THE LAUNCHING OF ETHIOPIAN COMMUNITY DOWNUNDER

                   Simeneh Makonnen, founder of Ethiopian Community in 1985.

I thought founding of the Ethiopian community would be a significant contribution, not only to Ethiopians, to the Australian mainstream culture, to establish and introduce a new multiracial migrant community on its own accord, adding to some of the already existing multicultural communities in Melbourne.
I continued to sustain a steady friendship with some of the Ethiopian migrants at the Hostel in Springvale, especially, with former Ethiopian National Soccer players Solomon and his brother Ermias Wondimu who have managed to flee, with two of their fellow players, when they were sent overseas with national teams to play soccer. I drive all the way to Springvale some weekdays and almost every weekend to meet and spend an enjoyable time together, which was a memorable & life changing rendezvous. As our friendship continued to flourish, they introduced me to their fellow national soccer players, who they also migrated with, Sisay Kebede and Lema Kibret along with other close friends of theirs. We continued to enjoy each other’s company and started to discover the life styles of Melbourne outings.

Flanked by former Ethiopian National Team brothers from left Solomon & on the right Ermias Wondimu

Few months later, I popped up a hearty feeling spontaneous question, while we were enjoying the moment with other close friends, about forming Ethiopian community by gathering everyone at a meeting. They were excited and agreed about the concept overwhelmingly & decided to plan a meeting place outside the Enterprise Hostel centre where few of the migrants already moved by renting after they have secured work.

I organized everyone to spread the word that a meeting will be held at Wareham Street, off Springvale Road, Springvale, where some of our friends live who I met during my course of discovery. I amicably call this place the second Enterprise Hostel centre because it was a gathering venue for everyone, every week, to enjoy a home like friendship and escape from the day-to-day stresses of life and find ways to integrate with the Australian way of life.

In my part, I contacted Bedellu Detsa who has been living in Australia before everyone else. I met Bedellu somehow somewhere earlier as we both live in close proximity while he was living in the suburb of Preston where he was still attending Latrobe University.  I told Bedellu about my intentions of forming Ethiopian community and about the meeting which was scheduled on Sunday and invited him to come and take part.

I wanted Bedellu to come to the meeting to support, share and use his life experiences in addition to mine in order to mentor our fellow new comers and persuade those attending the meeting about the ultimate importance of establishing our community. Bedellu accepted my invitation with less enthusiasm stating the difficulties of forming a community of multiethnic groups. I encouraged him that at least we can start to form the foundation and then we will deliberate ways of sustaining it. This is a true story.

In 1985, the enthusiastically awaited scheduled day of meeting, to establish Ethiopian community, at Wareham Street, Springvale has arrived, but only friends, acquaintances and very few people of diverse Ethiopians, perhaps less than twenty, showed up. Regardless of the small number of people at the meeting, after very happy moments of Sunday afternoon informal but dynamic discussions, we all agreed to schedule another general & centralized meeting location for everyone to attend.

The Pan-African place on Smith Street Collingwood which was operating by assisting Africans in the past was recommended as being a free venue to have our next all inclusive general meeting. Bedellu and I were provisionally designated to disseminate the information and thereby assemble the general meeting.

In 1985, a little less than a year after I arrived, I embarked on making a lifetime success story by establishing the first Ethiopian Community Association in Victoria. The general meeting was held at the Pan-African place on Smith Street, Collingwood, with new attendance of more than thirty, different Ethiopians, at least six, ethnic groups, all inclusive gathering. Bedellu & I chaired the meeting to take its course with spirited and civil dialogues. After a very constructive, important discussions and election of committee members to run the community, the meeting was finished without any altercations as the participants were from diverse Ethiopian ethnic groups.

From left former Ethiopian National Team player Sisay, myself, Foggi & far right RIP Alex TRAM (known as)

The elected committees were Bedellu Desta as President, myself as a secretary, a treasurer, a publicity officer & two support members of the committee. I immensely valued my position which will suit my ability to organise all the duties and responsibilities with a principled democracy built on a foundation of the values of tolerance, cooperation and compromise to serve and embrace a diverse groups of Ethiopians indiscriminately.

As I remember, there were people from different ethnic groups who were elected as committee members to serve the community at the beginning until, gradually, they continue to drop out either deliberately or inadvertently as a result of various reasons such as ethnic nepotism, denigration, divisiveness, mishandling, politics, irreconcilable differences and lack of cohesion in the community.

I was furious and strongly appalled to write this article, as simple and clear as possible, because of the news circulating around time and again misinforming the public about the exact anniversary date of the community’s establishment in 1985.

I see incorrectly represented information at the immigration museum and other local departments and I, here, try to enlighten the public with concise evidence how, where and when the community was formed.

I believe the committee members who have been elected to work for the community have either irresponsibly displaced the original documents of meetings including those original records & the elected members in 1985 as I have specified earlier or deliberately or disrespectfully changed to 1986 for self-promotion & personal gratification.

Unfortunately, my premonition being the latter, I just want everyone to know the truth, nothing but the hard truth without naming & shaming anyone, 1986 was the year newly arrived members have been elected to serve the community and they would like to ponder that the community was formed on their watch. I’m sorry that somebody made a huge mistake by putting the entire one year ahead for daylight saving instead of putting an hour foreword. Sorry guys, that’s very funny! Well, maybe for some. Those people should be liable for contempt perverting the course of history, but no one is pressing charges for mistakes of the past as long as acknowledgements are endowed. 

I always sought a common ground even among differing; hard line opposing political views and opinions. At other times, I may display that line of the forlorn idealist intellectual, one who appears deeply in observation due to the multiple problems and tragedies of this world and the ever present suffering of humanity all around us. But I was always with that ever present infectious smile on my face not to disappoint everyone and an ever radiating optimism and hope about the future of our community and people.

One of the greatest weaknesses is our patriotism Ethiopiawinet which has been the ideology of  bygone era of choosing someone with noble & high profile personality connotations (chawa saw naw, ye taweke saw naw, egele tiru saw naw, ke yet naw, ye egele lij naw……; zaare ayee seram….). Time and again, the community has created idealized, acquaintance-based and heroic beliefs of individuals as leaders, sprinkled with absolute flattery, praise and nepotism, which we have inherited, instead of competency and merit. Let us remember that every time we do this, we are producing identical seed and mentoring future autocrats to do the same thing again and again.

I served the community I longed, founded and stood for up until, my final year, 1990. There is a hard reality that most of us in the older generation in our community have been unable to face. That reality is we need to learn to get out of the way. Let's give the younger generation a chance to lead and help them to develop from the sideline if required. After all, it is their future. We can be most useful if we help them learn from our mistakes and guide them to greater heights. If there is one thing universally true about young people, they love their freedom more than anything else.

I am a tenacious and steadfast advocate who is not easily deterred. So, I offer the same advice, again, now, that the political game has transformed and despite the repetitious responses among the leaders of the community that nothing has reformed and things are continuing as before.

In spite of many setbacks and adversities encountered during my service to the community, I treated all Ethiopians equally, regardless of political, ethnic, and other differences. I embraced the community that provided an  environment  to work together not only to compete in elections but also in formulating comprehensive programs, encouraging broader representation of all Ethiopians expressing their views and demands in order to improve our services to the community.

One of the many Ethiopian New Year Day Celebrations in Melbourne

 

During my services to the community some of my duties and accountabilities include:

• Served the community as Secretary and President consecutively until 1990
• Maintained administrative duties by working with elected management committees
• Provided culturally sensitive humanitarian assistance such as death in the family, various legal issues and other support deemed necessary for members of the community and beyond
• Acted as community broker to obtain full assistance from local councils to facilitate and strengthen services within the community
• Arranged registration of membership and maintained record keeping of community members
• Prepared and presented written funding submissions to local governments
• Liaised with human service provider organizations in relation to improving and sustaining delivery of services
• Designed a united all Ethiopian original logo, wrote and articulated objectives, internal rules and regulations of the community

 

ORIGINAL LOGO 



• Prepared, wrote and submitted objectives, rules and regulations of the community to the office of Incorporation
• Organised and chaired periodical and annual meetings of management committees and members
• Assisted migrants settling in the culturally diverse Australian way of life in setting up their ideal business
• Proposed, prepared and facilitated community programs and maintained it until goals were achieved
• Assisted migrants with interpreting/ translating in various tasks such as law enforcements and welfare agencies
• Contributed to the personal development individuals to understand significant barriers in gaining a sustainable employment, housing, communication and promotion material to assist, improve services and opportunities
• Attended regular forums of local governments and functions regarding all issues ranging from immigration and detention to community funding at Migrant Resource Centres
• Organised cultural activities for the community such as celebration of Ethiopian New Year, sport and recreation, visual art shows and participation in the Australia Day and Moomba festivals
• I was there at every event, public meeting, every demonstration calling for Ethiopian unity, for freedom, justice and the rule of law to prevail in Ethiopia.
• Liaising with local media outlets.                                                                                           

AN AWARD RECEIVED DURING THE SERVICE

Read more on the name change story that helped a lot of people to reclaim their name at:   https://timeforchangesociety.blogspot.com/2008/04/self-revelation.html

Here is the interview given to THE Age Newspaper reporter. Some of the comments were not correctly addressed and he took it out of context, particularly, about the number of languages we speak and the lack of Ethiopian female’s migration issues at the time. 

THE Age Newspaper Interview (Click to view)

See the AGE NEWS paper site:

https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/120484000/

The NYALA African restaurant first opening in Brunswick St, Fitzroy, is being publicized about their new business venture at the time. Restauranteurs Ermias and his brother Solomon Wondimu were happy to be reunited with their sister Seble to join them in launching their one and only Ethiopian Restaurant business in the most livable city.

 

The community was also exemplified an important role in resettling and assisting its country’s folks and fellow Africans who are detained at immigration centres and other problems they’re confronted with in integrating in their new home.

                                                            THE Age Newspaper Copy

This was an interview I gave to THE Age Newspaper protesting on behalf of Kifle Assefa, an Ethiopian, who was on hunger strike in disputing his case while in Melbourne immigration detention centre. In those days, it was a good time to protest to get a sympathetic public if your case was as valid as Kifle’s one. Imagine the hassles asylum seekers are going through in today’s timeslot.

I hope you have enjoyed reading the untold story so far. This is a true story not only that I was being there, actually, accountable for its inception and foundation. This is absolutely not what some of the members and readers probably think that I’m crying for self-promotion & appreciation. Far from it; I say to those who already know me and new fellow Ethiopians, regardless of whatever conclusion you may draw that I have never expected gratitude & don’t intend to. Although it is a natural and ethical inclination to be appreciated, more importantly, I do things because it is the right thing to do and my personal satisfaction is more important for my conscience than appreciation by others.  
Next see THE COMMENCING OF AFRICAN SOCCER CLUB DOWNUNDER at: https://timeforchangesociety.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/the-commencing-of-african-soccer-clubs.html

Peace & Good health

Anyone having comments or questions about the article can do so. 

THE START & END OF MY JOURNEY

Leaving behind my family, friends and treasured collection of possessions at a tender age of self-discovery was a tough undertaking. However, unlike some of my countrymen and women who have left our country under difficult circumstances travelling day and night in unbearable situations in order to escape being caught by border securities, I’m grateful to fly with one of the best African Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines. NOTE: Click on all images to see it LARGER.

 With brothers top & bottom left with mum sitting close to me & Friends on the right.

I left Bole International Airport, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 1976, flying with Ethiopian Airlines, aka “The New Spirit of Africa”, with three of my workmates with an anticipation to experience the foreign life that we have learned and heard so much about, first arriving in Athens, Greece as our first destination.
Although, I thoroughly enjoyed the glossy lifestyles and the experiences of being away from homeland for the first time, I felt disenchanted and sensed melancholy as a result of homesick despite the fact that I was with my great home buddies and enjoying out and about discovering Athens by day and night.

  

                                      At one of our friend’s weddings, standing 2^nd from left.

I’ve enjoyed the tourist city immensely and met so many Ethiopians who came before us living there. While living in Athens, I regularly attended the newly formed Ethiopian community meetings with my friends and also helped establish a soccer club called Nyala (an Ethiopian icon, goat-like animal found in the Siemen Mountain Ranges of the country) Ethiopian Soccer Club. During and after my time, the community continued to flourish with plenty of young Ethiopian students going to school either through scholarships or privately and migrant residents that were living in Athens.

After spending over two years in Athens, I knew it was impossible to go back to Ethiopia because of the unsettled transitional period with the new revolution taking power from the longest reigning monarchs at the time; leaving behind my old and new friends, the beautiful love at first sight of Athens life, I, again, made another journey destined to make a new & better life in the New World commonly known as USA. Remembering about the stories told by my countrymen that have been there before me, I assumed I was also going to the moon because of my feelings being over the moon for going to America, at a time of the satellites taking off to the moon, my crossing the Atlantic Ocean to live in a country that we've learned so much about more than our own. 

Well, it was in 1978 that I left my love at first sight city that opened my eyes to all things different than I used to and leaving behind, again, friends and everything that I loved and arrived in New York. The next morning, I was taken to the airport to catch a flight to Los Angeles and then to Bakersfield, California, where my sponsor lived. When I arrived, I was greeted by my sponsor Mrs. Siechert. She took me to her place out on the city side where she lived with her husband, two sons and daughter. They’re a member of the Mennonite’s church. I lived with them for few months until I finally moved out to my own rented flat after I found myself a car wash job by day and a dishwasher at a restaurant by night. It was between this unsettling time that my Australian girlfriend, Margaret Miller, who I met in Athens, in 1977, while she was travelling around, we’ve stayed together for few months, but she went back home in good terms to see each other, again, came to visit me in Bakersfield, Ca, in 1979 and after few months we got married in jubilation. However, we both couldn’t find jobs in Bakersfield; we decided to move to a bigger and better city like Los Angeles San Francisco. We decided to visit the two cities by visiting them and we decided to drive down to LA, first. While visiting the Hollywood glamour city, its zoo and more, the air was very unhealthy and couldn’t breathe properly and we wanted to drive out of there soon and again, drive all the way to San Francisco. We got to SF and we’ve rented a hotel in Polk St up until early 1980s and we moved out to a better and bigger place, in Pierce St, SF, in preparation for our first baby. 

I thought life was hard on my own with no jobs and yet to finish school, I found myself in a deeper karma, having two kids and going to school with no close family that can help sometimes. This is why I decided to move to Australia with my family. 

 Although there were very few Ethiopians in the SF Bay Area where I lived, we occasionally met when the famine news was first broke out in our country to organize consultations for the public in order to appeal for help with any donations deemed necessary to help back home.

Leaving USA

After living in the USA, getting married to my Australian girlfriend, making great transformation and having my own family, I moved to Australia. Read more story at: https://timeforchangesociety.blogspot.com/2017/07/believe-it-or-not.html

Here we go again! Life goes on! Right? I’m on the move, again! As they say there is light at the end of the tunnel & having been travelled through it thick and thin, long and hard by transforming at every hurdle, after living over six years in the US, leaving my old and new friends, again, having just been graduated, just when I started to get over my homesickness, yet starting to get used to the country I was thrilled to see, where I thought I was destined to settle being married and having two daughters, made my last nomadic trip in a civilized world, this time with my family, what would be my last journey through long & difficult tunnel, eventually, to see a sturdier and illuminating light at the end in a faraway country better known as ‘Downunder’, arrived in Melbourne, June 15, 1984 and finally rejoicing with my family who have arrived three months earlier.

Without going into detail, I said sturdier because of the reality of disparity in the Australian way of life, specially, how the indigenous people and African migrants were treated in the mainstream living standards; illuminating because those hurdles were the motivating force in my conviction to persevere and triumph over those shared difficulties without renunciation.

                                        My Family in AUSTRALIA

At times, I began to doubt if there is real light after the end of the tunnel and this was just a motto to boost the downtrodden. As discernment was moved to its point of implicitness in Australia, encouraged by the motto and keeping my audacity of hope, by putting aside my immodesty, years of education and work experiences I have accumulated over the years; Alas! I started working on various industrial low paying jobs starting all over again to support my family.

To make the long story short, having been through those hard tunnels, after working in the industrial and corporate sectors, at present, I am very proud to be among my fellow African business vendors by owning a printing business and I couldn’t ask for a better place than living close to my three grown up daughters all having their own families.

Few months after I arrived in Australia, having the thoughts of one lone new African, I found out that I wasn’t the only one discovering the taste of Melbourne lifestyle. I started searching if there were African migrants, especially, Ethiopians, living in Melbourne. After a thorough search through phone books, contacting migrant resource centers and immigration departments, I was told there were huge numbers of Ethiopian refugees residing at the Enterprise Migrant Hostel in Springvale area.

The Enterprise Migrant Hostel in Springvale was an institution which provides accommodation and comprehensive settlement services for migrants and others.

     Ethiopian community celebrating our New Year in Melbourne, AUSTRALIA

I told my family with excitement and I could not contain myself for another day and wanted to drive to Springvale to see my fellow Ethiopians. As soon as I got to the center, I parked my car and while walking to the office, I saw groups of people watching soccer games, in a small park, competing against each other and I went over to see them. When I got there, everyone (Ethiopians & Somalians) was gathered to meet & greet me thinking that I was just another newly arrived migrant. I introduced myself and watched the soccer game in a long time since I arrived in Australia. Eventually, after the game was finished they took me to their dorm for continued amorous discussions.

                                  MY TIMELINE, AS IT HAPPENED

After a long day, I left making new friends and promised to see them again & came back home to my family feeling exhausted but refreshed and told them how my day was filled with joy with my new discovery and told them about my intentions to form Ethiopian community in Australia as my partner is aware of my experiences of community involvement, in Greece and America. By doing so, the perseverance finally pulled me through the tunnel, I felt I settled in with ‘no worries’, and my journey eventually came to an end, ‘Downunder’, at the bottom end of the world feeling on top of it.

MY PAWSITIVE PARTNER

Read the actual story of the beginning of Ethiopian Community: http://timeforchangesociety.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/the-launching-of-ethiopian-community.html

Peace & Good Health