It has been thirty years now since Melbourne lawyer Eugenia Mitrakas conceived the idea of the first ever Greek Legal and Medical Conference.
Having gone on Law Institute Council meeting weekends, she had taken someone’s joke – to take the meetings to her native Mytilini – very seriously.
As a general elected member of the Law Institute Council, from 1984 to 1992, she secured their support for the idea. The then president Frank Paton signed letters on Law Institute letterhead addressed to Melina Mercouri and other politicians to introduce Mitrakas and seek her support for the idea.
Once the conference took off, the Greek legendary actress used to welcome the delegates personally and became close friends with Mitrakas.
Born as a meeting point for professionals from the two fields, and stimulated by the origin of both professions in Greek history, the conference has also served the promotion of Greek culture and history.
This year, in what will be the ninth Greek Legal and Medical Conference, the cultural aspect and the promotion of Greek culture is highlighted more than ever, as delegates are about to experience the wonders of the Peloponnese and visit major archaeological sites including Messini, Olympia, Mycenae and Sparta.
Internationally acclaimed speakers in the areas of law, medicine, science and ethics, will discuss the topic of ‘Technology and Ethics’.
With an excellent line-up of young Greek speakers who are now leading the professional brigade in Greece and numerous Australians and Greek Australians, the conference will address issues such as – how have changes in technology influenced ethical principles in law, medicine and research? Has the law been too quick or too slow to respond?
Having staged eight conferences up until 2002, Ms Mitrakas resigned from the initial organisation, as she felt it was no longer true to her original aims of promoting Hellenism and Greek culture.
But for the first woman in the history of Victoria to sit on the Board of Examiners (examines the fitness of new graduates for admission into legal practice), going to the effort to form the second group that same year was not a big deal.
“I approached Professor Peter Doherty to join the group both as a patron and as a keynote speaker. His support for me and the conferences has been magnificent. He has become a self-professed ‘Greek’. The Greek community is lucky to have an ambassador of such international status promoting Greece and having such a strong love of Greece and its culture,” Ms Mitrakas tells Neos Kosmos.
A not-for-profit organisation, the conference supports the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute’s Cell and Gene Therapy Unit for its research work into the causes and cures for thalassaemia. To date, the conference has donated in excess of $165,000 to the Murdoch Institute for its work in medical research.
“Peter’s support gave me the opportunity to get a strong team of workers behind me, such as Professor Loane Skene from the University of Melbourne Law School. We decided to support the Murdoch’s thalassaemia research early in our planning and Dr Jim Vadolas joined the committee.”
Starting a conference for the second time was much more difficult. There was no State Savings Bank to support it, no sponsorship. With her now late husband David Roylance, Ms Mitrakas worked day and night, sponsoring the conferences from their own funds when needed.
“I was ready to launch the idea that had become an orama for me to benefit Greece and the Greek communities in Australia.”
Dr Spiro Moraitis, who had joined the organising committee, had once openly stated that “if Eugenia works on this idea as hard as she worked on introducing the teaching of Modern Greek at the University of Melbourne and High Schools, then these conferences are sure to became a huge success”.
He wasn’t far away from the truth.
Following David’s death, Ms Mitrakas decided to continue the conferences in memory of his commitment to them.
Support from a Nobel laureate
Professor Peter Doherty, who shared the 1996 Nobel Prize for Medicine for the nature of the cellular immune defence, and Australian of the Year in 1997, is the Australian Patron of the Greek Conference and has delivered the Keynote Address at each of the five previous conferences.
Having visited the Greek islands on several occasions earlier, he tells Neos Kosmos Greece is a fascinating part of the world.
“I came back from the US in 2002. Eugenia thought it would be good if I got involved. It sounded like an interesting thing to do. I get manipulated by small women anyway,” Professor Doherty says with a laugh.
The conference, Ms Mitrakas says, started off as just legal.
“Then I thought, if it really was to have proper legs and take off, why not bring in the medicals? It gave us an opportunity to join forces of the two out of three oldest professions.
“We had always had a theme that ties in well with medicine and science because it looks at ethical issues between professions and professional responsibilities. This year, it’s ‘Technology and Ethics’; it ties in with both professions.”
Mr Doherty agrees.
“It’s interesting because you hear things you don’t normally hear. There are a lot of common problems that need to be faced both in the medical and the legal field; there is a lot of crossover there.
“It’s not your usual thing. Medicals go to medical conferences, lawyers to legal. Instead of talking about highly technical and specialised topics, this is different – talking about general issues but hearing a different way of looking at it.”
With conferences being held every two years, delegates have their say in suggesting where the next one will be held. Since 2004, the conference had taken place in Crete, Mykonos, Kos, Corfu and Rhodes.
“It has to be an island or mainland destination that has the facilities, and is interesting and has archaeological sites for delegates to visit. The sites they couldn’t see elsewhere. Promoting Greece is very much part of the conference; its culture and the language,” Ms Mitrakas says.
Since the very first Greek Australian conference, 30 years ago, Ms Mitrakas says an estimated 10,000 people have gone from Australia to Greece to attend the conference. It’s a substantial number for Greek tourism, she says.
This year the conference is expected to attract around 300 delegates.
“With this second round of the conference we work hard on looking at the aims of promoting the Greek culture and Greek sites. Our culture program ties with where we are.
“This way we promote Greece, Greek culture. So you are doing the second benefit – not only taking tourists there but also making them aware of the Greek personality, the way of life, taking them to places they wouldn’t see on their own.”
In Mr Doherty’s opinion, the conference is also a way to bring influential people to Greece, who wouldn’t normally spend as much time there. And that must have an effect.
Promoting the Greek culture
Costa Navarino, where the conference will be held from 19-25 September, offers its visitors the unique opportunity to view history stretching back thousands of years to the ages and origins of traditional Greek mythology. It is also a significant location in respect of Greece’s recent history, as it is the location of the famous Battle of Navarino, which led to Greece’s independence from Ottoman rule.
“Apart from our professional program, we have devised an interesting and stimulating social program, which will enable our participants to see a wide range of sights in the fascinating villages, stunning beaches and countryside,” Ms Mitrakas says.
The highlight cultural speaker of the conference is Professor Petros Themelis, director of the excavations and restorations project at Ancient Messini.
Professor Themelis will give a lecture dealing with the excavation work done so far at Ancient Messini, to be followed by a tour of the site.
“From 1986, it’s now the 28th year of excavation work there. More or less all the monuments have been brought back to life,” Professor Themelis tells Neos Kosmos.
“My main aim is to show to an audience how Messini was before, the work we have done, and today. When we started everything was covered; now it is an ancient city that people can visit following the ancient roads.”
It was in 1828 that the French government expedition visited Messini, just after the Greek revolution. They stayed for two months and published a report – the first systematic report of the site, still of crucial importance to excavators, Professor Themelis explains.
Apart from ancient locations, Messini has plenty more to show to its visitors – medieval castles, Byzantine Koroni, fortress of Pylos…
“For Greece – it means a lot. It’s an advertisement of Greece of the past and present, its landscape, food; it will attract other visitors to come and see the same. Kalamata and Kosta Navarino is a paradise area, the landscape is still untouched.
“This conference is important for our tourism because it makes the area known to visitors, scientists, educated and well to do people,” Professor Themelis says.
“With the current situation in Greece, we have no money to fund museums to do restorations, but I am optimistic it will be better in a few years. Myself and my staff serve the opinion that ancient monuments must be opened to the public. It is what financially supports the whole area, it’s important if we want to conserve the sites for the future.”
The partnerships
Last year, the Greek Conference announced its creative alliance with the Melbourne Hellenic Museum. All delegates and corporate members of the Greek Conference automatically become Delphi Members of the Hellenic Museum until 31 December 2015.
“Our membership list includes most members of the judiciary not only of Greek background, but what I call the Greeks at heart, who are enthusiastic Philhellenes. For example, His Honour Justice Chris Maxwell, President of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Victoria studied Classical Greek and Classical Greek History at the University of Melbourne as part of his Arts Degree about the same time as I studied Classical Greek. We were both lectured by James McCaughey. They are both keynote speakers at the conference at Costa Navarino.”
This year the conference has also secured some support from the Commonwealth Bank of the organisation itself, the AGAPI Group (Association of Greek Affiliated Pan-Hellenic Interests Limited), organiser of the conference.
“The bank supports our general aims and wishes to help us reach out and develop more activities in keeping with our aims. The CBA has created the Premier Banking Package with exclusive privileges for delegates of the Greek Conference and members of the AGAPI Group.”
As someone who put an enormous amount of work into the introduction of Modern Greek as a student and in her early years as a lawyer, Ms Mitrakas says she is saddened that Modern Greek is no longer taught at the University of Melbourne and disheartened by the reality of spoken Greek diminishing in the community in Australia.
“This is regretfully part of the assimilation and integration of our community into the Australian way of life and we must accept this as a reality. We must however not lose our culture and this is why, in my view, organisations like the Greek Conference, that promote our Greek heritage not only throughout Australia but on a world scale, are important.
“It is inevitable that we will lose our strong ties to the mother tongue. It would be a tragedy if we also neglected the ties connecting us to our cultural heritage.”
The Ninth Greek Legal and Medical Conference will take place from 19 to 25 September 2014 at Costa Navarino, Messinia, in Greece. There is no pre-requisite for delegates to be members of the legal or medical professions. To register, visit www.greekconference.con.au/register.html