HALF A CENTURY OF THE SERBIAN RADIO PROGRAM "RAVNA GORA" CONVERSATION WITH BRANKA ĐUROVIĆ

Branka Đurović, one of the pillars of the Serbian community at the St. Archangel Michael Church, has culturally enriched many citizens of Toronto and Ontario with her work over the decades.

Due to Branka's love for her people and her many decades of work, the Serbian community participated in many events, presenting Serbian culture, traditions, and customs. Branka Đurović has been a member of the Circle of Serbian Sisters since 1960, and in 1967 became its president, a calling she still fulfills today with a lot of trust and love. She is the recipient of a special charter from the Serbian Orthodox Church for the spread of Serbian culture and tradition in Canada. Since 1960, she has been organizing and arranging Serbian Christmas and Easter exhibitions around the world. She is also the winner of several awards from the city and provincial government as well as a participant in many voluntary and humanitarian actions. Moreover, for more than three decades, she has been participating in the editing of the radio program "Ravna Gora" on CHIN radio. .

Branka's house, where I spoke with her, is perceived as a treasure trove of Serbian historical rarities in Canada.

Almost everyone is surprised by the location of your beautiful house, so to speak, in the extreme northwest of Toronto, and for years we have been hanging out at your work, in the southwest part of the city. Your journey from home to work was long. I'm curious, why didn't you buy a house closer to the area where the radio program is being broadcast?

The reason is the memories, carefully and lovingly kept in this family home for decades. All these chronologically arranged photographs, souvenirs, medals, recognitions, awards, and trophies are not only my life story but represent the historical treasury of the Serbian community over one century. Many famous Serbs from the homeland and the whole world, as well as our local patriots, have visited this house. Our king also stayed in this area on two occasions. At the beginning of the seventies of the last century, we hosted King Peter II Karađorđević in this house. The Serbian specialties, prepared by my mother-in-law, whetted the king's appetite and he refused the suggestions of his companion to serve only a little to the guests and stick to the royal menu...

Only in this space of memories, do I live in peace, and that gives me the strength to continue preparing and conducting the radio program "Ravna Gora", which was conducted by my late Milenko for years. He died two and a half years ago, but he was quite weak in the last months of his life, and I had to take over our radio program. I've been editing it for three years. Fortunately, my colleagues, loyal to Serbia, are helping me.

Did you have support from any Serbian organization you found? How did you start the radio program and who named it? When does your radio program broadcast?

When we moved to Toronto, we found several JVO fighters from the ranks of General Mihailović, to whom my Milenko belonged. Among them was the violinist Savo Kovačević, who performed his songs on the radio program founded by those Draža fighters and called "Ravna Gora". That first radio program soon died out. The second was founded by the brothers Branko and Kosta Stanojević, but also short-lived. Then the owner of the CHIN radio program, which aired all ethnic programs, asked Milenko to take over the Serbian radio program "Ravna Gora", which broadcasts to this day, every Saturday from 7pm to 8pm, FM 100.7.

You emphasized the valuable help of collaborators during the past five decades of survival of the radio program "Ravna Gora". Who are your precious associates? Why is the radio program "Ravna Gora" praised so much among Serbs? What is the secret of its popularity?

Our priests contributed a lot to the survival of the Serbian radio program "Ravna Gora". Father Miodrag Popović was a loyal collaborator of my Milenko until he returned to Belgrade, then Father Jovan Marjanac, a priest in Kitchener and secretary of the Canadian Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church, and Father Dejan Obradović from Mississauga. By the way, for many years, the radio program "Ravna Gora" was hosted by Dragan Ćirić, a professional journalist, who was the editor of the newspaper "Sloboda" in Serbia. This precious collaboration was interrupted by Đirić's return to his native Kragujevac, but he continued to contribute to our work with significant contributions from Serbia as well. Dedicated collaborators of the Serbian radio program are the famous national activists Rada and Rade Micić, as well as Zoran Titić, Miodrag Dangubić, architect Mila Milanović from Toronto, Vasilisa Atanacković from Hamilton... I am happy that I also had the family support of my daughters Radmila and Mirjana, who left us and moved to eternity last year. I also have a son, Milan, who doesn’t live in Toronto, but regularly follows the radio program "Ravna Gora". In this enumeration of our valuable collaborators, I will inadvertently leave someone out, for which I apologize.

The diverse life of the Serbian community is transmitted over the radio waves: announcements of births, weddings, deaths, slava celebrations, ceremonies, banquets, theater performances, concerts, poetry recitals, and festivities of all kinds. The special thing is that I enrich those announcements with interesting details, so after the end of each radio program, our listeners will ask for a recording of the program that mentions them. My ads and announcements are not just short information, I enrich them with well-chosen details, because I do my job with love. Radio "Ravna Gora" is listened to by one hundred thousand listeners every week. I love my Serbian people and I try with all my being to contribute to the Serbian community in Toronto and southern Ontario as much as I can.

Your rich biography speaks of your dedication to your Serbian family, as if several lives were merged into one. We are curious to hear your life story. Let your life story of a Serbian woman with endless enthusiasm and tireless energy remain an example for generations to come.

I was born in Belgrade, as were my parents and my sister. I was only four years old, and my sister was only two, when the Germans took my father, Stanko Jelić, captain of the Royal Guard, to the Osnabrück concentration camp in 1944. I lived the war and post-war years with my mother Ljubica and my sister Milena with my relatives in Kotor, where my sister and I attended grammar school and piano lessons. When we returned to our native Belgrade, we settled with our relatives, the Čolanović family, in Kralja Milutina Street and continued our education by attending the Third Belgrade Grammar School.

My father didn’t return from prison to his homeland, but settled in Detroit, from where he wrote to us and sometimes sent packages with gifts. It still took time for my father to find his way in a foreign country without anyone's help, to get a job, buy a house and acquire the conditions to bring his family. In addition, our family reunification was delayed due to the administrative procedure of the then-Yugoslav government. And finally, we arrived, via Paris, in the United States of America in 1955. Our father was waiting for us at the train station in New York. Meeting him was like in a movie. I recognized my father on the platform because I was holding his picture in my hand. I screamed excitedly: "There's dad", I rushed towards him with all my might. And my mother screamed, in fear of getting lost in the crowd, but I didn't stop. I threw myself into my father's arms: there was no end to the excitement, happiness, and tears of joy...

That first meeting with my father left a deep mark on my life. As a student, I wrote a play about it and won an award. My memory of my father is very strong in every way, because I inherited from him the talent and love for art. My father wrote poems. I keep this thick notebook as sacred, in which my father wrote his verses by hand. Many of his poems were published in the newspapers "Amerikanski Srbobran" and "Sloboda".

Then Branka read the poem her father Stanko Jelić wrote, "Let's go the way of our ancestors". As she read her father's poem, my gaze was riveted on the artwork on the wall of the large living room: Abraham Lincoln (oil on canvas). Eighteen-year-old Branka painted it and won first prize at a school competition in Detroit. She studied art and had an exhibition of her paintings at a young age.

I assume that an unforgettable event of your youth was meeting your future husband, Milenko Đurović. The general impression is that you did not part, neither for better nor for worse. It goes without saying that your romance is the subject of an entire book. Until that happens, let's hear a bit more about your acquaintance and love at first sight.

We met at the "Prince Williams" hotel in Windsor, where the Festival of Serbian Choirs was held. My sister Milena and I sang in the "Ravanica" choir, and Milenko in the "Saint Sava" choir. I was 22 years old. I knew immediately that Milenko was the man of my life. And that he felt the same, as evidenced by the correspondence between us when we returned to our homes after the festival: he returned to Toronto, and I returned to Detroit. In two years, he sent me two hundred letters to which I duly answered. I keep all those letters. The date of our wedding is October 9, 1960. We were ringed by Dr. Drobac, the respected and beloved doctor and patriot in Toronto's Serbian community, who was a ten-year-old boy at the time.

Hosting a Serbian radio program is not your only social and national activity. What duties and responsibilities did you accept within the Serbian community and performed for decades, without interruption, in addition to your family obligations as a wife and mother?

After my family moved from Detroit to Toronto, I became a member of the church choir, at St. Michael the Archangel Church in Delaware (downtown Toronto). I still sing in that choir today.

I entered public life in 1963 when my husband was a candidate for parliament for the conservative party. My role was to organize tea parties, attend various meetings, and visit people in their homes. And then, at the annual assembly of the Circle of Serbian Sisters "Princess Zorka" in the St. Archangel Michael Church, in 1972, they nominated me for president. They told me that the position was only for a year, because I was not ready to accept a longer-term assignment. But here, for 32 years, I performed the role of president of the Circle of Serbian Sisters at the St. Archangel Michael Church.

A significant commitment that I accepted was the organization of the event: "Christmas and Easter Around the World", which has been held since 1972 and lasted for over two decades. There was a lot of work. A rich cultural program had to be prepared. I enthusiastically found Serbian young talents and culinary experts. The Serbian pavilion had a good reputation. On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the "Christmas and Easter Around the World" event, an exhibition was organized in City Hall, Toronto, and on that occasion, I received a significant award (Community Folk Art Council of Toronto Presents the 2004 Community Builder Award to Branka Djurović).

We also prepared New Year's Eve in our church with a rich homemade meal. All the income from that was intended for the maintenance of our radio program "Ravna Gora". For many years my husband and I organized well-attended picnics at the Serbian estate in Binbrook, near Hamilton. It is the best Serbian land in Ontario, with plenty of shade from trees with a rich green canopy.

One of the most famous ethnic manifestations in Canada was the "Caravan". And our "Serbian Caravan" was one of the most visited. For nine days every June, festivities and rich programs took place in the hall of our St. Archangel Michael Church. Our specialties were served not only in the hall but also in the spacious and well-kept churchyard. It was bustling with guests until deep into the night. Milenko and I received many compliments, not only from our fellow Serbs, but also from members of other ethnic communities, as well as from Canadian official representatives.

The local poets also remember us. In the last decade of the last century, we hosted poetry evenings in the beautiful space of the St. Archangel Michael Church and in this way introduced the Serbs who belonged to the church municipality to newly arrived emigrants, mostly professionals, who needed to express themselves creatively in their native language. By the way, I often read the verses of famous Serbian poets on the "Ravna Gora" radio program.

I see on the table several copies of the popular book "The Serbian Heart of Johan" by our famous writer, originally from Kosovo, and my old friend, Veselin Dželetović. Do you also promote literary works from the motherland?

Veselin found out about the radio program "Ravna Gora" and asked me to advertise his patriotic novel. The book sparked interest, so we made every effort to get the book to Toronto. I have sold 140 copies so far. All income from earnings goes to the author.

I am speechless, my dear Branka. I feel the need to contribute, at least in this way, so that as much as possible is known, read and written about you. I see that there are still a considerable number of charities and national achievements that you should remember, and one of us should record.

I am glad if my story can serve as an example of loyalty and sacrifice to one's people, as well as love and faith in life.