The ‘Ik Onkar’ sculpture that was installed in Bendigo on the occasion of Guru Nanak’s 550th birth anniversary which fell on November 12 this year, was purely a work of sewa (voluntary community service) by Victoria’s Sikh community.
Painted golden, weighing 200 kg approximately and made of carbon fibre, this sculpture was designed in Australia. It is now open to the public in Bendigo’s Great Stupa of Universal Compassion.
The Victorian Sikh Gurduaras Council oversaw the entire project.
Secretary Jang Bahadur Singh Pannu says, "The Gurduaras and 'sangats' of Craigieburn, Blackburn and Keysborough have played a key role in all of this."
"Approximately $25,000 have been spent on the entire project, not counting the donations made by individuals in terms of time and money, to take the project to it's fruition."
Melbourne-based Sukhwant Singh, who worked with a team of volunteers to install the sculpture in Bendigo says, "The roots of this project date back to the year 2014. We got to know that the management of the Stupa at Bendigo has expressed its desire for housing symbols of various faiths there."
The sculpture in a Melbourne fabrication unit for last minute fixes. Source: Sukhwant Singh
"This is when the former Sikh Interfaith Council of Victoria under the leadership of Dr Gurdarshan Singh, Prof. Supriya Singh of RMIT and members of the Victorian sangat discussed how wonderful it would be to have a symbol of our Sikh faith in an Australian public place. We all got together and today you see this artwork which is the result of the collective efforts of many people in Australia," he added.
The sculpture, which stands for divine unity, is the first symbol of the Sikh faith to be installed in a public place in Australia.
Mr Singh says the design was created right here in Melbourne at RMIT's Architectural Wing. The execution of the design took around six months from start to finish.
The team of volunteers which installed the sculpture at Bendigo. Source: Sukhwant Singh
"Once the sculpture left India, most of the work that went into its installation was done by volunteers as sewa," he adds.
"The shipping cost was borne by a member of the Blackburn sangat and, the truck driver who transported it to Bendigo didn't charge a cent."
"My friends and I installed it on a day when the rain was pouring down - but we just threw on our raincoats and finished the job," he adds.
Mr Singh says that even though the sculpture was designed by Australian architects, there were some flaws in the execution of the design from India.
"This called for some last-minute fixes that were done in a fabrication unit in Dandenong, Melbourne," he adds.
He did not disclose the cost of fabricating and shipping the sculpture from India.
“It was meant to be sewa so none of us is fishing for credit here. We are all sewadaars (volunteers),” Mr Singh signs off.
When the Ik Onkar sign was unveiled in Bendigo on November 12, many monks and officials from the Stupa were also present for the historic occasion.
