In view of this year’s celebration of Greek Independence Day at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, in front of roughly 300 people, including the leadership of the state of Victoria and representatives from major secular and religious Greek-Australian community organisations in Melbourne, it is worth reflecting upon a few fundamental issues, that tell a revealing story about our status as a community and as Australians in 2022.
As we are all well aware, for the past half a century and up until March 2019, the Greek Independence Day parade at the Shrine of Remembrance was a mass event, attended by tens of thousands of Australians of Greek descent. It was a key event in the creation of an Australian. Greek tradition and identity, in the creation of common memories, that blended and celebrated in a Victorian context not only the Independence Day of Greece on March 25th, but also the struggles of the Australian and of the Greek people, separately and together, in support of common values, namely freedom, democracy and the western way of life.
It is utterly wrong and unacceptable, the distinction that the trustees of the Shrine of Remembrance make via their chief executive Dean Lee, in their reply to members of the Australian-Greek community, when they say how much they respect the “Greek community”, while asking at the same time for the community to respect the decision of the trustees, regarding the cancellation of the parade from now onwards. As if the “Greek community” is something alien to this multicultural country Down Under. As if the prefix “Greek” is something alien to broader society and not an integral part of modern-day Australia and its cultures, structures and traditions. As if national and cultural identities are static, frozen in time and antagonistic to each other and not complementary. As if hyphenated communities that trace their origins not to the British islands, but elsewhere, need to be ascribed with cultural attributes and identities that can never be considered to Australian…
In case the trustees of the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne do not know, do not understand, or do not wish to understand, we have to remind them again and again and again of the following. We respect their right to make decisions on behalf of the Shrine, we will try to persuade them otherwise regarding our parade, we will accept a process that advances common understanding. Why? Because the Shrine is holy ground and sacred for ethnic Australians too. It “belongs” to ethnic Australia too. The Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne also belongs to ethnic Australian soldiers who lost their lives over the past 100 years plus, fighting for Australia, because they considered Australia to be their own country too, because they considered themselves to be Australians too!
The issue of the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne and the cancellation of the parade of the Australian Greek community this year, as well as the shift of the nature of the celebration for Greek independence Day, or the way we celebrate for example Harmony Day and Cultural Diversity Week in Victoria, are issues that need to preoccupy our thoughts and our actions as non British Australians. .
As an indicative example here, allow me to make a reference to the annual Cultural Diversity Week gala, where ethnic music, ethnic costumes and ethnic food are on display, as an offering to the leadership of the dominant cultural, political, economic and societal group, as well as the leadership (elected and/or appointed) and the bureaucracy of ethnic Australia. Furthermore, another example, in my opinion, of Australia’s fear of its multicultural aspect of its identity, or of its superficial approach, is the way we highlight Harmony Day at various workplaces. Where, quite often, a bunch of ethnic employees are invited to state their own understanding of harmony, or cultural diversity, while dressed in ethnic outfits, sometimes! As if these ethnic employees are the ones calling the shots and defining the parameters of harmony and cultural diversity. The way dominant Australia understands and defines diversity is usually absent, on Harmony Day…
Multiculturalism Down Under in 2022, is mostly a token, a declaration, a “celebration”, a bureaucracy, but not a grassroots, mass-lived experience, that is also manifested in places of national importance, in places loaded with symbolism for “true blue” Australia. We are living in a country, in case we have forgotten, where “others”, that is “hyphenated” Australians, are often treated as guests and have limited access to sacred places and powerful tools (for example parliament, public sector, etc), in order to forge the hard core of their multiple identities. A hard core that places at its centre, at its nucleus, the big country under the Southern Cross.
Kostas Karamarkos is a Melbourne based journalist.