ILOILO City – The linkages between the Philippines and Australia can be traced back to as early as the 1800s, according to Australian Ambassador to the Philippines Her Excellency HK Yu PSM.
According to Yu, who led the celebration of the Philippines-Australia Friendship Day in the city, this was the period when many Filipino people went to Australia to be pearl divers and worked in the shelling industry as well.
“I discovered upon arriving here that many of those pearl divers were from Iloilo, this very beautiful city. So our linkages go back so many years and that is why it is so exciting to be here in the City of Iloilo,” she told the crowd during the opening of the Philippines-Australia Friendship Day Festival hosted by SM City Iloilo.
The fact about this history was also part of the series of activities relative the Philippines-Australia Friendship Day. On May 20, the “Manila Men: Retracing the Journey of the First Filipinos in Australia Exhibition” was held at the National Museum – Western Visayas.
The exhibit is open to the public Tuesday to Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., until June 24.
Yu said the photographic exhibit is drawn from the work of Filipino-Australian Dr. Deborah Ruiz-Walls, who has family links in Iloilo.
“It tells the story of the ‘Manila Men”, the first wave of Filipino migrants to Australia in the late 1800s, many of whom were from the Western Visayas. It’s a remarkable and touching tribute to the early Filipino diaspora in Australia, and the contribution that they made to our communities,” shared the ambassador./PN
