00:00We're here at Parramatta Park in Sydney's west and over the course of today more than
00:06350 locals will fly over Parramatta in hot air balloons as part of the city's program
00:13for Australia Day.
00:15The balloons began taking off at 6am just in time for sunrise and I've been told it's
00:20after a year or so that the hot air balloons are being featured at this event due to weather
00:25conditions.
00:27They only started going up this morning but the event actually kicked off last night where
00:32stationary hot air balloons were lit up to the beat of Indigenous music.
00:38We heard from the Lord Mayor of Parramatta who said that it's not just important to celebrate
00:43this city's present and future but also acknowledge this country's colonial past.
00:49So Parramatta specifically here in Australia, we've had our First Nations have stayed on
00:54this land for over 65,000 years and now today Parramatta's got over 128 different nationalities
01:01with 117 languages spoken so it's important that we celebrate both the past, the present
01:06and the future and that all of our community comes together to celebrate what unites us.
01:11We've spoken to a number of people at the event who all have different reasons for being
01:15here.
01:16Here's what some of them had to say.
01:18We moved to Australia 20 years ago for a better life and we all are happy living here so Australia
01:25Day is important for us as we're celebrating it's a land of Aboriginal people which is
01:34good for us to celebrate something special.
01:37We come every year just to celebrate and to show the kids, you know, the traditions of,
01:42yeah, very nice.
01:44Our understanding of cultural identity in Australia and coming together as one is through
01:51hard times and all that, sometimes we have to make it right for other cultures, even
01:55though where we come from or who we believe in but at the end of the day we need to stand
01:59together because when there's diabetics or the world's flooding or fires are happening
02:04we're all standing together no matter the culture, no matter the race, you know what
02:07I mean.
02:08Basically from India, in India it's a Republic Day, my birthday, here it's Australian Day
02:13so it's a good coincidence.
02:16This event precedes the next event in the program where the annual citizenship ceremony
02:21also held in Parramatta will take place and that's where the 2025 Parramatta Citizen of
02:28the Year awards will be announced and 50 members of the community will receive their citizenship.
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