La Trobe University’s Greek Studies program hosted a Twilight Event at Bundoora’s Moat Theatre, to celebrate 40 years of Greek language teaching at the Melbourne University and to announce the program’s continuation.
The event, which took place earlier this month, was opened with a Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremony, and greetings by the Vice-Chancellor and the Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences.
In a Facebook post, the Greek Studies program wrote: “It was a magical night of celebration. Here’s to another forty years of Greek at La Trobe!”
Following brief remarks by the instructors of the program, Dr Nikoloudis and Dr Gonis, the focus turned to the current and former students, with eleven of them of diverse ages and ethnic backgrounds, generously sharing with the audience their thoughts on the value of Greek in their lives.
The students included: Anthea Banousis, Margarita Smith, Konnor Terzakis, Ellenie Vasilopoulos, Andrew Vagias, Amanda Roff, Catherine Edwards, Kayla Careri, Notis Karidakis, Theodoula Vorenas, Evanthia Katsoulis.
A group of fifth-grade actors or “the future’ students of La Trobe” as the program referred to them, from the Bentleigh campus of the Greek Community of Melbourne’s (GCM) Language and Culture Schools, also took part in the celebrations by performing in Greek their unique rendition of Aesop’s Fable ‘The tortoise and the hare’.
The evening was capped off with a mesmerising Greek musical performance by students of the program, including an illustrated journey of Greek history through the 20th and 21st centuries from Greece to Australia, coordinated by doctoral student Panagiotis Pantazis, with the invaluable input of friend of the program, Nikos Kapralos, and students Notis Karidakis, Synesios Frangos and George Stavros.
