A piece honouring one of India's biggest celebrations could be found in a Legana home this month and has been a reoccurring feature for the last decade.
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For the last 10 years Sridevi Eri has put on an elaborate display known as a golu at her home to bring a piece of the Indian celebration, the Navratri Festival, to Tasmania.
A golu is a part of India's southern approach to the festival and features an elaborate, festive display of dolls and figurines.
The Navratri Festival spans nine nights and 10 days, and is celebrated every year in India's autumn. It is a major festival held to honour the divine feminine, Durga, and is associated with her battle against demon Mahishasura and celebrates the victory of good over evil.
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Mrs Eri put together a golu again this year to mark the festival, taking her a week to set up the five steps featuring hundreds of items.
"When we moved to Australia 21 years ago, I just used to collect little things," she said.
"There is a social aspect as well because we invite people over to come and have a look at the display and exchange some food or have some small gifts.
"Different parts of India celebrate in different ways, but I come from the south of India and in our families, the tradition is to keep this golu."
This year's festival ran from October 17 - 26. Prior to COVID-19 a large community celebration would be held at the house, but this year the community had to book a time and some even Zoom-ed in to get a look.
Mrs Eri said the display was not completely religious-based because you could have anything, including one year where she featured the Launceston town clock and Albert Hall.
"It has always been special for the community, they all look forward to it, and especially this year with all the things that have been going on," she said.
"This year's theme, because I realised that with COVID there has been a lot of dependence on all kinds of devices, the idea was to have on display games that we played when we were children, when we didn't have access to technology.
"I was very happy that people from all walks of life, or religions, everyone came in, enjoyed and brought their children."
She did contemplate not making her golu as elaborate next year, but said seeing how happy it made people, meant she was having second thoughts already.
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Isobel Cootes
Sports reporter at The Canberra Times. A Novocastrian with a passion for football (or soccer as they call it in the capital) via The Examiner and The Port Lincoln Times.
Sports reporter at The Canberra Times. A Novocastrian with a passion for football (or soccer as they call it in the capital) via The Examiner and The Port Lincoln Times.
