Taken together, these honours reflect a shared national story: migrants and Australians of migrant heritage are not only participants in Australian life, but leaders shaping its future.
As lead author of the National Disability Insurance Scheme’s SDA Design Standard, she helped establish minimum design requirements for new housing supporting people with extreme functional impairment—standards now embedded across the sector.
She completed three ISS missions, logged 608 days in space, performed nine spacewalks totalling over 62 hours, and became the first person to run a marathon in orbit.
Indian High Commissioner Suneet Mehta said the festival is a tribute to the deep-rooted cultural relationship between India and Fiji, nurtured over generations through shared traditions, values and the universal language of cinema.