27/12/2025
As a councillor in Australia, it is difficult to imagine a mayor intervening to stop a performance on the basis of language or culture without serious concern being raised about misuse of power and the suppression of cultural expression.
Florina has long been home to Macedonians, with a continuous presence that predates modern borders. Our language, songs, names, customs, and identity did not appear overnight. They were lived, spoken, and passed down through generations, often at great personal cost.
For decades, Macedonians in the region were subjected to forced assimilation. People were punished for speaking their language. Families were forced to change their names. Cultural expression was suppressed through fear, violence, torture, and state control. These are not abstract claims. They are lived histories carried by our elders and embedded in our families.
To see, in 2025, renewed efforts to erase identity, intimidate people, or harm people for acknowledging who they are is deplorable. Cultural erasure is ethnic cleansing. When people are denied their language, history, and right to self identification, harm is being done, regardless of how it is framed.
Closer to home in Australia, I also reflect on our own unfinished work. We still have a long way to go when it comes to truth telling. History teaches us exactly where silence and denial can lead.
Human rights are not selective. Cultural erasure, whether historical or ongoing, anywhere in the world, should concern us all. Being Macedonian is not an act of provocation. It is a globally acknowledged culture. No one should be forced to apologise for their name, their language, or their existence.
Thank you United Macedonian Diaspora for your ongoing advocacy 🇲🇰
