New name, who dis?
Hello to all Estonians in Australia and welcome to: HEIA — Hello, Estonians in Australia!
The brand spanking new Australia-wide site for Australian Estonians is here! Development has been progressing for over 18 months (volunteer pace😊).
HEIA is available on the same site address eesti.org.au and all the information and historical stories have been transferred — so don’t worry about losing that valuable legacy.
What’s new?
The most obvious change is the look and feel but there is additional functionality under the hood that will make presenting topics of interest simpler and in a more engaging manner. More will be coming with time (there may be a few bugs to iron out in the short term — please let us know if you spot any scurrying around — and also what you like and want to see more of!).
Send any feedback via form heia.life/feedback (preferred) or via email heia@eesti.org.au. Is your organisation or activity missing, or do you need to update the information? Let us know via this form: heia.life/add.
Even further under the hood is the new governance structure that means less reliance on Kristi (the doting sole parent of Estonians in Australia) with more contributors and support to enable HEIA to continue to serve the community for the next 20, 40 or 60+ years.
We can’t give you all the goodies now — too much of a good thing isn’t good for you. We will be working on new features including an impressive events calendar — just wait for it!
Why HEIA?
When seeking suggestions for names for the new platform from the community, a key piece of feedback was provided — “what is wrong with Estonians in Australia?” It was a good question! However, there were issues:
- Estonians in Australia wasn’t ‘snappy’ and the acronym EIA doesn’t roll off the tongue;
- it would be nice to have the Estonian language represented; and
- we wanted a refresh as a welcoming site for all Estonian Australians.
That’s where Hello, Estonians in Australia or HEIA provided the perfect solution. HEIA (pronounced Hey Ya) is a phonetic familiar to both Estonians and Australians, an informal Estonian greeting, the acronym for the name of our platform, whilst also referencing Estonians in Australia in a welcoming manner. A win, win, win, win!
We are excited with the new site and hope you are too!
The HEIA team (Kristi, Kristel and Mark)
