A daughter of a Fijian mother and Tamil father, Shyamla was born in Australia. She has dedicated herself to creating social change through the arts.
Highlights:
- Shyamla Eswaran has won the Australian National Maritime Museum Arts and Culture Medal.
- She says this award recognises how vital arts and culture are when it comes to promoting social inclusion.
- Shyamla has taught at renowned studios throughout Australia and abroad.
She says this award recognises how vital arts and culture are when it comes to promoting social inclusion.
“It is a really powerful statement about how important arts and culture is when it comes to promoting social inclusion and diversity and most of all to expressing our stories as people of colour because we don’t necessarily get the same opportunities.”
An expert in different cultural dances such as Bollywood, Brazilian Samba and Semi-Classical Indian, Shyamla has taught at renowned studios throughout Australia and abroad, for instance, Sydney Dance Company, Ettingshausens and Dance Attic.
She firmly believes that recognition brings social change in the real sense.
“I can talk from my personal experience I work in schools around Australia, and you need credibility when you go into those spaces to work with children.
"So being able to say that my programme has received an award that has come from multicultural New South Wales gives you that extra credibility that allows artists like me to for example secure funding for grants which I’ve never been able to do before.
“It helps to elevate what we’re trying to do and give it a bit more credibility that we’re not just some random person with an idea in a programme but that the change and reach of those programmes have been recognised.”
Shyamla, who has a Masters Degree in International Human Rights Law and a BA in Communications, regularly travels to India for training and to further her cultural knowledge.
She believes immigrants embrace so many identities, and they should not be forced to choose between them.
Identity is a complex thing. It comes from inside our blood and our upbringing and our influences as we are growing up.
“There needs to be an acknowledgement that we shouldn’t have to choose between our identities. I shouldn’t have to choose whether I’m identified as Fiji Indian, whether I am Australian born Indian, whether I’m you know my father’s Tamil, all of that forms a part of my identity," she says.
"As an artist, there are also cultures outside of my personal identity that really have shaped me as well.”
