Australia: Promoting Falun Dafa at the Moorooka Street Festival in Queensland

On October 12, Saturday, practitioners from Southeast Queensland joined activities at the Moorooka Street Festival. This has become an annual event in the south Brisbane suburb. The main street was closed off to traffic for the day with stalls, puppets, music bands and children's activities replacing the usual cars on the street. We were allotted a double space in order to put up an information booth and have room for exercise demonstrations. Our booth had tables with flyers, newspapers and other handouts in both English and Chinese, along with many "Journey of Falun Dafa" photos hanging on the outside walls. These photos attracted much attention.

Children attentively learning the Falun Gong exercises.

By mid-morning, large numbers of people filled the street and the crowds remained steady until around 4:00 p.m. Our colorful information booth and the exercise demonstration attracted many people all day long. Moorooka has a real multicultural makeup and many people of different nationalities stopped and showed interest in Falun Gong. A number of local Chinese came by and many of them took information and closely watched the exercises and looked at the photos. Some of the Chinese spoke at length with the Chinese practitioners, who clarified the facts of the persecution to them.

Sydney practitioners had just designed a new double-sided flyer entitled: "Help Rescue Falun Gong Family Members." Throughout the day, we handed out over 1,000 brochures, including these new flyers, which allow more Australians to learn about the persecution of Falun Gong in China and its direct harm towards practitioners in Australia. Most people seemed to know something about the persecution and this provided a very good opportunity to bring this down to a personal level that people could relate to. The majority of the people were genuinely supportive when they heard the true facts of the persecution in China.

Many people showed great interest in learning the Falun Gong exercises. A number of children learned the exercises on the spot, while many people said they would go to one of the practice sites in the area to learn the exercises. There was also a room set-aside for health and healing activities and we were given an hour to teach people the exercises. People who attended the class really enjoyed learning the movements and could feel the effects of the energy field. Many said they would go to a local practice site and start practicing the exercises.

This event turned out to be an excellent opportunity to introduce Falun Gong to many people and clarify the facts about the brutal persecution in China. It also allowed us to share with people how this persecution in China is affecting the lives of many practitioners and family members overseas, including Australia. People are awakening to the truth. The evil perpetrators' influence has been greatly diminished and people are becoming clearer about the actual situation.