to the Kandyan Monarch. Arrested in 1815, convicted and sentenced to be shot, the then British Governor of Ceylon Robert Brownrigg ordered his transportation to New South Wales.

Like so many convicts transported to Australia, O’Dean[1] became a successful citizen, becoming the first official Malay interpreter in the colony; indeed, a precedent to the successive generations of Sri Lankans who have engaged in Australia’s professional and business life over decades of immigration.[2]  

William O’Dean’s story provides us with another historical connection. The Governor of New South Wales at the time of the O’Deans’ arrival in the colony was Governor Lachlan Macquarie.

In 1796, Lachlan Macquarie, then a Captain-Lieutenant in the British Army based in India, successfully undertook command of the British military campaign against the Dutch colonial forces in Ceylon.  On 24 February 1796, Captain Lachlan Macquarie wrote to Major Patrick Alexander Agnew, the first Military Governor of British Ceylon in Trincomalee[3] advising that he had taken possession of the town and fortress of Galle at 9 am that morning and had hoisted the British flag. The salute, he advised, was fired at Noon.[4]  Macquarie’s letter is held in the Mitchell Library.

Macquarie was then, for a short time, Governor of Galle.

From that rather interesting beginning, our paths have continued to intersect, enhancing our historical connections and building on our relationship for our mutual benefit.[5]

In World War II, Ceylon fought alongside Commonwealth and Australian forces[6] and, upon Japan’s entry into the war, became a frontline naval base for the Royal Navy and Airforce and Commonwealth forces.  Colombo suffered tragic losses – including of civilians - during the Easter Sunday attack of 1942.[7]

We are each a member of the Commonwealth of Nations; Sri Lanka’s membership of which was formalised alongside Independence on 4 February 1948.[8] At that time, of course, your country was known as Ceylon, a word of Arab derivation, and became Sri Lanka at the time of the Republic in 1972.  Sri Lanka, as I understand it, means ‘Resplendent Island’; ‘Lanka’ being the ancient name of your island.   

The Colombo Plan was launched in 1951 leading to a highly successful social and economic Asia-Pacific partnership. [9] A New Colombo Plan has been launched for university students to study and undertake internships in the Indo-Pacific region.  

And, of course, we share a deep passion, summed up in a single word: “Cricket” … although, I have to confess, I am not as personally enamoured of the trumpeting and drumming Sri Lankan papare bands[10] which follow the team around the world.  The papare music, which originates in Sri Lanka, also borrows from Portuguese roots, reaching back into another era of your colonial past. 

I prefer to watch the game with a quiet concentration, all the time checking whether Slinga Malinga’s bowling really is an authentic round arm action. You should know, of course, that this extraordinary game, watched by millions around the world, derives its present form from women’s cricket.  At the beginning of the 19^th century, Christina Willes used the action to bowl to her brother John in practice sessions.  John Willes then adopted it in a game for Kent against the MCC on 15 July 1822. However, as with many events in history, there is more than one version of this story!

However, it is to your cultural and literary achievements I would like to make a brief reference. I doubt if there is anyone in this room who has not read, or seen the film: The English Patient, authored by Sri Lankan Canadian writer, Michael Ondaatje, and for which he won the illustrious Golden Man Booker Prize in 2018.[11]

In 1992, Ondaatje founded the Gratiaen Prize from the money he earned from The English Patient.  That prize is now the most prestigious literary prize in Sri Lanka and has enhanced the vibrant and learned literary scene in your country.

I couldn’t help but delve further into some of that literature. Let me read to you the last verse of just one of the poems from a former winner of this Prize, Malinda Seneviratne:    

‘I live in a country whose heartbeat sings to me
And perhaps others.
It gives me heart
It gives me life
And lets me breathe.’^[12]

On behalf of the people of New South Wales, congratulations on this 72nd Anniversary. We look forward to the continuation of our enduring friendship and many years of peace and prosperity for Sri Lanka in the years ahead.