On Sunday 16 June 2024, the Director General of Syriac Culture and Arts in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, Kaldo Ramzi Oghanna, met with a group of our people’s institutions and members residing in the city of Sydney, during a seminar presented by writer Adil Danno, dealing with our people’s cultural and artistic scene in the homeland. This was held in the hall of the Assyrian Sports and Cultural Club in Sydney, Australia.
During the seminar, Oghanna stressed the importance of modernity and technology in preserving our people’s heritage, pointing to the possibility of investing in these tools to preserve our heritage from extinction. Furthermore, Oghanna highlighted in the role of the General Directorate of Syriac Culture and Arts and the Syriac Heritage Museum in archiving the Syriac heritage and making it accessible to researchers.
During his speech, Oghanna touched on the unique and distinctive step taken by the Directorate in adopting the Syriac language in its official communications with government departments and institutions in Ankawa district centre, and governmental institutions concerned with the Syriac language throughout the Region, considering it a distinctive step in preserving, sustaining and developing our people’s language.
In another aspect of the seminar, Oghanna pointed to the role of cultural and artistic festivals held by the General Directorate of Syriac Culture and Arts in the various regions where our people are present. These take up a large part of the Directorate’s work and interests, due to their role in developing our people’s cultural scene and highlighting their culture among the Region’s peoples.
Oghanna concluded his speech by addressing the topic of the First Athra Syriac Symposium, which the Directorate intends to hold in cooperation with the Yonan Hozaya Centre for Research and Future Studies, next September in Erbil Governorate’s Ankawa district, stressing the importance of joint cooperation between our people’s institutions in the homeland and the diaspora, and working together to upholding our culture.
The seminar was attended by Apostolic Visitor of the Syriac Catholic Church’s Diocese of Australia and New Zealand Mor Baselios Gorgis al-Qass Musa, Fr. Yousif Lazgin from the Chaldean Catholic Church, and a distinguished group of figures from among our people in Australia.
It is worth noting that the Director General of Syriac Culture and Arts, Kaldo Ramzi Oghanna, is visiting Australia at an official invitation from the Yonan Hozaya Centre for Research and Future Studies and the Suraya Cultural Forum, to discuss our people’s cultural and artistic scene in the homeland, through a number of events and meetings that bring him together with our expatriate people there.
