The stories of over 100 Hellenic background Australians in Sydney were honoured with the official launch of the Greek Australian Archive, chronicling their migration story into Australia’s history.
The launch event was held at the State Library of NSW on Wednesday evening, with the event packed with many individuals who all played a part in the Archive, which officially went live online earlier this year.
The event, and the project itself, was created in partnership with the University of NSW (UNSW), the State Library of NSW, the Greek Orthodox Community of NSW (GOC NSW) and the Australian Research Council.
It represented the culmination of a years-long endeavour to document oral histories of Sydney’s Greeks, telling their migration stories and preserving their legacy with audio recordings of their interviews and primary photos.
The project was aided through many individuals, including Kathy Kallos who interviewed many subjects, describing it as an “absolute pleasure and privilege” to sit and listen to their stories.
“I really feel proud to be in the room with individuals who can tell their stories because telling the story is such a private, intimate experience,” she told Neos Kosmos.
Kallos noted that she does not take it lightly that the participants opened up to her, speaking with her for between an hour to an hour and a half to share their life experiences.
“These people are essentially strangers to me so when they tell their story, they are opening up their hearts and opening up their homes to a stranger,” she said.
“They are very emotional, and I even get hugs and kisses at the end because many have not told their story, not even to their own children let alone a total stranger.”
The member of Oral History NSW added that the project held personal significance to her as a person who grew up exposed to the older Greek migrants, with her own parents working seven days a week in their milk bar corner store.
“I feel like I have told a story that is important for the world to know. I do not want these stories to lost,” Kallos said.
“It is important to preserve them, and preserve them in the Greek language particularly, because that is the language they tell their stories in. That is how they understand and how they make sense of their own worlds.”
The evening featured numerous speakers who touched on the significance of the archive.
George Kouvaros, the Project Leader, highlighted all the parties that helped establish the Archive, noting that it began as a collaboration between the GOC NSW and the Hellenic Studies Foundation at UNSW (which played a crucial role in getting it up and running).
Kouvarous stressed in his speech that without the Foundation’s efforts, along with the assistance from the other significant parties, the project “would have never come to fruition”.
He passed on a message of thanks from Professor Nick Doumanis, who initiated the project and could not be in Sydney due to him having taken up a post last year as Illinois Chair in Hellenic Studies at the University of Illinois, Chicago.
Kouvaros thanked the roughly 120 interviewees who shared their stories (accompanied by nearly 500 photos) in the Archive, acknowledging that reminiscing on their lives required people to speak openly on memories that are both joyful and deeply painful.
“By having the courage to share these memories, you have allowed us to understand something that often goes missing in the history books: how migration is lived at the level of everyday life,” he said in his speech.
One of the major donators for the Archive was the Onisforou family, with the collection being named in memory of Gregorios and Stavrini Onisforou in recognition of that support.
Theo Onisforou (the son of Gregorios and Stavrini) delivered an address full of emotion to the crowd stressing the need to immortalise the stories of Sydney’s Greeks.
“I understand death and I accept it, but what I do not like is extinction and what I know is that these Greek people who migrated to Australia will soon be extinct,” Onisforou said.
“I know that all we have left is us, their children, and it is incumbent upon us to be appreciative of the sacrifices they made.”
George Souris, President of the Library Council of NSW, remarked that the stories of Sydney’s Greek community are now part of the national record and forever accessible by all Australians.
He closed by saying:
“I thank you for what you have given to Australia as recorded thankfully by the State Library of NSW.”
