A book launch of a historical autobiography by Anastasia Gessa-Liveriadis, titled Whispering to My Daughter, will be held on Sunday April 6, 3pm, at Alphington Grammar School.
The book depicts the stony years of the economic, social and political crisis in Greece during the late interwar period; her early years of survival in Australia and the years of maturity and interknitting as an able and pioneering lady of Greek ancestry, who excelled as a mother and spouse and achieved a professional ascend in the discipline of Health Sciences.
Presented by Christina Kotsifaki-Saris, Dimitra Flessas and launched by Panagiotis Gogidis, the event is organised by the Australian Institute of Macedonian Studies (AIMS).
The event will be opened with a greeting by the Principal of Alphington Grammar, Dr Vivianne Nikou.
Afterwards, Professor Anastasios Tamis will analyse with references from the biographical narrative.
Liveriadis’ family, her daughter Lisa and the Greek Australian scholar from Japan Fay Savvaidis will also participate.
Liveriadis, for years served as Secretary of the Australian Hellenic Cultural Association and the Society of Friends of the National Center for Greek Studies and Research (EKEME).
The book details the first difficult years of the 1930s, when orphaned by her mother, she feels growing the unfailing love and affection of her esteemed father, she becomes mentally attached to her father’s honesty and integrity ethos, at the same time she lives the unjustified envy and the misery of her stepmother.
Followed by the difficult school years, with the declaration of World War II, the Italian-German occupation in her hometown of Ptolemais, Macedonia, then followed by the stony years emerging from the Civil War.
Here Liveriadis analyses how a child saw the development of events, intra-family relationships, relations with her brother, Athanasios Gessa, how she evaluated the mentality of a tyrannised, living in agony people.
This was followed by the years of her early youth, leaving Ptolemais, settling in Athens, studying in fields related to health sciences, mental and physical, her first personal relationships as a young lady entering maturity, and exiting Greece for distant Australia.
In Australia, she finally settled in Melbourne, where she offered her services in child care centres of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia.
She later emerged as a pioneer and leader in the field of health provision in the state health system.
The book highlights aspects of her successful professional advancement and certain significant contributions unknown to Australian Hellenism, as well as honourary and prestigious positions of ascend that she enjoyed from the 70s’ to 90s’.
She married, first, the man with whom she had her only daughter, Lisa, then a renowned psychiatrist and then the late educational advisor and classical philologist, Panagiotis Liveriadis.
“We honor this person with the presentation of her autobiography,” Dr Tamis said.
The presentation will be followed by a reception organised by AIMS. On behalf of AIMS, the Presiding Officer Theofani Karabatsa will offer flowers to the honouree.
