About Us
Sydney Wantok Association Incorporated is registered in New South Wales as a Not-for-Profit community organisation based in the city of Sydney with coverage across the greater metropolitan areas and suburbia as well as regionally across NSW. Its branding is “SydWan”. The Association has come a long way from its humble beginnings in December 1993 when it was started by students from UNSW then supported by Sydney PNG residents then later was registered as Sydney PNG Wantok Club Incorporated with the NSW Fair Trading. In 2017, there was a change in status of the organisation from Club to Association to stay relevant to the changing times and repositioning our purpose in the community at large. The Association welcomes and serves through its objectives people of PNG whether visitors, students, workers on temporary residency, permanent residents or those who have become Australian citizens and continue to maintain the PNG diaspora community. It also reaches out to Melanesian countries who people identify as a Wantok as well as our Pacific people.
Purpose and Guidelines
1. The Association embraces membership and encourages wider community engagement and participation of people with Papua New Guinea identity and heritage inclusive of Australian, New Zealand, Melanesia, Pasifika, international friends, affiliates, and associates.
2. The Association welcomes and serves through its objectives people of PNG whether visitors, students, workers on temporary residency, permanent residents or those who have become Australian citizens and continue to maintain the PNG diaspora community. It also reaches out to Melanesian countries who people identify as a Wantok as well as our Pacific people.
3. We connect and engage our immediate and wider communities that is of mutual interest and benefit here in Australia and PNG. We endeavour to cover a range of activities and events and engage as much as possible in the demographics of our community in social, cultural, sports, religious values, charitable fundraisers.
4. We continue to build and grow our Wantok community in the Greater Sydney and Greater NSW. The membership and primary service coverage areas include: Newcastle/Hunter/Central Coast (northern region), Sydney City & Metropolitan (east, west, north, south), Wollongong/Illawarra, Bowral/Southern Highlands (southern region), Lithgow/Blue Mountains (western region).We encourage more financial membership with nominal fees to support the community activities in making it worthwhile for all people who embrace a sense of belonging to our PNG identity and heritage.
Objectives
1. Social Interaction To foster social interaction between Papua New Guineans, Pacific Islanders and Australians through events such as, but not limited to, family events, trivia nights, independence anniversary, celebrations, religious activities, cultural events, sporting events, and musical performances.
2. Provide Assistance To assist Papua New Guinean students, both domestic and international, through networking and skill building events.
3. Connect & Engage We connect and engage our immediate and wider communities that is of mutual interest and benefit here in Australia and PNG. We endeavour to cover a range of activities and events and engage as much as possible in the demographics of our community in social, cultural, sports, religious values, charitable fundraisers.
4. Charitable Causes in PNG To identify & support, both financially & through other means, charitable causes, primarily in Papua New Guinea, in areas such as, but not limited to, environmental conservation, health, education, disaster relief, culture preservation, youth, women empowerment and religion.
5. Partnerships To partner and or assist other charitable organisations or associations to advance their cause in accordance with the Association’s objectives.
Focus Areas
1. Community Building & Engagement – involves our social and sporting events, encouraging younger generation membership, students support and collaborating with sister community groups like PNG Catholic Association, Melanesian Lotu, PNG Women Association, PNG Association of Australia (PNGAA) and others with common goals like us. The Committee will look into this and advise our members. I encourage those who are not yet members to join the Association from today.
2. Events & Fundraising – to be sustainable, we need funds to operate and manage our activities and events. So the Fundraising Subcommittee headed by a Co-ordinator will be looking at ways and means to fundraise. The Committee will look into this and advise our members. Other sources of funding can be through Government Grants (Local/State/Federal) where we can apply for as a community organization incorporated in NSW.
3. Collaboration & Networking – The saying goes that “no man is an island” and also goes to groups like ours. We need to partner and collaborate with other organizations having common and same interest to benefit from joint initiatives or projects mainly towards our Community Engagements. The aim is to work together on possible Australia – PNG community initiatives and teaming up where we can. The Committee will look at this and advise members what organization we can leverage from and combine our efforts for our benefit.
4. Charitable Causes & Projects – During the next two (2) years, as a community, we would like to support at least one (1) small charitable project so we will ask for suggestions to identify one. The committee will decide on the most cost effective and easy to manage idea/project and advise our members accordingly. This will involve specific fundraising efforts for the identified project as such a Fundraising Subcommittee will be formed to monitor this.