Four events mark Baha’i celebration

The first celebration, International Day of the World’s Indigenous People, is this Saturday at the Albany Town Hall and one of the organisers of the festivities, Renee Farrant, said the faith had a huge presence in the region.

“The Baha’i faith arrived in Australia in 1920 and since the 1960s, the Albany Baha'i community has contributed to community service in the Great Southern and directs every community-building endeavour to fostering unity,” she said.

“(Baha’u’llah) said a united world would produce the peace and prosperity foretold in the holy books of the great religions of the world and in the poems and songs of sages down the ages.”

Ms Farrant said friends from the Aboriginal community had played an integral role in making the bicentennial celebrations possible. “Indigenous Australians have been part of the Australian Baha'i community since the 1950s, and without giving away too much about this Saturday’s celebration, the story of Fred Murray is finally coming home to his birth country, the Noongar Minang country,” she said.

“As about 2100 indigenous tribes, races and ethnic groups are represented in the international Baha’i community, all bicentennial events are organised at the local level, with creative thought and action contributed by the widest possible cross-section of society.”

Ms Farrant said many Australians now encountered the Baha’i community through cultural, artistic and grassroots activities in many parts of the Great Southern and throughout Australia.

“Hence, attending the bicentennial celebrations will be by those with whom they share a Baha’i connection — whether through a family tie or common interest, an occupation or field of study, neighbourly relations or merely chance,” she said.

“Every event-building endeavour is directed towards unity in the Great Southern.”

This Saturday’s celebration is a free event hosted by the diverse multicultural members of the Albany and Denmark Baha'i community and starts at 4pm.

The two following Albany events will be International Day of Peace on September 22 at 5.30pm, and the celebration of the bicentenary of the birth of Baha'u'llah on October 22 at 4pm.

The Denmark chapter will be holding the Light of Unity Festival on October 21 and 22 at the Denmark Thrills Adventure Park.