A GALA that celebrates the culture, arts and talents of the African community continues to grow bigger and better as organisers lead up to the fourth annual event.
Afritude Down Under, which incorporated last year, originally formed as a way to celebrate diversity and uniqueness through hosting elegant events.
Co-founder Violet Arrey said Afritude started as a small gala in 2013.
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READ NOW“Afritude was a concept by myself and a friend, we thought there were a lot of Africans with talent and so we wanted to showcase culture and African talents,” she said.
“It was quite successful so we decided to do another event which was more multicultural and had a greater turnout.”
The gala event has developed into an annual Harmony Day Gala staged at the Perth Town Hall.
It features Sudanese models and designers, musicians and performing artists from South Africa, West Indies, Zimbabwe and Kenya, as well as other non-African countries.
“We tried to get designers involved in the last event publicity, match them with stockists, put them in contact with people who will assist their career,” Ms Arrey said.
She said next year’s gala would be larger as they would tie the event in with the African Leadership Imitative recently rolled out by the Metropolitan Migrant Resource Centre in Mirrabooka.
The program aimed to empower participants to achieve their potential and address the needs of the 70,000 African-born people in WA.
Gala stockist Jane Chitumwa said she had tried to promote African brands through Afritude.
“Africans have really unique products, the awareness is not there, you go to the shops and see similar things but nothing is unique,” she said.
“The event is awesome… I’ve met people in the fashion industry, I met a designer and she has been encouraging me to start designing my own things.”