Eoni Nalion
Eoni Nalion | |
|---|---|
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| Minister of Culture of Gylias | |
| In office 2 January 1958 – 5 March 1976 | |
| Prime Minister | Darnan Cyras |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 3 March 1933 Mayt, Xevden |
| Political party | Democratic Left |
| Occupation |
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Eoni Nalion (born 3 March 1933) is a Gylian writer and politician. She was Gylias' culture in minister in the Darnan Cyras government. Her tenure saw the establishment of a strong cultural policy, and she played a significant supporting role in the emergence of Groovy Gylias.
Early life
Eoni was born in Mayt on 3 March 1933. She came from an impoverished family of mixed Gylic and Lusitan descent. She had an older brother, with whom she would recall occasionally stealing food when it seemed their family would not have enough to eat for the week.
She learned to read and write from a local teacher; lacking money, she paid instead by volunteering to do housework. Her brother, functionally illiterate throughout his life, was determined to avoid the same fate for his sister. He would sneak Eoni into libraries or bookstores to steal reading material and made sure she practiced reading and writing daily.
The family moved to the Free Territories during the Liberation War, allowing Eoni to be educated in volunteer classes and lectures.
In her teens, Eoni grew interested in politics, and began to attend various political meetings. She humorously recalled, "I would ask, 'what kind of books would be written in a socialist society?', and if I got stared at rudely or dismissed, it was a communist meeting, but if I got an actual answer, which usually happened to be 'whatever kind of books you want to write', it was an anarchist meeting."
In 1951, she attended a lecture by Rin and Sakura Tōsaka. The three struck up a conversation after the lecture, which lasted late into the evening. Rin and Sakura were greatly impressed by Eoni, and would later bring her to the attention of the General Council and Democratic Communist Party as a potential future ally.
Eoni moved back to her hometown after its liberation by the People's Army. Greatly interested in the arts, she began working as a writer and editor for a local literary magazine. According to her own self-assessment, "I couldn't hope to be the caliber of Phaedra Metaxa or Virginia Gerstenfeld, but I was good at getting people together and getting things done."
Thanks to the Tōsaka sisters' advocacy, Eoni was visited several times by Nancy and Jessica Freeman, who brought notice of her to Darnan Cyras. She accepted Darnan's offer to join the post-war Executive Committee with the culture portfolio, but declined to join the DCP, joking, "I'm allergic to organisations with 'Party' in their name."
Minister of Culture
Eoni took office with the rest of the Executive Committee on 2 January 1958. Appointed two months before her 25th birthday, she set a record as Tyran's youngest ever member of government. Her post was retroactively renamed "Minister of Health" when the Constitution was adopted in 1961. She was initially independent, and then joined the Democratic Left after its establishment.
Eoni championed the vision of Gylias as a freewheeling "laboratory of ideas", and played a key role in supporting the emergence of Gylias' flourishing social, artistic, and cultural life during the Golden Revolution. She was a prolific creator of administrative agencies. Some important ones she took the initiative in creating were the Arts Council — with whose chair Tomoko Tōsaka she would form a close partnership —, Gylian National Film Institute, Gylian Music Board, and Creative Rights Organisation. She instilled a spirit of creativity and artistic nurturing at the Ministry of Culture, contributing to high morale among staff and effective management.
During her tenure, the Ministry of Culture and associated administrative agencies became an important source of support for artists. A system of vetting projects was created which turned proposal meetings into brainstorming sessions, and helped steer some creators into more original directions. Director Maija Džeriņa recalled "wonderful" experiences with the supportive staff of the GNFI or Arts Council, representative of the Ministry of Culture's high reputation:
"They asked about every detail, they were interested in hearing where I was coming from, and usually asked either, 'Are you sure this is necessary?' or 'Can this be made more interesting?'. It made me think about whether I could get an idea across better, or come up with a different approach."
Aided by an economic boom and other factors like the emergence of distinctive economic practices in the cultural sphere and the liberalisation of drugs, Gylias gained a thriving cultural scene, nicknamed Groovy Gylias, and became a significant force in Tyranian popular culture through the Gylian Invasion. This was a development Eoni took great pride in; she said during the 1969 federal election campaign, "We used to be shunned for our anarchism, and now we are looked to for our artistic giants."
Eoni adopted policies that prioritised universal access to culture, such as free entrance to national museums and galleries, setting high quotas for Gylian content in broadcasting, the creation of the National Heritage Board, and the restrictive terms of the Law on Intellectual Rights of 1960. She believed that art had a collective and social function, declaring, "Art for art's sake is a good principle if you're the only audience for your creations, but it's not enough when they're released for the public."
Public image
Eoni was the youngest member of the cabinet. She was known for her cheerful and enthusiastic personality. One commentator noted that, in contrast to Darnan and other colleagues who sought to avoid being seen to enjoy their positions, she could be giddy and sometimes herself amazed that she was culture minister. Her good humour and energy in carrying out duties disarmed critics skeptical of her age and experience at appointment. She would usually acknowledge and deflate the situation with a joke before meetings, often opening with, "I know what you're wondering — how on earth is the minister of culture younger than me?".
For his part, Darnan candidly admitted to Eoni that image played a role in her appointment: as a young and glamorous woman, she served as a representative of the new society emerging from the Golden Revolution in cabinet. Her youth and policies earned her high esteem among artists in Groovy Gylias; her high-profile championship of Gylian culture and the arts was perhaps iconically captured in a photo of her meeting with the Beaties at the height of Beatiemania.
As a result of her family background, she had an olive skin that could be made to look darker or lighter through lighting and cosmetics, earning her the humorous nickname "racial chameleon". She was noted for favouring a simpler and less elaborate wardrobe than female colleagues like Aliska Géza, the Tōsaka sisters, Birgit Eckstein or Neelie op het Mensink. She was not identified with socialised luxury to the same extent, but was instead seen to symbolise youthful dynamism.
She was a famous participant in Project Nous, and cabinet colleagues would good-naturedly tease her afterwards for her tendency to ramble when discussing extremely idealistic concepts. After meeting Eoni during a state visit to Gylias, Mette Elvensar quipped to colleagues, "If you've ever wondered what Lykke would be like in cabinet…"
Eoni was close friends with Tomoko Tōsaka; the two worked together closely and frequently appeared together in public. Observers noted the two had a dynamic similar to the Tōsaka sisters: Eoni was enthusiastic and energetic, but also bashful to an extent and prone to blushing in public, while Tomoko was more regal and dignified in both appearance and wardrobe, using her public speaking prowess to help refine Eoni's ideas and initiatives.
Later life
Eoni's term ended with the inauguration of the Aén Ďanez government. She strongly disliked Aén Ďanez, and when the latter offered to retain Eoni as culture minister, she responded "Vai-te foder, velha cona!" ("Fuck you, you old cunt!") and stormed out of the office. Asked later about the incident by an interviewer, she commented, "Lusitan is a very cathartic language to erupt in."
After leaving politics, she resumed her work as a writer and cultural commentator, contributing to various Gylian publications. She was interviewed for Rasa Ḑeşéy's 1999 documentary Nation Building.
Legacy
Eoni was one of the most popular members of the Darnan Cyras government and is considered an iconic figure of the Golden Revolution, particularly for her association and support for Groovy Gylias. She is considered the "mother" of Gylian cultural policy, as all subsequent governments either followed, continued, or expanded on her foundations, and played a key role in cementing government support for culture as part of the Gylian consensus and a source of pride for Gylians.
Private life
She was married and widowed, and has two children.
She is a practitioner of Concordianism mixed with Lusitan traditional beliefs.