Category Archives: heritage

September 30, 2025 · 6:39 pm

What’s in an “I”.  Peris/Peiris …. !!

Earlson Forbes

I read with interest the exchange among Victor, Kyle and yourself regarding the question of whether Nova Peris is of Sri Lankan heritage, albeit ever so minor.  A few years ago, an article I had written titled … (From Ceylon to Australia: Migrant Journeys, 1860ies to 2010… was published in your excellent Thuppahi Blog.  In summary, some of the content of that article establishedv THAT:-
&  In 1882 some 500 Ceylonese entered Queensland as indentured labourers.
&  The development of the Pearl Fisheries and later jewellery trade, brought several Ceylonese to Thursday Island as skin divers, boatman, traders and utility workers.
suger plantation workers in Queensland   ina photo served up within  Earlson’s article
‘camel riders at sunset  in Broome

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September 29, 2025 · 8:31 pm

Nova Peris: What’s in Her Name?

Michael Roberts  

In step with David Sansoni’s email questioning Victor Melder has categorically challenged my  speculative suggestion  that  NOVA PERIS may possibly have had  a grandparent who was a Sri Lankan pearler/trader/seaman in the north-western reaches of Australia .

VICTOR: “No, Nova Peris is not of Sri Lankan heritage; she is a prominent Indigenous Australian from the Gija, Yawuru, and Muran/Iwatja peoples. While her surname, “Peris,” has European origins, and she has documented Scottish, Irish, and Filipino heritage, her Indigenous identity comes from her family’s connections to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander traditions and cultures in Australia.”

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September 28, 2025 · 7:43 pm

Nova Peris & Her Roots: Any Sri Lankan Links?

Michael Roberts

Since Nova Peris-Kneebone was one member of the Australian 4 x 100 relay team that secured  a medal  in the Olympic Games of 1996 ( …..   ), I  raised  the speculative question:  does  the name PERIS indicate that one of  her grandparents was a Sinhalese merchant, worker or pearl-diver who was  among the Sri Lankan personnel  known to have  particpated  in trading,  pearl-diving and labouring  activities in the north-western, northern coastal areas of Australia from the early twentieth century  and perhaps  even earlier? 

Australia’s gold medal team, (left-right) Sharon Cripps, N. Peris-Kneebone, Catherine Freeman and Tania Van Heer, celebrate their victory (Photo by Tony Marshall/EMPICS via Getty Images)

371732 05: Australian gold medalist Peris-Kneebone autographs the “Nova” watch she designed for Swatch Watches June 27, 2000 in Santa Monica, CA. Peris-Kneebone, the first Olympic torch bearer on Australian soil and a member of the Aboriginal Muran Clan was on hand to discuss her part in the 17,000-mile journey the olympic tourch will make. (Photo by Jason Kirk/Online USA)

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September 28, 2025 · 1:53 pm

Tania Van Heer: Across Continents ….. A Widening Reach

The  Thuppahi SITE can pat itself on its bum for featuring  the athletic prowess of Tania Murphy nee Van Heer and  her son Aidan Murphy over the decades — achievements on  the athletic tracks as  well as academic fields and moving  beyond to a small welfare enterprise in Sri Lanka.

VISIT … https://thuppahis.com/2022/12/01/perseverance-delivers-degree-fulfilment-for-tania-murphy-nee-van-heer/

Australia’s gold medal winning team, (left-right) Tania Van Heer, Catherine Freeman, Sharon Cripps and N. Peris-Kneebone, wave to the crowd as they go on a lap of honour (Photo by Tony Marshall/EMPICS via Getty Images)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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September 23, 2025 · 1:44 am

Professor JB Disanayake: A Multi-Faceted Career of Achievement, Dedication & Service

Sandagomi Coperahewa, in The  Sunday Times, 8 June 2025, where the title  reads thus: “Felicitating  Lanka’s Foremost Linguist”

I am writing this brief essay in connection with the felicitation ceremony for Emeritus Professor Deshamanya J.B. Disanayaka, the most senior academic and a distinguished figure among contemporary Sinhala scholars in Sri Lanka. The ceremony will be held on 13th June 2025 at 2:00 p.m. at the New Arts Theatre, University of Colombo, with the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka presiding as the Chief Guest. I take this opportunity to reflect on Professor Disanayaka’s contributions to the advancement of Sinhala studies and on my association with him as a teacher, mentor, and scholar.

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September 18, 2025 · 2:00 pm

The ManyTourist Attractions along Sri Lanka’s Coast

ITEM sent by Keith Bennett, entitled “SRI LANKA’S BEACHES – The Ultimate Insider’s Guide”

Here’s what makes Sri Lankan beaches absolutely unique – and why timing is everything. The seasonal secret,

 West/South Coast (Nov-Apr): Unawatuna, Mirissa, Bentota East  Coast (May-Sep): Arugam Bay, Pasikuda, Nilaveli …………. tip: Most tourists get this wrong and end up with monsoon rains

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September 18, 2025 · 3:04 am

Lankan Tamil Migration in Wintry Norway: “Working For Our Sisters”

Oivund Fugleruud in  ???? where the the title runs  thus: ‘ “Working for  Sisters”  — Tamil Life on the 71st Parallel’

The article discusses the phenomenon of migration of Sri Lankan Tamils to Finnmark, the northemmost part of Nonvay. While most other groups of immigrants in Nonvay tend to settle in the larger Cities, this particular group has a tradition of settlement in the fishing villages in Finnmark, facing the Barents Sem.

[t is argued fhat there is a continuity in this pattem from the early migration workers in the 1970s ro present•day asylum-seekers. The “imicrohistory” of Tamil migration to one particular village is presented and discussed. It shows an overlap from one type of  migration to another.

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September 15, 2025 · 9:29 pm

Pursuing World-Class Creative Writing in Sri Lanka

Dr Sasanka Perera, in The Island, 15 September 2025, with this title “Writing with passion and conviction” 

My intention [here] is to reflect on writing with passion at a time Sri Lanka is producing writing, at least in the Sinhala language, that is worthy of being introduced to the world. When I say this, I am thinking of creative writing. There is no such promise by and large when it comes to academic writing. And it does not seem to me that the idea of promoting our writing, ways of writing, and reaching to the world, are issues seriously addressed by our universities, despite their focus in training young people in language and literatures. Unfortunately, however, the idea of writing, though central to all disciplines in social sciences and humanities, has been under-emphasised to the extent of being made almost invisible in academic, professional and popular discourses today in our country.

 A Set  of Pix of  Martin wickremasinghe,  Sarachchandra, Tambiah, Obeyesekera. Sir-Gurusinghe THAT was not amenable to easy  reproduction]

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September 14, 2025 · 9:10 pm

DOWNTON ABBEY calls it a Night !!

Michael Roberts

This epic and fascinating TV series serial has brought its curtains down and called it a night  [to alter the idiom]. My first  intimation of this event was in reading Ed Potten’s account in The Australian 13-14  September 2025 ….but  I cannot  access this news item because the !@#!$!!! paper demands money for web-access ….even  though  I receive the print-paper daily.

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EXTRA! EXTRA! Read all About It … in  Wikipedia = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downton_Abbey

Downton Abbey is  … {was] ….. a British historical drama television series set in the early 20th century, created and co-written by Julian Fellowes. It first aired in the United Kingdom on ITV on 26 September 2010 and in the United States on PBS, which supported its production as part of its Masterpiece Classic anthology, on 9 January 2011. The show ran for fifty-two episodes across six series, including five Christmas specials.

‘Downton Abbey’ Duo Talk Success And Controversy, But Some Questions Are Off Limits

Tom Branson and Lady Mary return  for the final Downton Abbey movie(Image: Rory Mulvey/Focus Features)

 

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September 13, 2025 · 9:46 pm

Cartesian Commonalities: New Amsterdam & Galle Fort, II

Bunchy Rahuman, whose preferred title is “Galle Fort, New York City and the Cartesian Legacy” ** … with  the highlights being impositions by the Editor, who also had the privilege of being a resident within the Fort for twenty or so years from 1938-1960

ESSAY TWO

 Do I exceed myself? Cartesian? The Big Apple? – surely not! But I insist, I am here, not to tweak the truth. In Essay One, I said, the street I lived [most of] my Galle, Fort life in was Lighthouse Street. Discerning readers [for a moment I thought to add if any – but my life insurance policy has lapsed!] would note that I said Lighthouse Street formed a ‘Y’ axis line for the [Galle] Fort. Now even math allergic types, have heard of X axis and Y axis as [perpendicular] lines that cross at right angles and sit in the middle of paper sheets populated by tiny squares arranged 10 x 10, within larger squares, all sitting above, below and at each other’s sides in sheets known as graph paper.

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