Living History
Photograph: Historical researchers Effy Alexakis and Leonard Janiszewski, (left and right)in the USA, 2005.
Photograph from:
http://www.international.mq.edu.au/staffNews.asp?itemID=484
The Daily Examiner, Grafton. August 30, 2003, page 8.
by, Juris Graney.
TEAM EFFORT:
MEET the man behind the mammoth project investigating and collating details of Greek cafes in Australia - Leonard Janiszewski.
Born in Sydney in September 1958, to Antofli and Concetta, Leonard had a knowledge from birth of the struggles of migrants coming to Australia.
“Both of my parents were part of the wave of ‘new Australians’ who migrated to Australia after World War Two as a result of the Federal Government’s new immigration policy,” Mr Janiszewski explained.
“I’m a legacy of that policy.”
Mr Janiszewski studied fine arts, archaeology, and both ancient and Australian history during his undergraduate years at Sydney University in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Initially, fine arts was the interest he pursued, but he also excelled in Australian history and entered his postgraduate years with the intention of challenging certain methodologies in the study of Australian history.
“One of those is the almost sole reliance upon English language-based documents, which effectively marginalised those groups from non English speaking backgrounds in regard to their significance in Australia’s development,” he said.
His Australian history masters thesis at Sydney University focused upon the New South Wales gold rushes (1850s-1880S), and the diversity of peoples who had arrived from overseas to Australia during this period.
