Embracing Golu, the festival of dolls, with an Aussie twist

By Indira Laisram
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Shruthi Mangalaganesh with her mother displaying their Golu with an Aussie theme // Pic supplied

For Shruthi Mangalaganesh, every year the nine-day festival of Navratri is a memorable one. It is a time when the family engages in the shared exercise of preparing the Golu, an ancient custom of displaying dolls and figurines.

The Golu festival of dolls is celebrated in most households of Southern India. For Shruthi, whose family hails from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, it is a ritual that has been handed down the generations.

In her Melbourne home, Shruthi and her family prepared the Golu yet again this year. The first big one after COVID, she says.

Describing the arrangements of the Golu, Shruthi says there is a broad framework for stacking up the dolls. “It is made up of steps, we have odd numbers of three, five, seven and nine.  You basically display the dolls and figures for the nine-day period of Navratri.”

Pic supplied

The steps, which are available at the shops, are assembled every year. Some of the dolls such as the Marapachi Bommais or wooden dolls are bought from their annual India visit, says Shruthi, but the animals and other figures can be bought from Melbourne itself.

A Golu has a thematic display. They usually narrate Hindu myths or relate the story of Ramayana, the Hindu epic, as also everyday scenes and miniature figures, toys and utensils.

At her Melbourne home, Shruthi this year chose to incorporate an Aussie theme “to depict our dual identities and to showcase the beauty and light that comes from an amalgam of two cultures”. So she has merged the Indian crow story with the Australian cockatoo to send an environmental message of preserving water.

Generally, there is a meaning behind how the Golu is arranged, says Shruthi, who is studying Bachelor of Biomedicine and Bachelor of Commerce at Monash University. “So at the bottom, we generally have humans and activities, in the next level we have stuff depicting marriages. The higher level has temples and all things divine but at the topmost part we have images of God,” she explains.

Pic supplied by Prof S S Vasan // Photo Credit: Hindu Society of Victoria, which runs the Shiva Vishnu Temple at Carrum Downs

According to artofliving.org, the Navratri Golu steps may be interpreted as the evolution ladder that we are all traversing in the journey of life.

It is always a custom to add at least one new doll every year, says Shruthi. The logic behind adding new dolls is something associated with growth and progress. In the past, farmers made the dolls out of clay and it was meant to be sustainable. Because it is the time of the year when they have harvested their crops, making the dolls give them an additional income.

According to Prof S S Vasan, Director of Research for WA Department of Health, Australia’s Hindu community have embraced this tradition with an Aussie twist.

Pic supplied

Of Shruthi’s Golu, he says the traditional Indian crow story is enacted in her Golu with the Melburnian eco-warrior cockatoo Kalpana, who also has an important message—to conserve water.

Similarly, the Hindu Temple in Carrum Downs also had impressive exhibits like these in the past, says Prof Vasan.

For Shruthi, the Golu festival is also a social event with friends coming over to have a look at the display and eat snacks—“a good opportunity to catch up with culture in a fun way as well”.


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