On the 21st of August, my family and I set off to Marrickville Town Hall to officially become Australian Citizens.
We arrived at 4.45 p.m. signed in, found our allocated seats and our citizenship packages, which included a copy of the National Anthem (Advance Australia Fair) and a copy of our pledge. We sat down and heard the Leichhardt Celebrity Brass play.
While we waited there were some lovely refreshments like tea, coffee and orange juice.
Soon Darcy Byrne (the Mayor of the Inner West Council) welcomed us all and announced the Aboriginal Elder who made the Welcome to Country.
Soon afterwards the Mayor made a heartfelt speech to all the people present, approximately 250 people. Then he told us to pull out our pledge. There was pledge 1 and 2, the only difference being that 1 was a pledge to God and the other wasn’t (I was number 2.)
When it was our turn I was excited and nervous. I read my pledge out loud and then Darcy Byrne said the most important thing: “On behalf of the Inner West I now pronounce you an official Australian citizen” and the crowd roared in appreciation. Now it was just halfway through.
Momentarily, a member of the Inner West council stepped forward with a big stack of what looked like paper, I think I knew what it was. In alphabetical order she called out each person/family name and handed one sheet to the mayor, it was… a citizenship certificate.
My family had to wait a long time because my last name begins with K. Finally, when it got up to us it was the moment I’d been waiting for, the crowd (once again) started clapping wildly.
We all shook the Mayor’s hand and had a picture with him whilst holding up our certificate in front of the Aboriginal, Torres Strait and Australian flags.
I was proud about the ceremony – a lot of crazy things happened, at one point, one recipient’s friend ran up to the Mayor and gave him a vegemite sandwich!
Overall, I was excited, but I was also excited about my delicious Vietnamese food afterwards!
