DIMITRIA

 October is an exceptional month in the Greek calendar. Not only do we celebrate OXI day, but also the liberation of Thessaloniki and the patronal feast of its protector, Saint Dimitrios. A few weeks ago, I had the honour of addressing members of the Pan-Macedonian Association of New South Wales at the opening of their Dimitria Festival and share some reflections on that institution:

“I think there is added poignancy today in acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land upon which we stand and acknowledging their elders past present and emerging because ours too is an indigenous people, a people of remarkably long lineage, with a continuous connection to our land of origin, with our own stories, myths and unbroken memories.

And it in testament to that connection that we are gathered here today. In Thessaloniki, the capital of Macedonia this year, the 59th ever Dimitria Festival will be celebrated. In Australia, and in New South Wales in particular, we will celebrate the 41st Dimitria festival. What we have done over the course of four is to take a Macedonian tradition and make it into something truly Australian. It is an annual fixture in our calendar. I have grown up with it, participated in it, and it is an event that the entire mainstream community enjoys, it is in fact an institution.

It is worth looking back and considering what is so significant about the Dimitria Festival. We know it is generally and traditionally held in October, ostensibly to commemorate two important events in the Greek calendar, the first being the feast day of Saint Dimitrios the Myrrh Bearer and the liberation of Thessaloniki from the Ottoman Empire which conveniently took place on the same day in 1913.

I confess to feeling rather close to Saint Dimitrios. I belong to the parish of Saint Dimitrios in Moonee Ponds, home of course to the great Dame Edna Everage, and I feel that his life exemplifies the essence of that it is to be a Macedonian, what it is to be a Greek. Born and bred in Thessaloniki, a city named after Alexander the Great’s half-sister (and it is worth pointing out that Thessaloniki was likely the first city to be named for a Macedonian woman, but many more followed, like Berenice in Egypt for example – so we were striking blows against the patriarchy even before we knew what it was), Dimitrios was a member of the privileged class – his family had senatorial rank and he became a soldier, rising to the rank of being commander of the Roman forces in Thessaly and Proconsul for Hellas, which is a pretty big deal.

Now with great power comes great responsibility and the first thing you learn is how to cover your own posterior, if you are going to have any sort of a future. Saint Dimitrios on the other hand, used his position to protect converts to Christianity, shielding them from the discriminatory laws of the Empire and indeed, breaking the law in order to protect them. When confronted, he refused to back down. He refused to resile from doing that which is decent, proper and right. He continued persistently and fearlessly to advocate for the powerless, the vulnerable, the voiceless and the underprivileged and he paid the ultimate price, being slaughtered in the prisons of the arena after a gladiatorial contest.

In the Orthodox church, St Dimitiros is spoken of as having gained a martyr’s crown and this you will be pleased to know, is a sporting analogy, because the Greeks were possibly even more sports mad than the Australians, which is why you get so many Macedonian Kings competing in the Olympic Games and we know that a criteria for participation in the ancient Games was having to prove you were of Hellenic descent.

Martyrs were referred to as athletes for Christ whose victory was crowned in the same way that athletes were crowned with an olive or a laurel wreath, and we all love a good athlete. Milo by the way, the great Aussie Milk drink was named after a legendary Greek athlete also called Milo who could hold  bull over his head… the links between our two people abound and are enduring and of course you can find remain sporting arenas built by the Macedonians as far east as Uzbekistan.

Because that is another thing that is important about the Dimitria festival: by celebrating the liberation of Thessaloniki, we commemorate the decolonisation of the Greek people. This may at first seem counterintuitive, since Macedonia was the first European colonial kingdom, with a reach as far as China in the east, and Libya in the west. Unlike the European colonial powers that followed however, native populations were treated as equals. Their cultures and languages were respected. There was no impediment to their participation in society. There was a sharing of cultures. We find in Egypt today, relief sculptures of Macedonian Kings depicted as Egyptian Pharaohs, while the Indo-Bactrian king Menander is revered in India as a great apostle of Buddhism. Today, the Greek philosophical tradition forms the basis of two great streams of culture, that of the West, and that of the Middle East, simply because that tradition was shared, not imposed. This, is the Macedonian way.

Now it is fair to say that one of the reasons that we revere Thessaloniki is because it combines both the traditions of Saint Dimitrios and the heritage of ancient Macedonia. First of all, it is a most resilient city. It has endured sieges, sackings and occupation by Romans, Avars, Slavs, Arabs, Latins and finally the Ottomans. Yet in the midst of all this, between 1342-50, it was the epicentre of an amazing and not well known social experiment – the so-called Commune of the Zealots, where the lower social strata of the city seized control of the city, redistributed the wealth of the aristocrats and attempted to institute a classless system of social equity and all this five hundred years before Marx was even invented. This is our lineage, these are the perennial values that inform not only our identity but our own world view. And during all the city’s trials and tribulations, legend has it that its protector Saint Dimitrios intervened at key moments to protect the city, defending it from aggression and protecting its inhabitants from disease and plague.

And of course, Thessaloniki always was and is, a multicultural city, a cosmopolitan city. It is the city from where the Saints Cyril and Methodius set off from and their invention, the Cyrillic alphabet, allowed Slavic speaking peoples from the borders of modern Greece to Siberia, the opportunity to become literate and to create their own unique and distinct identity. It is the city in which Saint Paul preached a Gospel of truth, of fairness and of righteousness and of course it is a city that became for centuries, a refuge and a sanctuary against intolerance and darkness specifically by the Spanish Inquisition, for the Sephardic community. Later on it would be a refuge for the Greeks of Pontus, who would be given an opportunity in that city to re-establish their culture and identity in the aftermath of genocide. On any given day in Thessaloniki, you could hear spoken Greek, Turkish, Bulgarian, Vlach, Albanian, Armenian, Ladino and a host of other languages. It is no coincidence that Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet, who had similar concerns about social and racial equality was born and bred in Thessaloniki. Or indeed that anthropologists such as Louis Dumont, or  Italian ballerina Lousia Poselli or Soviet-Armenian singer Jean Tatlian were born in that city.

Again it is no coincidence that Thessaloniki, is by all accounts, the home of the rebetiko genre of Greek music, a form of music that is subversive, critiques the establishment and which like the city itself, is a melting pot of different styles and traditions. Here in Australia, that tradition, just like that of the Dimitria itself, is has been transplanted, has become part of the urban landscape and is thriving. This is what Thessaloniki is about: It is a city of good people, people who want to make a difference, who want to make the world a better place. Today, the city is home to people of diverse backgrounds, especially those from the former soviet bloc.

While we celebrate the liberation of Thessaloniki, we take the opportunity during Dimitria to pay homage to the fact that it was in Macedonia that unbreakable bonds of kinship were formed with Australia, the country we proudly call home. During the First World War, Australian army personnel provided valuable support to the Macedonian Front, especially doctors and nurses who were stationed in Thessaloniki. We therefore pay particular homage to Principal Matron Jessie McHardie White, as well as  matrons Beryl A. Campbell, Christense Sorensen and Grace Wilson.

We pay tribute to two Australians who went on to senior command during World War II served with the Imperial Forces in Salonika: then Major John Laverack, Brigade Major Royal Artillery with the 22nd British Division and then Second Lieutenant Edmund Herring who was also with the 22nd Division's artillery.

On a sombre note, it is perhaps poignant to recognise that the Commonwealth Military Cemetery at Mikra on the outskirts of Thessaloniki contains the graves of two Australians who did not return. One is Sapper E Heron from Cottesloe in Western Australia who died in 1918 aged 28.

But Mikra also contains the grave of the only Australian nurse to be buried in Greece in the First World War – Nurse Gertrude Evelyn Munro. She arrived in Thessaloniki in 1916, serving with the 60th British General Hospital at Hortiatis until 1918. From Ballarat, she enlisted in the Australian Army Nursing Service in August 1916. Like many who served in the campaign, she became ill, having contracted malaria and dysentery, succumbing on 10 October 1918. She was 34 years old.

In the aftermath of the war, Australian humanitarians such as Joyce Nankievell Loch would set up refugee camps on the outskirts of Thessaloniki before moving to Ouranoupolis near Mount Athos, not only saving lives from disease and privation but also providing valuable space and love to allow shattered human beings to slowly rebuild their lives and actually envisage a future for themselves.

Another of these amazing humanitarians was of course George Devine Treloar who was engaged in the resettlement of Greek refugees from Asia Minor; at first he worked at in Thrace where there is a village named after him and later in Salonika.

It is important to remember these brave Australians because Australians would return in 1941 to Macedonia to defence Greece from the Nazi invaders at the Battle of Vevi. The Mackay force, named after its commander, the Australian Major General Iven Mackay, was tasked with preventing blitzkrieg down the Florina valley.

When we celebrate Dimitria, therefore, we commemorate and cherish the memories of all those Australians whose story is inextricably linked with that of Macedonia, there are many more.

Given the above history, I think it is more than obvious why Dimitria is such an important Australian festival. I am inordinately proud of the fact that the connection between Thessaloniki and the rest of Macedonia and Australia has been formalised in the sister-city relationship between Thessaloniki and Melbourne but really this is a bond that has been forged between two special peoples, the Greeks and the Australians, in a very special place: Macedonia and it is cemented by us, hyphenated Greek-Australians, here today in this very room. And the proof is in the Australian landscape. There are the Macedon Ranges in Victoria, and here in Sydney, in Bossley Park, there is Macedon Park. In Macedonia, we truly are one.

In a complex world whose paradigm shifts occur by the second, and in which all truths are now subjective and personal, the Macedonian tradition that informs our discourse, is perennial. It is one of adhering steadfast to the tenets of decency, of inclusivity, of friendship, of democracy and of equality. It is a tradition that though spanning millenia, embraces all and celebrates diversity. Dimitria symbolises all of this rich and multifaceted historical and cultural experience, adding its own unique Australian flair to create something that is truly unique and authentic, that speaks to people of all cultures and climes. Something definitely worth a party.

Enough talking and more celebrating I say. I would like to end by exclaiming boisterously and jubilantly in the language of Aristotle, in the language of Alexander the Great, of Saint Dimitrios: Ζήτω η Μακεδονία!

DEAN KALIMNIOU

First published in NKEE on Saturday 2 November 2024