As Migrant Sunday approaches, The Record speaks to one of Perth's most vibrant Catholic communities.

The Indonesian Catholic Youth Organisation choir perform by invitation at the Indonesian Conuslate on August 18. Photo: Courteousy of the Western Australian Indonesian Catholic Community.

By Robert Hiini

The first week in Australia was a difficult one for the Western Australian Indonesian Catholic Community's (WAICC) vice-chairman, Hasan Sidi and his family, particularly for his two children who could barely speak or understand English.
The 40-year-old geophysicist and his wife Christina Feby both had a background in the language with Hasan having completed his Masters studies in Brisbane while Christina, a consumer-product marketer, had worked for a number of multinational companies where English was a necessity.
Five years on and Hasan says that like so many migrant families, his son and daughter speak better English than he does.
He was one year into his life in Australia before he heard about the vibrant, 400-family strong community of Indonesian migrants who celebrate Mass together in Bahasa Indonesia every Sunday at St Benedict's Church in Ardross.
Founded in 1992, the WAICC - formally, a private Association of Christ's Faithful - is made up of mostly Indonesian-born ex-pats from the country's largest island of Java.
While immigrants from Indonesia have been making Australia their home since the early 1970s, many of the community's members fled the political instability that rocked the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation in the late 1990s.
The community recently celebrated their ongoing connection with their home country by holding a Mass on Indonesia's Independence Day at Pater Noster Church, Myaree on August 17 - a Mass celebrated by their chaplain of the past three years, Fr Ari Pawarto O.Carm.
The ethnic community is one of the most vibrant and organised of its kind in Perth, according to Fr Blasco Fonseca, Perth's Vicar for Migrants, with the community producing a monthly Indonesian-language magazine to keep community members informed as well as including articles on Catholic faith and spirituality. The community aims not only to strengthen the Catholic faith of its members but to unite Indonesian families in their shared culture; to offer support to new Indonesian migrants who have little knowledge of local customs; and to provide ways of introducing Indonesian culture to the general Australian populace.

The Western Australia Indonesian Catholic Community during their celebrations on Indonesia's Independence Day - Aug 17. Photo: Hasan Sidi.