Australian Embassy
The Philippines

MR130122 - Share in the Aussie experience during Celebrate Australia 2013

Share in the Aussie experience during Celebrate Australia 2013

22 January 2013

A week-long festival - Celebrate Australia 2013 - featuring the best of Australian culture and cuisine is being presented by the Australian Embassy in Manila, leading up to Australia’s National Day on the 26th of January.

“Celebrate Australia is not just a way to share the best of Australia, but is a way to showcase shared delights, visions and journeys in a world that – much like both Australia and the Philippines – is becoming increasingly multi-cultural and interconnected,” said Australian Ambassador to the Philippines, Bill Tweddell.

“Australia Day unifies Australians all over the globe as a nation and as a people with a unique heritage shaped by an ancient indigenous culture, the establishment of European settlement in the continent, and the subsequent arrival of migrants from over 200 countries. This, of course, includes some quarter of a million Filipino Australians whose contributions resonate in the different facets of Australia’s diverse, dynamic and modern society,” the Ambassador added.

This year’s celebration features musical performances by Zephyr Quartet, an innovative Australian string ensemble, whose classical twists to contemporary pop and rock favorites show how diverse cultural influences perfectly blend in Australian society. Catch their performances at The Peninsula Manila’s Salon de Ning on 24 January at 10pm and at the Greenbelt 3 Park on 25 January at 8pm.

UnBound, a cultural exhibition exploring how culture moves beyond physical boundaries, from the physical passage of the object to questioning how ideas and histories are carried and rewritten, will be held at the Yuchengco Museum in RCBC Plaza from 24 January to 3 February.

The exhibition uses the airport as a metaphor for that intersection between coming and going, ideas of home and away, familiarity and fusion, and contemporary definitions of cultural flow through the activities of several artists between the Philippines and Australia. The artists include: Alfredo & Isabel Aquilizan (born in the Philippines, resident in Brisbane), Maria Cruz (born in the Philippines, resident in Sydney and Berlin), David Griggs (born in Melbourne, resident in Quezon City), Diokno Pasilan (born in the Philippines, resident in Melbourne), Juni Salvador (born in the Philippines, resident in Sydney), Tony Twigg (born in Brisbane, resides and works in Sydney and Manila).

Modern gastronomical delights will be on show at The Peninsula Manila’s Tasting Australia food festival from 25 January to 3 February. Chef Greg Doyle, one of Australia’s most talented chefs, will be flying in to demonstrate to Manila’s most discriminating gourmets why he’s been awarded “Restaurateur of the Year” and won the prestigious three-hat award by The Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Food Guide.

The Peninsula Tokyo’s Australian-born Executive Chef, Adam Mathis, will also be visiting for Australia Day celebrations. His exciting and new buffet festival selections, highlighting Australia’s native exotic prime cuts and bush ingredients, will be showcased at The Peninsula Manila’s Escolta.

“Celebrate Australia is an opportunity to celebrate Australia’s modern and diverse society. It is also an opportunity to celebrate the closeness between Australia and the Philippines – a relationship that is flourishing and deepening,” Ambassador Tweddell adds.

Celebrate Australia 2013 is presented by the Australian Embassy in partnership with ANZ, Aspen, Meat & Livestock Australia, Oceana Gold, The Peninsula Manila, Qantas, SMI, and SKM; and supported by Wine Depot, Greenbelt, the Yuchengco Museum, and 2nd Avenue.

For more information, visit www.philippines.embassy.gov.au and www.facebook.com/AustralianEmbassyManila.