The Australia Day Honours 2021 were announced yesterday to recognise and reward good works by Australian citizens, and Aussies of Greek heritage could not be missing.

Governor General of Australia, David Hurley made many commendations, including the following:

Sotiria Liangis (AM) ACT

Sotiria Liangis has appeared in Neos Kosmos a number of times for her charity work. Embracing her new home, she arrived in Canberra nearly 60 years ago from Keratea, unable to speak English, after having just married her husband Angelo. Aged 19 at the time, she was full of energy and, like most Greek Australian migrants at the time, she worked hard, saved her money and created a new life.

The developer behind a number of commercial properties in Canberra, she was also the first Telstra ACT Business Woman of the Year in 1995 and was offered an Order of Australia Medal in 1996 for “service to the Greek community, particularly the aged and through St Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, Canberra”.  In 2001, she received a Centenary Medal for her help to the Greek community.

She told Canberra Times, that she came with nothing but, later, “the time came when I was ready to (give) help as much as possible to people who need help, without me thinking anything more about just helping them”.

The owner of Liangis Investments, she said she never wanted to draw attention to her philanthropic work, however the countless of people she has helped could not let her efforts go unnoticed.

READ MORE: Canberra Hellenes back embassy renovation

Michael Panormitis Pakakis (AM) Victoria

Mr Michael Panormitis Pakakis, the Director of the Victorian Space Science Education Centre at Victoria’s Strathmore Secondary College since 2006, has been honoured for his significant service to STEM education.

Assistant Principal at the College since 2016, he has taught high school students for 34 years and maintains: “Take any subject and make it space-related. Engagement goes up by 100 per cent.” Mr Pakakis says this is proven by the fact that more than 100,000 students have gone throuh his facility since 2006.

His efforts in teaching STEM in an interdisciplinary way has drawn the admiration and respect of his students and colleagues alike.

Theodora Ahilas (ΟΑΜ), Blakehurst NSW

Theodora Ahilas, who heads Maurice Blackburn’s asbestos and dust diseases national practice, has fought for compensation for workers and their families for 25 years.

“I always wanted to be a social justice lawyer,” she told the University of Technology, Sydney, in an interview as a former alumni.

She said her motivation to study law owes much to her working class, non-English speaking background. “I’d seen people’s inability to access legal services when they needed to because they lacked knowledge and understanding of the law,” she said.

Eleni Andriana Glouftsis (OAM) VIC

Greek-Australian umpire Eleni Glouftsis grew up in a Greek-Australian family as the youngest of three children and her upbringing helped her learn a thing or two about grit and the determination which comes through hard work.  She has also benefited from the support and encouragement of her family with her parents present at every game.

“There’s been so many people to thank for their support in me being able to reach this point. I think in particular my mum, dad and nanna, who come to all my games. They’ve been so supportive through my whole journey; it’s just been fantastic,” she told Neos Kosmos in a previous interview.

One of the games which will forever be remembered by her is the 2019 game at the MCG between Carlton and Adelaide where her partner, and fellow umpire Dillon Tee got down on one knee in the middle of the MCG and proposed to the Greek Australian, to which Ms. Glouftsis said yes.

She was awarded her honour “for service to Australian rules football, particularly as an umpire.”

READ MORE: Eleni Glouftsis named SA Young Australian of the Year

Ismini (Pitsa) Parrett (ΟΑΜ) ACT

Ismini (Pitsa) Parrett received her honour posthumously, for her service to community health thanks to her work in exercise therapy and aquatic rehabilitation.

The Greek-Egyptian passed away at the age of 78 on 26 February last year, however she led a full life. Having married Colliss Parrett, a migration officer on a posting to the Australian embassy in Egypt, she was naturalised in the Australian embassy in London without ever having set foot in Australia. Later, she became a passionate Aussie and was a pioneer of women’s health in the ACT.

Her passion was aquatic rehabilitation and she contributed to the health of thousands of Canberra women who sought her service and guidance.

John Constantine Varnavides, Pemberton WA

Volunteer firefighter John Varnavides has attended almost 900 incidents since joining the Western Australia Volunteer Fire and Rescue Service (VFRS) at the Pemberton Volunteer Fire Brigade. Having joined in 1971, he has shown courage fighting bushfires, storms and attending road crash rescues.

One of the longest serving operational firefighters in the region, he has held numerous leadership positions and has provided distinguished service to the community.

And a non-Greek recipient

John Richard Melville-Jones (ΑΜ) Claremont WA

Emeritus Professor John Richard Melville-Jones has spent a large part of his academic career researching the truth in ancient history and uncovering numerous inaccuracies concerning claims made by officials from Skopje. He has also worked extensively with archival material of the 15th and 16th centuries shedding insights on Byzantine history. He is thus in a very good position to trace the evolution of the attempt to appropriate the ancient Greek Macedonian identity by the modern residents of Republic of North Macedonia.