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

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