Australian couple Sydney and Joice NanKivell Loch, who helped save thousands of Greek refugees, survivors of the Hellenic Genocide by the Aegean Sea, will be honoured in a lecture given on Monday by Dr Panayiotis Diamadis, as part of both History Week and the Centenary of Thessaloniki celebrations.
The Lochs couple dedicated their lives to the relief of suffering, helping refugees in war-torn European countries, in post-World War One. In the 1920s, the couple settled in a medieval tower of Prosforion in Ouranoupolis, Macedonia. They revitalised the rug industry of the seaside village, with designs inspired by the nearby monasteries of Mount Athos. One of these carpets ‘Creation’ is now housed in the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney.
Dr Diamadis lectures in genocide studies at the University of Technology, Sydney, and is a director of the Australian Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
“The story of the Lochs and Pyrgos Rugs, being one of the great chapters of the Australian Hellenic relationship, is part of a programme of systematically promoting Australian Hellenic history in the broader community,” Dr Diamadis told to Neos Kosmos.
A fully illustrated presentation and the lecture Threads of blue and white: The story of Sydney and Joice NanKivell Loch will be hosted by The Pan-Macedonian Association of NSW and the Australian Hellenic Educators’ Association NSW. The lecture will be held on Monday 10 September at 7:00 pm, at History House, 133 Macquarie Street, Sydney. Entrance is free.