Neos Kosmos reported on the nationwide gatherings last Sunday, in the “Come Together for Yes” events, across major cities by the Yes23 movement. Recent polls though suggest a waning support for the referendum. Thousands of citizens participated across the country, including many Greeks.
Neos Kosmos made its commitment to the Yes for an Indigenous Voice to parliament very clear, on March 23 we wrote “as a pillar in the Greek Australian community” Neos Kosmos stands “shoulder to shoulder with our nation’s Indigenous community.”
However, I noticed that some of our readers expressed opposition to the Voice on our social media when we reported on the “Come Together for Yes”. I understand that some are opposed, and there may be arguments which they believe are reasonable in their opposition to the Voice. There is left wing radical opposition to the Voice and there is conservative opposition to the Voice – that is the nature of democracy. However, I implore those compatriots that are not committed to Yes, to reconsider.
I and Neos Kosmos ask those that are opposed to an Indigenous Voice to Parliament to reconsider their views for very important Greek reasons; συμπόνια , empathy, δηµοκρατία, democracy, and αρετή, virtue. We Greeks introduced democracy to the world, so we know importance of a voice, the παρουσία, parrhesia, the presence and right to speak in the agora.
We and many of our readers believe that the Yes to a Voice to Parliament is a key towards truth telling, and that is important to Neos Kosmos as a voice of and for Greek Australians that supports truth telling.
Like our First Nations people, Greeks know intergenerational oppression, genocide, and colonisation. We endured 400 years of colonisation, invasions, expulsions, and we have seen our cultural sites desecrated. Greek Australians have experienced racism and bigotry, and like the First Nations people we see strength in community, clan, kin, and family.
However, we also know that we can never fully comprehend the level of hurt, trauma, and extreme racism experienced by our First Nations Australians. We can in the worst case, go ‘home’, like the millions who were expelled from Asia Minor in 1922.
So, to our fellow Greek Australians who might be sceptical I believe should reignite their empathy for First Nations Australians. Political strategist, Kosmo Samaras told Neos Kosmos, that most Australians have “very little awareness of the Voice and when surveyed may indeed swap between Yes, No, or undecided.”
“The Yes campaign will need to work harder to convince more established migrant communities, like Greek Australians but they will need to align the narrative with Greek’s natural bond with their homeland. This approach will work better with Greeks who have a family history of displacement,” said Samaras.
I agree, the Yes campaign will need to work harder to convince immigrant communities and Neos Kosmos will interview people in the movement to lay out the reasons we all should vote Yes.
I believe that in our Greek hearts to vote Yes is what Aristotle would call the εγγενές αγαθό, or ‘intrinsic good’,
I ask you, our family, our clan and our κοινότητα, community, to do that which is αγαθό, ‘good’ as our ancient forbearers would instruct us.
