The Greek Orthodox Community of South Australia Dance Academy, along with the Greek musical group Mikri Kompania is currently advertising their dancing concert as “A journey through Macedonia and Thrace.”
The United Macedonian Diaspora (UMD) would like to remind the Greek community, and the international community abroad that promoting Greek culture, music, etc. as “Macedonian”, whilst making no distinctions nor offering any acknowledgments, is provocative, discriminatory, and epitomises cultural appropriation at its worst. It fails to recognise, and in fact serves to whitewash, the crimes committed against Macedonians during the Balkan Wars, the Metaxas regime, and the period of 1944-1948 under the Greek State, as well as the Greek State’s current day failure and unwillingness to recognise ethnic Macedonians living in Greece.
UMD asks that Greek community groups in multicultural Australia refrain from towing the toxic Greek government rhetoric and denialism. We hope that the Australian Greek community can celebrate and share their proud culture, without denying the Macedonian community their own. We ask that GOCSA reconsider how they promote their concerts, and suggest that if they want to truly present a complete “journey through Macedonia”, recognition of the sizeable ethnic Macedonian minority in Greece is needed.
