Kat THEOPHANOUS (Northcote): I rise to congratulate the Cyprus community of Melbourne and Victoria on their wonderfully successful Halloumi Festival over the weekend. Over two days crowds gathered to celebrate the national treasure of Cyprus, the humble halloumi cheese. Halloumi has been a staple of Cypriot cuisine for centuries. Back in the villages women would often pool together the milk from their goats and sheep to make the cheese, chatting with each other while they worked up this valuable source of protein. In this way it is not just a product but part of the community building and knowledge sharing that runs the Cypriot culture. Halloumi now has European Union status as a traditional product of the island, so no other country may export cheese under the same name.

As a young Cypriot girl growing up in Melbourne, I will always associate it with bowls of τραχανά soup that my mum and γιαγιά would make with those delicious pieces of chewy, salty, herby cheese melted in. It is heartwarming and astonishing to think that this simple product of our women’s hands has now been embraced right across the world. Indeed nowadays there is scarcely a cafe in the inner north that does not have Halloumi somewhere on the menu, a testament to the success of this product and the beautiful intertwining of Cypriot cultural heritage with modern Victoria. Across so many domains Cypriots have made an enormous contribution to our state’s cultural, economic and social fabric. Thank you to the Cyprus community for putting on another fantastic event, from the committee to the volunteers to the families who attended, and for sharing our love of Halloumi with Melbourne. Συγχαρητήρια για ένα υπέροχο πανηγύρι!