Community Supporters Turn Up In Hundreds At Shakti Musical Fundraiser

On Saturday 29 May 2021, approximately 400 people gathered to attend ‘Ragas Of Devi Presents: Shakti’, a musical fundraiser in aid of Shakti Community Council Inc. held at Mt Eden War Memorial Hall. The event organized by survivor and musician Ms. Devi Sobhana, alongside professional and self-trained musicians showcased how ragas or classical tunes could bring together not only different musical genres but also diverse communities to promote the cause of ending family violence.

Event organizer Ms. Sobhana worked with a large team of community volunteers to host the event and had several multi-ethnic performers and trained classical Indian dancers. Ms. Sobhana said that her aim was to express her appreciation for Shakti who supported her as a survivor of family violence, and to encourage others to ask for help.

“It is beyond words how appreciative I felt for Shakti. The event definitely exceeded my expectations,” said Ms Sobhana. “I just wanted to say thank you to Shakti and be loud and proud about it. I didn’t expect to have such a large turnout. I expected 200 people maybe through pre-event ticket sales, but on the day of the event we suddenly saw twice the number of people filling up the hall.”

The former client of Shakti shared that she will never forget the support she received while going through her own journey leaving an abusive relationship. “I felt that the work Shakti does is about dealing with people’s emotions, not just processes. It is a highly stressful job am sure for Shakti staff, but they get results and they are focused on helping clients. I became more confident after I moved on. Shakti has changed my life and this is how I wish to pay my respect for Shakti. This is what the organization has done to help me, and I am sure hundreds in the community”.

Guests for the evening included Honourable Minister for Diversity, Inclusion and Ethnic Communities Priyanca Radhakrishnan and Honorary Counsel of India Bhav Dillon who spoke to a packed-hall audience in support of the cause and recognize Shakti’s work within New Zealand migrant and refugee communities.

“One of the issues that led me to stand for Parliament in the first place was family violence intervention and prevention largely because of the years I spent working with Shakti,” said Ms. Radhakrishnan. “There is a lot to credit the organization for.”

Ms. Radhakrishnan also acknowledged how domestic violence manifests differently in ethnic communities. She cited findings from the government’s 2020 Report on Family Violence Death Review Committee: “14% of men who used violence in intimate-partner related deaths between 2009 and 2017 were of South Asian origin. [That] is the third most frequently recorded ethnic grouping in the data sets and Asian women seek help at a lower rate than other women as well.”

“There is a lot of work that we need to do to support women and children to stay safe… culturally-appropriate support that they can access and attitudes to change in our community as well.”

Mr Dhillon also spoke on the importance of women’s empowerment and the need to support such efforts in immigrant communities. “It is organisations like Shakti that unlock the potential of migrant wahine who come from so far away and get caught in an untoward situation.”

Shakti means “strength” in Sanskrit and various Asian languages. Shakti is a national non-profit community organization that specializes in advocacy and family violence intervention services for migrant and refugee communities of Asian, African and Middle Eastern origins. It has 12 centres in New Zealand and commemorated its 25 years of service in 2020. Victims of domestic violence can call Shakti’s 24hours/7 days a week crisisline for support on 0800 SHAKTI.

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