Having in mind the galloping ageing of the diaspora in Australia, the lack of a sufficient number of institutional bodies of Hellenism and mainly the, as a rule, withering and petrification of the parochial ethno-local organisations, whose social cycle essentially closed from the beginning of the second decade of our century, it is necessary that we now be led to the need of finding mechanisms that will halt the demographic withering, the social inertia and the cultural thinning, and will act as factors of rebirth and rekindling.
All who live in Melbourne or Sydney, in the ethno-linguistic centres of Hellenism of Australia and perhaps of the worldwide Greek diaspora, are in a position to testify that the parochial organisations are experiencing days of decline and inertia, their committees are not renewed, meetings are postponed due to lack of quorum, general assemblies are cancelled due to absence of their members, the social events that once flourished with life and enthusiasm are characterised by lethargy and weakness.
By exception of course there are also certain organisations that resist and mainly produce work, cultural, educational and social. They organise lectures, publish magazines, promote cultural events, put on some comedies even with obscenities in order to attract an audience, make efforts to awaken, to come out of inactivity, of withering.
The functioning of our day schools, the existence of the afternoon schools, despite their deficient functional character, with the minimal hours of teaching and the teaching and learning of the Greek language, must receive the appropriate recognition.
There also exist our established secular social bodies which make titanic efforts to respond to the needs of our declining community with the nursing homes, which indeed are necessary, and their organised social care.
Nevertheless, the whole movement is not systematic and methodical, because it does not have institutional structure and universal or majority diasporic recognition, and mainly is spasmodic. It resembles the pilot who lost control of the aircraft and as the aeroplane sinks into the abyss presses all the buttons at the same time, perhaps in order to… be saved.
For there to be a rebirth of Hellenism, the following are necessary:
- New institutional bodies should be founded or re-founded, operating with a secular and democratic structure, broad-based consent, a clear vision, and a strong future orientation. Their role will be to support the historic Communities, which must be embraced and recognised as the very nuclei of Hellenism’s existence in the decades ahead. Beyond our day schools, these institutional bodies must be robust, well-organised, and democratically elected collective formations that represent the diaspora and serve as instruments of political and social advocacy.
- There must be established strong social, economic, cultural, and educational links between the base — that is, the members who comprise the Diaspora — and the above institutional bodies together with the Communities of the Greeks. Continuity, growth, renewal, and rebirth will only be possible when these Communities and new institutions provide services that meet the immediate human and socio-economic needs of their members. These include education, nurseries, kindergartens, early childhood centres, conference facilities, theatres and cinemas, and meeting halls, as well as social programmes delivered through geriatric clinics and hospitals.
In providing such services, the Communities of the Greeks, the Common of the Greeks, and the new institutional bodies will gain the support not only of Diaspora members — including the second, third, and fourth generations who rely on childcare and schooling while parents work — but also of Australian governments, which will inevitably be obliged to subsidise and support these services. In this way, decline can be contained. Such arrangements echo the experience of the wider Greek world, particularly during the absence of a Greek state under Ottoman rule, and across the vast historical Diaspora from southern Russia to the eastern Mediterranean basin.
At the beginning of this century, Melbourne alone was home to more than seven hundred Greek associations, recognised by both the state and the local courts. The majority of these associations owned their own premises, held shares in property, maintained bank savings, or possessed all three. By 2025, however, the vast majority of these parochial associations are barely functioning: meetings are rare, their buildings stand abandoned and cobwebbed, devoid of human presence and warmth. Their statutes remain outdated, often copied from association constitutions of the interwar period.
Typically, the final clause of these statutes states that, in the event of dissolution, their property should be donated to a charitable institution in Australia or Greece. This outdated provision must now be revised. Remaining councillors and members must convene General Assemblies to decide that these assets instead be transferred to the Communities of the Greeks — the Common of the Greeks — a diasporic consortium that must, however, be guided by vision and a future plan for development, creating genuine bonds of responsibility and mutual dependence between members and the consortium.
The Communities of the Greeks, in collaboration with the Greek Church, must set contemporary objectives and present the Diaspora with a new programme of goals. This includes the establishment and operation of multi-purpose, multi-faceted service centres for the Diaspora, designed to foster ties of solidarity and interdependence. With the support of the Commonwealth, state governments, and local councils, the Communities of the Greeks must work to establish and operate:
- Bilingual or exclusively Greek-speaking nurseries in state capitals and major urban centres for the children of working Greek parents.
- Bilingual or Greek-speaking preschool centres (ages 3–5) in state capitals and major urban centres for the needs of working Greek parents.
- Conference complexes in every state, including Greek-language theatres and workshops, cultural event halls, film-screening rooms, and conference facilities.
- Cultural Centres of Study and Learning, equipped with libraries, research laboratories, archives, and a Diasporic Museum of Migration.
Such a vision would be embraced by Hellenism, and individuals would be found willing to sacrifice time, invest money, dedicate their passion, and pledge themselves to its service. With such a vision, diasporic associations would entrust their properties to the Common of the Greeks and the Communities of the Greeks, donate their savings, and endow them in the name of both the unborn and the departed. These donations would be placed in a special trust, released upon the realisation of the vision, so that the endowments endure into eternity and the name of Hellenism becomes a model for others to follow.
As the renowned social linguist George Smolicz once said to me publicly: “If you Greeks, Mr Tamis, with 4000 years of living in the Diaspora, do not teach us how to survive, then we other peoples have no hope of survival…”
*Professor Anastasios M. Tamis taught at Universities in Australia and abroad, was the creator and founding director of the Dardalis Archives of the Hellenic Diaspora and is currently the President of the Australian Institute of Macedonian Studies (AIMS).
