Cade Lucas
Wyndham’s Young Citizen of the Year hopes that winning the award will provide inspiration to other young people from Indian and multicultural backgrounds.
Indian born youth advocate and public speaker Krushnadevsinh Ravalji was announced as the winner of the award at Wyndham’s Australia Day celebrations at Wyndham Park on Friday.
The 24 year old from Werribee, who emigrated from India with his family when he was seven, said providing an example for other non-white youth was the most gratifying part of receiving the award.
“It’s that there’s a brown young man who’s won it and I think that representation goes a long way,” said Mr Ravalji who is the Youth Commissioner on the Victorian Multicultural Commission and runs his own social enterprise, Third Culture Australia.
In both roles, Mr Ravalji advocates for multicultural youth, visiting schools to speak and run workshops on diversity, inclusion and anti-racism, causes his own school experience taught him the importance of.
“When you go to school, your differences are almost frowned upon. I wanted to make sure the next generation didn’t go through the same thing again,” Mr Ravalji said.
“I wanted to go into schools and make sure young people know it’s okay to be brown. It’s okay to be different.”
While Mr Ravalji’s work takes him across the country, he still maintains a particular interest in multicultural youth in the western suburbs and Wyndham
As the youngest member of the Western Metropolitan Partnership, he’s able to advocate on behalf of the region’s youth to some of the west’s leading business figures and politicians.
It’s experience that will stand Mr Ravalji in good stead if he ever decides to enter politics himself, though he remained coy whether that was in his future plans.
“I do hold a few government positions, as I said I’m a youth commissioner so maybe, but my goal at the end of the day is to just make change happen.”
