Five years after the catastrophic and deadly Mati wildfires in east Attica, the President of the Greek Orthodox Community of South Australia, (GOCSA), Peter Gardiakos, and upper house member for the independent SA-BEST party, Frank Pangallo MLC, attended a memorial service at the seaside town of Mati on Sunday, July 23, to commemorate the 103 victims of the blaze.
“We came here to pay our respects and pray for the souls of the people who lost their lives in Greece’s worst natural disaster,” Gardiakos said. The President of GOCSA said that South Australia’s Greek diaspora “will be on the side of our compatriots whenever they need us,” said Gardiakos.
Following the service, Gardiakos and Pangallo, along with Marathonas Mayor Stergios Tsirkas and visual artist Calliope Iconomacou, visited the site where a monument for the victims of the wildfires will be erected.
The project has progressed to the foundations and structural base and is expected to be completed in September 2023.
The monument, entitled ‘Memory’ (Μνήμη) and designed by Iconomacou, will depict a large sphere three meters in diameter made of dark metal sheets. Inside it, a sound installation will broadcast music composed for this project by composer Constantinos Michailidis. Outside the sphere, water will continuously and slowly flow as a symbol of life.
A portion of the project, AUD$109,000, is funded by money raised through the Greek and Cypriot Communities of South Australia, under the auspices of the Greek Fires Appeal Committee and the Australian Hellenic Medical Charity Inc. It includes a contribution from the South Australian state government. Mayor Tsirkas said, “South Australia’s support is much appreciated,” and he thanked Gardiakos and Pangallo for attending.
The GOCSA president placed a white orchid on the site of the monument and said that the Community “is proud to be a part of such an important project that will remind us of those who lost their lives but will also be a place where families can gather and remember their loved ones.”
While the South Australian Greek Community and parliamentary representatives attend the commemoration of those tragic fires, much of Greece is burning again. Up until now, luckily there have been no lives lost.
