Malayalees hail from the state of Kerala, which is one of the many states in India. They are also called Keralites who speak the language known as Malayalam. The Malayalees who have settled abroad and that includes Australia have always been proud of their culture and traditions. They do try and upkeep their identity and cultural background.

The earliest of Malayalees to arrive on the shore of Western Australia was around the mid 1960’s. As years rolled on, more and more Malayalees started to trickle in. When the number increased to recognizable scale it was thought to register an Association and in July 1996, after much consideration and deliberation the Malayalee Association of Western Australia (MAWA) came to be incorporated.

Australia’s multi racial, multi cultural broad outlook in recent years has paved a way for many diverse ethnical groups to converge to Australia. The uniqueness of this feature is the co-existence and living in harmony aspect. We the Association members as well as all the Malayalees in Australia share this sentiment of uniting and working towards the goal of bettering this nation, this great country which we have chosen as our homeland.

The Association has, to this time, continued its work of representing the Malayalee Community on issues affecting them. They are responsible for the organization of events such as Onam, Christmas and a host of other function that allows the community to come together in the preservation and maintenance of the unique Malayalee culture.

MAWA has always remained a very inclusive organization with strong emphasis placed on the introduction to the wider community of the culture of Malayalee as well as the settling in to Australian life of new migrants to Western Australia. It has strong links to other organizations both here in Australia as well as internationally. It continues towards making Australia a more accepting and harmonious society.