Wagga has been treated to a rare visit from Kenyan Elder, Doctor Joel Kimeto.
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Dr Kimeto has been travelling Australia for two months, speaking with Kenyan diaspora communities. Wagga was one of his last stops.
Kip Langat said the Kenyan community was grateful to have Dr Kimeto visit. He said in Kenya, people would traditionally ask advice from community elders on matters of work, life, family, and spirituality.
Wagga has a small but growing Kenyan community, counted at 59 in the 2021 census. Mr Langat said due to the relatively small size of the Kenyan diaspora community in Australia, it was a rare opportunity.
"He is the guardian of culture, so everybody in Kenya knows him with his guitar, with his music, and wise words of wisdom," he said.
"Especially with family relations ... people are getting busier and busier on a daily basis, which threatens our way of living.
"I may know what my issues are, but I don't know how to solve them ... they [elders] bring that different understanding."
Dr Kimeto is best known in Kenya as a singer, who uses traditional language and musical styles to spread the Christian gospel.
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Working with his ministry The Great Commission, Dr Kimeto also plays a role in helping communities understand their cultural heritage, and raising awareness of critical issues like HIV/AIDS.
Dr Kimeto said elders play a significant role in the Kenyan community, similar to that played by Australian Indigenous elders.
"It is said that what an old man can see when he is seated, a young person may not see even when he jumps on top of a mountain," he said.
"When cultures meet, it's easy for a young person to get lost. We are trying to help them understand their culture, to respect other cultures, and know how they can mingle with other people."
Dr Kimeto met with Wagga's Aboriginal community on Sorry Day, in an attempt to create closer ties with the Kenyan diaspora. He said part of his mission was to make sure local Kenyan Australians could walk confidently in the worlds of their parents, and their new homes.
"What I learnt about Aboriginal culture is they like music, like us," Dr Kimeto said.
"When it comes to spiritual ... what they are doing, and their beliefs is what we are also doing, more or less - we have the touch together."
Aunty Cheryl Penrith was one of the Indigenous leaders who met with Dr Kimeto at the Wollundry Dreaming Hub on Friday. She said she was amazed by what their cultures had in common.
"It's something I've thought about for a long time - We've got such a large community of people who've come here from Africa that we know hardly anything about," she said.
"But when we start having a yarn, we're so alike.
"It was really joyful. On a day like Sorry Day, to have an opportunity like that was so beautiful."
Mr Langat said that as a relative cultural outsider, traditional Australian cultures can seem unapproachable. He said Dr Kimeto showed him their cultures were more similar than he thought.
"It was a privilege for us ... we spent almost two hours at the Wollundry Dreaming Hub, and at the end I was so amazed by the similarities. I don't think we saw any difference," he said.
"We are far apart, but each time they said something, we said 'but that is us'.
"It's silly we had to wait for an elder to come here and unite us with our own community."
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