| " My own mother! Who knows what tears she sheds each day and night, as I have done for my Alky? Perhaps even more grievous. I have lost my child, but she has lost us all, daughter, grandchildren, son-in-law; and the last and greatest joy that all parents look forward to: that they be blessed to enjoy their grandchildren in the family surroundings of their own offspring. " (0) |
Vasso Kalamaras,
Other Earth
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Double Castellorizan wedding of brother and sister Jack and Evelyn Dioktidi held on the 9th of November 1930 in Sydney. Many of the people pictured are the descendants of Castellorizan patriot Father Theodosi Simonidis who lowered the Turkish flag and raised the Greek flag during the 1914/18 war when the Turks were still occupying the island, and was involved in many attempts to liberate the island. |
The family tradition which the early Greeks brought out with them to Australia was:
| " patriarchal and authoritarian. Women had a low status. Boys and girls were not allowed to associate freely. Marriage was usually arranged, and the dowry system was dominant. Mixed marriages were almost non-existent. The engagement and wedding ceremonies were of a religious nature. Birth rates were very high and divorce almost absent. " (1) |
In addition to the conjugal family unit, there were uncles, aunts and sometimes cousins, who often held joint property. Children were very important a they were links in the chain of the generations and grandparents as well as elderly uncles and aunts had authority over them. They were taught respect and courtesy for all older people, especially for teachers and priests. (2) Furthermore, the
family was the center of recreation, but the whole community celebrated holidays and festivals. Leisure time was spent in the home amongst the members of the extended family. (3) Although, as Charles Price points out, there was some variation in the structure of the Greek family, 'nuclear versus extended', (4) from on region to the next, there appears to have been little disagreement over the basic constituents of the Greek family ethos. Panos Bardis explains that:
| " This family was influenced very much by the rural nature of the country, a conservative and authoritarian church, political instability, illiteracy, as peculiar bilingualism, the Kafeneion, (5) and poor transportation and communication facilities. " (6) |
Regardless of the influences which molded the Greek peasant family, its tight-knit and circumscribed nature produced in the early pre-war Greeks an awareness or consciousness of belonging to a particular 'folk culture'. This awareness which one may call 'Greekness' was in turn perpetuated in their children who were born in Australia. this was done throughout the family, the main socializing agent and the keystone of Greek culture, in a desire to inculate a loyalty not to a Greek national culture, nor to Greece Per se or even to a Greek regional or local culture, but in an effort to create a sense of 'continuity' between the different generations of Greeks in Australia and to produce a loyalty to the Greek family.
Pre-war Greek migration to Australia consisted predominately of young unattached Greek male settlers. Thus family migration was not an important aspect of early Greek settlement in Australia. Nevertheless, the small Greek community which existed in Sydney had developed into a type of surrogate family which quickly befriended newly arrived Greek settlers, offered them food and shelter until they were able to locate either work or relatives. This patronage was offered by well-established Kytherians to their newer compatriots from the same island. Presumably the same familial relationships existed between the
Greeks from the other regions of Greece, but one cannot be sure. Castellorizans, the other island group which seemed to predominate in early Greek settlement in Australia, did not work on an identical basis to the Kytherians. Instead, newly arrived Castellorizans were usually met in Sydney by relatives and taken quickly away. Nevertheless the Castellorizans all had a close, tight-knit community which offered support to the most recent arrivals from the island. Relationships between the people of each island group were very close, much closer in fact than had existed on the actual islands.
The migration experience at the turn of the century proved to be a binding force within each regional group and aided the cohesion within the Greek community in general. Having received a substantial amount of support from their particular island group, reminiscent o the type of relationships that existed within a Greek extended family, the early Kytherian and Castellorizan Greeks then sought to establish a family of their own. Both groups of people married very late in their lives after achieving what they considered reasonable financial success in order to comfortably support a wife and children.
The family life of Kytherians and Castellorizans varied radically due to their respective places of settlement. The Kytherians after giving established themselves in Sydney spread, very early in the century throughout the New South Wales country towns, while the Castellorizians who first established in Perth, moved slowly around Australia preferring to settle in cities. Those who settled in Sydney were very mobile within the city itself. Their respective family life was dictated by the nature of the environment within which they lived. Kytherians living in country towns were very much excluded from Greek activity and their children were inevitably allowed to interact with British-Australian children; while Castellorizians having organised Greek community around them, particularly in the suburb of Paddignton where most of the island group lived in the 1920's, 30's and 40's, with their own church, led a much more insular existence detached from the wider Australian community. Their children's social activities were strictly supervised and organised around the Castollorizian brotherhood functions, family picnics and church social activities. However this does not imply that the Kytherians were any more prepared then the Castellorizians to allow their children to assimilate into the Australian community, for when their children became of a marriageable age they were quickly taken away and transplanted into a secure well-established Kytherian community in Sydney in an effect to prevent intermarriage. The Castellorizans were even more severe in the protection of their children. They removed their daughters from high-school as soon as they reached first year, and placed them inside the family home until a suitable marriage could be arranged. Furthermore the girls were prevented from working outside the family home or even in the family business as this was considered to be a disgrace to the family. The Castellorizians insularity and obsessive desire to protect their daughters and preserve within their children the essential constituents of Greek familial tradition was partly due to the seclusion of women which they came but was exacerbated by the xenophobic and anti-foreign attitudes of the Australian population, particularly in the cities, in the 1920's , 30's and 40's.
There was very strong anti-southern European sentiment within Australian society before and even after the Second World War. Furthermore the hostility was not restricted to cities alone but was also evident in the country-side. The 'anti-dago' riots which occurred at Boulder-Kalgorlie in 1934 represents one of the most serious examples of anti-foreign sentiment exhibited in a country town. Violence broke out when a group of British-Australian miners looted European shops burning five Italian, Greek and Slav hotels or clubs to the ground. (7) This is not to suggest that response to southern Europeans were always hostile, they varied from place to place. Neverless, Australia in the early 1900's was an intensely British society, both in population and in tradition, (8) It was an insular society which demanded 'Anglo-conformity'. (9) There was a fear of anyone whose behavior, appearance and dress varied from the
dominant Anglo-Saxon model. At the 1933 census, 99.3 per cent of the population in New South Wales were listed as "British". (10) Like the small Greek community in Australia, Australian society in the 1930's represented a relatively homogeneous population, in culture, and "without pronounced economic or regional variation". (11)
| " Sydney was small and its customs were those of 'home' - England... Australians had not developed any kind of response in dealing with non-Anglo-Saxon peoples, and the southern European immigrants were pushed into their own ethnic worlds. " (12) |
There was certainly strong racism directed against southern Europeans which sprang partly from the "desire to maintain the British identity". (13) According to Price, Australia has rarely voiced anything but Anglo-conformist opinions, of the necessity for newcomers to fit in with 'our British heritage'". (14) Even as late as 1971 one finds P. Lynch, then Minister for Immigration, stating that
| " ... all our migration and social policies... are clearly and firmly based on the belief that all Australians want Australia to be an essentially cohesive society without self-perpetuating enclaves and undigested minorities. " (15) |
Amongst the southern Europeans who arrived before the war, the Greeks were described as the "least popular foreigners in Australia", by a Melbourne geographer writing in the early thirties. (16) In a report concerned with 'Alien Labour' commissioned in 1924 by the Labour Government in North Queensland, Commissioner Thomas Arthur Ferry stated that
| " The Greek residents of North Queensland are generally of an undesirable type, and do not make good settlers....Their admission to Queensland can be of no possible benefit to the country. " (17) |
In the report Ferry was referring to Greek settlers mainly from Kythera, Castellorizo, Lesbos, Chios and Athens who had established restaurants throughout Queensland and New South Wales, and in reference to these people he concluded that
| " ....socially and economically this type of immigrant is a menace to the community in which he settles and it would be for the benefit of the State if his entrance were altogether prohibited. " (18) |
Four years later, in 1928, the Premier of Western Australia in a speech in parliament referred to the Greeks as that 'Fish and Chip Crowd'. (19) During the same year the newspaper Truth, foremost in promoting anti-southern European sentiments, made statements such as 'the muddy stream flows to Australia from Greece, Malta and the Levant'. (20)
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Entrance of Exotic Café, by Constintine Tsiros for Sparta. Brisabane 1916 |
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Luxirous Interior of Tsiros. Brisbane Café |
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A view of the Mineral Fountain Contained in the Café. |
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Another aspect of Tsiros huge establishment |
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Huge amount of Greek staff employed in Greek Restaurant Tsiros 1916 |
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Another view of the Entrance of the exotic Café |
Regardless of local British-Australian attitudes towards the Greeks, by 1911 the total Greek-born population of New South Wales had reached 822, (21) and some 400 of these were Kytherian born residents. (22)
| " By 1920-22 due to major political upheavals caused when the Turks defeated the Greek army of invasion and then retaliated by exterminating or putting to flight Greek families who had been settled in Asia Minor for many generations, (23) |
Australia received many of the one and a half million Greek refugees. "
Also at this time the American restrictive immigration policies channeled Greek immigration from the United States to Australia and the Greek-born population of New South Wales increased from 3,654 at the census of 1921 to 8,329 at the census of 1933. Between 1890-1940, 10,260 Greeks settled in Australia. Of the 10,000 Greek arrivals 2,200 came from the island of Kythera, 1,290 from the island of Castellorizo and 860 came from the island of Ithaca. Altogether these three islands provide 42 per cent of the Greek male settlers in Australia during the period 1890-1920. (26) Although there were restrictions imposed on southern European immigration at various times: 1916, 1924, 1928-34, they did not affect migration from Kythera and Castellorizo. This was because the majority of Kytherians and Castellorizans had arrived before 1920 and by 1929 had virtually completed their main migration, so that by the 1940's they had firmly established settlement chains and were well established in Cafes and small business. Thus they represented the older, wealthier segment of the Greek community. By 1947 the total inhabitants of Kythera had fallen to about two-thirds of the number there in the 1860's. (27) At the same time in New South Wales the Kytherian population totaled somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000
of whom half or more were adult male settlers and the remainder wives and children born in Greece or second and third generation persons born in Australia. (28) In 1976, the population of Kythera was estimated at 3,350 and there are at present approximately 38,000 persons of Kytherian descent living in New South Wales alone. (29)
Kythera, part of the Ionian island group, is situated opposite the southern-most point of the Peloponesse. Kythera along with most of the Ionian islands had been subjected to different kinds of pressures with the Norman, Venetian and British occupations.
By 1860 with the slow liberation of most of the Greek states from Ottoman rule, Kythera was incorporated in the southern Peloponessian monarchy of Argolis and subsequently of Attica. (31) In Kythera the system of inheritance, where the land is subdivided into small cultivation plots between the male children after the father's death, has resulted in "restricted areas of fertility... separated from each other by broken mountainous country often highly unsuitable for roads and railways". (32) This situation caused the migration of many young Kytherian men at the turn of the century. The island was also part of a local exchange economy involved in very little international trade. Thus the island did not have the resources to support the population causing many to seek employment overseas. Mainland Greece was suffering from different problems which affected the Ionian islands as well as other parts of Greece in the early twentieth century. In the 1860's and 1870's phyloxera had destroyed many French vineyards and Greek peasants took advantage of the shortage of wine by pulling down century old olive groves and planting vines.
However, when the French vignerons found a phyloxera-resistant stock at the end of the century French wines again dominated the market and many Greek peasant found themselves in severe economic difficulties. (34) This agricultural disaster coupled with the cost of the military excursions against the Turks, and a recession in
Europe in the 1890's brought about by a disastrous drop in the price of currants in European markets precipitated the "exodus of more than a quarter of a million migrants to the United States alone between 1906 and 1914. (36)
Castellorizo presented problems of a different nature form both Kythera and mainland Greece. Castellorizo, a small island of only four square miles, part of the group of island called the Dodecanese, tucked away under the Turkish shelf - a potential time-bomb was always in danger of being attacked. The population of Castellorizo was drastically reduced
| " from some 10,000 in 1908 to 2,000 or so in 1917, primarily because the Turkish Government imposed severe restrictions on the islanders' commercial activities in 1908 and followed this up by shelling the town from the mainland during the war in 1916; during these years numeropu Castellorizans moved to America, Egypt and eventually Australia, and when leess troubled conditions prevailed they were too well settled to return. " (36) |
From 1920 onwards the island was under Italian occupation and it was not until 1947 that the island was liberated and incorporated not the Greek state. Even after conditions had settled down int he 1920's, emigration continued to reduce the population from 2,700 in1922 to 600 in 1947. (37) . Now there are approximately 100 people left on Castellorizo and many thousand descendants in Australia. (38)
Given the history of the island it is not surprising to find that early Castellorizan settlement in Australia has its origins in the conflict with the Turks. Apparently, the first-known Castellorizan pioneer Athnasios August fled from the island after attacking some hated Turkish official, came to Australia as a seaman in the mid-eighties, worked for a while in several states, and returned to Castellorizo in 1896. (39) In 1898 he came back to Australia with
a friend, settled in Perth and encouraged others to join them. By the outbreak of World War I there were close to a hundred Castellorizan men in Perth itself, mainly engaged in general labor, fruit-shops and restaurants. (40)
The four Castellorizan families who have been interviewed for the study, also fled the island like their fore-father Athanasios August to avoid Turkish hegemony and bloody reprisals. 'Mrs. Mary Thanasious', age 80, who arrived in Perth in 1918 at the age of 20 to meet up with her brother, remembers quite vividly the events which caused her to leave the island in fear. She explains the Turks had attempted
| " ... to come to take the island, bombing. We were bombed and we fled to the mountains. When things quieter, then I left. I came to Port Said and from there I came to Western Australia. I went to Singapore and from there we got a boat... " (41) |
'Mrs. Patricia Papadopoulos', 84, who arrived in Darwin in 1917 at the age of 23 to join her husband, left the island under similar circumstances. She still remembers fleeing up into the mountains during the First World War to survive the Turkish bombing. (42)
Unfortunately 'Mrs. Thanasious's' and 'Mrs. Papadopoulos'' husbands are both deceased. Therefore information on their exodus from the island was not available. The third person interviewed, 'John Kiriakopoulos' was only nine when he arrived in Darwin in 1918 with his mother and two brothers to join his father who was "working for that time at the meatworks making the bully beef to serve to the soldiers". (43)
It appears that Darwin was a very busy port just before the First World War and many Castellorizans instead of going to Perth went straight to Darwin from the Mediterranean via Egypt and Singapore. The Federal Government had decided to promote the development of the Northern Territory with the extension of railways out from Darwin, by organizing a contract with the British firm of
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Map showing the movements of the first generation Castolorizians around Australia |
Vestes involving the construction of large meat-processing factory and by the enlargement of the Darwin wharves. (44)
| " By 1917 there were two hundred or so Castellorizans in the Territory, most of them employed as laborers not he railways and as building laborers at the new meatworks and wharves; a few, however, were occupied in carpentering, wharf-laboring and catering. " (45) |
However by 1918-19 the availability of work had diminished, and many of the Castellorizans left and moved to principal settlements in Western Australia. Many also moved direct to Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. Included in this exodus from Darwin to Sydney was 'John Kiriakopoulos'' family. His family arrived in Sydney in 1922 on a boat with twenty or thirty other Castellorizan families.
According to 'John' their departure was caused by the closing down of the meatworks in Darwin, where his father had worked.
From 1923 the Castellorizan colony in Sydney had begun to grow rapidly and had started attracting large numbers of Castellorizans direct from the Mediterranean. One of these people was 'Nick Diakopoulos' who came directly to Sydney in 1923, at the age of 22 to work in his eldest brother's restaurant in Goulburn Street, Ultimo. 'Nick' explained that he had left Castellorizo at the age of twelve to work in Egypt because
| " ...war had been declared 1914/15. Food was not available in Castellorizo, work was not available in Castellorizo so I said I would leave too and try my luck. " (46) |
But when he returned to the island four years later the same conditions prevailed; so he stayed in Castellorizo for four years before deciding to come to Australia "for a better life". (47)
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Kytherian shop started in 1912 in Taree N.S.W. by John and George Cassimati. These two brother came to Australia in 1908 |
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A store owned by Kytherian Michael Katsoulas at Bellingen N..S.W. 1916 |
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Kytherian Harry Krithari came to Australia in 1907 Bellina N.S.W. 1916 he bought the store in 1909 |
While the Castellorizans were creating pioneer settlements and migratin chains in Western Australia, the Kytherians were securely establishing themselves in the Eastern states. The foundation fo the Kytherian community in Australia has been attributed to one Athanasios Comino who arrived on a sailing ship after having heard about Australia from John Melitas, who had arrived in the country during the gold-rushes and had returned spreading the news about Australia.
Initially Comino worked as an unskilled labourer in Sydney. Apparently hsi initiatin into the fish anmigrationrade resulted from an accidental visit to a fish shop in Oxford Street, Darlinghurst owned by a Welshman. Having seen how easily the welshman prepared and cooked the fish he decided to start a business of his own and some time in 1878 he opened a small fish shop at 36 Oxford Street. (48) From this shop Comino branched out into the supplying of oysters and fish and latter became known as the 'Oyster King'. (49) During the 1880's Comino brought out his brothers, they in turn brought out their friends and by 1911 the Kytherian colony in New South Wales had some 400 people "70 per cent of whom were either controlling or working in oyster bars, fish shops and restaurants". (50) Thus by 1923 when the Castellorizans were moving from Darwin and the western states into Sydney, and the Castellorizan settlement in Sydney was just beginning to grow; the Kytherians had virtually monopolized the Cafe, and Oyster Saloon business in Sydney and throughout the New South Wales country town.
The four Kytherian families who have been interviewed did not leave Kythera to flee from political persecution. Like the 'Oyster King' himself, they had heard stories from friends and relatives of Australia's abundant wealth and numerous opportunities "... gold was so plentiful they could shovel it and you could be wealthy very quickly..." (51) so they came seeking a better life.
The earliest arrival from the group of people interviewed was Mr. Bill Demos age 81, who had come to Sydney in 1912 when he was only a young boy of fifteen. His wife Maria, twelve years his junior, recalls the circumstances which forced Bill, a promising student to migrate.
| " He was the first in the family. There was three boys and their father was a builder and was making a reasonable amount of money. My husband had not finished the intermediate but his father wanted to educate him, to make him a doctor. But in the meantime he fell from a scaffold and hurt himself and in one week he died. (My husband)... was the first in the family. He wasn't going to leave. What was his mother to do?... She wrote to a 'Koumbaro' (52) they had here, and told him what had happened and he thought it would be better since he was young to come here. He brought him here. And the first job he got was for eight or nine shillings - and half of it he sent to his mother. " (53) |
Familial obligation and loyalty to the family were the reasons for Bill Demos' migration but other factors induced his friend George Londos to migrate. George now 82, a very alert and intelligent man, arrived in Sydney in 1913 at age of seventeen, only a year after Bill. George had been induced to come to Australia by his uncle who had paid a return visit to the island:
| " ... you go to Australia whatever you do in Greece you'll never to able to earn a decent living; he said, you go to Australia and within a few years you'll be on top! I said to him, 'how do you mean on top?'. He said, 'you'll be learning the language in a short time, and then you'll be able to start working for someone at a very very nice wage'; at the time the wages that he told me was half a sovereign a week and for five years you'll be working for wages and after five years if you're a good economist you'll be able to start business of your own. Well I said to myself I better tell me father about it and if he can send me to Australia, I'll got to Australia. " (54) |
The few Kytherian women who came to Australia, did not come to work as post-war Greek migrant women had done, but to join their brothers who had established themselves in the New South Wales country towns. Thus Mrs. Demos 69, came to Australia in 1928 to join her brothers in June. She explains that she was brought out to keep a female cousin company on the ship to Australia"... the truth is that I didn't want to come..." (55) Katy Adams age 60, arrived in Australia in 1935 to join her brothers also in the small town of Dorigo, N.S.W. Her feelings about migration were identical to Maria Demos for she explains "I didn't want to come because I was young but my mother sent me so I could have better life". (56)
Aphrodite Mavros, a post-war migrant from the island of Lesbos in the Agean sea, who married a Kytherian settler was also sent by her mother to Australia presumably 'for a better life'. She arrived in 1951 at the age at the age of 29 to stay with her uncle and his family in Brighton-le-Sands, but she explains that she was unhappy about her decision to migrate:
| " .I was 'xeni' (57) here, I didn't know anyone, I didn't go any here, I was Kept inside and the circumstances were such that it was very difficult for me because in Greece when you are with your parents, your brothers and sisters you have another life, in Greece life is different and here in Australia life is different. I had been very upset and worried, I missed my parents, I missed everyone and I had to get myself settled and go to my own house because no matter how much... you are... my uncle, I didn't know him, he was my mother's brother. My aunt again I didn't know her, they had the children. I was like a stranger inside the house, I couldn't ... Somewhere I had to settle to set up my own house. " (58) |
Although her uncle had a shop she was never required to work within it. She proudly asserted that "...Anything I did, I did it inside the house" (59) for it was considered down-grading for Greek women to work outside the home. Therefore the purpose behind her arrival
in Australia was so she could be given the opportunity 'to set up her own house', to be provided with a husband selected by her uncle. Like Aphrodite Mavors, most Kytherian women were brought out by their brothers as prospective brides, thereby their sisters were provided for without the necessity of supplying a dowry which would have been required on the Island and in mainland Greece. Mr. Arthur Mavros 66, who arrived in Australia in 1936 at the age of 24, slightly older than most of his compatriots, had come because
| " It was the tide then - everyone was talking about Australia: 'lovely country, good place'. I had one brother - older than me here, and he brought me out... " (60) |
Arthur Mavors was right, the tide had certainly turned towards Australia in 1936, for the economic conditions in the country had started to improve and letters home once again made Australia 'lucky' country; an appealing place to settle. Furthermore in 1936 the Lyons government having seen the improvement in economic conditions decided to reduce the harsh restrictions which had been imposed on southern European migration during the Depression.
Thus they reduced the landing money required by immigrants from 200 pounds to 50 pounds and failed to reintroduce quotas. Nevertheless migration policies did not really affect southern European migration to Australia. It was the prevailing economic conditions in the county of settlement itself and the letters sent home, which controlled the level of migration. Hence between 1937-39, 900 Greeks were arriving in Australia per annum (61) a vast improvement from the Depression years 1929-30, when departures were exceeding arrivals. (62)
The two Castellorizans Nick Diakopoulos and John Kiriakopoulos and the three Kytherian men, Bill Demos, George Londos and Arthur Mavros all married and had families of their own. However this did not occur until very late in their lives. Pre-war migration to Australia was very much a migration of young men, who were either single, or left their wives back in their country of origin.
Nevertheless the early existence of young Greek male settlers was not without some kind of familial structure. The small Kytherian community which existed in Sydney, at the turn of the century was tight-knit and very supportive. It functioned as a substitute family, supplying the type of assistance that would have otherwise been offered by the extended family on Kythera. Thus young Kytherians such as George Londos were offered food and shelter until they could find work or locate their particular relatives who had promised them work upon their arrival in their respective country towns.
George Londos explained how this familial structure operated:
| " The average Greek at the time in Sydney when they heard a boat arrived from Europe, they'd go to the boat to find whose arrived, they knew we couldn't speak English, they knew we were destitute but they were only too pleased to meet us and give us shelter. One of these was Nicolas Aroni who had a restaurant in Circular Quay, Sydney, and he was only too pleased to accept any migrant especially boy that they were coming in with no knowledge of anything and shelter, such as meals, bed and try his best to find work and one of these migrants was me... " (63) |
George Londos was not only given accommodation for two or three nights upon arrival in Australian in 1913 by Nicholas Aroni "... a Kytherian who was entertaining every migrant that was coming off the ship" (64) but also "... an employee of another Greek took me to the railway station, he got my fare which I paid back to him after working and he told some of the passengers in the carriage, 'this young boy is going to Lockhart, would you be good enough when he reaches the station to tell him to get out, there'll be someone else waiting to take him to the shop...". (65) Thus he was safely sent to his uncle's shop in Lockhart, N.S.W. Bill Demos who had arrived a year earlier, in 1912, had received similar support.
He was met and looked after for a few days by another Kytherian Con Andronicos. He explained that Andronicos "had a lodging house on top of their restaurant and I stayed in one the rooms there". (66)
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Kytherians Minas and Manual Kosmas and John Andronikas where some of the earliest settlers and like their fellow countrymen would entertain some of the newer Kytherian settlers. The picture depictes a store of the Kytherian cafes in N.S.W. country towns with goods |
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Nicholas Aroni came to Australia from Kytheria in 1902. Aroni was well know for his hospitality to new Kytherian arricvals Sydney 1916 |
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Oyster Saloon owned by Stamattelou in 1916. Store situated in main street in Sydney |
He was also put on a train and sent to his brother's godfather's place in Muswellbrook, N.S.W. A slightly different reception was given to Arthur Mavros who arrived in 1936. He was met by a representative of his brother, a Kytherian by the name of Geogopoulos, who took him to the Athenian restaurant in Elizabeth Street for lunch and then escorted him to his brother's place in Collarenebri, N.S.W. This type of support system was not purely humanitarian, it also served a purpose for the people who were prepared to offer the help. These people were also in need of staff to help man their restaurants or knew of other compatriots who needed similar assistance.
Nevertheless, employment opportunities for the early Greeks were limited. They were virtually forced to work for other Greeks in their Cafes, Oyster Saloons, Tea and Refreshment rooms. Pre-war Australia was predominantly a rural economy,
| " ... a primary producer of meat and wool, and industry throughout the entire country employed only 28 per cent of the male workforce... a somewhat stagnant economy limited the number of construction and unskilled factory jobs suitable for unskilled, non-English speaking immigrants... " (67) |
Apart from the unsuitability of particular jobs for immigrants, Australian society was not exactly enamoured of southern Europeans, particularly the dark Mediterranean types who were prepared to work for longer hours and lower wages. Thus they were successfully kept out of unionized labor. This situation forced Kytherians to conglomerate in the catering and retail trade therefore
| " by the turn of the century many newcomers found the inner city somewhat over-crowded with oyster bars and fish restaurants and with the assistance of friends already established, began to move into the suburbs of Sydney and into the country towns of New South Wales and southern Queensland. " (68) |
Therefore assistance to young Kytherians did not stop after their arrival in Australia but continued throughout their careers in the New South Wales country towns. Charles Price explains that
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Kytherian café owner with his staff. Tenterfield N.S.W. 1922 |
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Kytherian café, Tenterfield N.S.W. 1937/38 |
| " the Kytherian had, what she has called a 'system of business promotion' a procedure whereby many newcomers started as assistant cooks, waiters and counter-boys in an established restaurateur shop, and counter-boys in an established restaurant shop, and then moved on after a few years to their own little business in some other town, then gradually passed on from town to town, each time obtaining a larger and more prosperous business; finally many of them moved back to Sydney as men of means and substance... ' " (69) |
This pattern was followed by Bill Demos, George Londos and Arthus Mavros before they were married. They all moved extensively between the New South Wales country towns and Sydney. Their movements throughout the state have been plotted on the map on page 46.
Apart from their high rate of mobility and their involvement in retail trade, what their career also displays, is the all-embracing nature of the Kfytherian familial system of mutual support.
They were provided with jobs by a central Greek Kafeneion or Cafe where most Greeks converged to drink, talk, play cards and primarily find out where employment was available. It was a type of informal Greek welfare structure which took care of the employment as well as the social welfare needs of the Kytherians and the Greek community in general. This Cafe, situated in Castlereagh Street was called the 'Athenian Cafe' and in 1917 it was owned by a Kytherian called 'Geogopoulos'. (70)
Even though young Kytherians were offered employment through the Greek Kafeneion and help[ed to enter the retail trade, the support they received went beyond a simple business arrangement. Hence one of Arthur Mavros' employers after going bankrupt felt concerned about Arthur's future and made sure that he was taken care of by providing him with a job in another town.
| " He said to me 'Sorry Arthur, as you can see there is no work and you have to stop', I said, 'Alright'. He said don't worry I have a friend up at Forbes'. " (71) |
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Map showing the movements first genation of Kytherians around the country towns of N.S.W. |
Kytherians supported eachother in every possible way. They were like one large family. Every Kytherian knew each other throughout Sydney and the country towns and when passing through a particular town they would inform each other of the business opportunities available at the various country towns. Bill Demos explained that "a friend of mine came through Young and told me there was a business going in Tenterfield and I went with him and bought it, he became my partner". (72)
The Castellorizans on the other hand, did not have such as 'overt' and all-encompassing network of support, even though they also relied on the Greek Kafeneion or Cafe in Sydney as a means of locating employment. They were also very mobile like the young Kytherians, but only within Sydney itself as can be witnessed from the map on page 48. However they did not need the type of support system developed by the Kytherians for their newer arrivals from the same island. (73) This was because during the 1920's the Castellorizans had moved around Australia and had started establishing themselves in Sydney, (74) thus when newly arrived Castellorizans came they were met by relatives waiting for them in Sydney and taken straight to their shop in one of the inner city suburbs. The Castellorizans started establishing themselves in business in Sydney in a very similar manner to the Kytherians. They started working for relatives in Sydney for a few months then moving on to work as waiters in other Greek Cafes. This was done for a couple of years before buying their own business. However they were able to establish themselves in their own business far more quickly than the Kytherians, because unlike the country towns, the wages in Sydney were higher. Regardless of this they still needed the 'support' of the Castellorizan community but for slightly different reasons. The Castellorizans working in the city in the 1920's. 30's and 40's were always subject to British-Australian hostility.
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Map showing the movements of the first generation Castolorizians within the city of Sydney |
'Bill Andrews', a 57 year old Castellorizan man born in Australia, relates the stories told to him by his father who was working in Sydney in the 1920's; particularly at 'Woodwards' Cafe, a restaurant in King Street, Sydney, between Pitt and Castlereigh Street, owned by an Ithacan named Kouvaras, (75) where many Castellorizans worked in the early 1900's:
| " there was a great and very high degree of prejudice... and they would always have a chair leg underneath the counter for fear of being attacked because it was the common thing on a Friday or Saturday night, the Australians to go up and have their fill of beer and go up to the Greek or 'Dago shop', as you realize they were referred to those days, order the best of everything and then walk out and wouldn't want to pay, and if they were challenged they were just as likely to beat up the owner so they always have to have underneath something. " (76) |
Thus the early Greeks in general were literally forced to look at each other in a familial way not only in order to protect themselves against Australian hostility, but also because they did not have any family in Australia to offer them moral and economic support and none to offer them employment apart tfrom the Greek community "... you weren't allowed to work in a factory. And when you went and asked for work they would ask you: 'Are you and English citizen', I said 'no' and they said, 'Sorry but I can't give you work'... It was because were foreigners". (77)
| " 'John Kiriakopoulos', a 69 year old Castellorizan explains that:. the only time Greeks... got jobs in the factories or anywhere in Australian was when the Second World War broke out and the Australian people were at war... but they would not do that previously. They would not take foreigners. If they did take foreigners, there would be a strike. " (78) |
Furthermore, the Kytherians were forced to look after the Kytherians for as 'Arthur Mavros' explains, although there were Greeks from other parts of Greece such as Akrata, Tripoli and Sparta in the country towns "... it had to be a Kytherian shop for us to go and get work, elsewhere they did not easily want us, it had to be from the same place... the Kytherians supported the Kytherians... ". (79)
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The Frilingos Brothers with their staff café owners Brisbane 1916 |
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Chris Statgiou arrived from Athens in 1907 he set up a café in Manly Syndney 1912 |
George Andronicus, the son of the original Andronicos settlers who set up a chocolate and coffee retail shop at 197 George Street, where they would frequently entertain Kytherian arrivals; effectively displays the regional loyalties that existed and still exist amongst the Greeks in Australia.
| " All the milk bars and cafes in N.S.W. country towns eemed to be run by Kytherians', says George today. 'They used to ring up with an order for coffee or olive oil or something and my father would just hear the name and say OK, he's all right, and tell me to give them credit without anything in writing. The man was from Kithira and that was enough. Other people he might tell me to be careful about; there's a certain amount of ill-feeling between people from particular different areas of Greece. But always when he told me to be careful I would find out later on he was right, that man did indeed need watching. From memory IO don't think one of the Kithirians he regarded as a good risk ever let us down'. " (80) |
Thus Greeks had brought with them their regional and local loyalties resulting in each group looking after their own kind.
After having received support from their respective island group in establishing themselves in small business either in Sydney or in the New South Wales country towns, the Kytherian and Castellorizan Greeks decided to start a family of their own. However this was only contemplated after they had settled in a place permanently and after having achieved what they considered reasonable financial success. 'Bill Demos', a Kytherian, was fifteen when he arrived in Australia in 1912 and there-five when he decided to marry. He had been working for twenty years int eh country towns of New South Wales and within Sydney itself and had amassed a considerable amount of money within that period; but it was not until 1932, exactly twenty years after arrival in Australia, he decided to get married:
| " ... at that time, 1932, I had a ticket in the State lottery and I won first prize with another fella, it was 5,000 pounds then and I won 2,500 pounds, my share. Then I decided to get married because I had enough money to establish myself and I went to June... " (81) |
There was a long interval between their arrival in Australia and their incorporation into their own family unit. This was caused by the nature of the employment, which required them to be mobile, to move around from place to place, by their desire to accumulate as much as possible in order to offer their family the financial as much as possible in order to offer their family the financial security that they had been deprived of on the island of origin, and by the lack of available women to marry in the early stages of settlement. Thus both Kytherian and Castellorizan men married late in their lives when they were well into middle age and usually to women who were at least fifteen to twenty years their junior.
During the early years of settlement in Australian (1900-1921) more Kytherians married British-Australian women (42.3 per cent) than women from their own island group (38.5 per cent) (82) or other Greek women (19.2 per cent), *83) while Castellorizans have a much higher rate of 'in-group' marriages, that is, marriage within their own regional group than the Kytherians (66.7 per cent: 38.5 per cent). (84) Furthermore when the Castellorizans did marry outside their own group, unlike the Kytherians they married other Greeks rather than British Australian women. (*5) Apparently intermarriage between Castellorizans and British-Australians remained low throughout 1901-56. (86) Nevertheless, both Kytherian and Castellorizan men were marrying other Greeks at the same rate. (87)
Charles Price maintains that these marriage records suggest;
| " ... so far as males were concerned, the Kytherian district group was losing its coherence more rapidly than the Castellorizan group and was being assimilated not so much to the Greek Folk community as to British-Australian society in general. " (88) |
At the turn of the century there were very few Kytherian women available. The statistics do not imply that the Kytherian community
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Backyard of a Kytherian shop Tenterfieldm 1922 |
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The Dorrigo Hotel Kytherian owned 1924 |
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Austrlian women married Kytherian dressed in a Greek national costume Kytheria 1939 |
was losing its coherence and was any more prepared to assimilate than the Castellorizans but simply that there were not Kytherian women available and they were forced to compromise, by either marrying other Greeks or British-Australian women. Furthermore, it was usually the British-Australian women who became assimilated into the Kytherian community rather than the other way around. These women became the most staunch supporters of 'Hellenism' insisting that their children marry other Greeks. (89) 'Intermarriage' may be the greatest test of assimilation as Price and scholars have maintained, (90) but surely it depends upon the circumstances under which intermarriage has taken place. All things being equal, Kytherians preferred to marry Kytherian women. This is clearly evidenced by the fact that in 19222-42 when women and children were coming from Kythera, intermarriage with British-Australians became less acceptable (16.0) and marriage within their own group increased (74.0). (91) While the Castellorizans "maintained a high proportion of in-group marriage for fifty years or so of their sojourn in Australia... " (92) because they were either married before arrival to Australia and had their wives brought out later, or had brides sent out to them or went back to Castellorizo to select a wife.
'Nick Diakopoulos', a Castellorizan who arrived in Australia in 1923, went back to Castellorizo at the end of 1928, at which time he had made sufficient money to support a wife.
| " When I had the fish shop in Crown Street, I had a good business. The wages were three and a half pounds and I'd made twenty to twenty-five. I made a little money, then I wanted to go and see my father who was sick, and in the meantime get married there. Here there were a lot of Greek girls but I didn't like to get married here. " (93) |
Nevertheless Kytherian men had other methods of meeting Kytherian women, and in 1922-1942 he Kytherian women started arriving in Australia, Kytherian men usually found out about them through 'travelling salesmen'. These salesmen would travel extensively throughout the country towns, selling whole-sale goods to the small businesses as well as informing the respective owners of possible marriage partners. 'Bill Demos' explains the circumstances under which he 'found' himself a wife,
| " A commercial traveler, he was a Yugoslav, ... no a Serbia, used to come round, and where there were young Greeks who wanted to marry, he wanted to find wives for them and he... And he told me, there was a girl in June, 'who would suit you'... " (94) |
Although Kytherian women began arriving in the 1920's they had never come to Australia in large numbers, thus 'Bill' was prepared, even though he had never met his wife, to travel all the way from Tenterfield to June, speak to her brothers, suggest marriage first and then meet the bride.
| " I arrived at the shop, there were two brothers there working, and I met them and told them my intentions, they said, 'alright', they were willing for their sister to get married and 'Maria' was willing to marry me. " (95) |
After marriage had occurred and a family begun, life for the pre-war Kyterian settlers changed from highly mobile existence, a life of wandering from place to place, to a settled life in a country town for an extended period of time, usually of twenty years or more. Thus the four Kytherian families interviewed settled in the country towns of Tenterfield, Grafton, Wyongand Bega for many years before finally retiring in Sydney. With the beginning of married life Castellorizans settled in estalished Greek suburbs, usually in Darlinghurst and Paddington where most of the Castellorizans lived in the 1920's, 30's and 40's. There they had at their disposal a Greek Church, which also started running a Greek school in the early 1930's for the young Castellorizans and Greeks in general.
The family life of Kytherians and Castellorizans radically differed. The Kytherians 'stuck' in the New South Wales country towns, with no Greek Church, no Kytberian Brotherhood and with no supportive Greek organisations in general, led a very lonely existence. However they never seem to have experienced the racism inflicted upon Castellorizan Greeks in the city.
| " The Australians regard not only the Greeks, but all foreigners as very low class and not equal with them. But in the towns where you mixed with farmers, they were good people and I liked Tenterfield, I like it very much... " (96) |
There were too few Greeks in a country town to constitute a threat to the local inhabitants and they were usually too well established and respected within the town. The Kytherians were very pleased with the attitudes of the local tows people. They constantly stressed their friendliness and warmth.
| " The town was a very good town! The Australians were very good people! They never ridiculed, they never laughed at me if I said a word incorrectly. They helped me, they helped me very much... " (97) |
Although the townspeople were friendly and continually invited the Kytherian families to social functions, they would not go, apart from an occasional wedding. They felt out of place, alien in British-Australian society.
| " In the town it is lonely, you understand the, but you don't feel... how can I tell you... you don't enjoy yourself as you would enjoy yourself in a Greek circle... At dances and other social functions, you felt you were different, a foreigner, their treatment of you was alright, but you felt out of place. You couldn't be one with them... " (98) |
Social life for the Greek families in the country towns was very restricted, particularly for the women, who preferred to either remain inside the home or help their husband in the cafe. The Kytherian women did not feel confident enough to form close friendships with the other women nit he town. 'Aphrodite Mavros' explains their predicament.
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A Greek café owner prepaaring wood for use in the Kitchen Bega N.S.W. Circa 1950s |
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Greek café Bega N.S.W. Circa 1950s |
| " My English was poor. these people were 'politismeni' (99) they were educated, and I would sit there like some sort of... and not be able to speak, they would ask me and I wouldn't be able to speak to them as one should. Well you can't... . Therefore I withdrew myself for twenty years, I didn't have friends. And I didn't have friends for that reason... " (100) |
The men on the other hand, were members of Rotary, Masons, the Chamber of Commerce, they played bowls and generally mixed extensively within the town and the wider Australian community. Most of the Kytherian men seemed to have become very highly respected within the town itself.
| " With my forty years in Wyong as businessman, I was twice President of the Chamber of Commerce of the District, President of the Parents and Citizens Association and in politics, I was the Treasurer of one of the political parties... Liberal, and naturally I had some prestige. When I sold out and retired in Sydney, three or four prominent people asked me why I wouldn't stay in the town and put up for the council of the local shire municipality, I refused definitely... You always get someone who does things against you especially when you're Greek, you've got to stay behind and let them do it... " (101) |
The Castellorizans never experienced such acceptance from the Australian community in the cities, particularly from such conservative institutions, but neither did they ever want to participate in Australian organisations. Unlike the Kytherians they had the option of being involved in the Greek Church, the Castellorizan Brotherhood an the Greek Community in general.
Apart from the Kytherian men's involvement in the town's affairs, in general there was not much time for recreation in a country town, where the local Greek cafe was open until all hours of the night. "Here family life is different... there is the business, and you are decided to the business and you are closed in to the business and you don't know anything else apart form work and home... " (102)
Some Kytherians would close their shop on Sundays but this was not the general practice. Nevertheless even those who did close their shop found that they had nothing to do apart from interact with the only other Greek family in town. "We closed it one day a week. Every Sunday it as closed but what could you do. We played tennis in the yard with our daughter. We visited each other... " (103) In country towns such as Grafton where there were five Greek families in 1938, four of which were Kytherian, entertainment was possible. "As families, we went for picnics every Sunday, every second Sunday, and we spent many enjoyable days". (104) Thus if there were other Greek families in the town they could socialize, if not, they would spend the time amongst themselves, making the Kytherian family even more inward moving, insular and self-supporting.
| " The children went to school... They didn't go out at night. We had become a very close family from little children and they understood my position and they were always with me. They didn't leave to wander with Australians at night. They had friends... But when they had dances, balls and so forth my children didn't go because they knew that I didn't go so they would stay with me... " (105) |
Recreation centered around the family unit, and although the children were allowed to mix with British-Australian children they were still controlled. Children were allowed out with British-Australian friends but only on a restricted basis and under certain conditions.
| " We told him, 'you can got out but at 10 o'clock you have to back in the house'. If he was late and came at 10.15 or 11 o'clock, his mother would reprimand him severely and she could have even hit him and given him a slap across the face. " (106) |
In general Kytherian children participated in he wider Australian community. The children were usually sent to the local Church of England Church as it felt "... it was better for them to learn something instead of learning nothing. My four children went to Sunday School because neither did we have a priest nor a Greek Church, and that way they learnt what it means to have a religion, 'faith'".
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Café owned by two partners, Apostolis Valsamis from the island of Samos, who arrived in Australia 29th of June 1912: and John Kellelos and Linos who where born in Pirieus Athens and came to Australia December 1910. In 1915 the two men met and went into partnership buying the café at 39 Burke Street Melbourne |
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The Alexandria tea rooms: 1916 in Melbourne where owned by John E. Alexandratos who was born in Ithaca in 1881 and came to Melbourne Australia in 1904 |
local boys, they were permitted to be involved in the social activities conducted by the Church.
| " My second daughter was in the Choir of the Church of England and played the organ in the Church of England. She had joined the Theatre group and was in the Fellowship of the Church of England. Not that they led a secluded life altogether but to go out with Australian boys, they did not... " (108) |
While the Castellorizan children were protected against any influences such as 'English scripture classes' that might turn them away from 'Greekness'. 'Bill Andrews', 57, a Castellorizan child born in Australia in 1921, explains that during the early 1930's in Sydney "... there weren't' no Greek schools at the time, there was a fear of our parent that we would be... if we went to religious instruction like a Sunday school that they would turn us against the Greek Orthodox religion. When we were in primary school and high school they insisted that we were not to go to the religious classes which were one session a week... (109)
Compared to Castellorizan parents, Kytherians in general appeared quite liberal in regard to their children's upbringing, but in actual fact they had no choice.
Although a Greek community did not exist within the country towns, the children were not allowed to forget their Greek background. They were constantly made aware of the fact that they constituted a distinct group of people. This awareness was instilled in them through the Greek family which did not lose its importance even within the context of an Australian country town. The children were taught Greek and it was the only language spoken at home.
| " They learnt from babies... they always spoke to me in Greek inside the house... Even up till now, an English word, you don't hear inside the house except between themselves of course. " (110) |
Furthermore, the children were made to feel that it was expected of them to marry a Greek. "From a young girl we imbued her with the idea that she had to love the Greeks". (111) In the advice the children were given the importance of the family as evident.
There was emphasis placed upon marrying a Greek, not only because,
Australian and Greek customs and traditions would not blend, and "They might not be happy in such a marriage", (112) but also in an effort to keep the extended family together by retaining a common language and heritage. "Many a Greek and I don't care where she is from, only marry a Greek". (113) However the children were never in danger of 'intermarrying' with British-Australians, for as soon as they became of a marriageable age, they were quickly taken away from town and placed securely in the established Greek community in Sydney.
| " Well I decided because the children had grown up. And for the children there was no future in the town... I had to put them into university and it didn't suit me to stay and work in the shop and have the children by themselves here. And secondly, I liked to come down to communicate with Greek families because I didn't want my children to get mixed up with Australian girls in the town. You would say to me the Australians aren't... ? No, I don't mean that... But the issue for me is... I've got the 'Greek' in me, that is the way I was born and that is the way I go... " (114) |
Castellorizan family life constituted a completely different way of life from Kytherians. The Castellorizans definitely did not have pleasant things to say about British-Australian society.
'Mrs. Papadopoulos', 84, explains that "... around 1920, 1921, if I saw you in the tram I couldn't speak to you, I just could signal... ", (115) otherwise, 'Nick Diakopoulos', 69, a Castellorizan points out "... they used to abuse you and call you 'dago', 'Why don't you speak English you dago' - 'Speak English'!" (116) The Castellorizans were left very bitter, yet resilient, as a result of the disdain exhibited by the Australian population in the city for the southern Europeans and particularly the Greeks. 'Patricia Papadopoulos', one of their oldest representatives describes the life of the early Castellorizans in Sydney in he 1920's:
| " It was terrible, they regarded the Greeks as nothing. A zero. People would wake up in the morning at 4 o'clock - take a knife so they could clean fish at the markets to get a couple of shillings and then return selling fish in the streets to make their daily bread and contempt was exhibited towards them by the Australians. " (117) |
Nevertheless the Castellorizans had developed their own system of support against British-Australian hostility. They had an organized Greek Community, which was "formed in 1898 by no more than 200-300 Greeks (most of whom were males)", (118) they had a Greek Cathedral, the Santa Sophia, in Doweling Street, Darlinghurst, the 'heart' of the Castellorizan community in Sydney in the 1920's, 30's and 40's, which was built with the assistance of Orthodox Syrians. (119) In fact in the 1930's and early 40's, these were two Greek Churches in Sydney, and a resident Metropolitan. (120)
Between 1924-1926 the Castellorizan and Kytherian Brotherhoods had formed in Sydney. Also in 1926, there were several pan-Hellenic associations (the pan-Hellenic Union and the Hellenic Club). (121)
'In addition to coffee houses and clubs, there were two Sydney based newspapers, Greek National Vema and Hellenic Herald'. (122) Thus the Castellorizan community in Sydney had many Greek organisations to rely upon. These organisations provided moral support, a sense of solidarity and identity amongst the Greeks in Sydney and were supportive institutions for the Greek family. Most importantly, these organisations provided Castellorizan Greeks with social functions where they could take their children and instill in them a sense of 'Greek peoplehood' and a loyalty to the Greek family.
In the Castellorizans' reminiscences of their 'social life' in Sydney before the Second World War, there is no mention of the existence of an Australian society. They had no contact with Australians at all, apart form the customers who came into their shops. Castellorizan life centered around the family, their relatives, the Castellorizan Brotherhood and the Greek Church, particularly the 'Santa Sophia', which was regarded informally as the 'Castellorizan' Church. While the 'Holy Trinity' in Redfern, the other Greek Church became known as the 'Kytherian' Church in the early 30's and 40's.
Within the Castellorizan family, the children's and the parent's social life had become one. The children were not allowed out without their parents. The girls in particular were not allowed to leave the house unchaperoned whereas they boys were given much greater freedom.
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Holy Trinity 1916 which was regarded as the Kytherian Church |
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Greek school class in the 1930s at the Santa Sofia where the Castellozians attended. Many of the children pictured are now grandparents |
| " My mother was extremely srict', says Castellorizan 'Bill Andrews', '... she was to the extreme with my sitter, we went for example to a dancing studio, to learn Ballroom dancing and there was my brother, myself andy my first cousin, and we went there in the late 1930's and we persuaded my mum to let my sister come with us, and which she did, but two or three people said to her 'look Poureria, do you let your daughter go to the dance?' and that was it, she immediately stopped her even coming out iwht us to a dance because people would talk. " (123) |
The parents would seldom go out without their children, as family life was geared towards the participation of the entire family life was geared towards the participation of the entire family in all events. Going 'visiting' to see relatives was an important social activity.
| " Visiting or offering hospitality to visitors is a favorite form of recreation. During these visits the women may offer a choice of preserves on a platter, together with glasses of cold water and a number of teaspoons... To refuse will offend the housewife who takes pride in her culinary skill. " (124) |
Another activity based on family involvement was 'going to church'. For the event, people would "put on their best clothes, and after Mass meet their friends and talk over the news of the community". (125) Sunday we wen tout on picnics as a family or to brotherhood picnics", (126) constituted the social life of the Castellorizan Greeks.
The Castellorizan family practiced the severe seclusion of women. Young Castellorizan girls were not allowed out unless escorted, because family honor rested upon the daughter's virginity.
| " In many districts of Greece, southern Italy, and southern Spain there was a general opinion that a man and woman left alone together would inevitably make love. (127) Consequently unmarried girls were not allowed out unless strictly chaperoned, nor might an unaccompanied married woman walk or talk with any man not her husband; in like manner women were permitted to do certain jobs on the family property but were not allowed, unless well chaperoned, to find employment in farms, shops or factories belonging to other people. " (128) |
The same applied to young Castellorizan girls in Australia. thus once they reached first year high-school they were taken out of school and placed in the family home, where they could be supervised and protected from any immoral influences within Australian society. For the very same reasons they were not allowed to work outside the home, as this activity would be frowned upon by the small Castellorizan community in Sydney and the particular family would be disgraced. "
| " Well its almost degrading in those days, I remember lots of girls being criticized when they took up jobs in offices and that type of thing... " (129) |
A popular Castellorizan poem of the 1920's conveys the extent of the seclusion of women on the island:
| " In 1900, in the year twenty-six the Lord sought to destroy us, Girls that you could not even see at the window sills Now you see them in the lanes and inside the tents. " (130) |
The poem was referring to the earthquake that rocked Castellorizo in 1926, when it was still under Italian occupation. Many people died and the Italians were forced to send food and provisions to the island, but the interesting point about the poem is, that it displays the severity of women's seclusion. On the island, around the 1920's and early 30's girls would only be allowed out of the house every Easter: "One Easter the girls would go out. Every Easter we would go out, and we would sing all the Easter songs and we would go to dances, and there, so some man would see you". (131)
The same thing again applied in Australia, Castellorizan girls were taken to Castellorizan brotherhood dances, picnics, family weddings by the family so they could be seen in order for offers to be made for their hand in marriage. Otherwise a marriage would be arranged as soon as possible by the family thus it was considered unnecessary for young Castellorizan girls to work.
| " There weren't jobs like there are now for women. But there was no necessity. They got married young, 18 years old, they were married. " (132) |
In 1900, in the year twenty-six the Lord sought to destroy us, girls that you could not even
see at the window sills. Now you see them in the lanes and inside the tents. (130)
Young Castellorizan boys had different responsibilities from the girls in the family. They were required to work in the family business after school and upon leaving school as well. 'Patricia Papadopoulos' a Castellorizan woman who arrived in Australia in 1917, recalls how responsible her young boys were in the family business.
| " ... And my family because from childhood they noticed me working, they helped me, I'd like to show you a picture ofmy son 'Jimmy' who at the age of 5 was washing the shop floor. That was the way children were then... " (133) |
Furthermore, Castellorizan children were virtually 'drilled' into an acceptance of 'Greekness'. They were all sent to Greek school, and made to attend the Greek Church regularly and were requested to speak Greek at home constantly. Castellorizan parents insisted
'... upon preserving their ethnic institutions, particularly those pertaining to religion, language, endogamous marriage, and a close-knit family... they tried to socialize their children into he traditional Greek mores and folkways... they attempted to convince them of the 'mystique' of the Greek ancestry, warned them against the dangers of intermarriage, and made an effort to instill in them a sense of ethnic consciousness and 'peoplehood.' (134)