Greek as a marker of identity in Melbourne, Australia

Individual and group identity is often closely associated with language use. Language, in turn, often serves as a proxy for culture which provides the background against which language use occurs. For the Greek community in Melbourne, Australia, use of Greek is an important symbolic aspect of ethnic identification and personal and groupidentity. Even for those younger members of the community whose daily interactions occur primarily in English and who view themselves as first language speakers of English, Greek plays a specific role in expression of personal identity and cultural expression. The use of Greek provides a link to the culture of origin and serves as a symbolic marker of association with a specific group in the larger Australian context.For first generation Greek Australians, exposure to the language and culture came primarily from immigrant parents. However, many of these individuals also attended Greek school which served to reinforce their knowledge and ability to use the language. Their children, the second generation, often use Greek words routinely in specific contexts, such as when talking about food and religion or when referring to family members (grandmother, grandfather). While they often attend Greek school as well, there is evidence that overall ability to speak Greek fluently in the community is declining. Nonetheless, selective use of Greek terms remains an important identity marker. This paper will describe the use of Greek words and terms by English–speaking members of the Melbourne community and discuss its significance as a form of cultural identification and personal identity. The phenomenon of Greek school as a vehicle for language exposure will also be discussed. Data, based on in depth interviews with members of the Greek community, will be used to illustrate the contexts in which switches to Greek occur and elucidate the cognitive background of such usage.

After hours schools as core to the spatial politics of in-betweeness

In this article the authors draw on a larger study in which their overall concern is to illustrate how diasporic identifications develop through a range of scales related to self, family, community, nation and beyond. They consider the Melbourne Greek community as an exemplar of diasporic experience and use it as a case study for their investigation, which is aimed at exploring how transcultural literacies relate to spaces which complicate and enrich identifications. In this article they consider the role of 'after hours' schools in the shaping of diasporic identities. These are community-based schools where Greek language and culture is taught. Commonly, classes are held on Saturday morning or in the evenings during the week. Such schools operate in classrooms that are rented from 'real' schools. By existing in spaces that are commonly occupied by mainstream day schools, students who attend 'after hours' schools experience a form of marginalisation that is also a right of passage. Here the authors argue that such 'in-between' spaces assist with the formation of 'in-between' identities that are emblematic of globalization.

Being a ‘wog’ in Melbourne – young people's self-fashioning through discourses of racism

The Greek community in Melbourne, Australia, is large and has a long history in the city. It is diverse and associated with a range of cultural, social and political structures. It has strong transnational links and in many ways exemplifies ‘diasporic’ in contradistinction to ‘migrant’. This paper focuses on young people from this community, particularly those who attend schools established to promote Greek language and cultural maintenance. In this paper, we examine such students’ explorations of their cultural identifications, most specifically how they adopt the term ‘wog’. This term is complex and its place in Australian discourse has shifted over time. Tracking these shifts and considering them as a context for these young people's use of the term allows us to consider the processes involved in their self-fashioning. We argue that their uptake of ‘wog’ involves the deployment of irony, given their awareness of its strong association with racism. We are also interested in the potential for women's experience to be silenced through the common association between ‘wog’ and protest masculinities. We argue that these students’ use of the term illustrates self-fashioning that provides insights into the complexities that surround cultural identification at the micro level, including schooling, but also in the broader context of globalisation.

David v. Goliath: the gay games, the Olympics, and the ownership of language

The Gay Games is firmly established on the contemporary global sports calendar, but is seldom canvassed in mainstream sports media, or considered a model for sports administrators. This is regrettable, as the Games’ ethos offers many clues into the relationships between individual and communal empowerment for homosexual and heterosexual participants alike, while providing a site of resistance against entrenched norms of elitism, nationalism, victory and record-breaking indicative of the modern Olympic movement. Credit for this inclusive ethos rests with the vision of inaugural Gay Games organiser Dr. Tom Waddell. Drawing on Games archives, this paper outlines Waddell’s vision, then discusses the impact of a protracted legal dispute instigated by the United States Olympic Committee in 1982 over the use of the term ‘Olympics’ in association with Gay Games I and II. Four United States Federal court rulings are examined, with particular reference to the contrasting hierarchy of private intellectual property and public civil rights considered under United States law of the time. Domestic and international legacies of the dispute are also briefly examined, focusing on the inherent tensions between the state-sanctioned protection of Olympic terminology, the ideals of free speech, the ownership of common sporting terms, and the potential discriminatory effects of selective trademark enforcement. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of how Waddell’s vision superseded each of these legal technicalities to ensure the Games continues to provide a viable model for inclusive and engaged participation for all people.

Diasporic Greek-Australian writing deconstructed : challenging Europe with new voices, new perspectives

Contemporary Europe, culturally, historically and linguistically is filled with contradiction, silences and paradox.

Diasporic creative writers in Australia who are associated, either by virtue of their cultural heritage or through an intellectual engagement with Europe, can in fact provide a radical potential in contemporary European cultural analysis.

Deconstructing and interpreting narratives, prose and poetry of bilingual writers can open up unexplored areas which, up till now, have been either repressed or marginalised. This critical endeavour, drawing on recent post-colonial criticism, is a new way to interpret fiction, stories and even modern fairytales. It appears less threatening and confronting to venture into those cultural, psychological and subliminal areas which contemporary Europe perhaps wishes to forget or renounce. It is however an alternate method which can be used to compel criticism to puzzle over such areas and so open up new perspectives as well as allow for new voices.

The sword and the pen in the pre-modern Arabic heritage : a literacy representation of an important historical relationship

The so-called "literary debate" in Greek, Latin and many Near Eastern
languages is a well-developed genre. In his 1987 article, Geert Jan van Gelder surveyed its background more than adequately, 1 and very few details of that paper need to be repeated here. He assessed thoroughly the historical contribution of numerous poets to the relationship between "the sword and the pen," and also analyzed various aspects of this relationship in a few prose texts.

Beyond the analogon; the "transfer of the referent" : the relationship between the external world experienced through culturally generated perceptual models constructed in the human mind, and the transfer of these images, via visual language, onto referen

Within 20th. Century art, the concept of the ‘normative’ image, as an attribute of things, has been challenged. As a consequence, paintings must now picture the ‘real’ world in other ways, incorporating knowledge and meaning beyond the analogon. Such descriptive representations were revealed as paradigmatic, rather than incontrovertible fact. Dependent on pre-conceived notions of stereotypicality, these descriptive images relied on surface illumination. My thesis explores images of things in the world as culturally inspired and information based. I examine paintings and sculptures of other cultures, such as black African, and other historical periods such as the Medieval, which reveal metonymously the basis for variations in representations of the ‘real’ world. The new enhanced representations which Modern artists created in their work were denigrated as deviant from the absolute ‘normative’ or regarded as distortions for purely mannerist and stylistic reasons. Postmodern research has reassessed them as multiple or extended imagings in whose facture new knowledge and human responses can be incorporated. These new forms of representation can be regarded as theoretical constructs rather than stylised depictions of appearance. In this way referents are transferred through the mind onto objects and vistas in the real world to align with our developed view of the physical world and better our understanding of humanity’s symbiotic relationship with nature.

Twice born : Dionysos films and the establishment of Greek film circuit in Australia

From the late 1940s until the late 1970s Melbourne was home to a dynamic Greek cinema circuit made up of some 30 different inner-city and suburban venues operated by a handful of vertically integrated exhibition/distribution businesses. Dionysos Films was amongst the first Greek film exhibition/distribution companies to form in Australia and from 1949 until 1956 it operated with little significant competition, establishing the parameters for a diasporic Greek film circuit that stretched across regional and metropolitan Australia and into New Zealand. This article measures the shadow cast by Dionysos Films (and its charismatic proprietor Stathis Raftopoulos) over the history of Antipodean Greek film experiences and the implications that this neglected aspect of Australian and Greek film history has for our understanding of the national cinemas in both countries.

A modern audience for the ancient mysteries of the occult : the evolution of Rudolf Steiner's esoteric architecture

In today’s secular society, occult conceptions of architecture may seem somewhat anachronistic, but at the turn of the twentieth century the bourgeoisie, alongside society’s artistic and intellectual elite, were enthusiastically embracing a myriad of esoteric doctrines and mystical impulses. One of the most prominent and enduring examples of this cultural phenomenon is to be found in Rudolf Steiner’s quasi-philosophical system of Anthroposophy. As a path of spiritual development based on ancient mysteries of the occult, Anthroposophy offered people the belief that there existed a way out of the chaos and meaninglessness of modern industrialised society. Steiner used the medium of architecture as a way of repackaging the occult’s venerable secrets into a tangible, material form that made their hidden message more readily accessible to his contemporary audience. While he was striving towards creating a totally new architectural language appropriate to the modern age, he perceived architectural style as an evolutionary process that revealed its spiritual content in a particular way in every epoch. As such, Steiner made free use of historical and mythological precedents as archetypal references in his work, thus giving his architecture a genealogy that has, until now, remained largely undefined. By investigating Steiner’s indebtedness to ancient temples and the architecture of the baroque, a greater understanding of his architectural heritage is made possible, which not only helps to locate him within the cultural milieu of his day, but also within the broader context of architectural history. A spiritual thread runs through this history that demonstrates that Steiner’s architecture is not as idiosyncratic as it may initially seem, though whether his work represents an original step forward in the development of modern architecture, or is merely a hangover of nineteenth century eclecticism, must also be considered in order to determine the architectural value of Steiner’s esoteric ideas.

The Greek Diaspora of Melboure, Australia, through the eyes of the second generation Greek Australians

Melbourne has a large and dynamic Greek community that began to form in the 1950s with migration to Australia in the years following the Second World War and the Greek Civil War. The elders of this community, in particular, have tried to ensure that their culture and traditions are kept alive and are handed down from generation to generation. The long history and cultural richness of the Greek tradition is a great source of pride to its members, and this is a key characteristic of the Greek community of Australia. Young and old Greek Australians speak of their country of origin with great pride and passion, as it remains central to their perception of nationality and ethnicity. This importance placed on the retention of the language and culture of their nation of origin means that cultural transmission across generations is of great significance to the community and can provide valuable insight into their interpretation of their own experiences. This paper will present findings from a three generation study about health beliefs and practices of women in the Melbourne Greek community. The experience of granddaughters, who represent the second Australian generation, and how they see their grandmothers’ experience as migrants to Australia will be discussed. The impact of the Diaspora phenomenon and the creation of a Greek community in Melbourne will be considered in the context of health, memory, religion, Greek culture, food, and personal and group identity.

The Greek diaspora of Melbourne: Australia through the eyes of the second generation Greek Australian

form in the 1950s with migration to Australia in the years following the Second World War and the Greek Civil War. The elders of this community, in particular, have tried to ensure that their culture and traditions are kept alive and are handed down from generation to generation. The long history and cultural richness of the Greek tradition is a great source of pride to its members, and this is a key characteristic of the Greek community of Australia. Young and old Greek Australians speak of their country of origin with great pride and passion, as it remains central to their perception of nationality and ethnicity. This importance placed on the retention of the language and culture of their nation of origin means that cultural transmission across generations is of great significance to the community and can provide valuable insight into their interpretation of their own experiences. This paper will present findings from a three generation study about health beliefs and practices of women in the Melbourne Greek community. The experience of granddaughters, who represent the second Australian generation, and how they see their grandmothers’ experience as migrants to Australia will be discussed. The impact of the Diaspora phenomenon and the creation of a Greek community in Melbourne will be considered in the context of health, memory, religion, Greek culture, food, and personal and group identity.