Flinders University will be hosting the 9th International Conference on Greek Research, proudly supported by the Government of South Australia. The main focus of this year’s conference will be ‘Ageing in the Migrant Diaspora’.
Neos Kosmos talked to conference convener and Professor of Modern Greek, Professor Michael Tsianikas about the upcoming conference. The conference will include national and international keynote speakers talking about various issues such as the problem in Cyprus, organising professional development for our teachers in modern Greek but also areas that promote Hellenic cultural issues like Ancient Greek philosophy, literature and language.
But Professor Tsianikas needed something to set this conference apart from previous years. “The challenge with this conference was to become even more significant. That’s why two years ago, I decided to focus on the ageing Greek Diaspora, in particular the Australian Greek Diaspora. I decided to collaborate with Southgate Institute, which is a health sciences department to work together. I come from the cultural background and they are coming from the science point of view so it really became a very dynamic and balanced group. The university immediately invested money over the last two years to conduct various research in particular in the area of the Greek ageing population of South Australia. “We conducted interviews with individuals and groups to find out what the biggest challenges and issues faced by the ageing Greek people in South Australia, such as issues with service providers, how they are dealing with the issues by living alone.
“We are also trying to focus on the agricultural settlements, such as the Riverland area, as they have different issues and more challenging issues if you like. We are also looking at what stress the families are going through, such as daughters in some families are forced to work part-time to support their parents.
“These are some pressures the Greek Australian community will face in the future.” Professor Tsianikas said the outcomes of this conference will be a way to get the government on board.
“Because we are always communicating with government agencies and service providers, we are going to continue to increase this open dialogue with them to find ways to make the life of the aged people as easy as possible and to find solutions for some of the problems and issues we uncover.
“Also, culturally we want to make sure that the elderly can understand in Greek what the meaning of some words are so they know what services are available to them. We know that some groups are getting support from community organisations or from churches but what the Greek communities are lacking is to further develop the volunteering in this area. “Although Greeks are characterised by openness and hospitality, in the area in volunteering there are a few things that the Greek communities should do to make sure the elderly are staying at home as much as they can. It’s very bad thing to remove them from their houses and put them in an institution.”
To make their research more useful and valid, Professor Tsianikas has invited other cultural communities in South Australian to join the research team and exchange ideas on the ageing Diaspora. “We know the Italian community are successful in some areas that the Greeks are not and vice versa. We could adopt some of these things and learn from each other.”
The 9th International Conference on Greek Research is a four day event that will be held on 30 June to 3 July at Flinders University, Sturt Road, Bedford Park. For further information contact the Department of Language Studies, Modern Greek on (08) 8201 3850.