A Multicultural Landscape: National Parks and the Macedonian Experience

5. Macedonian use of Sydney parkland: a discussion with Paul Stephen

Important information concerning Macedonian use of Sydney parkland was provided by Paul Stephen (formerly Paul Stephanopolis) with whom I recorded an oral history interview in May 2000.^[66] Having arrived in Australia from Aegean Macedonia in 1948, aged twelve, Paul could provide insights on the history of park use by the Macedonian community that pre-dates the memories of the older Macedonian focus group, most of whom arrived in the 1960s.

Male population As I mentioned briefly in Part 1, Paul is convinced that the lack of women among the pecalbari was instrumental in the evolution of the picnic tradition. Dances seemed inappropriate without mixed company, so alternative forms of gathering were required. Paul Stephen’s family lived in the Sydney suburb of Petersham but they often met with other Macedonians in Mona Vale who had businesses growing tomatoes in glasshouses.

The first picnic Paul recalls was at a football park in Mona Vale in 1949. Most of the participants were men and they engaged in various picnic games like sack races, egg and spoon races and wrestling. There was also Macedonian singing – a practice which continued at many outdoor gatherings.

Other venues The event was extremely popular and the community quickly turned to other venues. Paul remembers picnics at Nielson Park on Sydney Harbour, Ashton Park at Mosman, and elsewhere. Royal National Park, which they first visited in 1951 or 1952, was thus numbered among a series of locations in the broader metropolitan area that were suitable for convivial gatherings.

Paul emphasised that Christmas Day (25 December) was only one of the occasions when people would picnic. One of the early gatherings at Royal celebrated the traditional festival of Illinden (2 August) when 200-300 people attended. In these early post-War years, the majority of Macedonians in Australia were, like the Stephen family, from Aegean Macedonia in the south. Emigration from Yugoslavia was not yet in full swing. We can thus get some picture of how the small community of Aegean-Macedonians developed a social practice that later emigrants would join in increasing numbers. Paul emphasised the lack of difference between Aegean Macedonians and those from the north: ‘We were all Macedonians and still are.’

Outdoor festivities in Macedonia There were precedents for gatherings of this nature. ‘Our people could relate to sitting on the ground eating their food,’ Paul explained. He recalled similar events from his early childhood though it was less common to eat a full meal outside. More commonly they would take meze (light nibbles) into the fields having eaten their main meal at home. The adaptation was necessary, he explained because in Australia ‘our homes were far away from the fields here so we carried our food to the picnic grounds.’

At home such festivities were called a sredzelo. They were annual village gatherings that occurred in nearby fields, the venue shifting from year to year. A sredzelo started in the afternoon and involved a big bonfire. It could be celebrated on Easter Sunday or on particular saints days. Everyone knew it was happening and everyone attended. There was nothing resembling a barbecue. Meat was eaten far less frequently and as Paul pointed out, his early experience was one of wartime austerity. He acknowledges that food may have been more abundant at earlier times.

I asked Paul if May Day was one of the occasions for a sredzelo. I had met other Macedonians who described this as a precedent for Australian outdoor gatherings. He explained that while this was true in the communist Yugoslav republic, it would have been inconceivable in the south that they celebrate a day with socialist associations.

Remembered landscapes The contrasts and connections between landscapes were an important theme of our interview. He spoke extensively about his memories of the Macedonian countryside and his experiences of the Australian environment. Although he declares an extremely strong affection for the Australian bush – a love he recalls as instantaneous upon arrival – there are ways in which Australia cannot compare with the land where he spent his first twelve years. Of Macedonia he says:

The environment, the flowers, everything in spring there seems to have an aroma. I have a lot of Australian natives that do have a bit of an aroma you know, and perhaps I’m a bit biased... I used to roam, I was very fortunate. I have an uncle who used to take me around to the fields so I had access to all my fields whether spring, autumn or winter.... You can rub grass there and it has a different – an earthly smell. I rub grass here it smells nothing unfortunately. It’s not Australia’s fault. I think we are in a topography where all the goodness is washed out.

Mountains and forest He describes Macedonians as a mountain people. The ocean is not their natural context. Hence their fondness, if they do well, for buying properties at Jindabyne, the Snowies and (its name perhaps adding to its attraction) Mount Macedon. The fullness of aroma that he remembers from his childhood can be compared to the depth of history that was discernible in that landscape. He related oral traditions of how the pine forests in the Macedonian mountains were planted by the Romans. He described age-old traditions where areas of the forest were assigned to particular land holders in the village who had exclusive rights to cut timber at that particular place. In evocative terms he told me about the rituals and cycles of life in his village – the value ascribed to manure, for example, and the way human faeces were broken up when frozen in winter and dug into the soil.

Becoming urban dwellers So what was the effect of the move to Australia on rural Macedonians? Paul warned that one should not overlook the shocking effect of arriving in an environment where immigrants lacking English and professional skills went straight to the factories.

Emotionally it’s affected their family life and everything else. It’s something synthetic. To replace the lifestyle they were used to they became very materialistic. The bought houses. In their peasantry way they thought this is going to give me the comfort in their old age.

They worked the long hours they had done in the villages, but without the annual rest enforced by winter. Paul has witnessed much physical and mental damage caused by this. He has seen in his own life and in the lives of those around him how socially taxing the stress of transition was. He is now ashamed at his strictness with his children, the way he tried to shield his daughters from Australian society. While much of what follows draws on the positive side of arriving in Australia and congregating as a community, such experiences must be borne in mind in considering what overall messages should be drawn from our focus group discussions.

^[66] Interview with Paul Stephen, 5 May, 2000. Multiculturalism and National Parks Research Project Field Tape 8. Following quotes from this source.