In this article and in the next, we will conclude the brief presentation of the integration of Hellenism in Australia, referring indirectly to the cultural expressions related to sports, journalism, the arts, literature and the contribution of university teachers.
During the pre-war and post-war period, with the arrival of hundreds of thousands of new immigrants, the emphasis was placed on the sports activities brought with them by immigrants, with real football (soccer) as the main sport.
With reference to Hellenism, various Greek clubs operated, mainly in the field of football, cricket, basketball, volleyball and even rugby, in all state capitals and in the large urban centers of regional Australia. The flourishing of these associations, their popularity and their role were non-negotiably enhanced by their enormous sociability. Thousands of school-age children grew up in the clubs and fields of these athletic organisations and two or three times a week, during training, Greek children flocked to the stadiums, where they had the opportunity, in the absence of a sufficient number of afternoon schools, to speak the Greek language, to communicate in their own language, and to socialise interactively during training and games. Also, their parents were given the opportunity to participate and exchange views and sociability by speaking the Greek language and applying Greek traditions and common culture.
Football sports clubs were the schools and centers of cultivation of the common ethnic consciousness for the Greeks. The representatives of the football clubs literally controlled the administration of the country’s National Championship League. Over the past 40 years, five of the twelve clubs in the Australian National Football League have been Greek-owned, and their representatives have occupied the main positions of power in the administration of the sport. In the state championships, Greek clubs maintained a strong lead and exerted significant influence on the administration and decision-making policies of football, often electing Greek Presidents of the National Championship to the Pan-Australian leadership. It is noted that in 2023, seven of the sixteen sports clubs in the state of Victoria were Greek.
Within the framework of the formation of a single and homogeneous Australian society, initially British-dominated, then white (anti-Asian) and finally, multicultural, the country’s governments have from time to time issued laws and resolutions and established strategic processes aimed at protecting the social, political and linguistic status quo. The prohibitive restrictions on education and the press, regarding the learning and use of languages other than English, established by successive governments of the colonial states of Australia (1798-1900) and the Australian Commonwealth (after 1901) aimed at the ethnolinguistic assimilation of immigrants and their children.
Despite the restrictions and the anti-immigrant mentality, which was cultivated more intensely during the period 1880-1935, a large number of Greek-language newspapers were published in Australia, with the city of Melbourne being the most prominent. According to the existing bibliography, since 1913, when the first Greek-language newspaper was published, a total of 204 newspapers and magazines of wide circulation have been published in all the state capitals, as well as in several towns of the regional province. As far as the content is concerned, reputable newspapers and publications of reduced prestige appeared, addressed to a limited or wider audience, with political, ecclesiastical, community, socio-economic, cultural, corporate and sports content.
Since 1913, the Greek press has played an important role in the maturation of the cultural and linguistic physiognomy of Australia’s Hellenism, in the circulation of ideas, in the dissemination of knowledge, and in the mobilisation of Hellenism. Nowadays, in Melbourne, the Ethnic Publications group of the late Chiotis D. Gogos and his son Christoforos, maintains the print newspaper Neos Kosmos (1957). In Sydney, the Foreign Language Publications group of late Laconian Theodoros Skalkos and his daughter, Dimitra, dominates the printing market and publishes the only pan-Australian daily newspaper Panhellenic [Greek] Herald (1926) and the only commercial magazine in the Greek Diaspora, entitled Elliinis (1968). After 2018, with the help of digital technology, Greek newspapers also adopted English-language electronic nodes with tens of thousands of readers. It is also important to emphasise that a part of the Greek-language newspapers today are written and typesetted in Athens or elsewhere and then printed in Australia.
Since the first theatre company appeared in Sydney (1916), more than 40 theatre companies have operated in Australia. In 1919, the Hellenic Society of Friends of Drama was founded in NSW, which developed a rich artistic and humanitarian activity. This company then brought to Australia the Greek theatrical group of Nezer, Prophanis and Kourouklis who gave performances of “Oedipus”. In 1924, the first play of Australian Hellenism was staged, written by Oedipus, Melbourne doctor Konstantinos Kyriazopoulos entitled “The Indiscreet Mousafiris”. In 1936, George Paizis founded the Hellenic Theatre Club of Australia with his own orchestra conducted by Omiros Palmistras. This was followed by the establishment of theatrical groups in every state capital city, with the main aim of raising income for altruistic goals and supporting charitable institutions.
During the creative years of the Greek settlement (1970-2010), Melbourne emerged as a cultural centre of Hellenism in Australia, with the operation of theatre companies and professional theatre schools, from which dozens of actors graduated. The group of the Union of Greeks from Egypt and the Middle East developed a very rich artistic activity, while in 1972 the actor and director of the Piraeus State Theatre, Nikolaos Skiadopoulos founded the professional theatrical school Gefyra. Skiadopoulos was followed by many of his students who then founded theatre companies and clubs in Melbourne and other states or founded his own theatre schools, such as the Popular Stage, etc. However, many Greek actors and artists entered Australian theatre and cinema and distinguished themselves as actors of cinema and theatre.
During this time, according to data drawn from newspaper archives, dozens of Greek directors, actors and leaders of theatre companies staged tragedies and comedies of Ancient Great Poets with the participation of their Australian colleagues, mainly in Sydney and Melbourne, as well as contemporary comedies and dramatic plays. Several charismatic actors of Greek origin joined Australian theatre and world cinema, where they excelled. Some worked as directors and producers, others as costume designers and choreographers.
In the next edition we will continue the cursory presentation of other cultural expressions of Australian Hellenism.
*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).
