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Celebrating Kerala

Notes for an address by Hon. David Kilgour, Secretary Of State (Latin America and Africa)
to Canadian Kerala Cultural Association of Alberta
Lebanese Druze Centre, Edmonton, Alberta, Sept. 2, 2000

Many centuries ago, King Mahabali of Kerala, sacrificed his life to the nether world to save his people from destruction. But King Mahabali was so attached to his kingdom and so loved by his people that the gods allowed him to return to Kerala once a year. Today we celebrate Onam, the most important cultural festival of the Kerala people. Today we celebrate the bounties of nature, a year of good harvest and of course we celebrate the day King Mahabali returns from his exile to visit his people.

In my preparations for today, it struck me how many similarities there are between Kerala and Canada. There are of course, no wondrous beaches and coconut trees where we stand today but there is in Canada a wonderful diversity of dedicated and hard-working people. In my readings of Kerala, those who had travelled there were left with the impression of a people with a rich diversity of cultures where Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Jews, all with their own customs and traditions lived together. The Keralite people are also described as a people with a deep appreciation and understanding of the land which sustains them. These are words that strike a familiar chord. It is almost as if a little piece of Kerala exists here today. And perhaps it does.

According to another legend from many centuries ago, Parsurama, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, threw his mighty battle-ax into the Arabian Sea. With this act emerged a fertile land with beautiful beaches and bountiful seas. This land of course is Kerala. Now, this was many years ago and I wasn’t there to see it, but I believe as Lord Vishnu’s mighty battle-ax fell, a tiny chunk of Kerala flew high into the sky, and this little piece flew with such force that it travelled a great distance, across the oceans and landed here, where we stand today. Here today is the proof, a gathering of Kerala’s children, in a rich land of diverse people. That is why I celebrate with you today. So today, we feast and sing and dance in the festival of Onam. But if I may I would like to propose this toast. A toast to the fortunes of Fate that brought that tiny piece of Kerala to this distant corner of the earth. A toast to the fortunes of Fate that have allowed me and the people of Canada to share and experience the beauty of Kerala in a land so distant from its ancestral home.

 
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