By: Kita Sapurma and Pandora Petrovska
© 1997
Tpb: 168 pages
Price: $29 CAD USD $25
Children of the Bird Goddess, a Macedonian “her-story” is an oral history that spans over 100 years and explores the lives of four generations of Macedonian women from Aegean Macedonia.
Commencing in the 19thC when Macedonia was under the Ottoman Empire, the family’s story is interwoven with the upheavals of the Balkan wars, Greek takeover and colonization of half of Macedonia, two World Wars, and the Macedonian struggle for independence during the Greek Civil War. Amid this historical turbulence, the book is a detailed portrayal of Macedonian village life and culture as practiced over centuries. It offers a personal account of Macedonian women’s culture, giving a woman’s perspective on many of the most important Macedonian customs and rituals passed down from mother to daughter through the generations.
This is also a moving account of political and cultural oppression, and the tragic effects on the family’s lives and fortunes. This legacy becomes an integral part of Australia’s history, as the family eventually flees Greece and must manage the joys and difficulties of settling in a new land.
This is one of the first autobiographies in English of a woman from Aegean Macedonia. This is breaking the silence and invisibility of Macedonian women.