by mannat kaurthe greater melbourne area which boasts of a sizeable punjabi population has a number of gurdwaras or sikh temples these serve as anchors for the punjabi diaspora in australia keeping them in touch with their heritage as well as being temples of learning for the gennext from punjabi classes to organising musical festivals gurdwaras are at the heart of all these activitiesthe most popular and the oldest of these gurdwaras is sri guru nanak satsang sabha in blackburn it was started in 1981 some pioneering families purchased the uniting church in fern tree gully and gave its melbourne first gurdwara it shifted to the present premises at 127 whitehorse road blackburn a postal warehouse refurbished and transformed to serve as a gurdwara in late 1993 today the gurdwara offers a slew of facilities to the sangatstudents of junior and high school come here to learn music and how to play musical instruments along with singing kirtan at the gurmat sangeeet academy housed in the shrine punjabi language is also taught here every sunday at the khalsa punjabi schoolsimar sehaj kabir singh and shagan kaur all in the 610 age group come here to learn kirtan recital and play the harmonium i like the kirtan classes and have been coming here for more than a year says simar his sister sehaj wants to master the harmonium the children say performing on the stage has boosted our confidencemany punjabi children also attend the sunday morning punjabi classes kabir says he feels happy when he uses the new words that he has learnt in class when he gets homethe gurdwara also contains a library offering sikh literature guru granth sahib in english and gutkas that can be used in the library or issued to a membergurudwara sahib tarneit in tarneit gurudwara miripiri in albanvale gurudwara sri guru granth sahib ji in keysborough sri guru singh sabha gurudwara in craigeburn sri guru nanak satsang sabha in hoppers crossing guru ravidass sabha in campbellfield gurudwara khalsa shouni in shepparton gurudwara nanaksar thath merinda park sikh temple in lynbrook are some other sikh places of worship in mebourne the gurdwaras house many newbie students in australia the also provide succour to many a struggling student who can be seen partaking the langar on any dayit is not common to spot an australian at a gurdwara but the number who enter their sacred portals is on the rise due to the initiatives of the sikh youth community of melbournefirst sikh music festival of australiathe first ever sikh music festival of australia was held in melbourne from october 1315 an initiative of the blackburn temple it was aimed at making people understand how open the punjabi culture isbhai satnam singh principal gurmat sangeet academy says theorganisers wanted to take this opportunity to invite everyone to experience the divine power of musicthis was the first ever music festival of its kind where students from gurmat sangeet academy presented kirtan in traditional style in 31 raags