Celebrating Brightwater’s Diversity
At Brightwater, we welcome people with the full diversity of life experiences, thoughts and beliefs. We foster a culture of inclusion, collaboration and innovation where our clients and staff can flourish. Australian Citizenship Day is celebrated each year on 17 September. This day was chosen as it is the anniversary of the renaming of the Nationality and Citizenship Act 1948 to the Australian Citizenship Act 1948.
Today is a special day for all Australian citizens, whether by birth or by choice, to reflect on the meaning and importance of being an Australian Citizen. To celebrate Australian Citizenship Day at Brightwater, we took the opportunity to speak to a couple of our staff who recently became citizens and asked them what it means to them to be an Australian Citizen!
Here’s what they had to say...
Liz Alexander Liz was born in Scotland and immigrated to South Africa with her husband in 1979. Liz arrived in Australia in May 1998 and found that the lifestyle was very similar to South Africa making it easy to settle into life in Australia.
Liz became an Australian Citizen in June 2019. Australia is home to Liz. Her grandchildren were born here so it was time to become a Scozzie! Liz works as an Accounts Receivable Officer and has been with Brightwater since March 2015.
Kaina Salivaji Kaina was born and grew up in Zambia. She came to Australia when she was 19 to pursue her undergraduate studies and was excited about leaving home.
Kaina clearly recalls the first time she arrived in Australia. Her flight landed in Perth just after midnight on Australia day and as sliding doors opened, she was greeted by a huge wave of hot air. She wondered where the hot air was coming from and on looking around realise everybody was in singlets, shorts and thongs! That day was over 40’C!
Kaina chose to become an Australian citizen in August 2019 after the birth of her son. He is an Australian citizen by birth and this is home to him. Being an Australian citizen means Kaina can live in Australia indefinitely with her family, plus having dual citizenship also gives her and her family more options to make choices in life.
Kaina works as a Safety and Health Advisor and has been with Brightwater since March 2017.
Congratulations to both Liz and Kaina on this exciting next chapter of life!
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