Bangladesh Cultural Night 2010 in Darwin -Tickets are on sale

I enjoy experiencing cultural diversity that different ethnic group brings to our society and attended the Bangladeshi Night at Darwin. Liked the food and the true representation of Bangladesh culture in the first part of the evening. But were utterly confused and later disappointed to see Pakistani and Hindi songs/dances being performed in the 2nd half of the evening. As I understand that is not part of their true culture. They probably did that to spice up the program a bit but felt they should have sticked to their true identity. One of my relative went to Bangladesh in the 70's as part of some humanitarian program and heard from him about the brutality Bangladeshis faced from Pakistani soldiers during their liberation war in 71. Shocked to see them perform Pakistani songs in a evening meant to represent Bangladeshi culture. Spoke with few others during the program and most seemed surprised. The program overall was well presented though. Wish them all the best for coming years.

This is disgusting and disrespectful. How could the Bangladeshi community living in Darwin let this happen? How could some one perform Pakistani songs/ hindi songs in a Bangladeshi Cultural show? I don't think any Pakistani cultural night will ever have a Bangladeshi song in it? How could the Association in Darwin let this happen? I don't think any other Bangla association has ever dared to show this type of disrespect to our beloved Motherland. This could have never happened in Sydney for sure. I think we all have a right to demand an explanation from the Association in Darwin. Representatives of Bangladesh Embassy here should look into this. They Association their should be severely reprimanded.

Jewel.
Sydney

I severely deplore this act by the Association in Darwin.

Shumi

I am a Bangladeshi born Australian living in Darwin for over 8 years. I am closely involved with most of the BAoD activities. Our program composed with 2 major parts. One truly authentic Bangladeshi contents and in the second part we accommodated multicultural items like band songs, kids songs "we shall over come" in Bengali and English, we had dance influenced by sub continental movies.
Here are my points on having those multicultural items in our program.
1. Like any other cultures, Bangladeshi culture always been influenced by cultures of our surrounding nations and even western nations after the spread of satellite TV channels.
2. Listening to Hindi, Urdu or English song in Dhaka or in any part of Bangladesh is not someone’s foolish talk. It is a widely accepted fact and reality whether we like it or not. There are a lot of Bengali singers in Bollywood and we are proud of them.
3. We did not add Bollywood dance to spice up but to show the current trend in Bangladesh.
4. Band songs and their instrument has been a very influential media to people of Bangladesh for al least past 30 years. i.e. I grew up listening to them.
5. We Bangladeshis in Darwin are proud of our cohesion with greater community hers. Be that Pakistani, Indian, European or East Asian. Some of the items were reflection of our gratitude towards that cohesion.

At the end, we did our best in the program and I personally believe there is always a room for improvement. We are a very young organization and we are learning everyday. When people make a comment about us without knowing us, it makes us heart broken. Sydney based band was in Darwin and they had a very good experience of how big our heart is when embracing friends. If you have a opportunity to visit Darwin, please do and see it yourself. If not, please ask someone who visited us ie Kristi.

biswas korteo kosto hoy je ekhono Bangladesh er nam e ei rokom ghotona gotte pare!

Dear Emily, Jewel and Shumi,

First, just to make it clear this comment is my own view so please do not mix it up with the view of any one but a Bangladeshi who helped the small 150 member community with this program.

Emily, I am happy to see that you enjoyed our program specially the first part. You are right, the second part did not represent Bangladesh and it was made clear repeatedly in the announcement at the starting and during the program. In the Darwin and Palmerston Sun and in other publication it was also made clear that the program will have two parts. First part before dinner will be Bangladeshi and Second part will be Multicultural. You are also right that the first part was never compromised and was a fantastic display of Bangladeshi rich and colourful culture. I am sorry to say that you are wrong assuming that there were Pakistani item in the second part (You might be mixing up Indian and Pakistani culture). As an audience, I did not see any Pakistani item in that part; I am not sure which item you are referring. If you make it clear then perhaps I can clarify that.

Jewed and Shumi, thanks for your interest but I will just request you to see my comment above to Emily and review your comments. I will be posting my own You-tube highlights of the two parts and perhaps you can check it out yourself how wrong you are in your view. The committee will produce DVD also and you can request them for a copy of the same.

Dear Chowdhur,
Thanks fro your response. Please understand it was not my intention to hurt anyone’s feeling but just felt compelled to express my feelings.
As I said before and as you also agreed, the 2nd part of the program did not represent Bangladesh culture. Though the 2nd part of the program took place in the name of ‘multicultural show’, I do not recollect it was mentioned in the program explicitly that they do not represent Bangladeshi culture. On the contrary, it was mentioned that have strong influence on the culture of Bangladesh. This is probably also evident from the other post in this segment by Zahir.
With regards to advertising the program as having two distinct parts, when I bought the ticket from Darwin Entertainment Center I did not see any mention of the 2nd part of the program. Even on the ‘flyer’ on this site, there is no mention of the 2nd part but rather it only mentions it as ‘Bangladesh Cultural Night.’ The program structure might have changed later and as you said it might have been advertised in daily’s but I might not have come across that.
Regrading the songs, I wouldn’t be able to tell which were Pakistani and which were hindi songs. But I do recall it being announced that one of the song was Pakistani. Video of the program might help.
As mentioned in my first post, I love people with diverse cultural background and enjoy experiencing it. As it says in Wikipedia, “Multiculturalism is the acceptance or promotion of multiple ethnic cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place”. I actually spent about 6 months in the subcontinent, about one month of which was in Bangladesh. I have been to few different parts of Bangladesh but never really hear anyone saying anything in hindi. I felt the rural areas and the some of the tribal people of Bangladesh has their own unique identity and probably that would have been a better reflection of Bangladesh culture. Please understand that is just my humble opinion. As I said at the beginning, it is not my intention to create confusion here. It was great to see the very small Bangladeshi community living amongst us presenting such a colourful program. Am sure you will grow in the coming years and excite us with more colourful programs in the years to come.
Best wishes to all members of the Bangladesh community.

Emily

forgot to mention, I enjoyed the food a lot.

Dear Organiser/s,

Who has authorized you to represent our culture in such a deplorable way? Even, any conscious citizen of the globe could point out that was not a correct representation of our culture. Our music and dance are sophisticated and rich enough to fulfill and enrich any cultured soul around the globe!

You don't have to include paki song or dance in the name of Bangali culture. (edited)

Dear Emily,

Thanks for your reply to my comments. I am surprised to see your interest in this cultural program and I must congratulate the executive committee of Bangladesh Association Darwin on getting such attention. Your interest also amazed me, its unusual to see some one outside from Bangladeshi root in Darwin finding our Priyo-Australia webpage and then one and half month old posting of mine to put her thoughts and feelings into it. Can I request you to become an Associate member Bangladesh Association? I am sure any future committee of the association will get benefit from your passion for Bangladeshi culture. Respecting that, I am replying otherwise I always try to avoid this type of situations for obvious reason. This would be my last comment on this subject.

Now going back to your comments and my reply. Again this comment is my own one and please do not mix it up with any one else. The point I was trying to make is, I have not seen the association to hide the fact of having two parts in the program and the first part will be solely Bangladeshi culture. The association did not compromise with that first part. The second part was multicultural. A flyer of a program does not get into the detail of the same but the association made that intention clear in its newspaper article and other publication. I have again checked the VDO and that same intention announced many times.

Your first comment was heavily criticising the program on the fact that due to our historical events of 71 how the association can have Pakistani items in such a program. I also checked the VDO for any Pakistani item but could not found one. This is a very sensitive nationalistic felling issue and I thought you are only expressing your feeling on disliking that element of the program. As result of that assertion others, inter-state Bangladeshis also criticised due to that nationalistic feeling. Nevertheless, once I pointed out that it was very much incorrect what you said about Pakistani item now you raised different issue regarding inclusion of multicultural part. Even then, that major issue as raised by you addressed by me I cannot ask any one to like the idea of inclusion of the multicultural section or disliking the same. Integration and multiculturalism, influence of global culture is a reality and these are the few example of supporting arguments. Your last comment can be some how considered as an example of the negative argument. As like any other idea this particular idea will have support and opposition.

You mentioned that your intention is not to hurt any one’s feeling I am sure when the association took the pain of arranging such program with a small community and limited resource they also did not had any intention of hurting any one’s feeling. The reality is, though we have the right intention but our actions might be hurting the feeling of some one, which we never expect. Mentioning of the same in your comment, would not help that.

Now the reality as I can see from the association’s point of view. We have approximately 150 Bangladeshis living in Darwin. Out of that 150 may be 50 will be participating 20 will not be coming to the program for different reasons. At the end, they have 80 audiences. The association need at least 400-500 audience for any program to be successful. Financially also with very small grant it is not viable to have a program with 80 audiences. The easiest audience group, which can be attracted to theses type of programs, are the audience from sub-continent. To attract this group they had to make sure that they are also entertained. The feedback from that group was the same. Hence the choice between having multicultural section and only one section comes. If it were, Sydney or Melbourne that choice would not have to be made. However, the reality is having a program with this compromise was this end-result. Those who are commenting from inter-state do not have the same reality.

Personally, I do not support having two parts together under the banner of “Bangladeshi Cultural Night” and the association also might have the same understanding and as a result there was a distinct gap of dinner was provided to make it as distance as possible. When the question of having a program or not having comes, I do support them in that compromise.

At the end of the day, we must have consideration of all the facts and balance in expressing our view otherwise it will give a negative feed back, which will definitely stop this type of organisation to spend their own valuable time and effort to come up with this type of program in future. I am sure with your genuine love for Bangladeshi culture you will also not appreciate that happening.

To conclude I hope I also have not hurt your feeling with my reply above and hurting your feeling was not my intention.

Pura jinish ta kemon confusing. tobe ekta bepar tu Darwin er Association er bhuja uchit chilo je - jei chinta korei koren na keno, Bangladesh er onnusthane hindi gaan/ nach anle ta niye kotha hobei.

Dear Chowdhury,
It is natural for me to express views openly. But expressing my views on the program seems to have stirred up emotions on few. My apology for that.

Just for your information, I lived in Sydney for 30 years before moving to Darwin in 1998. I do have few Bangladeshi friends from Sydney and yes the Priyo Australia website is one of the many sites I sometimes browse. And to quench your surprise, I do visit other community sites and express my views openly.
Seems to me you are a very enlightened and cultural minded person. You might be interested to attend the 'The 2010 ANNUAL AFRICAN DINNER DANCE & CULTURAL EXTRAVAGANZA' at the Cyprus Community Centre on 7th August.

Regards,
Emily

We thought the organisers of the night were spicing the program with light and shallow songs and dances from the other parts of the subcontinent when they stated that they wanted to give the program a multicultural flavour. I have no objection to such claims if they would have included Aboriginal people's or songs and dances from other cultures. Or, if they would have termed the program as "subcontinental".

Ah, well, no point crying over split beans. The organisers have not only devasted people of Bangla diaspora but many other conscious citizens of this planet!

I would like to express my heartiest gratitude to Emily for opening our eyes!
Still, there is enough poetry in life!

Anupam, you are most welcome to move to Darwin (if you are not already in) and join the Executive Committee of Bangladesh Association of Darwin to relief people of Bangladesh and Darwin from this devastation. I will nominate you for this and get someone to second that for you. But please do not put commnets igniting hatred among people without understanding the situation. Who in Bangladesh does not listen to Hindi songs? If you go to a village shop in Bangladesh, you will find people listening to Hindi songs. Learn to face the reality.

I agree with ‘Rizwan’. Yes I also think we (Bangali) are a music loving nation BUT it does not justify to have hindi or urdu (other than bangla) song in “Bangladesh Night Event” where we would have take the opportunity to display our culture and pride. NOT what we listen time to time, NOT what this world has to offer. Please ‘think’ before you replay as we all understand organising a event like ‘Bangladesh Night’ not that easy.

Please note, no more comment on this issue as few thing became clearer by now. If you wish to write about this issue (any more) please write in details with relevant program review and we will try our best to publish it. Thanks everyone.

PriyoAustralia Team