By Melbourne Dafa Practitioner

(Clearwisdom Net) On January 26, Australia National Day, widely known as "Australia Day," Melbourne Falun Gong practitioners joined the tens of thousands of Melbournians in celebrations held across the region to exhibit the wonderful and magnificent nature of Dafa to local people. In the City of Greater Dandenong, as the city's first Chinese-dominated community group, Falun Gong practitioners took part in the parade organized by the local city council, which delighted the local Chinese residents. Many expressed that the outstanding performance of Dafa practitioners had earned pride for the Chinese community.

The City of Greater Dandenong is a place where residents are comprised of people from more than one hundred different countries; it fully exemplifies the cultural diversity of the Australian society. The City Council places great emphasis on the issue of ethnic group harmony and has been continuing with the tradition of the annual celebration parade on Australia Day for several years. This year they again invited Falun Gong practitioners to join in the parade of local residents.

Amongst the twenty or so community groups taking part in the parade, the impressive turnout and display put on by Dafa disciples caught much attention. Those who especially prepared for the parade were the fan dance and the red ribbon dance performers. The procession was led by the lotus cart, followed by the fan dance and the red ribbon performers, and at the end were a group of Dafa disciples holding up placards written with many different country names, bringing across a message of the widespread of Dafa across the globe. The procession was greeted with loud cheers and applause from on-lookers gathered to watch the parade.

At the conclusion of the parade, the City Council held the Australian citizenship award ceremony, the Outstanding Citizen Award ceremony, the art performance and others at Dandenong Park. At the invitation of the organizer, Dafa practitioners went to the stage to give brief introductions of Dafa and demonstrate Dafa exercises. Local Chinese residents expressed their delight by saying that although there are large numbers of Chinese residents in the city, never before have there been any Chinese community groups taking part in the parade organized by the local City Council. The large turnout and impressive show put on by the Falun Gong practitioners is of significant pride to the Chinese communities. Also significant was that among the Falun Gong procession there was a mixture of Chinese and Western practitioners, which further accentuated the multicultural characteristics and diversity of Falun Gong. The local City Council was also delighted to see that such a diverse group was such a keen participant in local community activities.

At Kings Domain in downtown Melbourne, there was also a large crowd gathered for the annual Australia Day celebration sponsored by the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria (RACV). As a result of practitioners' outstanding conduct and impressive performances at last year's event, we were again invited this year by the organizer. A spacious site has especially been reserved in order for us to demonstrate Dafa exercises. Crowds were constantly drawn to our stand offering Dafa materials, truth-clarifying display boards, calligraphy, and exercise demonstrations. Many people learned the exercises on site, got to know and made enquiries about the truth of Dafa, and established a wonderful relationship with Dafa.
Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/1/27/43425.html