“Belarusian culture has always been with us, sometimes in the most ordinary things. You notice traditional embroidery on someone’s shirt or hear a song you’ve known since childhood. In conversation, a word slips out that only Belarusians understand. That is how Belarusian culture lives around every corner. It is in Kupalle, in our favourite books, in our holidays, in our clothes, and above all in the feeling that this is ours, that this is about us.
That is why it is so painful to see this sense of identity being driven out of people’s lives in Belarus.
In recent weeks, the brands Honar, LSTR Adzenne, and Ragna have shut down. The Kupalle celebration at the Dukora Estate near Minsk and the Our Grunwald festival were cancelled. Meanwhile, performers who support war, violence, and an imperial attitude towards other nations will take the stage at the Slavianski Bazaar festival.
This is how Belarusians are made to believe that they should be ashamed of, or afraid of, what is their own. That the Belarusian language, history, and traditions are somehow suspicious. That it is better to stay silent, not stand out, not sing our songs, not wear our clothes, not celebrate our traditions.
But our culture cannot simply be erased, because it lives within each of us. We will always carry it in our hearts. Being Belarusian can take many forms: quiet or outspoken, traditional or modern, expressed through an embroidered shirt or a hoodie, through a folk song or a new one. It is who we are. And no ban will ever change that”.
