This past weekend Cypriots from across Australia and New Zealand converged in Melbourne, as the Cypriot Community of Melbourne and Victoria hosted a mega conference of the Cypriot diaspora.
The conference was actually three conferences – the Federation of Cypriot Communities of Australia and New Zealand, the Pan-Australian Justice for Cyprus Committee (PASEKA), and Cypriot Youth Organisations of Australia and New Zealand (NEPOMAK).
The big takeaway from the conferences was the need for the communities to connect with youth.
Proceedings continued on from the Friday May 23 launch at the Cypriot Community of Melbourne in Brunswick.
Read more: Cypriot Diaspora unites in Melbourne for landmark mega-conference
On Saturday, the PASEKA conference was held, where topics discussed were related to the current political situations in both Cyprus and Australia.
They heard from Antonis Sammoutis, the High Commissioner of the Republic of Cyprus, and got reports by the state SEKA presidents and representatives on the initiatives that they held last year for the 50 years commemoration of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.
Plans were also made for this year’s commemoration events.
Also on the Saturday was an address by Dr Craig Barker on the link between Australia and Cyprus in archaeology and excavations, both historically and into the future.
Barker is the Head, Public Engagement at the Chau Chak Wing Museum in NSW and director of the Paphos Theatre Archaeological Project excavating at the World Heritage listed site of Nea Paphos in Cyprus.
His talk focused on the history that Australia has with excavations in Cyprus, starting from the very first Australians that went Cyprus to do excavations as well as what’s continuing in the present day as well as the challenges faced and opportunities that students and youth have to participate in these current excavations.
State MP for Northcote Kat Theophanous also spoke before the day closed with the delegates attending the 70-year celebration of the Sunshine Cypriot Community.
On Sunday was the Federation conference that included reports from the various Cypriot communities from across Australia and New Zealand on initiatives they held.
A particular focus was reaching more youth, support of elderly and women’s programs.
The afternoon concluded with the NEPOMAK conference, the Cypriot youth organisations.
This gave the communities an opportunity to talk with the youth present and discuss how they can bring youth back into their communities.
The Cyprus Community Northern Suburbs Melbourne shared that they are working on doing that and the Cypriot Community of Melbourne and Victoria are launching their dancing group soon.
