The long project committed to chronicling the 100-year history of the Kytherian Association of Australia (KAA) has finally bore fruit in the form of its first volume that encompasses the organisation’s first fifty years.
The KAA has immortalised its activities from 1922 to 1972 in the first volume of the book “EKATO: The History of the KAA (1922-2022) The First Fifty Years”, which was officially launched last month.
The project, years in the making, is supported by Create NSW’s Cultural Grants Program, a devolved funding program administered by the Royal Australian Historical Society on behalf of the NSW Government.
Vasilios Vasilas, the author of this book, elaborated how the idea behind this project was presented to him years ago in anticipation of the association celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2022.
“When the then President, Vic Kepreotis, explained to me that the Committee had decided to entrust me with this project, it was an enormous opportunity and a great honour to work with one of the oldest and most successful Greek associations in Australia,” Vasilas told Neos Kosmos.
The social historian explained that this project was a “long and challenging process”, which is further highlighted by the fact that it has been overseen by three separate presidents of the association.
As part of his research, he went through every page of the KAA’s Minutes Books still in existence, sifting through pages and pages written in Katharevousa Greek, which proved to be quite the task.
“There were instances where it took time for me to make sense of what was being written,” he said.
“Moreover, every Secretary’s handwriting in the Greek language was different- from the calligraphical to the illegible- so making sense of what was written was often difficult- and as the writer, I wanted to make sense of what I was reading before I read on further.”
The time-consuming exercise did not fluster Vasilas as he wanted to know every detail possible to understand their entire story.
The author expressed many interesting takeaways he had in researching the early years of the KAA, noting the early 1920s as an overall fascinating period for Sydney’s relatively small Greek community.
“The Kytherians’ decision to establish the Kytherian Brotherhood at the time (1922) is significant because, up to this point, the largest Greek community group was the Greek Orthodox Community of NSW,” he said.
“In hindsight, Sydney’s Kytherian community begins this socio-cultural connection between old homeland- a specific part of Greece, Kythera- and the adopted homeland, Australia.”
He noted some other surprises like the size and strength of their Annual Balls, which featured visits from Kytherians in Country NSW and Queensland, as well as their involvement with Sydney’s historical newspaper “Panellinios Kyrix”.
“The paper was “The Official Organ of the Greek Orthodox Community of NSW”; in the early 1930s, and for many years, the Kytherian Brotherhood also had a stake in the newspaper, so the masthead read ‘ … & The Cytherian Association of Australia’,” Vasilas said.
He said that another big part of their activities he noticed in his research was the level of philanthropy, stating that The Kytherian Brotherhood generously supported so many causes in Kythera and Australia.
On top of that, Vasilas added that that there are other layers to their story of interest such as the Kytherians that served in the Australian armed forces and fought in the Pacific War during WWII, their involvement with Sydney’s wider Greek community, the elections of its first female Committee members in the early 1960s etc.
Reflecting on the KAA’s first fifty years, the author characterised it as very reminiscent of the experiences most Greek associations encounter in their own history, the only difference being that theirs occurred so much earlier than most others.
“The KAA experienced enormous successes, differing intergenerational and old/new migrant views, and even crises that could have potentially split the Kytherian community.”
“For Kytherians, it was always in their best interest to have one strong, united association- and they worked tremendously hard to maintain this. When challenges arose, they persevered and worked to overcome them. When there were successes, they worked extremely hard to achieve them.”
He said that they seem to have struck that “perfect balance” of strongly maintaining its connections to the old homeland, Kythera, while successfully integrating and making significant contributions in their new homeland, Australia.
“One cannot help but feel admiration in the manner the KAA has successfully achieved this,” he said.
Vasilas detailed the other big contributor for this book, Rene Panagiotelis, who worked meticulously to identify and contextualise the various archival documents, particularly the photos.
“Rene is a library technician, so she brought some incredible research skills to the book,” the author said.
“It is a visually stunning book, so the visual part of book, where photographs, documents, old tickets etc complimented the text, is Rene and her team’s enormous contribution.”
He elaborated further on her efforts by explaining how she would have to analyse photos taken from Balls with no date and examine them for clues and cross-reference it with Ball programs to decide on an approximate date.
It was this combination of research of both the written and visual archives that led to the decision of the Book Committee to split the book into two volumes.
“As the writer, I was just being thorough with the narrative I was writing, so I was averaging 20 pages A4 per chapter, so there were over 100 pages for the five decades (1922-1972),” Vasilas said.
“Once Rene and her team began inserting all the visual material in the book, it became quickly clear that “EKATO” would be an enormous book. So, it was wisely decided to break up the book into two volumes.”
The author revealed they are currently working on Volume Two, with the current target being to have it finished by 2026.
He concluded by expressing how the development of this book captures the essence of the Kytherians and the KAA’s strong work ethic and efforts to succeed.
“Whether it was past Presidents, Vic Kepreotis or Emmanuel Alfieris, or the current President Barbara Zantiotis, and their respective Committees, the objective of the Book Committee was always to create a great book, and “EKATO” (Volume One) is certainly that.”
