New Aussie’s ‘iconic’ tribute during citizenship ceremony
Her fellow Australians are welcoming Mila with open arms after a video of her proudly preparing to become a citizen went viral.
Aussies are swooning over a Ukrainian immigrant’s “brilliant” way of celebrating her citizenship, with many gleefully welcoming her Down Under with open arms.
Eagerly anticipating her ceremony on Tuesday, Mila, who has lived in the country for five years, told Yahoo News she “wanted to do something fun” for the monumental event — ultimately coming up with what has now been deemed an “iconic” manicure.
“I always like doing my nails, and for such a special event I wanted to do something fun,” she said on Wednesday after gleefully declaring it was her “first full day as an Aussie”.
“I started thinking about doing just the flag but then I thought about maybe I could do something about the Sunshine Coast so I did the palm trees. And obviously you can’t miss Vegemite, and you have to pay respect to the Indigenous community so I did dots.”
By the end of her appointment, each of Mila’s fingernails featured a different design, including a kangaroo, ‘straya’, the Queensland Maroons, and her favourite — a bright yellow XXXX Gold logo on her middle finger.
“I have only 10 fingers and there are so many cool things in Australia,” she laughed.
New Aussie citizen's TikTok about nails goes viral
Unable to contain her excitement about the results, Mila posted a TikTok of her giggling while displaying each finger to the camera.
“We could not write Vegemite so it’s just Veg,” she says, explaining that her nail technician — who is also from Ukraine — ran out of room while painting the XXXX Gold logo, but they were able to squeeze another X in.
Mila’s “adorable” reaction has been viewed over 150,000 times in just days, with hundreds of people congratulating her on becoming a citizen. “The fact you included XXXX makes you Aussie by default,” one person said, while another made note of her car, stating “driving a Toyota is probably the most Strayan thing too”.
“You’ve completely understood the Australian spirit. You’re awesome! Congratulations on becoming a citizen!” someone else applauded.
“This is beyond cute,” a fourth added.
'Only good things happening for us here'
Incredibly touched by everyone’s kind words, Mila said “the best part” was being able to show off her nails at the citizenship ceremony on Tuesday, with her mum — who was granted a war refugee visa by Australia two years ago — by her side.
“Some of the Councils and the Sunshine Coast Mayor Rosanna Natoli was there. So obviously when they were giving me my certificate, I showed them my nails,” she told Yahoo, adding some officials even took photos to post on their social media accounts.
And naturally, afterwards she headed to the pub to enjoy a cold XXXX Gold with friends.
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Mila explained that she initially started posting videos on TikTok because she was nervous about her English accent, but the online and her local community had since helped her in extraordinary ways, including helping raise money for her mum’s $4,000 plane ticket.
“My mum is doing so good here, she goes to TAFE, she studies English full-time, she’s got a job,” she said. “When she first came here she could say only two words – 'thank you' and 'chicken'.
“There’s no reason not to love this country for both me and my mum — only good things are happening for us here.”
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