On Tuesday 11 June 2024, the Director General of Syriac Culture and Arts in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, Kaldo Ramzi Oghanna, called upon our people to invest the values of modernity and renewal in our culture, to reconsider our historical and literary issues, and to move away from puritanical ideas.
This came in a lecture on our people’s cultural and artistic scene in the homeland, held at the La Bella Venus Hall in Melbourne, Australia, at the invitation of the Assyrian-Chaldean-Syriac Council, and organised by the Yonan Hozaya Center for Research and Future Studies in cooperation with the Suraya Cultural Forum.
During the lecture, Oghanna stated that, “Today we must invest the values of modernity and renewal in developing our culture, reconsider our historical and literary issues, and move away from puritanical ideas,” explaining in his speech, “ways to invest in the digital world and social media, benefitting from the presence of a large space in this field at lower costs and developing it.”
In his speech, Oghanna touched on the translation movement, the need to expand this field and the possibility of establishing an electronic library, in addition to talking about intellectual culture, printing books, websites, and social media.
Oghanna explained that, “Although there are cultural and artistic events and activities for our people in the homeland, they are not sufficient to advance their cultural reality,” while pointing to the role of cultural and artistic festivals in Ankawa in developing our people’s cultural scene and highlighting their culture among the Region’s peoples.
Oghanna added during the lecture that, “Our people’s culture must be comprehensive and neutral to increase our cohesion and solidarity, as well as to emphasise this people’s civilisational affiliation.” He concluded his speech by highlighting the most important demands that place our people’s cultural landscape in a more effective response to their aspirations. These include finding means of support and other mechanisms, as well as ways to maintain the progress and sustainability of the General Directorate of Syriac Culture and Arts’ activities in the country.
The lecture was attended by Fr. Sand Bassil, pastor of St. Ephrem Chaldean Catholic parish in Melbourne, and a distinguished group of personalities from our people in Australia.
It is worth noting that the Director General of Syriac Culture and Arts, Kaldo Ramzi Oghanna, is visiting the Australian city of Melbourne at the official invitation of the Yonan Hozaya Center for Research and Future Studies and the Suraya Cultural Forum, to talk about the cultural and artistic scene of our people in the homeland, through a number of events and meetings that bring him together with our expatriate people in Australia.
