Photographer Effy Alexakis and historian Leonard Janiszewski took a significant piece of Greek Australian history back to where it all began for many families and individuals who left for Australia seeking a prosperous life, when the couple presented a ‘Cafes and Milk Bars of Australia’ lecture on the island of Kythera recently.
The popular ‘walk down memory lane’ events for Greek Australians who ran the much loved establishments and the customers who flocked to the counters in their heyday, have been successfully touring Australia for many years.
“We have spoken to audiences on the mainland in Athens and Salonica when our exhibitions have been there but this was the first time in Kythera,” Janiszewski said.
The small island with a population of around four thousand was a major contributor to the Greek diaspora in Australia between the late 1800s and 1940s, along with Kastellorizo and Ithaka.
“Kytherians were conspicuous in Australia’s food-catering industry, particularly from the 1890s through to the 1960s – numerically dominating Greek involvement with food catering in New South Wales and Queensland,” Janiszewski explains.
“The lecture is both a celebration and ‘home coming’ of Australia’s Kytherian café phenomenon.”
Alexakis provides some insight as to why Kythera is so important to the couple’s work which they have pursued passionately for over thirty years.
“The first time I went to Kythera was in 1985, I stayed with the parents of the family who owned the milk bar that I worked in as a young girl, the Stamatakos family from Mitata.
“During that trip I ‘discovered’ a street of abandoned homes in that village which inspired me to want to come back to document this further.
“Then, with an Australia Council grant, I went back with Leonard in 1990 to document these deserted homes. This resulted in our first book, Images of Home, Mavri Xenitia (published by Hale & Iremonger, 1995 and now out of print).
“We also rightly assumed that other islands that Greeks had migrated from would have similar deserted homes, so we also went to Ithaka and Kastellorizo, and looked at the homes themselves, the people that remained and those that returned back to Greece from Australia.
“People had left behind personal photo albums and letters, some houses were abandoned from the 1920s onwards. This told us they had planned to return. In fact, if you ask any first generation that has settled in Australia, most say the plan was to stay a few years, make some money, then go back to Greece.”
Alexakis believes that the feeling for community and food was paramount in setting the professional destiny for many Greeks making Australia their new home.
“A group of us met after the talk and discussed the communal generous attitude Greeks have to food, the importance of food to Greeks. The way it’s prepared and shared greatly defines our culture, and that the cafes/milk bars expressed this.”
Event organiser and Kythera resident Teena Papadopoulos, explained that her family has a long history with the both the island and cafes in Australia and she believes it is valuable to acknowledge the significant history.
“It was important that the lecture be held in Kythera considering how many Kytherians left the Island to pioneer their way into the rich tapestry which is Australia today,” Papadopoulos said.
“My mother’s family is from Mitata Kythera. My grandfather, Theo Feros, emigrated to Australia in 1922. Initially he worked for other Kytherians in various NSW country towns under difficult conditions to earn enough (money) to return to his homeland and marry his childhood sweetheart.”
He returned to Australia, leaving a young family behind, and eventually established his own business in Sydney, so that he bring them to the new homeland.
However, as fate would have it, World War Two broke out and the family was not reunited again until in Sydney in 1946, where they were to live.
“My mother met her father when she was eight . Mum grew up and went to school in Sydney, and worked in various cafes and milk bars until she moved to Lithgow to help out her brother in his milk bar, Jim’s Busy Corner, and met dad who had freshly arrived and was working at the Blue Bird Cafe.
“They married and set up their own business, the Duck Inn, a milk bar corner store, until 1972, when we sold up and moved to Sydney.
“In 1974 Papadopoulos visited Greece for the first time to meet her father’s family in Karpathos and felt a bond with the country that would eventually draw her back to her ancestral roots.
“I was resistant in going. Then I didn’t want to leave!
“We spent most of the time in Karpathos. We also came to Kythera. Mum had not been back since (she was) a chiId. I felt a familiarity here and knew even then that one day it would be my home.”
After finishing her education in Australia, Teena Papadopoulos pursued a career as an actor and teacher while travelling regularly to Kythera before moving to the island permanently in 2002. She subsequently married and has two children and has no plans to return to Australia.
“Like most locals, we have gardens, organic, producing most of our fruit and veggies. We have chickens, pick olives for oil and from this my sister in law and I make beautiful olive oil soap.
“It has not been easy, especially the last few years with the (economic) crisis but I continue to enjoy being here.”
Papadopoulos believes the “Greek Cafes and Milk Bars” lecture struck a chord with the attendees, some of whom were holidaying from Australia or had travelled from other parts of Greece, and has plans for future presentations.
“It was wonderful hearing the comments from the audience as they called out when recognising friends and relatives and even themselves.
“I think next time though, it (should) be held (in the) ‘off season’ so more of the locals can have the opportunity to enjoy this vast body of work that Effy and Leonard have been documenting for the past three or more decades.”
For more, visit http://www.cafesandmilkbars.com.au/