Annette Ellis (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to talk today about the National Multicultural Festival that we are currently enjoying here in the ACT, a wonderful multicultural festival that occurs every year. In particular, I want to talk about an event that occurred on Sunday just past called the Greek Glendi. The Greek Glendi is a wonderful example of how our local multicultural community can get together and have a really good time. The Helenic Club Greek Glendi was held on Sunday. Its aims include to showcase the richness and diversity of Greek culture and, through its music, dances and thought, promote a sense of harmony that brings together all peoples, just as the ancient Greek Socrates asserted that he was a citizen of the world. It provides a platform to promote the artistic talent of local Greek Canberrans and friends of the Greeks in Canberra and it promotes the Greek associations in Canberra and the services that they provide.

The 2007 Greek Glendi was presented by the Greek orthodox community of Canberra. The program was just wonderful. This Glendi occupied all of Garema Place in the city, almost half of the Civic area. There were food stalls with Greek style food delights, information stalls, wonderful music and fantastic Greek dancing. There was even a Zorba ‘dance till you drop’ competition, which you will be pleased to know, Mr Deputy Speaker, I avoided—for fear of winning! The program had entertainment for all ages, including storytelling, mosaic paper tiling and all sorts of things for the children, music and dancing for the non-children—although I note that the kids dancing on stage were pretty spectacular, especially when the young boys of about seven, eight or nine came forward to display that high kick that is so famous in Greek dancing, to the delight of the crowd. Approximately 15,000 people—despite the wonderfully welcome rain—attended this fantastic function.

The profits from the Glendi are distributed between the Greek Australian bilingual preschool and day care centre, the Greek community afternoon Greek school and the St Nicholas Home for the Aged. I have to pay tribute to the Glendi Coordinating Committee, led by Melba Tsoulias along with Kerry Markoulli, Litsa Polygerinos, Kyriaki Mechanicos and Eleni Papaloukas. It was a wonderful example of how a community can get together and enjoy, at the highest level, multiculturalism at its best. We do it very well here in Canberra. I am very proud of our multicultural community and I am very proud of the fact that we hold this wonderful National Multicultural Festival each year. To the Greek community and everyone involved in it, I offer congratulations on yet another very successful part of our festival on Sunday.

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