The legacy of the R.H.M.S “Patris” has been renewed with a second life as a shop in Brunswick, with the name honouring the impact of the ship which transported thousands of Greek and southern European migrants to Australia.
The shop named after the ship hosted a lecture on Australia’s first Immigration Minister Arthur Calwell last Sunday (2 February) with former Victorian Senator Kim Carr serving as keynote speaker.
The lecture brought everything full circle as Calwell had dined on board the original ship with his wife at Melbourne’s Station Pier on 2 May 1966.
Federal MP Maria Vamvakinou, whose family owns the new catering-events shop, revealed this fact about the famous ship which transported thousands to Australia between 1959 and 1975.
The Labor MP, who is retiring after serving in the seat of Calwell since 2001, served as the event’s Master of Ceremonies.
She discussed the various cultural threats that converged for the event at ‘Patris’: Calwell’s legacy as the “father of Australia’s multiculturalism”. the Greek-Irish-New Orleans Creole-Japanese agency of Lefkadios Hearn (Koizumi Yakumo), rediscovering and reinterpreting the Greek migrant experience by a younger generation, and finally, in an age of absolute views and opinions, humanities’ need for more dialogue and reflection.
Vamvakinou was followed by Basem Abdo, the Labor candidate for Calwell this coming election, who thanked her for her support and praised Kim Carr as Australia’s best Industry and Higher Education Minister, and an icon of the Labor Left.
Carr, in his speech, pondered whether the contemporary Australian Labor Party would be recognisable to Arthur Calwell’s generation, stating that Labor is at its most inspiring and (winning) best when it prosecutes a forward going vision for Australia.
The event was also attended by Calwell’s daughter Mary-Elizabeth, who thanked Vamvakinou for her decades of friendship and for keeping her father’s legacy alive and relevant.
Dr Calwell praised “Patris” and its excellent food and service, and reiterated Carr’s advice that Labor, as a reform party, needs to get back to basics: representing and advocating for working families and communities in Australia.
Among the attendees were Japan’s Consul-General Furuya Tokuro, satirist Max Gillies, Monash University Professor David Kopolov, Melbourne University Professor Joy Damousi, A/Prof Nana Oishi, AMWU State Secretary Tony Mavromatis, unionist George Koletsis, councillors Emily Dimitriadis and Helen Politis, former Mayor of Hume Helen Patsikatheodorou, Dean Kalymnios, Kostas Karamarkos, Joanne Dougall, Nick Dallas, founder of Blended Learning Group Adam Slonim, Averroes Director Yousef Alreemawi, State Member for Greenvale Iwan Walters, and many others.
