Soni Samaj NZ
YOUR PARTICIPATION...OUR SUCCESS
Our Brief History
Prior to the 1980s, there were very few Sonis residing permanently in New Zealand.
After the 1987 Fiji coup there was an influx of Indian families into NZ. This was assisted by the more relaxed immigration policy of the then David Lange led Labour government. By 1991, there were about fifty Soni families living in New Zealand, mainly in Auckland. However, many were still moving back and forth to Fiji and were still in the process of establishing a more secure and permanent base in New Zealand.
In 1990, the Auckland Indian Association bought the New North Road site to build The Mahatma Gandhi Centre (one of venues for the 2018 Sneh Milan) to replace the smaller Gandhi Hall in Wellesley Street. For this they were seeking donations and the newly arrived Sonis were also approached to contribute. Given that most Sonis had just arrived, it was not possible to make major contributions on an individual basis.
Dr. Kantha Soni, one of the pioneering members of the Soni community in New Zealand, in her wisdom and foresight came up with the idea that the Soni families should come up with a joint contribution to the Auckland Indian Association.
Hence, the idea of a “New Zealand Soni Samaj” was born.
Many hours were spent by the Committee to write the Constitution. We are grateful for the legal input by Mr. BC Patel. The Constitution was adopted at a General Meeting of the Samaj on 6th September 1992 and duly registered.
The Committee worked hard approaching the members and raised $10,000. To make this sum up to the promised $15,000 we held various functions, inviting people outside the Samaj. Eventually we presented the cheque to the Auckland Indian Association and earned the honour of having our name on the Donors’ Board.
Over the following years the Samaj has gone from strength to strength under the able leadership of Vimal Raniga, Dinesh Raniga (two separate tenures), Dipak Amratlal, Harish Sundarji, Janti Lodhia, Popatlal Bagia, Ravi Jogia, Pramesh Sundarjee, Sanjai Bagia and Ritesh Raniga and their enthusiastic teams.
We have undertaken several worth-while projects including fund-raising for humanitarian
causes in Fiji, New Zealand and various other countries and also for our own Starship Children’s Hospital in Auckland.
Soni Saheli
Our tradition of singing of bhajans came with our ancestors when they came from India. Our mothers, grandmothers and great grandmothers from Fiji used to make an effort to get together for bhajans on Poonam, Ekadashi, Purushottam maas and the like. Children would
meet up with their mums after school at the bhajan session for parshad. I have vivid memories of bhajans at HariLal Dosa family and MuljiDaya Family of Ba, Fiji. Some ladies are very renowned for their bhajans and one such icon was none other than my own Nani Mani Ben Guthla who enjoyed travelling around Fiji in her later years. She had a knack of telling stories ( Ek Banyo hato…) and sing Bhajans.
We have Dhiraj Baa Lodhia, our own elder star who has an amazing voice, stamina and presence. She comes along with her collection of song books. With our onward migration from Fiji to New Zealand and the consequential stresses of work, children growing in a new country and the general demands of making new beginnings, some of our regular social activities lapsed. However, we have been very lucky here to have several temples in Auckland that made it was easy to meet up for regular religious and spiritual activities.
The idea to have our Soni ladies meet regularly for a social get together evolved naturally as a by- product of entertaining visitors from Canada who shared what they did there among the Sonis.
With overseas visitors arriving, it was easier to meet up at one place and spend quality time together, sharing food and news. Thus, started the occasional gatherings for afternoon tea and joyful activities like bhajans and antakshari. As more and more ladies joined the group, new ideas of what more could be done in the sessions, came through. Our sahelies then started to take turns to host sessions in their homes.
Some hosts used the opportunity to add variety with wellness activities like yoga, including Pranayamas and meditation. Some added women’s health related talks and inviting professionals over. One such event at Kantaben Ranga’s place had Dr. Kantha Soni talk on health issues and the discussions that followed showed there was a great need to provide women’s wellness knowledge.
Possible seva opportunities were investigated, and all suggestions were given due consideration doing something worthwhile encouraged further increase in participation. Some of our ladies committed to visiting a rest home facility in Hillsborough monthly to provide joyful company, chanting and entertainment.
We have an opportunity to make regular donations during our meetings and use the funds for some charity and Saheli events. Some funds have been earmarked to provide long shelf life food to Ronald Mcdonald house that is attached to the Starship Children’s Hospital where families can stay close to their children in hospital.
Soni All Whites
Our Past:
About twenty (20) years ago, New Zealand Gujrati Sports Association, had just been formed and Deepak Amratlal along with Dinesh Raniga decided it was an opportune time to form a team. And this gave birth to Aapru Football Club (AFC). Both Deepak Kaka and Dinesh Kaka became the founding members of the team where majority of the team consisted of Soni boys.
During that time, there already were endless means of get-togethers within the community through indoor and outdoor soccer or cricket. So, when the opportunity knocked on the door to field a Soni Team, this was taken up without hesitation. Majority of the members gathered at Sunil Bapa’s place, where the first strip for Aapru Football Club was unveiled.
“And believe me or not, it was the red Arsenal strip.”
Aapru Football Club:
When the conversation started on what to call the team, we were leaning towards New Zealand Soni’s, but our logo on the jersey was AFC. So, we started thinking of names for the team that will fit in with the logo.
A lot of thought went into it and after a few beers (as you do), Sunil Bapa started talking about the team, and he said (quoting Deepak Amratlal) … “Jho Aapru team hatuu…aapre etc… and we all said Aapru team nu naam mallee gayuu. we will call it Aapru Football Club”.
“As you can see…a very thought through process for team naming”
The first tournament was held in 1990 at Kelston Boys High School. The first game was played against Khachia Patel team, which AFC won 4-0 – followed by another win over Flying Arrows team. AFC lost that year in the finals.
Aapru (AFC) always had non-Soni boys playing in its team, and they were always part of the overall organisation. However, somewhere along the way, Aapru team started losing support and was later discontinued due to lack of numbers.
Soni All Whites
The Soni All Whites team was formed pre-Sneh Milan in Brisbane and with a handful of boys the Soni All Whites were able to win the inaugural Sneh Milan Cup. Since then, the Soni All Whites have dominated the Tri-Nations tournament, having retained the Sneh Milan Cup on successive occasions.
Along with the Sneh Milan Cup, the Soni All Whites have also won the Pacific Cup 3-years in a row, failing to retain the Pacific Cup on its last attempt last year in Brisbane. The Soni All Whites team currently has a no. of youth players and its worth saying that the health of our team hasn’t been any better.
NZ Nadi Sports & Cultural Association
The success of our first Sneh Milan Cup in Brisbane, became the brain-child for the inception of another club…NZ Nadi Gujarati Sports & Cultural Club.
In 2014, the current bunch of enthusiasts met and decided to form a new club, built upon the same foundations of Aapru Football Club, calling the club Nadi. We started off with only 14-15 players in 2014 but has grown from strength to strength ever since.