NATIVES of Taiwan and the People\u2019s Republic of China took the pledge and became Australian citizens at a ceremony on Monday.<\/p>\n
Mayor Jo Armstrong officiated over the citizenship ceremony, saying welcoming new citizens was a celebration of Ararat\u2019s growing community.<\/p>\n
\u201cAustralian citizenship ceremonies play an important part of our nation\u2019s celebrations and one of my favourite events as Mayor,\u201d Cr Armstrong said.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, we are encouraged to acknowledge what it means to be an Australian, whether by birth or by choice, and to celebrate our newest citizens to call our community home.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur history and culture has been forged over thousands of years, first through Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and more recently with people from all corners of the globe.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs Australians, we believe in the freedom and dignity of each individual, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of association,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Cr Armstrong said the three new Australians all had a different journey to Australia and reasons for joining the Ararat community.<\/p>\n
\u201cCongratulations to some of Australia\u2019s newest citizens, Yingchen Chiu, Sze Long Arnold Kwok, and Nai-yun Otte.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asian food grocer owner Nai-yun Otte, who with her husband Craig launched their successful business ‘House of Nai’ in Ararat 18 months ago was one of the people who took the pledge.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s taken almost seven years since arriving to Australia to receive my citizenship; it has taken a very long time but so very much worth it,\u201d Ms Otte said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing able to vote as democracy is so important — being from Taiwan, we have democracy but nothing like Australia. Being able to participate on so many levels and be involved is exciting, I think some people take for granted but I understand how important it is,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s an honour to finally become a Citizen, I am so excited about the future opportunities ahead,\u201d Ms Otte said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NATIVES of Taiwan and the People\u2019s Republic of China took the pledge and became Australian citizens at a ceremony on Monday.
\nMayor Jo Armstrong officiated over the citizenship ceremony, saying welcoming new citizens was a celebration of Ararat\u2019s growing community.
\n\u201cCongratulations to some of Australia\u2019s newest citizens, Yingchen Chiu, Sze Long Arnold Kwok, and Nai-yun Otte.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":966,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[31],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/IMG_4850-4-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdqUu4-fB","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=967"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}