With music, a ‘parade’ of traditional clothes, community history and a table laden with savoury and sweet foods, AHEPA NSW Inc. honoured International Women’s Day 2024.
The event was organised by Chapter Antigone with special guests including members of the Hellenic Lyceum of Sydney and UNSW Hellenic Studies lecturer Dr Vasilis Adrahtas.
For some years, Dr Adrahtas has studied the history of AHEPA. As the Keynote Speaker, he presented the roles women played in AHEPA in Australia between the formal entry into the organisation in 1953 and 1959, when the association expanded rapidly. As Dr Adrahtas stated, this growth was due largely to the initial organised presence of the ladies within the Australian Hellenic Educational Progressive Association two decades after its founding.
Chapter Antigone also had a special surprise in store for the event, presenting its annual International Women’s Day Award for service to Australian Hellenism to Liana Vertzayias, President of the Hellenic Lyceum of Sydney.
The award recognised her decades of service to Australian Hellenism through theatre, university student associations, folkloric groups and especially the Hellenic Lyceum.
Young ladies of the Hellenic Lyceum brought colour and a different flavour to AHEPA NSW Hall, modelling the traditional clothes of five regions of Hellenism: Pontos, Macedonia’s Emathia district, Mani, Kalymnos island and the ‘Amalia.’
They were accompanied by Theodora Zourka and Irene Tsenkas who spoke about the different items of clothing and jewellery, about how the clothes were worn, as well as select historical associations.
It was a beautiful – somewhat different – event, filled with Hellenic tradition, involving three generations of Australian Hellene women representing the past, the present and the future of Australian Hellenism.
AHEPA NSW Inc. President Demetris Papanagiotou invited everyone to support all the 90th anniversary of AHEPA NSW events being organised, especially the AHEPA Sunday luncheon on May 26.
AHEPA NSW Inc invites everyone to the next event in its 90th anniversary celebrations – honouring Greek Independence Day on Wednesday, March 27 at AHEPA NSW Hall, Princes’ Highway, Rockdale from 7pm. The Keynote Speaker will be lawyer and historian Costa Vertzayias.
