On Thursday 22 September 2022, journalist Dimitris Troaditis made a fascinating presentation in his Dimitris Tsaloumas Memorial Lecture at the Greek Centre in Melbourne.
Among other observations, Troaditis lamented the lack of progress in multiculturalism since the 1980s, when it appeared, Anlgo-Keltic Australia was beginning to pay attention to poetry engendered by poets such as Tsaloumas. Beyond that initial fervour, Troaditis sees stagnation and a retreat.
To begin a long overdue debate within the Australian Greek community and beyond, Troaditis attempted to enlighten us on the causes of Anglo-Keltic disinterest in poetry influenced by other cultural traditions within Australia. Briefly, perhaps lack of relevance, abstruseness and indifference explains part of the marginalisation by the largely Anglo-Keltic majority in Australia. At the other end, the propensity of poets from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds has also contributed to this through their «εσωστρέφεια» or introversion.
I am not a poet and have not had any involvement in any of the efforts to change the status quo. However, if my experience in the health, community and education sectors can provide any guidance, it may be helpful.
Yes, there has been some progress in multiculturalism as dominant Anglo-Keltic Australia appears to be doing more to learn about the customs, food and heritage of immigrants, commonwealth, state, and territory governments formulating policies to stamp out racial, religious and other discriminations as well as providing access to services through the adoption of the principles of equality and opportunity.
As welcome as the above efforts are, the practice is often tenuous. Program responses, the sharing of power and wealth are overwhelmingly skewed in favour of Anglo-Keltic Australia. Troaditis pointed out to the unequal access to grants provided by the Australia Council for the Arts. I would point out to the perennial challenge of accessing interpreters for those with poor English language proficiency and the many elderly still languishing in mainstream aged care facilities. More discouraging, as an example, is the current composition of senior management in the Australian Public sector, the not-for-profit and for-profit sectors. People from Diverse Cultural and Linguistic Backgrounds are still overwhelmingly underrepresented.
Troaditis’ position on multiculturalism seems to be accurate and it needs to change, but it won’t change if we are waiting for the beneficence of Anglo-Celtic Australia. It won’t change if diverse cultural and linguistic communities adopt introversion, instead of strong advocacy and empowerment of their communities.
Strong advocacy requires clarity of purpose in the current Australian context. The Australian Greek Welfare Society, Jewish Welfare and CoAsIt developed that clarity in the 1970s in relation to welfare services. They knew within the 1970s milieu the welfare needs of their communities would be better served within an ethno specific paradigm. That model served its purpose, but have diverse cultural and linguistically diverse communities articulated and do they know what they want in relation to the sharing of power within the current Australian socio-economic and political environment, the possibilities offered by multiculturalism and its limitations?
The Greek Community of Melbourne, Pronia and Fronditha Care are in a good position to find the resources to start the process of defining that clarity of purpose and the rest of Melbourne’s Australian Greek community should rally behind it. If we don’t, sadly multiculturalism will remain largely unfulfilled.