Harry Feros, Karavas, Kythera, 1990.

Harry's father, Nilolaos, arrived from Kythera in 1921. Born in Toowoomba, Queensland, in 1946, Harry first journeyed to the island of his father's birth in 1986. He initially spent four months, and 'felt a sense of belonging'. He has since purchased a traditional house in Karavas, and is busy with its reconstruction. (Early 1990's). Harry spends periods of time in both Greece abd Australia.

'In terms of people identifying with Australia I think one of the classic expressions is mavri ksenitia - which is sort of like the black situation of a night time which is evereywhere else in the world except Greece. So to see it in those terms, was that having left Greece, they were in this black night and it was just a matter of time till they came back to Greece. The term mavri ksenitia you often hear in songs....the American songs and the Australian songs of the migrants, that one day they'll get out of this black foreign place and come back to Greece.'

"Μαύρη ξενιτιά είναι μια κλασική φράση που αναφέρεται σ'οποιοδήποτε μέρος εκτός Ελλάδας."

From, Images of Home, p. 25.

*There are about 33 other Kytherian images and entries in the book, Images of Home.

Author's:Effy Alexakis & Leonard Janiszewski

When Published:1995
Publisher:Hale & Iremonger Publishers
Available:Hale & Iremonger Publishers, 02 9565 1955
Description:285x210mm, 160 pages.

Available from:

Hale & Iremonger
PO Box 205,
Alexandria, NSW. 2015.

Ph: 02 9656 2955
Fax: 02 9550 2012

Eml: [email protected]

Website: www.haleiremonger.com

Documentary photographer Effy Alexakis and social historian Leonard Janiszewski have been researching their history and contemporary presence since 1982, and have made many field trips throughout both Australia and Greece, painstakingly piecing together what has become a giant jigsaw puzzle.

Effy Alexakis:

"The idea for this project began in Greece in 1985 whilst I was staying with the parents of family friends in the village of Mitata, on the island of Kythera. Although I had already noticed many deserted homes throughout Greece, it wasn't until I saw a whole street of deserted homes and ventured inside them that I realised that many of the people had left their homes with the intention of returning. Letters, photographs and other personal documents had been left behind. Like pieces of a huge jigsaw puzzle, these items provided small clues about the life within these homes. Australia's migration history is to be found in these homes. Unfortunately, through time, much is being lost."

For a digital archive of photographs, see, also,

http://www.austhistmuseum.mq.edu.au/greek/intro.htm

For other entries about Effy and Leonard, search internally, under Alexakis or Janiszewski.