Our History

Early in August 1983, about sixty Sri Lankan families from Auckland, Wellington, Palmerston North, Taumarunui, Napier, and Levin assembled at the Kapi Mana Bridge Club in Titahi Bay, to express their concerns at the deteriorating social and political situation in Sri Lanka, consequent to racial violence on 27 July 1983. The meeting attracted many members from the Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim communities. There were also a few New Zealanders who had an interest in the welfare of Sri Lanka. Friendly and cordial discussions ensued with one aim in mind and that was to maintain peace and harmony between all Sri Lankans living in New Zealand, no matter what was happening in Sri Lanka. The primary aim of the discussions was to find ways for protecting and maintaining the unity of all Sri Lankan living in New Zealand.

There was also clear evident that a vicious wave of inaccurate, malicious misinformation was being deliberately disseminated in New Zealand, to smear the name of Sri Lanka. It was felt that there was an urgent need to present an unbiased picture of events in Sri Lanka. The response from the Sri Lankan community was spontaneous and very encouraging.

A second informal meeting was held in September 1983 at Tawa. There, it was decided to call a formal meeting to decide on a course of action to address the community concerns. This meeting was held in the third week of November 1983 at the Kapi Mana Bridge Club, Titahi Bay. There an ad hoc Constitution was adopted and an Executive Committee was elected. Finally, on 7th December 1983, The Association was duly registered as United Sri Lanka Association (USLA) INC.

The objectives of the Association were:
• to promote goodwill and unity among all Sri Lankans;
• to uphold Sri Lanka as a single sovereign unitary state in which all people have equal rights and can live in peace and harmony; and
• to promote social, cultural, and sporting activities among its members.

In time, as the community expanded with new migrants it was felt that USLA had to cater to the changing needs. Thus, in the late 1990’s the original constitution was further refined to broaden the aims and objectives, thereby giving greater emphasis to welfare and cultural activities of the community. The updated amended Constitution was re-registered in May 1998.

Looking back it is heartening to realise that it has come a long way, thirty seven years, becoming stronger and more effective. It is indeed a great achievement considering the complexity of problems it had to grapple with. It did not take long to drawn upon the Sri Lankan and the international community, that this litany of misinformation was orchestrated by a group aimed at achieving its objective one way or the other. Their propaganda initially gained international sympathy from unsuspecting countries. They had been able to win sympathizers and New Zealand was no exception.

Countering such a well-organised campaign of misinformation was hard and arduous. Sri Lanka itself lacked a proper information apparatus capable of combatting the false propaganda and its own public relations were weak and ineffective. The Association was also hamstrung with no strong financial base and lacking committed human resources. To make further demands on a small group of dedicated individuals who were already making enormous sacrifices in terms of their time, energy and financial resources was becoming difficult. Yet they did, at times at severe personal cost.

The political landscape of Sri Lanka changed dramatically in the mid 1990’s and the perception of the international community on Sri Lanka too improved. This was made possible at least in part because of an effective campaign by the Sri Lankan Governments of the day to explain the plain truth to the rest of the world. In New Zealand, USLA played its role in an effort to achieve its objectives.

The progress achieved on this front enabled the Association to shift its focus more to the promotion of social, welfare and cultural activities. The cultural achievements of the Association during the past few years have been remarkably encouraging to the credit of all those dedicated people who involved themselves zealously.

USLA has evolved with a broad range of objectives from promoting interests and welfare of its members to upholding unequivocally and promoting Sri Lanka as a single unitary sovereign state in which all people had equal rights and could live in peace and harmony. Perhaps this is the only Sri Lankan Association in New Zealand where membership is open to all members of the Sri Lankan community, regardless of race ethnicity or religion. In this spirit USLA has sponsored not only members of the Sinhalese community but also many Tamil, Muslim and Burgher compatriots to enable them to gain entry visas to New Zealand.

One major development in USLA history was the establishment of the branch organisation in Auckland. It has enabled a large part of the Sri Lankan community in New Zealand to subscribe to its objectives.

Over the past 37 years, the Association has been actively promoting social, cultural and sporting activities among its members. Its regular events include:
• the Sri Lankan Sports Day held on Wellington Anniversary Day;
• celebration of the Sinhala and Hindu New Year;
• Ranaviru Commemoration;
• Talent show (Roti Party);
• the Annual Social and Cultural evening; and
• the Christmas Party.

The Association has provided benevolent and charitable funds both to Sri Lanka and New Zealand which included millions of rupees worth of financial and material aid to deserving charitable and welfare organizations. A good proportion of our financial assistance was channeled through a reputed benevolent organization named Dharmavijaya Foundation (DVF) established under Sri Lankan Government Statute. The funding was largely for educational and poverty alleviation projects.A substantial Trust Fund was also set up to assist poor needy University Students for the purchase of text books, equipment and to cover other urgent expenses.

Other beneficiaries included Denzil Kobbekaduwa Memorial Fund, Kanthabhivurdi Samithaya, Ranaviru Fund, Wenamulla Housing Complex for the people effected by the Tsunami, supply of a Precision Machine to Kandy Teaching Hospital, five tonnes of milk powder to feed children suffering from malnutrition, Flood relief to Sri Lanka, Nepal Earthquake Relief Fund, Pakistan Flood Relief Fund, and Christchurch Earthquake Relief Fund, and more recently, anaesthetic machines and hospital beds to the National Hospital in Colombo, and Archbishop of Colombo for 2019 Easter Sunday attack churches and victims.This is only a brief summary of the growth of USLA. It has well adapted itself to changing circumstances and continues to play a vital role in the lives of Sri Lankan migrants in New Zealand. We are hopeful that it can continue to play that important role for the benefit of the community and the New Zealand society at large.