Young kids enjoyed fun activities at the Hellenic Club of Canberra’s Easter workshops, making lots of delicious treats.
Arts and crafts were also a key feature of the workshops held over the four days, encouraging kids to showcase their creative skills in true Easter fashion.
The ‘Hellenic Kids‘ Program was first launched back in 2019, since providing kids with the opportunity to have fun and join interactive, supervised sessions to learn about their Greek heritage and culture.
The 42nd Greek Festival of Sydney is hosting the Greek-Australian Writers’ Festival to showcase books and authors telling Greek Stories.
The Greek Festival of Sydney is presenting the Festival alongside UTS Journalism and Writing, and it is being directed by Dr Helen Vatsikopoulos, Professional Fellow UTS.
This year the Greek-Australian Writers’ Festival will launch new anthologies, explore genealogy, Greeks and Australians in war, mythology, Greek Australian identity in the global village, showcase visual storytelling, and will honour the late Antigone Kafala, one of the most important contemporary Greek Australian writers.
The Festival will unfold in eight 45-minute sessions and will include questions from the audience. Books will be on sale and authors available for signings. The detailed program of the day is as follows:
A song is played in an Istanbul restaurant. Suddenly a Turk, a Serb, a Bulgarian and a Greek each claim ownership of it on behalf of their nation. So begins the documentary Whose Is This Song? by Adela Peeva, which inspired Eleni Elefterias-Kostakidis to invite a number of writers to discuss this documentary and related topics. The resulting book, also titled Whose Is This Song, can be an introduction to issues in Balkan history, nationalism and the region’s rich and complex cultures. The book’s topics will be discussed by some of its contributors, co-ordinated by the writer Phil Kafcaloudes
Australians and Greeks have been bound by war. In Greece in 1941 ANZACs fought a bloody campaign to hold back the invading Nazi juggernaut.
In Where the Flaming Hell Are We? Craig Collie weaves together stories of Australian and New Zealand soldiers fighting for their lives in the villages and mountains of mainland Greece and Crete.
In Bound By Two Homelands – A Kytherian Odyssey, Con Aroney takes up the story of his grandfather and other Greek Australians, in a fictionalised account of those turbulent years of migration and war, based on official historical records, memoirs and personal diaries to tell the stories of Greek Australian soldiers, like Constantine Aroney, who returned to defend their ancestral homeland. Facilitated by Tony Maniaty.
The Greek Civil War (1946-9) touched the lives of most Greeks and devastated the country. When it ended, 12,000 defeated Communist combatants found sanctuary in Tashkent, now the capital of post-Soviet Uzbekistan. They settled in 14 local ‘Greek towns’ and by the 1970s, this exiled community had grown to 35,000 men, women and children.
The president of the Greek Cultural Centre in Tashkent, Costas Politis will showcase rare photographs from the archives and recount the stories of the political refuges of Central Asia, a largely forgotten chapter of Greece’s turbulent 20th century history. Facilitated by Dr Helen Vatsikopoulos.
A light lunch will be provided. Take the opportunity to browse books on sale and speak with authors.
The Greek community of Australia is now multi-generational. It’s a community in transition. In recent years as the older generation has faded away, a very distinct Greek Australian identity has emerged. A hybrid culture, further leavened by time and inter-marriage.
In the 21st century what does it now mean to be Greek Australian? What stories, memories and cultural observations matter? Edited by Dr Helen Vatsikopoulos, the anthology Hellenic Dreaming, was created for the Greek Festival of Sydney and published by the Greek Orthodox Community of NSW. It draws on the experiences of 37 first to third generation Greek Australians from NSW, Victoria, ACT and SA. They are writers, poets, artists, lawyers, photographers, architects, chefs and academics. All have articulated what really matters to them, as they delve into our collective past, present and future.
Who do you think you really are and how do you find out? Penny Zagarelou-Mackieson was adopted as a baby. Years later, as an adult, she was reunited with her birth mother. But after taking a DNA test she found she was Greek, actually.
Penny revealed her journey in Greek Actually: Disentangling Adoption Deceptions and on the SBS Artemis Media TV program Every Family has a Secret. Penny and producer Claire Forster reveal the steps they took to get to the truth and offer advice on the secrets and pitfalls of finding out who you really are. Facilitated by Helen Tzarimas.
Retellings of Greek mythology have become a best-selling genre around the world. Stephen Fry, Madeline Miller, Natalie Haynes, Pat Barker and many other writers have retold the myths of Ancient Greece for modern times. So why does the ancient world resonate so strongly with the present? This question has dominated the research of Julia Kindt, Professor at the Department of Classics and Ancient history at Sydney University. Her latest book is The Trojan Horse and Other Stories: Ten Ancient Creatures that Make us Human. Kate Forsyth is an award-winning author, poet, and storyteller who incorporates myths and fairy tales in her books. Her latest book Psykhe is a retelling of the myth of Eros and Psykhe. Facilitated by Phil Kafcaloudes.
Antigone Kefala, a leading writer of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, was awarded the Patrick White Prize Literary Award in 2022 for her outstanding contribution to Australian literature. She died one month later. Her achievements will be explored alongside readings of her work by a panel of writers, some who knew her:
Effie Carr is a lawyer, author of the book Stamatia X, an editor of the literary journal Kalliope X, and is working on her second book. She will lead a discussion and readings of Antigone’s work alongside: Anna Couani, author of seven books and a visual artist who runs the The Shop Gallery in Glebe; Efi Hatzimanolis, a poet, writer and independent scholar, George Alexander who was also personal friend of Antigone’s and Ivor Indyk, Antigone’s publisher from Giramondo Press.
We are closing the festival with visual storytelling, as we explore the publication Epistrofi. Epistrofi means return. Produced by The Australian Museum of Contemporary Photography, the publication features text and photographs by 16 contributors who had returned to their ancestral homelands in Greece for the first time since the Covid lockdowns. We will showcase edited visual extracts from their journeys in testimonies and photography.
For more information on the programme and to book tickets to selected events, please visit www.greekfestivalofsydney.com.au
The President of the Greek Community of Melbourne, Bill Papastergiadis, was hosted on SKAI TV’s breakfast program this week and spoke about how the Greeks of Australia will celebrate Orthodox Easter.
Mr Papastergiadis stressed that Greek Australians follow all Easter traditions, and mentioned The Greek Herald‘s special 80-page print edition for Orthodox Easter published on Saturday, April 27.
“The Greeks of Australia celebrate Easter massively and with splendour. Imagine that there are about 50 Greek Orthodox churches in Melbourne and tens of thousands attend the service in the churches. The first church was built by the Greek Community of Melbourne in 1900…” Mr Papastergiadis said at first.
Mr Papastergiadis then referred to The Greek Herald‘s Easter edition to commemorate Orthodox Easter: “Let me show you the cover of The Greek Herald that came out. A local Greek newspaper that had prepared 80 pages for the celebration of Easter. Hellenism in this country normally celebrates Easter just like in Greece.“
Asked about the Melbourne community and the celebrations in the churches, Mr Papastergiadis replied, “It should be pointed out that on Good Friday at the Epitaph procession we close all the streets around the church, the bells ring, but unfortunately, we don’t have the fireworks and rockets that you have in Greece. There have been 2-3 people injured before and they take more notice of this. The food is similar, however, as well as the tsourekia we have; the red eggs, we skewer lambs and cockerels, we have it all here. Imagine that in my law firm where most of my clients are Australian, I send them a tsoureki on Good Friday. I do that for about 100 clients, so that they also understand that there is multiculturalism in Australia and the customs and traditions continue. At the Resurrection last year we had our Prime Minister attend, he came down with us too.”
Mr Papastergiadis was also asked about participation through postal voting for the June 9 European elections:
“As for the postal vote, not too many people have registered. It is a few thousand, because for many years, unfortunately, the country had ignored the diaspora and there was no interest in participating. I believe that with time and in the next election the participation will increase, but at the moment we are not talking about too many,” he said.
La Trobe University has signed a memorandum of understanding with the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), paving the way for a partnership between the two institutions.
La Trobe’s Associate Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences (International) Dr Raul Sanchez-Urribarri said the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA) was Greece’s oldest and largest university.
“It is one of the country’s most prestigious tertiary institutions,” Dr Sanchez-Urribarri said.
“La Trobe is the only university in Victoria that provides Greek language studies, so to partner with Greece’s top university offers great networking opportunities, university exchange options and new course offering to our students.
“La Trobe students have been enjoying NKUA’s annual intensive language courses and visiting NKUA students during our study tour.”
NKUA recently introduced a Bachelor of Arts offered in English that focuses on Archaeology, History and Literature of Ancient Greece.
La Trobe Greek Studies Coordinator Dr Stavroula Nikoloudis said this degree would appeal to a wide range of La Trobe students who wished to undertake parts of their studies in Greece.
Dr Stavroula Nikoloudis said the details of the partnership would be finalised over the coming months.
Young females are preparing for their public debut at the Kytherian Association of Australia’s (KAA) annual Debutante Ball on Saturday, May 18.
Held in the Randwick Ballroom at the Australian Turf Club, Royal Randwick Racecourse in Sydney from 7pm, the Debutante Ball will see young females “officially introduced” to society.
Attendees will be treated to a sit-down three course meal and a number of dancing performances by the debutantes and their selected partners.
There will also be speeches by VIP guests in attendance, including Guest of Honour and The Greek Herald Woman of the Year, Anais Menounos.
Tickets are $250 and the dress code is black tie.
Debutantes and their partners
Flower girls and their page boys
The starting time for Sunday’s A-League elimination final between Melbourne Victory and Melbourne City at AAMI Park has been pushed back by two hours due to a time clash with Orthodox Easter celebrations and “grassroots” football.
Originally scheduled to start at 3pm, the do-or-die derby will now kick off at 5pm instead to accommodate the traditions, as reported by news.com.au.
An APL spokesman stated that the kick-off time was changed because of a “clash with Greek (Orthodox) Easter and grassroots (football)”.
“It’s set to be a huge elimination final and we thank all partners for their co-operation in helping make this change and ensuring we can make this derby as big as possible,” The spokesman said.
Source: news.com.au
Australia’s Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese has announced a five-year $925m investment to help people escape domestic violence and a suite of initiatives to combat male extremist views about women online.
“The government will invest $925 million over five years, it will be included in the budget in two weeks’ time, to permanently establish the Leaving Program,” Albanese said in a press conference.
“Those eligible will be able to access up to $5,000 in financial support along with referral services, risk assessments, and safety planning.
Today also, we’re announcing a suite of online measures to help combat toxic male extremist views about women online … We will introduce legislation to ban the creation and distribution of deepfake pornography, sharing sexually explicit material using technology like artificial intelligence will be subject to serious criminal penalties.”
According to The Australian, Albanese said his government would undertake “long overdue reforms” which will review options to reduce exposure of violent pornography.
In addition, an announcement was made that the reporting date of Australia’s online safety laws would be brought forward by a year.
“The government will also bring forward legislation in early August to outlaw the release of private information online with an intent to cause harm, this is known as doxxing,” Albanese added.
“Finally I want to acknowledge the very important work that the Attorney-General is leading to strengthen penalties targeting the creation and non-consensual sexually explicit deepfakes.”
Source: The Australian
Heartbroken family members of a “selfless and gifted” schoolteacher who died just days after a crash south of Adelaide shared their profound grief with a court, stating that they lost the “glue” in their family.
John Tsalapatis 59, of Keswick, drove through a McLaren Vale intersection without stopping, striking and killing 61-year-old Bernice Sternberg who was a passenger in a car at the time, being driven by her husband.
According to ABC, Tsalapatis was found guilty last month for causing death by dangerous driving. On Tuesday, prosecutor Jim Pearce KC read a victim impact statement to the District Court on behalf of Sternberg’s husband Rony, who described how his life had changed since her death.
“I look at Bernice’s picture … and I say, ‘I miss you so much, honey, I wish you were here’, and I get emotional and I cry…It could have been prevented if he [Tsalapatis] only stopped at this intersection.” Rony said.
“I will never forgive him for what he has done to me and my whole family, causing the death of my darling Bernice”.
The court heard Sternberg’s brother, David Field was in the intensive care unit (ICU) at FMC when his sister arrived and was recovering from injuries sustained in an unrelated crash two weeks earlier.
“Her life touched many people and the world was truly a better place for having her in it,” Field said.
Tsalapatis’ lawyer, Jane Abbey KC told the court her client felt “a deep and genuine remorse” over the death of Sternberg yet also stated his actions were “not criminal in nature”.
Abbey urged Judge, Nick Alexandrides to impose a suspended sentence, or, a home detention sentence.
Tsalapatis will be sentenced next month.
Source: ABC
ASIC has launched civil penalty proceedings in the Federal Court against Magnis Energy Technologies Limited, alleging the company failed to disclose material information about its self-described “flagship” lithium-ion battery manufacturing facility.
ASIC is also suing Magnis executive chairman Frank Poullas for his involvement in Magnis’ alleged disclosure failures and for alleged breaches of his director’s duties, arguing that he failed to ensure Magnis met its disclosure obligations.
ASIC’s case concerns Magnis’ self-described flagship project, a lithium-ion battery plant in Endicott, New York, operated by US company Imperium3 New York, Inc (iM3NY). Magnis currently holds a majority stake in iM3NY.
ASIC alleges that Magnis became aware that claims it had made about the iM3NY battery plant’s funding, automation of battery cell production and ability to produce cells at a rate of 1 gigawatt hour (GWh) per year – equivalent to approximately 10,000 cells per day – were incorrect and that it breached continuous disclosure laws by not disclosing this information in a timely manner. ASIC also alleges that Mr Poullas was involved in Magnis’ continuous disclosure contraventions.
ASIC further alleges that in failing to disclose information about the true situation at the battery plant, Magnis and Mr Poullas engaged in conduct that was misleading or deceptive, or likely to mislead and deceive. ASIC alleges Magnis shareholders and the market more broadly remain materially uninformed about the true situation at the battery plant.
As a director of Magnis, as well as a member of its continuous disclosure committee and a board member of iM3NY, ASIC alleges that Mr Poullas breached his director’s duties by failing to make sure Magnis complied with its disclosure obligations.
ASIC Chair Joe Longo said, “Continuous disclosure obligations are critical to the fair and efficient functioning of Australia’s financial markets and directors must ensure their companies comply with the continuous disclosure regime. In this case, we allege that Magnis and its executive chairman, Frank Poullas, failed on both counts, leaving the market materially uninformed and investors unaware that Magnis’s battery factory was in a parlous state, both financially and operationally.”
Magnis also issued multiple ASX announcements between 19 April 2021 and 31 March 2023, saying that the battery plant was fully-funded to generate at least 1 GWh of lithium-ion battery cells per year. Mr Poullas repeated these claims to media.
Magnis also made multiple announcements to the effect that its flagship project had commenced commercial production and would achieve fully-automated production in 2022, claiming that annual manufacturing levels at the plant were expected to increase to 1 GWh by the end of 2023 and would continue to ramp up to a production level of 1.8 GWh (15,000 cells per day) and then “double-digit gigawatts” by the end of the decade.
However, ASIC alleges that by at latest 25 January 2023, Magnis and Mr Poullas were aware that these claims and predictions were inaccurate, and the plant at that time was struggling to produce 300 battery cells per day using primarily manual, high cost and slow production processes.
ASIC further alleges that by 23 April 2023, Magnis and Mr Poullas were aware that the battery plant could not manufacture saleable, defect-free battery cells at scale or generate any more than nominal revenue from the sale of cells manufactured at the plant.
Mr Longo said that the proceedings reflected ASIC’s enduring commitment to combatting conduct that erodes market integrity.
“ASIC is committed to ensuring that Australia’s markets remain among the cleanest and most transparent in the world,” said Mr Longo. “Where we see clear evidence that companies and directors are failing to provide material information to the market and investors, we will investigate and act.”
ASIC is seeking declarations and pecuniary penalties against both Magnis and Mr Poullas and an order that Mr Poullas be disqualified from managing corporations for a period to be determined by the Court.
The matter will be listed for a case management hearing on a date to be fixed by the Court.
Source: ASIC
South Sydney Rabbitohs head coach, Jason Demetriou has been sacked after multiple drawn-out meetings about his future at the club.
Chair and South Sydney Rabbitohs boss, Nick Pappas confirmed that the board unanimously agreed on Demetriou’s exit at the final meeting – which lasted another two hours on top of what was initially indicated.
“The board was unanimous that the time had come for Jason to be moved on with all his rights on his contract,” Pappas said.
“We thank Jason for his services to the club. I know he gave his very best”.
According to The Australian, Demetriou’s assistant, Ben Hornby will take on the role as an interim for the remainder of the year.
Making his exist after working as Head Coach of the NRL team after only eight rounds, Demetriou looks to be officially replaced by seven-time premiership winner, Wayne Bennett.
Source: The Australian