The delegation is led by Monaro Ngarigo elders Aunty Iris White and Uncle John Dixon and includes the Djinama Yilaga Choir, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
They arrived in Poland earlier this week to visit the historic southern city of Kraków, hold meetings in the western city of Poznań, and attend a key event at Warsaw’s Museum of Independence on Friday, May 19, according to officials.
Their trip to Poland has been organised by Kosciuszko Heritage Inc (KHI), a Polish Australian community organisation based near Sydney, the PAP news agency reported.
The organisation is focused on promoting the legacy of Tadeusz Kościuszko and Paweł Strzelecki, the Kościuszko National Park and cultural ties with the Monaro Ngarigo people, the traditional owners of Mount Kościuszko in Australia’s southeastern state of New South Wales, reporters were told.
Members of the Monaro Ngarigo community previously visited Poland for Kościuszko's bicentenary in 2017.
During events to mark the Year of Paweł Strzelecki in Poland, the Djinama Yilaga Choir, led by Cheryl Davison-Overton and accompanied by guitarist Melanie Horsnell, will perform songs in the Dhurga language, the PAP news agency reported.
Meanwhile, the Monaro Ngarigo community's Aunty Iris White and Uncle John Dixon and KHI’s Andrzej Kozek will tell audiences about Mount Kościuszko, which is Australia’s highest peak at 2,228 metres--including how it got its name and how Australia’s Polish community forged friendly relations with the Monaro Ngarigo people, whose territories used to include the mountain now known as Mount Kościuszko.
Polish audiences will also hear about the role and legacy of their compatriot, explorer Paweł (Paul) Edmund Strzelecki, who in 1840 named Australia’s highest mountain after the Polish patriot and statesman Tadeusz Kościuszko, the PAP news agency reported.
Sir Paul Edmund Strzelecki: A Polish 'visionary' who 'helped Australia grow'
KHI's CEO Ernestyna Skurjat-Kozek described Strzelecki as “a visionary” who “helped Australia grow.”
Strzelecki found rich deposits of gold in Australia and came up with the idea of “using the water flowing from Australia’s southeastern Snowy Mountains for irrigation,” Skurjat-Kozek said.
After World War II, this concept led to the creation of Snowy Hydro, “a complex of hydro-electric power stations that still supply electricity to three of Australia’s states,” Skurjat-Kozek added.
Strzelecki is also remembered in Ireland, where he saved thousands of lives during the Great Irish Famine of 1847-1849, according to historians.
In July last year, Polish lawmakers declared 2023 the Year of Paweł Strzelecki, news outlets reported.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, dzieje.pl, Puls Polonii
