AMWA-ЖЕНА Inc. е непрофитна, аполитична организација со широки образовни, културни, здравствени и добротворни цели.

Ние се стремиме да ги препознаеме и промовираме придонесите на австралиско македонските жени во австралиското општество.

These two statues, one big – held in the house of Liljana Tasevska, and one small – transported from Macedonia by Mirjana Lozanovska as a symbol held and passed from one ЖЕНА to another. Together they are the жена friendship duo, a tribute to our mission.  

AMWA – ЖЕНА aims to:

Encourage the participation of Macedonian women in all aspects of community life.

Empower Macedonian women and girls.

Unite Macedonian women in Australia regardless of their social/ religious/economic and sexual orientation Жена+ (for LGBTIQI+).

Promote cooperation and exchange of views and ideas between Macedonian and Australian women’s organizations.

Promote the rich and diverse Macedonian culture and language in Australia.

Целите на AMWA Inc. ЖЕНА се:

Да се поттикнува учеството на македонските жени во сите области на општествениот живот.

Да се охрабрува и дава моќ, сила и еманципација на македонските жени и девојки.

Да се обединат македонските жени и девојки во Австралија независно од нивната општествена/религиозна/социјална состојба и сексуална определба, Жена + (LGBTIQI+).

Да се промовира соработка и размена на идеи и мислења меѓу македонските и австралиските женски организации.

Да се промовира македонската богата култура и македонскиот јазик во Австралија.

Our key priorities are:

Providing a forum for Macedonian women in Australia to celebrate their stories and achievements.

Facilitating opportunities for Macedonian women to connect and engage in cultural and social activities and events.

Developing mentoring program.

Providing information and referral to support services and providing initial contact.

Promoting health and well-being.  

Наши клучни приоритети се:

Обезбедување на форум каде што македонските жени во Австралија ќе можат да ги прослават и поделат своите животни приказни и постигнувања.

Создавање можности за македонските жени да се поврзат и да учествуваат во културните и општествените активности и настани.

Развивање на програма за менторство.

Креирање мрежи на контакти и поддршка од разни организации со информација и препораки.

Промовирање на благосостојба и здравје на жените.

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Збор на месецот: Мугри

“Овој прекрасен збор од нашиот мајчин јазик ги означува првите одблесоци на зората, раѓање на нов ден. Предизвикува имагинација на нова надеж и нови доживувања. “ Гордана Стаматова

Macedonian Women’s Choir of Melbourne, documentary film “Прстен ми падна” ~1980s or “My Ring has Fallen”. Directed by Anne Bourke. Concept by Liljana Tasevska and Anne Bourke.

Macedonian Women’s Choir of Melbourne – Ќе одам стара мајко

Ќе одам стара мајко

– Не оди, сине море, не оди,
лошо те сине мајка сонила,
лошо те сине мајка сонила.

Кавалот шарен сине, свиреше,
и тебе матна вода носеше,
мајка те жално сине плачеше.

– Ќе одам, ќе одам, стара мајко, ќе одам,
во таја пуста мајко планина,
во таја пуста мајко корија.

Our women

Нашите жени

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Cr. Connie Boglis OAM

Councillor Connie Boglis OAM
West Ward Darebin
Order of Australia Medal 2024
Author, Counsellor and Mental Health AdvocateBorn and raised in Naarm (Melbourne) Australia.

Connie was appointed an OAM and Councillor of Darebin in 2024. Connie has spent over 20 years in mental health and advocacy and advises on lived experience committees across Melbourne. She published her first children’s book, ‘Once Upon a Feeling,’ in 2019 to help children express their emotions with the adults in their lives. Her parents are Macedonian. Her father Thomas from Banitsa and her mother, Sofia, Neret – is from the Lerin region. When her father migrated to Melbourne, they made Darebin their home. 

Vasilka Pateras

Vasilka lives in Naarm (Melbourne) and is a mother to two daughters. By day she works as a Commonwealth Public Servant – For the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations. At night she writes in between the demands of family life.  Her work is published in n-SCRIBE, The Blue Nib, Mediterranean Poetry, Poetry on the Move, Eureka Street and Backstory Journal, Teesta Journal and Mascara Literary Review and Hecate, Kalliope X.  Vasilka regularly reads as part of the Melbourne Spoken Word community and was the feature poet at Girls on Key in May 2021 and Radio Laria 2022. Vasilka has long been a member of the Macedonian Women’s Choir and has extensive knowledge of the Macedonian folkloric canon. Vasilka regularly visits Macedonia including Skopje, Bitola, Lerin, Solun and maintains a close connection with the land and people of the Republic of Macedonia and Aegean Macedonia.

Leonka

by Vasilka Pateras

“And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing.” (1^st Corinthians 13)

visitors on the threshold

do I let them in?

my breasts quince ripe dangle from use, I fall into –

40 days and 40 nights

body swollen, I shed

am I unclean?

“do not stray after dark, protect my milk”

a tingle of memory

the latch of love

I roll my face in the skin of baby smell

writhing in white muslin cloth

hungry at breast

mouthing for more

“do not stray after dark, protect my milk”

tears cooled to wispy coos

held in a chaste embrace

mother and child

little creature

bathed               for forty days

holy waters of purification

“do not stray after dark, protect my milk”

Winnicott’s Mothers and their Babies is gifted to me

to calm the noise in my head

my eyes search pages in earnest

mothers must learn how to hold

I visit church      for molitva my ‘small’ prayer

blood full wine in spoon

all traces that have left my womb

bread broken in communion

dipped into the infinite font of kith and kin

am I cleansed, absolved of sin?

Translation from Macedonian

Leonka – Nursing mother

Other links to Vasilka’s poetry.

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Mirjana Lozanovska

Mirjana Lozanovska is a Professor of Architecture at Deakin University. Her work investigates the creative ways that architecture mediates human dignity and identity through multidisciplinary theories of space, and it examines migration/mobility and the reinvention of the city. Her books include Migrant Housing: Architecture, Dwelling, Migration (2019) and Ethno-Architecture and the Politics of Migration (2016). She has published widely on Kenzo Tange’s masterplan for Skopje, including “Cold War Collaboration: Urbanism in the UN-Yugoslavian project for the reconstruction of Skopje after the 1963 earthquake,” Planning Perspectives, (2017, with I. Martek). A chapter on the role of Mimoza Nestorova-Tomić in this reconstruction project, in Ideological Equality (eds. Pepchinski and Simon) extends the interpretation about the role of women. Mirjana is co-editor of the major architectural history journal Fabrications: JSAHANZ. Mirjana leads the #Vacant Geelong project with a collaborative architecture-art team (Cameron Bishop, David Beynon, Anne Scott Wilson, Akari Nakai-Kidd; with Diego Fullaondo 2015-2018, Ciro Marquez 2017-2018). VacantGeelong connects architecture with art and industry to go beyond the usual pragmatic utilisation of ex-industrial sites through the engagement of the cultural and social memories of the vibrant communities these vacant sites embody. Its creative and research works (since 2015) have been awarded funding from Arts Victoria, CoGG and National Wool Museum. Lozanovska was a guest editor for ARCHITECT VICTORIA – MIGRATION. WOMEN. ARCHITECTURE Architect Victoria, Edition 2, 2023.

Liljana Tasevska

“I was born in Bitola in 1956, my mother from Bogdanci, Gevgelija near Lake Dojran. We migrated to Australia in 1966, on the Achille Lauro a ship that left from Genoa, Italy. I was 9. We were the only branch of the family to migrate for a long time. I majored in English and French and have been a secondary school teacher. I have taught Macedonian over the years to all age levels, as well. 
I live in Brunswick West, ( we have always lived in Coburg, Pascoe Vale Carlton). I have a 26 year old son, Aleksandar, who is studying philosophy. I love languages, have studied Japanese and Arabic and visited countries where those languages are spoken. 
I am now retired and mainly do relieving teaching, gardening, and travelling. A recent passion is the bay and ‘swimming’ in it. ( I’m still learning to swim.) I am also currently toying with the idea of organising a trip around Macedonia for non-Macedonians. My most recent travels included Jordan, Istanbul, Macedonia, Bosnia, Belgrade, and Rome. 
I love music festivals and will attend the National Folk Festival at Canberra soon. I have a cat. “

Jagoda Koteska

Jagoda Koteska is a first-generation migrant who emigrated to Australia with her young family with the 5^th migration waive, called “brain drain” from Republic of Macedonian in 1990s. She graduated in her homeland Macedonia at Cyril and Methodious University, Skopje, 1989. Upon arrival in Australia, while simultaneously studying English language, Jagoda continued her higher education at La Trobe University, Melbourne, where she obtained graduate diploma at the Faculty of Social Sciences in 1994. Jagoda is employed full time in the local government sector. Jagoda is an author with two published books, the novel “ Ljubov po slika” and the ethno-biographical story about her mother “Velika”.  Besides writing Jagoda enjoys spending time with family, reading, genealogy, gardening, photography. Her passion above all are all things Macedonian. Jagoda is a collector of Macedonian hand-made traditional costumes, and other art and crafts which are proudly displayed in her “Makedonska odaja”.

Violeta Čapovska

Violeta Čapovska (born in 1967 in Skopje, Macedonia) is a multidisciplinary artist who works in printmaking, installation, video, photography and performance. She received her BFA from the Faculty of Fine Art at the University of Cyril and Methodius in Skopje in 1991 and her MFA from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 1995. Čapovska’s work has been shown at private and public galleries and museums, including Dianne Tanzer Gallery Melbourne, Art Gallery of Ballarat, Australian Print Workshop, The National Gallery of Australia, MUMOK Vienna, Museum of Contemporary Art-Skopje and the Museum of the City of Skopje. Čapovska’s work is held in international, national, and state collections. In 2016, she was a recipient of the James Northfield Lithography scholarship, and in 2020 she won the 18th Grand Prix Biennial Award (DLUM-The Association of Macedonian Artists). Her work features in the Australian Printmaking in the 1990s by Sasha Grishin (Craftsman House) and the VISUAL ARTS in Macedonia-20th century/Book 2: MULTIMEDIA ART by Abadzieva Sonia (OSTEN). Čapovska has worked as a Macedonian interpreter for the Macedonian community in Victoria for 25 years. She is a member of the Macedonian Teachers’ Association of Victoria, Друштво на ликовни уметници на Македонија – DLUM (The Association of Visual Artists of Macedonia), Print Council of Australia and Women’s Art Register.

Dragana Jovanovska

Born in Bitola, Macedonia, migrated to Australia for the first time with her family when 2 years old. After living in Melbourne for 5 years Dragana moved back to Macedonia with her parents, where she grew up and studied at the primary school “Goce Delčev” and at the High school “Josip Broz Tito” in Bitola. Dragana graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Ss. “Cyril and Methodius” in Skopje, Macedonia. After graduating she worked for a few years as an architect in Macedonia, before moving to Melbourne for the second time in 1999. Dragana has an architectural experience of over 23 years. She has contributed to the realisation of many multi-residential and commercial projects in Melbourne, working for BBP Architects, Six Degrees Architects, Detail3 and Bates Smart. Jovanovska’s most recent publication is my Bitola + architect Dimitar Dimitrovski (page 32), in the Architect Victoria, Edition 2, 2023.

Gordana Stamatova

Born on the doorstep of World War II in Bitola, from a Macedonian mother and Serbian father. Most of her life lived in Macedonia where she completed her education – in Bitola and graduated from the Faculty of Philology “Blaze Koneski” in Skopje, Macedonia. Gordana was a Macedonian language and literacy teacher in Bitola, in both “Trifun Panovski” Primary School and “SOZU Kuzman Shapkarev” High School before migrating to Melbourne, Australia in 1969 with her husband and daughter. After living in Melbourne for 5 years, Gordana and her family moved back to Bitola, Macedonia in 1975 and worked as a principal of the children’s educational institution ”Trajče Magloski”. She was the founder of the popular children’s festival “SI-DO’. As a pensioner, after the passing of her long-life partner Stojan in 2007, Gordana joined her two children and their families in Melbourne. Since then, Gordana has published two poetry books, “Intima” devoted to her late husband and “The Human, Nature and I”.

Violeta Stolevska

“I migrated to Australia together with my husband and two sons in 1997. I have completed numerous degrees, including a Master of Counselling and Human Services from LaTrobe University in Melbourne, Australia; both Master of Pedagogical Sciences and a Bachelor of Pedagogy from St Kiril and Metodij University in Skopje, Macedonia. I have been counselling clients in Australia and Macedonia for 34 years, providing individual, couples, family, and group counselling to clients with a wide range of emotional, behavioural and relationship problems. My knowledge, skill base and practice wisdom have been transferred into a variety of other settings such as supervision, consultation, education and training for staff at different agencies. I run a private practice in counselling and supervision in Macedonian and English language in Greensborough. I have made appearances on television programs, discussing the role of the counsellor in pre-marriage counselling and couples therapy. I enjoy bushwalking, swimming, and spending time with family and friends.”

Donna Dimovski-Kantarovski

Donna is an Australian born (Melbourne,1972 ) Actress and a Drama teacher. She studied and received a B.F.A (Bachelor in Acting, Skopje, Macedonia, 1994). Donna’s acting career started as a student at the Theatre of Drama in Skopje, Macedonia, where she played various roles and leading female roles, at Dramatic Theatre, Skopje. After completing her degree, she returned to her hometown in Bitola, where she was employed by Bitola National Theatre (1994-1998) becoming the leading lady in many performances as well as plays for adult, children and TV series. Donna has received awards for “Best Young Actor” and the “Best Female acting realisation”, at the National Theatre Festival, in Macedonia. Donna attended school in Australia and received her Diploma in Arts (Small Companies and Community Theatre) in 1999. She also holds a Graduate Diploma in Secondary Education (2004) specialising in Drama and LOTE-Macedonian. Donna’s work in the community is much regarded. Donna opened and was Director of her own Macedonian Performing Arts School “Bozilak” for children and youth (2008-2012), Artists in School Programs and the Macedonian Theatre Melbourne (2018-2022). She performed with many Theatre companies: La Mama Theatre, Eagle Nest Theatre (Theatre in Education shows), Nothing but Roaring, Metanoia Theatre, and Burning House Theatre. She appeared in a few short and Future Films. Now she teaches Drama to Secondary students, at Gilson College, Taylors Hill.

Anita Strezova

Dr Anita Strezova is a Byzantine scholar, art historian, visual arts teacher, theologian, and multidisciplinary artist. She holds a Doctorate (PhD) in Art history and Visual studies from Australian National University and an Honours Degree in Master of Arts from Macquarie University.  She also studied theology and health sciences.  

She is the author of two books, ‘Autocephaly or Autonomy?’ and ‘The Impact of Hesychasm on Religious Art in Byzantine and Slavic Lands’. She has also published several peer-reviewed journal articles and participated in and chaired international conferences. She currently works as a Research Program Manager for an arts funding and advisory body for the Government of Australia and is very passionate about arts and culture. She also assists people in need by providing advocacy and support and is a member of Anti-Slavery Australia and Domestic Violence NSW.

Celina Tonkin

I am of a Macedonian ethnic background, born in Poland. I lived in Poland for six years, and then we moved to former Yugoslavia, where I stayed until I was 20 years old. That’s when I moved to Melbourne, Australia. I am married with two beautiful and generous boys, both of whom have found amazing life partners. My professional journey began in Melbourne, initially in sewing factories, and later as an interpreter for Macedonian-English at level three proficiency. My love for languages led me to appreciate the power and richness of the Macedonian language. Over the last two decades, I transitioned into a coaching role and became an EFT Trainer for EFT Universe. Drawing on my 15 years of experience as a Hypnotherapist and Neuro-Linguistic Programming Trainer, I have successfully coached and empowered numerous individuals. My focus has been on helping people overcome challenges in personal and business relationships, overeating, debt, and poverty mentality, guiding them toward freedom and empowerment. My true passion lies in addressing persistent and difficult issues, where I’ve developed and utilized proven programs to facilitate powerful results. A highlight of my offerings is the “EFT and Pain Relief” program, where I empower individuals to take control of their lives despite challenging physical conditions. Additionally, I am a coach for the Tapping into Wealth program designed by Margaret Lynch. I co-authored a book with Dr. Peta Stapleton titled “EFT for Introverts,” aimed at enabling introverts to emerge confidently into the world, embracing their authenticity and values.

Madelin Latomanski

Madelin is a second-generation Macedonian migrant born in the western suburbs of Melbourne. They are a production designer, props maker, set decorator, and visual artist based in Naarm (Melbourne), with experience working across a myriad of media formats. After completing a Bachelor of Film and TV at Swinburne University, where she was awarded ‘Best Production Designer’ in her graduate year, Madelin has developed a comprehensive skill set that have enabled them to production design a range of short films, music videos, art films and commercials; For television broadcast, exhibition, and screenings at internationally recognised film festivals. www.madelinlatomanski.com

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Australian Macedonian Women’s Association-Жена Incorporated was established in 2023 in Melbourne

No. A0119379Q

Acknowledgement

Australian Macedonian Women’s Association-Жена acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the Country throughout Australia and recognises their continuing connection to lands, waters, and communities. AMWA pays its respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past, present, and emerging. 

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Celebrating IWD 2024

Copyright 2023 Melbourne

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