Promoting Lankan culture in and out of diaspora

by Dushyantha Madugalle

Naleen Jayawardena

The diaspora constitutes an important site in influencing the country, particularly through its cultural products. The Sri Lankan diaspora in Australia has been very active in promoting Sri Lankan culture in Australia, particularly, among the Sri Lankan diaspora and thereby making a profound impact on Sri Lankan cultural landscape.

The corpus of cultural goods from the Sri Lankan diaspora is large and the latest addition to it is the CD by expatriate Sri Lankan Naleen Jayawardena, entitled Mal Renuwak. Lyrics for the CD are by Dr. Wikumpriya Perera. It is the 11th CD of Sinhala songs by Naleen Jayawardene who is engaged in promoting Sinhala songs among the diaspora through the internet.

A galaxy of veterans such as Dr.Rohana Weerasinghe, H.M.Jayawardene, Nimal Mendis, Sarath de Alwis, Ernest Soyza, Badraji Mahinda Jayatilleke, Nawaratna Gamage, Ananda Wijesekara, Rohan Jayawardene, Mervin Priyantha and Rukshan Karunanayake contributed to the CD.

Naleen has got involved his friends in Sri Lankan diaspora in Australia and those in Sri Lanka for his cultural activities and prominent among them are Sunil Govinnage, Sriya Kumarasinghe, Daya Ananda Ranasinghe, Hemasiri Gamage, Latha Perera, Kisanthi de Fonseka and Minali Gamage.

The project for promoting Sinhala songs in the internet commenced with the internet came into being in 2000 and Naleen came to be known as Dr. Wikumpriya Perera in the USA. By 2001, CDs containing Sinhala songs were launched in the internet allowing fans to either play the songs in the internet or download them free.

The website is extremely popular among Sri Lankans and Sri Lankan musicians have the opportunity of introducing their talents free through the website.

Naleen Jayawardene had the opportunity to help tsunami affected Sri Lankans and he has also contributed to the production of The Dhammapada in both Sinhala and English in CD Rom.

Naleen has produced 10 CDs containing Sinhala songs of diverse genres although he may have his own favourites as a singer.

Significantly CDs have opened a window of opportunities for budding Sri Lankan singers to reach out to a wider audience through the internet.

Naleen said that substandard songs would eventually be discarded by the fans and they will not last long. Naleen has rendered his voice to songs originally sung by H.R Jothipala as a tribute to the singer and in an attempt to popularise his lesser known songs. Naleen's CDs are available in websites such as Google, Itune, Amazon and Sinhala website NetCD.

Naleen has already commenced work on his 12th CD which contains songs of the 70s and with the participation of young artistes. Music for the CD is by Rukshan Senanayake who leads the popular band 'Chimes of the Seventies'.