Dignitary Flag Raising 2019 ceremony Australian National Maritime Museum

Hon. Marise Payne – Australian Foreign Minister and Vanuatu Foreign Minister Hon. Ralph Regenvanu. Department of Foreign Affairs QLD, ACT NSW staff, Australian South Sea Islander communities, Tweed Heads representatives, Pacific Communities, Torres Strait Island, NSWCPC and Aboriginal families. The 25th August marks Australian South Sea Islander (ASSI) recognition week on our national cultural calendar. Prime Minister Paul Keating recognised ASSIs as a ‘distinct cultural group’ whose identity and community needs were legislated under the 1994 Commonwealth. The dignitary flag raising event commemorates the South Sea Islanders contribution to the economic, cultural and political development of our nation and in remembering the more than 60,000 Melanesian labourers taken from 100 Pacific islands now part of Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Kiribati and Tuvalu.

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