On the first Wednesday of every month, AESL holds “AESL Conversations” – an open virtual meeting in which individuals and organisations can come along for a chat.
For the second edition in March 2024, the agenda was: “Global Estonian, newsletter, and grants and scholarships”. About ten people joined, hearing the announcements from AESL as well as sharing their own thoughts, concerns, goals, and achievements.
Facilitator Marissa Pikkat reports:
We had a wonderful conversation in March, with so many points raised, ideas presented and updates on a range of Estonian communities around Australia.
We started off with www.globalestonian.com and their incredible opportunities for foreign Estonian people and communities, including the scholarship for people 18-35, click here for the link. We also had a conversation around the #globalestonian and were trying to work out if it was with an S or no S, to which we concluded it was no S, following the website.
We were then delighted to have some further information about the Australian Estonian Media Project and how people can get involved and what stage they were up to. They are now at the phase of putting teams together to really get things off the ground and connecting Estonians in Australia through media, and a range of aspects of this project are underway to being filled. They want anyone who can share a little or a lot of their time to be part of this groundbreaking project.
This led to a conversation around further archiving Estonians in Australia (editor note: keeping a record of the activities of Estonian individuals, societies, and organisations in Australia), and we became aware that this has already been done once before and had us curious how we would archive the current information from where the previous projects had ended. This is something that can be done over time, however, we need people in the community to really get behind it and build the information from around the country.
EstWest in Perth shared with us where they were up to, but also how they got to the point they are at. We were impressed to hear a lot of their activities were either single handedly taken on or just by a few people. It was interesting to hear they have a summer camp they ran, organised by one person, with minimal time. They highlighted they have their own things in Perth, and they may not need other communities around the country to connect with each other. It was a good point, as they are so far, the cost is high to come to the east coast, and they have some very active people in Perth, delivering things like we do over in the east coast. It raised some questions on how and why we should connect, logistically and on a needed basis.
This led to a conversation around some projects which were being done more in the east coast, such as the photo library project run by Sydney Eesti Seltsi Kunsti ja Etnograafia Käsitöö Ring [SESKKE]. People were interested to see how they are capturing and archiving Estonian Folk Costumes here in Australia, and it was wonderful to share the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is very interested in this project, along with the Rahvariide Library, people use to borrow and lend folk costumes.
This led into a very interesting conversation about Brisbane Eesti Selts and their continued attempts at engaging the newer Estonian’s who have migrated here from Estonia and who have young families. We all got our heads together to consider how Brisbane Eesti Selts could be more engaging, as both Perth and Sydney have had this issue in the past. Some great ideas were shared in support of this, and we considered the idea that in the future when their children are getting older, how to keep them engaged in the Estonian community and what that means for families, and how to remain connected.
The idea of Sõrve was included in this conversation, however there were many points raised around cost and initial interest. We discussed the idea that some of the Sõrve leaders who live in Brisbane could possibly attend Jaanipäev and have conversations with families about Sõrve and get people engaged and excited. We also mentioned there are funding opportunities for interstate and first-time campers, to help families get connected with a wider Estonian community.
We lastly heard some incredible plans for Eesti Päevad, in Adelaide at the end of the year, starting on the 27th of December with a family day planned, rather than an opening night. We wondered why that was and the organisers have observed previously, people just want to talk and mingle, and felt a family day would be more inclusive and appropriate for this type of thing. We also heard about some of the Estonian acts who have been contacted to perform, needless to say there were some of us who were very excited for 5-miinust. However, these things are still being decided as there are huge costs associated with this exercise, upwards of $20,000, so we wait with bated breath to see what happens!! We are all very much looking forward to Eesti Päevad and can’t wait to see what the wonderful organising committee comes up with!
We are looking forward to hosting the next conversation on 3rd April at 7:30pm on Zoom. We are grateful for those who attend and can’t wait to build this further!