At the unveiling of the ‘Tamil Community Memorial’ in Sydney, Australia, Piraikumaran Perinparasa reflected on the courage and legacy of his father, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), paying tribute to his bravery and sacrifice.
Perinparasa fled Tamil Eelam when he was six years old with his mother and younger brother.
Speaking at the event, Perinparasa said:
"I carry the name of my brave father, a Maaveerar, Lieutenant Colonel Akbar, who gave his life so that children of Tamil Eelam can have a better future."
"I remember my childhood spent behind barbed wires, fences and surveillance cameras. It filled us with confusion. A confusion that no child should ever know. A daily reminder that we were different and that our freedom was fragile.
Even then, when I think of the true cost of freedom, I do not think of an idea, I think of faces - Maaveeraralgal."
Read his speech in full below:
"My name is Piraikumaran Perinparasa. I carry the name of my brave father, a Maaveerar, Lieutenant Colonel Akbar, who gave his life so that children of Tamil Eelam can have a better future. My journey here was not simple. I arrived in Australia six years old with nothing but my mother’s hand in mine and my younger brother at my side. No country, no certainty, just us.
I remember my childhood spent behind barbed wires, fences and surveillance cameras. It filled us with confusion. A confusion that no child should ever know. A daily reminder that we were different and that our freedom was fragile. Even then, when I think of the true cost of freedom, I do not think of an idea, I think of faces - Maaveeraralgal.
They do not simply believe in our freedom, they bled for it. They carried hope and they stood on battlefields so that one day we might stand somewhere like this.
Growing up, the Maaveerar were not distance heroes to me. They were a living, breathing reminder of what it means to love something greater than yourself. My father Lieutenant Col Akbar embodied that love. A man of deep courage and deeper devotion. He did not fight only for his sons, he fought for every Tamil child who deserved to grow up with their head held high and freedom in their hand. The courage my father showed on the battlefield and the painful endurance my family faced in seeking asylum are the reasons I am able to stand before you today.
For us young Tamils of the diaspora, navigating our identity is a deeply complex journey. Growing up, the brutal reality of the war and the Tamil genocide was often shielded from us. Families who had survived unimaginable trauma sometimes kept it quiet at home. They simply wanted to give us what had been stolen from them - a childhood without fear, a life where safety was not a luxury but a promise.
But the truth is, we cannot separate who we are from what our people endured from the pain and suffering our people faced. As my mother always reminds us, we are blessed. Genuinely blessed to stand where we stand today. For blessing without memory is betrayal.
And so we must never forget the hundreds of thousands of innocent lives, mothers, fathers and children who were herded into so called safe zones and slaughtered within it. They were lied to and they were massacred.
Our identity is not broken by what our people endured. It is built from it. The trials, the tribulations, the unimaginable loss they are not scars to hide - they are the very things that make us who we are."