The 49th anniversary of the Athens Polytechnic Uprising was commemorated on Sunday, November 20 with a special event at the Greek Community Club in Lakemba, Sydney.
Organised by the Greek Orthodox Community of New South Wales (GOCNSW) and the Combined Universities Greek Association (CUGA), the commemoration event was attended by a number of official guests.
This included the Consul General of Greece in Sydney, Ioannis Mallikourtis; Georges River Council Mayor Nick Katris; the Vice President of GOCNSW, Nia Karteris; the Secretary of GOCNSW, Michael Tsilimos; Associate Professor Anthony Dracopoulos from the Department of Modern Greek Studies at the University of Sydney; as well as other representatives of Greek communities across Sydney and many university students.
The commemoration began with a minute silence followed by the national anthems of Greece and Australia. A wreath laying ceremony was then held at a special cenotaph set up at the front of the stage.
Afterwards, a video titled ‘One week diary of the Polytechnic – by Yiannis Ritsos’ was displayed and this was followed by two speeches from the Consul General and Mr Tsilimos. Associate Professor Dracopoulos also gave a small presentation.
Throughout the event, there were also a number of poem recitals from students of the Community’s schools, as well as the Hellenic Society of the University of New South Wales (Hellsoc), Sydney University Greek Society (SUGS), UTS Hellenic and the Macquarie University Greek Association (MUGA).
