As they gather in strength and unity, their roaring voices are a perfect match with the beating and pounding that characterises who they are and where they come from. Men of dark hair and olive skin, travelling together in seeming packs and bound by an unbreakable tradition. There is a leader among them, and even if he is not explicitly seen, he is found in their actions and in their pursuits, and in their quest to dominate the task ahead.
They have found a niche for themselves in South-West Sydney, and no matter how they are stereotyped and represented, they will continue to meet, greet and roar as they beat, Pa-Rum-Pum-Pum-Pum, on their drums.
You'd be forgiven if you thought I was writing of something criminal and sinister and un-Australian. After all, representations in our press would have you assume that South-Western Sydney is the heartland of gangs, where terror reigns and where Australian ideals are in rapid decline. They'd have you believe it was an Islamic enclave, or a place where you couldn't walk alone for fear of abuse or crime or rape.
But drive in its midst during this Advent season and you'd be surprised. Here reside a people that the press has forgotten. A Lebanese Christian population who, tarnished by the criminal representations that their nationality connotes in the press, has retreated further and further into old ways of living — as outsiders in a country they chose because of its hopes for a better life and a stronger, bigger, prosperous future.
Instead, the past decade, plagued by gang rapes, street crime and race riots, has questioned the value of their presence in Australia and riddled our multicultural policies with big and bold question marks.
Driving in a Punchbowl street this December could erase all those questions of the values of multiculturalism. I am thinking this as I watch the St Charbel's Youth Association Choir sing passionately in preparation for their Church's annual youth Christmas carols concert, while the Christmas lights and decorations of the surrounding homes brighten up the experience. Oh come all ye faithful, the lights and carols say, joyful and triumphant.
The church, which I am proud to worship at, is a Maronite Catholic institution that has as its core objective the maintenance, in Australia, of the traditions of the Lebanese Maronite Order. Its parishioners, young and old, born down under or in the old country, are