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Potamos

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Village introduction

One of Kythera's most significant settlements, and one of the oldest, mentioned in the 12th-century Anonymous Chronicle. Eudaimonogiannis built a tower at Potamos for protection and settled there, replacing Georgios Pachys in the administration of Kythera. The area was likely inhabited even earlier, evidenced by an early Christian floor found in the church of Saint John the Baptist. The wider area is called Pentagioi (Five Saints), shown in the Venier family land division. There were two towers in Potamos: one built by Eudaimonogiannis on a hill (in ruins by the 16th century) and another in the square (demolished in 1932). The name Potamos means "river," from the river that runs through it. In 1697, it was listed as Megalo Chorio (Great Village) and in Venetian censuses as Villa Grande. Potamos experienced a major population boom in the late 18th century with refugee families from the Peloponnese.

Condensed from Emmanuel Kalligeros's excellent Kytherian Geographical Placenames which is available here

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Life Stories

The Man who Found Luck in the Lucky Country - 1974

Man who found luck in the Lucky Country

(Transcribed from Australian Women’s Weekly, 30 Jan 1974)

Andrew V. Fatseas tells his story.

 

This story for Australia Day (1974) – the day marking European settlement in this country – tells what happened to a Greek migrant who arrived in 1924, 136 years after the first settler stepped ashore at Sydney ….. a story of joys and sorrows that are part of building a nation.

 

 As I am about to complete half a century of my life in Australia, a kaleidoscope of events pass through my mind, each of them tending to throw light on the reasons which influence a migrant’s settling in this country or his early repatriation.

There is drama in every migrant’s life, and mine began on the ‘Hobson’s Bay’ during my voyage to Australia early in 1924. In our group of 16 young Greeks there was an older one who had been in Australia before and knew enough English to act as our interpreter – and adviser. It soon became apparent that this man had not one good word for Australians and his daily lectures on their “in born xenophobia” filled us with foreboding. “Don’t worry!” he endeavoured to pacify us, “we’re not going there to stay forever.  A few years of patience until we grab what we can and then back to sweet home.”

As he believed that most of the ship’s crew were Australians he promptly told them what he thought of them  when one day we were served with chipped tea cups.  As a result, we were warned that we would be put off at the next port of call if we didn’t behave ourselves.

“What did I tell you?” our man snatched at the first opportunity. This is the kind of people   you’ll be dealing with in Australia. They’ll object to everything about you – your complexion, your habits, the sound of your mother tongue, even your industry and progress. You’ll always be looked upon as foreigners, shunned socially and at the same time criticised for not trying to assimilate.”

Were we really being treated as inferior, I asked myself, or was our interpreter so rude and tactless

as to provoke the ship’s officers? Yet I did not notice any chipped cups on tables adjacent to ours, although there could be some on other tables further away.

Doubts and fears did cause me some anxiety which tended to increase as the day of landing in Australia came nearer. But when it arrived it was uneventful.

A few days later, I had my first job. It was in the kitchen of my brother’s café at Inverell, N. S. W. The seclusion afforded me protection from the derogatory remarks and humiliations I had been told to expect. At the same time, this isolation, plus my inability to speak English began to distress me.

I often wondered if whether it would be better to be with people and face their nastiness than spend time in the fumes of a poky kitchen pining for home. Occasionally, when peeping into the shop to see how business was conducted with people I had been warned to fear, my heart would throb violently at the sight of a beautiful girl. How could such a country supposedly inhabited by male ogres have such an endless array of enchanting nymphs? Being then 17 and emotional, I found the lack of a girl’s company a torture. If only I could tear down the alien curtain dividing us!

As things were then, especially in the narrow confines of a country town, no Australian girl would be bold enough to be seen with a foreigner, even if she felt for him strongly. No, this was not the place for me. I finally decided I should go to Sydney where chances of advancement are brighter and your foreign origin perhaps less noticeable in the bustling crowds of the big city. My hopes brightened

But the metropolis had no welcome for me when I arrived. The Greek cafes existing at the time had no vacancies, and my lack of adequate English (I had only been in Australia six months) plus my foreign complexion proved a bar to my obtaining employment in any Australian business.

Yet one day my hopes brightened. A cleaner was wanted in a mental hospital. Ah! I thought to myself this is a job that Australians would not probably rush and somewhat altruistically let a foreigner have it. “I want this job,” I said to the young woman who came up to me as I waited nervously in one of the hospital’s corridors.

“Just a minute, please,” she said and vanished into an office a few feet away. “He’s foreigner,” I heard her say among other things I half-understood. “Send him away,” a man’s voice said.

It was not long before I became penniless and forced to accept another kitchen job in the country again. That was at Kempsey. For 35 shillings (£1/15/-) a week and keep I had to work 12 hours every day except Sunday, which I devoted to the study of English.

Then one day I fell sick with shivers and high temperature. For three days and nights I lay in bed above the shop alone. Everybody was too busy. None of them could attend to me; even bring me a cup of tea during the day. And as the shop could not be run for long without a kitchen man a replacement was already contemplated. The man to replace me would need the only bed available, which I myself was now occupying.

No, I could not afford to be sick. When on the fourth the day, feeling a little better I trudged down to the kitchen, the thought uppermost in my mind was how quickly I could save up my fare and return to Greece.

By the time I saved it, I was working in another little town where friendly and warm-hearted Australians made me put aside, at least for the time being any plans of repatriation. This was Bundarra, a place of not more than 100 houses nestling peacefully in bushy surroundings 30 miles from Inverell.

Here the serenity of the bushland seemed to be reflected in the mild disposition of the people, and their attitude toward me could be summed up in the hospital matron’s often expressed “regret” that my good health denied her the opportunity to nurse me for a week or two. However, here also was a man who, when drunk, made my life a misery.  He would come straight from the pub, lurch into the café with an ominous grin and growl at me; “Come on, you little dago, let’s see how you can fight.”

He would chase me round the shop determined to pit his 16-stone against my nine and a half for the fun of it. The word “dago” with its disparaging connotations really hurt.

Seeking ways and means to realize ambitions, I came to Sydney a second time, but again without success. Australians were not yet ready to tolerate the sight foreigner’s working in a store, a bank, an office, or any branch of public service.

As my savings ran low, I had to accept work in the country again. This was in a sundae shop (similar to a present-day milk bar) at Goulburn.

Here I met the unexpected. I met May. I was then 20 and she was my first love. When I kissed her, I felt as though I was exchanging a kiss with Australia. Memories pf home and the past were already being eclipsed by the splendid vision of the future. She was 20, an attractive brunette, and her love soon helped to change my whole view of Australia and its people. I no longer saw Australians as supercilious, frigid people with whom sensitive, hot blooded Mediterranean folk could not live happily in marriage.

The fact that she made a practice of seeing me only at night did not bother me at first. I was aware of her difficulty in trying to persuade her parents and relatives that falling in love with a foreigner was not really an outrage. However as time went by, I felt that my role was of merely a nocturnal companion was prolonged much more than my pride could endure. “How can we ever hope to marry,” I said to her, “if you dare not ignore the criticisms of your society? You know it will never accept me.”

“Everything comes to those who wait,” she replied and vowed never to marry anyone else. No, I could not wait any longer vexed as I was with doubts as to whether she would ever have the moral strength to cast social inhibitions to the winds.

Loneliness and the thought of returning home seized me once more as I bade May and Goulburn good-bye. Where to now? I pondered. To go back to my people a complete failure would be the ultimate humiliation.

So for the next few years  I wandered from town to town working on jobs I despised until the economic depression of the early ‘thirties’ found me back in Sydney, unemployed and penniless.

With dreams crumbled and my last pound(£) fritted a way , I was glad to find sleeping accommodation in a small back room above a sundae shop at Newtown. There was no bed or other furniture except a mattress, two blankets and a chair. There was also a big wooden box half-filled with crockery packed in straw.

The first night I slept there, I found I had a host of tiny mates living in that room with me. They used to jump out of the straw at night, and scamper about the place, get under the bed clothes or hop onto my face for a closer inspection of their new visitor.

“The owner of the miniature golf course at Petersham needs a young man to assist her for three hours each evening,” Mr. Burns a regular customer, told me one day. “Why don’t you try your luck?”

“Me!” I exclaimed and my mind flew back a few years. If I wasn’t good enough for a menial job with lunatics, how could I know expect an Australian to employ me among the sane?

“Tell her I sent you. Mr. Burns added, “She’s a friend of mine.”

I could not believe it when this lady accepted me. Nor could I any longer see myself discriminated against when I was earning 35 shillings a week while thousands of Australians lived on five shillings a week dole.

Then something much more wonderful happened. I met Vera Radnidge, a charming girl with rosy cheeks and light brown eyes. With the full, consent of her parents she readily took my arm and walked out into the world with me.

To this day I feel indebted to Australia for giving me a wife whom I would not exchange for any other woman in the world. My marriage has brought me a lot of luck and happiness. I have had good positions since – editor of a Greek newspaper, principal of the Greek school in Sydney, court interpreter & etc.

But my greatest thrill was when I saw my first newspaper article in a Sydney newspaper in March 1938. A burning ambition to master the English language (without a teacher) was being realised.

As an official court interpreter and teacher of migrants now, I come into contact with many newcomers. It is a great pleasure to me to find that after I have related to them my story, they see their own problems, as a challenge rather than discouragement.

My great moment of fulfilment came in May 1971, when at the conferring of degrees at the University of NSW, I saw my son Victor receive his first class honors in Commerce. It was a proud moment which filled me with a deep sense of gratitude for Australia.

In that same moment I thought of Greece. Whether in bliss or in distress, I never forget the land of my birth. After all, it was mother Greece who instilled into me those moral virtues, without which I would not have appreciated as fully as I do now what Australia has given to me.”

 

Transcribed from Australian Women’s Weekly, 30 Jan 1974

by Peter C. McCarthy, Delungra, NSW August 2018

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People, Life Stories
Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People

Giorgos K Frilligou (Frilingos) family, taken in Brisbane 1920

Giorgos K Frilligou (Frilingos) family

This photo was sent to my Great-Grandfather Andreas Tambakis (Potomos)  in February 1920. He was living in Pittsburgh PA at the time with his son Cosmas. His wife Eleni PANARETO was still living in Potomos.

On the back of the photo has writting on it: To Agapiton (my dear) Kyrios (Mr.) Theo (uncle) Andreas Tambakis  (From the family of) Giorgos K Frilligou (Frilingos)

Does anyone recoginize this family and If so are there any decendants? I would like to know how we are possibly related to one another.

My Great Grandfather's  parents were Kosma Tambaki (Areoi) and Chrisanthi KASIMATI (Frilingianika), her parents were Haralambos KASIMATI and Stamata FRILINGOU (Frilingianika).

 

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Modern Portraits

the show must go on !!!

on a fresh Sunday December morning the week of Christmas in the platia in potamos the kytherian philharmonic band minus the late stratis theodorakakis play Christmas tunes to the local shoppers , one could feel strato being there in spirit over looking his beloved band ...
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Artefacts

ploughshare

Photographed in a back lane at Potamos1983. How was it used was the question I asked myself at the time? Now I know as J.M. Koksma's black and white picture of "Ploughing, Kythera 1962" submitted 15-02-2014, shows clearly how these cleverly constructed ploughshares were employed.
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Vintage Landscapes

Potamos

Can you spot any changes! This picture was taken in January 1983 on my first visit to the Island. It was very quiet as the shops had closed for the afternoon, and chilly being mid-winter. I was keen to connect with the Island home of my grandfather, Theo G. Andronicos, but knew very little about his family. It has taken us over thirty years to put the pieces together.
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Diaspora Social Life

Congratulations! 100th birthday - 28th February 2012

Iris Andronicos celebrated her 100th birthday yesterday at her home in the Brisbane suburb of Taringa, in the company of family and friends. Iris is the widow of George T. Andronicos, son of Theo G. Andronicos (Potamos) who arrived in Sydney in 1897. Seated to her right is her sister-in-law, Rene Cook (nee Andronicos) aged 92, younger sister of George.
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Kytherian Art

Danseuse (Ballerina) 1915, sculpture by Emmanuel Cavacos

Emmanuel Andrew Cavacos was born in Potamos, Kythera, on February 10th, 1885. He emigrated to the United States of America, when he was sixteen years old, and settled in Baltimore, in the suburb of Hampden, where his brother Constantine was living. Another brother Theodore also chose to live in Baltimore. (Theodore was married to fellow Kytherian Pothiti Chlentzos). In Baltimore he formed a close friendship with Charles Fitzpatrick, with whom he communicated for many years. Photographs and Arts Programs which Cavacos sent to Fitzpatrick form the basis for this (preliminary) biographical sketch.

Having displayed a decided artistic aptitude, he was sent to the Maryland Institute to study painting. He devoted four years to this pursuit, whilst at the same time experimenting with sculptural modeling. Ephraim Keyser, the veteran Baltimore sculptor, who for many years was Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute, was so impressed with the quality of his clay sketches that he advised him to give up painting and devote himself exclusively to sculpture.

Cavacos took this advise, and he made such rapid progress as a student of Ephraim Keyser, that in 1911 he was awarded the Rinehart Scholarship, which enabled him to go to the Beaux Arts School in Paris. In Paris he was known as Emmanuel Andre, Andre being the French version of his middle name, Andrew.

In 1913, one of his works, Aspiration received an Honorable Mention at the Salon des Artistes Francais. The next year his Thinker attracted great attention at the Paris Salon. The first of this “Thinkers” is housed at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the second at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.

In Paris, On October 2nd, 1915, Cavacos married Pauline Pradelle.
Pauline was a professional pianist. She practiced her art in the studio where Emmanuel executed his sculptures.

His work made him a well known figure in the art colony of Paris, and he was commissioned to do the portraits of a number of notable citizens, including Mlle. Mistinguett, a prominent actress; Bucot, and Marcelle Ragnon. In 1925 he received a silver medal for a fountain at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. As a tribute to his ability, in 1927, the French Government bestowed upon him the decoration, Officier de l’Acadamie.
In subsequent years he exhibited annually in the Salon, and also at the Salon des Humoristes de Paris, where his dancing figures were highly praised. His work is in a number of important collections, including that of Queen Marie of Rumania, who purchased one of his marble figures, Grief.

Cavacos’ sculpture has been praised for its variety, able craftsmanship, and for the sense of rhythm it conveys. The French critics emphasized its inherently poetic qualities.

In 1930 Cavacos returned to the United States for the first time in eighteen years. His work was exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art in March of that year. His work was also shown in New York, and later in the year at Homeland. A group of 17 of his sculptures were also placed on display in the National Sculpture Society Exhibition in San Francisco. In May, 1930, he and his wife returned to Paris.

Information about Cavacos post 1930 is difficult to obtain. Hopefully someone can shed more light on his life, in particular the period from 1931 – 1976.

We do know that when members of his family died, Cavacos undertook to create a beautiful monument, and to send it to be erected in the Greek section of a Cemetery in Baltimore, where it still stands today.

It seems that his interest in sculpture continued until well into his old age. When granddaughters of Charles Fitzpatrick (his Baltimore friend) visited him in Paris in 1969, they were photographed with him in his art studio. Many sculptures are visible in the room.

Emmanuel Cavacos died in 1976, aged 91.

Background to the biographical sketch, above

Information about Emmanuel Cavacos is not very extensive. Thankfully, Emmanuel seems to have established a friendship with a Baltimore resident called Charles Fitzpatrick. After Cavacos moved permanently to France he continued to correspond with him. Mike Fitzpatrick (aka Piedmont Fossil), Charles Fitzpatrick’s grandson takes up the story. “Cavacos sent photographs of his studio and his sculptures and even an invitation to his wedding in October 1915. Considering that the wedding took place across the Atlantic and the great time and expense it would require to go there -- not to mention that fact that by then France was deep into World War I -- my grandfather was unable to attend. In 1930 Cavacos made a return visit to the United States for a couple of exhibitions, one in his old hometown of Baltimore and one in New York. I don’t know how successful his exhibitions were considering they took place during the first year of the Great Depression, but today his sculptures, if they can be found at all, seem to sell for between several hundred and several thousand dollars each. In the late 1960s my two sisters traveled to Europe and, at the request of my grandfather, they stopped by to visit (the by that time elderly) Mr. Cavacos at his Paris home”.

Thankfully Mike Fitzpatrick has posted the Cavacos photographs from that time on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/piedmont_fossil/sets/72157594585161747/

“Most of the photos in this set were sent to my grandfather by Emmanuel Cavacos soon after he moved to Paris. Almost all of them are inscribed on the reverse in the artist’s own handwriting.”

Cindy Anderson, is a fiancee of Pete Capsanes, who is the grandson of Theodore Andrew Cavacos, brother to Emmanuel and Constantine. These are all Baltimore Cavacos Kytherians. Cindy wrote to KAW:
"We just had Pete's family here and were talking about Emmanual Andrew Cavacos which is Pete's Great Great Uncle and the sculptor who ended up migrating from Greece, to Maryland back to Paris where he died. We have many of his sculpted pieces in the family".
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Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People

Pauline Pradelle, wife of sculptor Emmanuel Cavacos at her piano

Emmanuel Andrew Cavacos was born in Potamos, Kythera, on February 10th, 1885. He emigrated to the United States of America, when he was sixteen years old, and settled in Baltimore, in the suburb of Hampden, where his brother Constantine was living. Another brother Theodore also chose to live in Baltimore. (Theodore was married to fellow Kytherian Pothiti Chlentzos). In Baltimore he formed a close friendship with Charles Fitzpatrick, with whom he communicated for many years. Photographs and Arts Programs which Cavacos sent to Fitzpatrick form the basis for this (preliminary) biographical sketch.

Having displayed a decided artistic aptitude, he was sent to the Maryland Institute to study painting. He devoted four years to this pursuit, whilst at the same time experimenting with sculptural modeling. Ephraim Keyser, the veteran Baltimore sculptor, who for many years was Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute, was so impressed with the quality of his clay sketches that he advised him to give up painting and devote himself exclusively to sculpture.

Cavacos took this advise, and he made such rapid progress as a student of Ephraim Keyser, that in 1911 he was awarded the Rinehart Scholarship, which enabled him to go to the Beaux Arts School in Paris. In Paris he was known as Emmanuel Andre, Andre being the French version of his middle name, Andrew.

In 1913, one of his works, Aspiration received an Honorable Mention at the Salon des Artistes Francais. The next year his Thinker attracted great attention at the Paris Salon. The first of this “Thinkers” is housed at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the second at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.

In Paris, On October 2nd, 1915, Cavacos married Pauline Pradelle.
Pauline was a professional pianist. She practiced her art in the studio where Emmanuel executed his sculptures.

His work made him a well known figure in the art colony of Paris, and he was commissioned to do the portraits of a number of notable citizens, including Mlle. Mistinguett, a prominent actress; Bucot, and Marcelle Ragnon. In 1925 he received a silver medal for a fountain at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. As a tribute to his ability, in 1927, the French Government bestowed upon him the decoration, Officier de l’Acadamie.
In subsequent years he exhibited annually in the Salon, and also at the Salon des Humoristes de Paris, where his dancing figures were highly praised.
His work is in a number of important collections, including that of Queen Marie of Rumania, who purchased one of his marble figures, Grief.

Cavacos’ sculpture has been praised for its variety, able craftsmanship, and for the sense of rhythm it conveys. The French critics emphasized its inherently poetic qualities.

In 1930 Cavacos returned to the United States for the first time in eighteen years. His work was exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art in March of that year. His work was also shown in New York, and later in the year at Homeland. A group of 17 of his sculptures were also placed on display in the National Sculpture Society Exhibition in San Francisco. In May, 1930, he and his wife returned to Paris.

Information about Cavacos post 1930 is difficult to obtain. Hopefully someone can shed more light on his life, in particular the period from 1931 – 1976.

We do know that when members of his family died, Cavacos undertook to create a beautiful monument, and to send it to be erected in the Greek section of a Cemetery in Baltimore, where it still stands today.

It seems that his interest in sculpture continued until well into his old age. When granddaughters of Charles Fitzpatrick (his Baltimore friend) visited him in Paris in 1969, they were photographed with him in his art studio. Many sculptures are visible in the room.

Emmanuel Cavacos died in 1976, aged 91.

Background to the biographical sketch, above

Information about Emmanuel Cavacos is not very extensive. Thankfully, Emmanuel seems to have established a friendship with a Baltimore resident called Charles Fitzpatrick. After Cavacos moved permanently to France he continued to correspond with him. Mike Fitzpatrick (aka Piedmont Fossil), Charles Fitzpatrick’s grandson takes up the story. “Cavacos sent photographs of his studio and his sculptures and even an invitation to his wedding in October 1915. Considering that the wedding took place across the Atlantic and the great time and expense it would require to go there -- not to mention that fact that by then France was deep into World War I -- my grandfather was unable to attend. In 1930 Cavacos made a return visit to the United States for a couple of exhibitions, one in his old hometown of Baltimore and one in New York. I don’t know how successful his exhibitions were considering they took place during the first year of the Great Depression, but today his sculptures, if they can be found at all, seem to sell for between several hundred and several thousand dollars each. In the late 1960s my two sisters traveled to Europe and, at the request of my grandfather, they stopped by to visit (the by that time elderly) Mr. Cavacos at his Paris home”.

Thankfully Mike Fitzpatrick has posted the Cavacos photographs from that time on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/piedmont_fossil/sets/72157594585161747/

“Most of the photos in this set were sent to my grandfather by Emmanuel Cavacos soon after he moved to Paris. Almost all of them are inscribed on the reverse in the artist’s own handwriting.”

Cindy Anderson, is a fiancee of Pete Capsanes, who is the grandson of Theodore Andrew Cavacos, brother to Emmanuel and Constantine. These are all Baltimore Cavacos Kytherians. Cindy wrote to KAW:
"We just had Pete's family here and were talking about Emmanual Andrew Cavacos which is Pete's Great Great Uncle and the sculptor who ended up migrating from Greece, to Maryland back to Paris where he died. We have many of his sculpted pieces in the family".
Open full entry
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Diaspora Social Life

Wedding party of Emmanuel Cavacos and Pauline Pradelle

Emmanuel Andrew Cavacos was born in Potamos, Kythera, on February 10th, 1885. He emigrated to the United States of America, when he was sixteen years old, and settled in Baltimore, in the suburb of Hampden, where his brother Constantine was living. Another brother Theodore also chose to live in Baltimore. (Theodore was married to fellow Kytherian Pothiti Chlentzos). In Baltimore he formed a close friendship with Charles Fitzpatrick, with whom he communicated for many years. Photographs and Arts Programs which Cavacos sent to Fitzpatrick form the basis for this (preliminary) biographical sketch.

Having displayed a decided artistic aptitude, he was sent to the Maryland Institute to study painting. He devoted four years to this pursuit, whilst at the same time experimenting with sculptural modeling. Ephraim Keyser, the veteran Baltimore sculptor, who for many years was Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute, was so impressed with the quality of his clay sketches that he advised him to give up painting and devote himself exclusively to sculpture.

Cavacos took this advise, and he made such rapid progress as a student of Ephraim Keyser, that in 1911 he was awarded the Rinehart Scholarship, which enabled him to go to the Beaux Arts School in Paris. In Paris he was known as Emmanuel Andre, Andre being the French version of his middle name, Andrew.

In 1913, one of his works, Aspiration received an Honorable Mention at the Salon des Artistes Francais.

The next year his Thinker attracted great attention at the Paris Salon. The first of this “Thinkers” is housed at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the second at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.

In Paris, On October 2nd, 1915, Cavacos married Pauline Pradelle. Pauline was a professional pianist. She practiced her art in the studio where Emmanuel executed his sculptures.

His work made him a well known figure in the art colony of Paris, and he was commissioned to do the portraits of a number of notable citizens, including Mlle. Mistinguett, a prominent actress; Bucot, and Marcelle Ragnon. In 1925 he received a silver medal for a fountain at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. As a tribute to his ability, in 1927, the French Government bestowed upon him the decoration, Officier de l’Acadamie.
In subsequent years he exhibited annually in the Salon, and also at the Salon des Humoristes de Paris, where his dancing figures were highly praised.
His work is in a number of important collections, including that of Queen Marie of Rumania, who purchased one of his marble figures, Grief.

Cavacos’ sculpture has been praised for its variety, able craftsmanship, and for the sense of rhythm it conveys. The French critics emphasized its inherently poetic qualities.

In 1930 Cavacos returned to the United States for the first time in eighteen years. His work was exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art in March of that year. His work was also shown in New York, and later in the year at Homeland. A group of 17 of his sculptures were also placed on display in the National Sculpture Society Exhibition in San Francisco. In May, 1930, he and his wife returned to Paris.

Information about Cavacos post 1930 is difficult to obtain. Hopefully someone can shed more light on his life, in particular the period from 1931 – 1976.

We do know that when members of his family died, Cavacos undertook to create a beautiful monument, and to send it to be erected in the Greek section of a Cemetery in Baltimore, where it still stands today.

It seems that his interest in sculpture continued until well into his old age. When granddaughters of Charles Fitzpatrick (his Baltimore friend) visited him in Paris in 1969, they were photographed with him in his art studio. Many sculptures are visible in the room.

Emmanuel Cavacos died in 1976, aged 91.

Background to the biographical sketch, above

Information about Emmanuel Cavacos is not very extensive. Thankfully, Emmanuel seems to have established a friendship with a Baltimore resident called Charles Fitzpatrick. After Cavacos moved permanently to France he continued to correspond with him. Mike Fitzpatrick (aka Piedmont Fossil), Charles Fitzpatrick’s grandson takes up the story. “Cavacos sent photographs of his studio and his sculptures and even an invitation to his wedding in October 1915. Considering that the wedding took place across the Atlantic and the great time and expense it would require to go there -- not to mention that fact that by then France was deep into World War I -- my grandfather was unable to attend. In 1930 Cavacos made a return visit to the United States for a couple of exhibitions, one in his old hometown of Baltimore and one in New York. I don’t know how successful his exhibitions were considering they took place during the first year of the Great Depression, but today his sculptures, if they can be found at all, seem to sell for between several hundred and several thousand dollars each. In the late 1960s my two sisters traveled to Europe and, at the request of my grandfather, they stopped by to visit (the by that time elderly) Mr. Cavacos at his Paris home”.

Thankfully Mike Fitzpatrick has posted the Cavacos photographs from that time on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/piedmont_fossil/sets/72157594585161747/

“Most of the photos in this set were sent to my grandfather by Emmanuel Cavacos soon after he moved to Paris. Almost all of them are inscribed on the reverse in the artist’s own handwriting.”

Cindy Anderson, is a fiancee of Pete Capsanes, who is the grandson of Theodore Andrew Cavacos, brother to Emmanuel and Constantine. These are all Baltimore Cavacos Kytherians. Cindy wrote to KAW:
"We just had Pete's family here and were talking about Emmanual Andrew Cavacos which is Pete's Great Great Uncle and the sculptor who ended up migrating from Greece, to Maryland back to Paris where he died. We have many of his sculpted pieces in the family".
Open full entry
Photos, Diaspora Social Life
Kytherian Art

The Thinker, 1914, by Emmanuel Andrew Cavacos

Emmanuel Andrew Cavacos was born in Potamos, Kythera, on February 10th, 1885. He emigrated to the United States of America, when he was sixteen years old, and settled in Baltimore, in the suburb of Hampden, where his brother Constantine was living. Another brother Theodore also chose to live in Baltimore. (Theodore was married to fellow Kytherian Pothiti Chlentzos). In Baltimore he formed a close friendship with Charles Fitzpatrick, with whom he communicated for many years. Photographs and Arts Programs which Cavacos sent to Fitzpatrick form the basis for this (preliminary) biographical sketch.

Having displayed a decided artistic aptitude, he was sent to the Maryland Institute to study painting. He devoted four years to this pursuit, whilst at the same time experimenting with sculptural modeling. Ephraim Keyser, the veteran Baltimore sculptor, who for many years was Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute, was so impressed with the quality of his clay sketches that he advised him to give up painting and devote himself exclusively to sculpture.

Cavacos took this advise, and he made such rapid progress as a student of Ephraim Keyser, that in 1911 he was awarded the Rinehart Scholarship, which enabled him to go to the Beaux Arts School in Paris. In Paris he was known as Emmanuel Andre, Andre being the French version of his middle name, Andrew.

In 1913, one of his works, Aspiration received an Honorable Mention at the Salon des Artistes Francais. The next year his Thinker attracted great attention at the Paris Salon. The first of this “Thinkers” is housed at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the second at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.

In Paris, On October 2nd, 1915, Cavacos married Pauline Pradelle. Pauline was a professional pianist. She practiced her art in the studio where Emmanuel executed his sculptures.

His work made him a well known figure in the art colony of Paris, and he was commissioned to do the portraits of a number of notable citizens, including Mlle. Mistinguett, a prominent actress; Bucot, and Marcelle Ragnon. In 1925 he received a silver medal for a fountain at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. As a tribute to his ability, in 1927, the French Government bestowed upon him the decoration, Officier de l’Acadamie.
In subsequent years he exhibited annually in the Salon, and also at the Salon des Humoristes de Paris, where his dancing figures were highly praised.
His work is in a number of important collections, including that of Queen Marie of Rumania, who purchased one of his marble figures, Grief.

Cavacos’ sculpture has been praised for its variety, able craftsmanship, and for the sense of rhythm it conveys. The French critics emphasized its inherently poetic qualities.

In 1930 Cavacos returned to the United States for the first time in eighteen years. His work was exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art in March of that year. His work was also shown in New York, and later in the year at Homeland. A group of 17 of his sculptures were also placed on display in the National Sculpture Society Exhibition in San Francisco. In May, 1930, he and his wife returned to Paris.

Information about Cavacos post 1930 is difficult to obtain. Hopefully someone can shed more light on his life, in particular the period from 1931 – 1976.

We do know that when members of his family died, Cavacos undertook to create a beautiful monument, and to send it to be erected in the Greek section of a Cemetery in Baltimore, where it still stands today.

It seems that his interest in sculpture continued until well into his old age. When granddaughters of Charles Fitzpatrick (his Baltimore friend) visited him in Paris in 1969, they were photographed with him in his art studio. Many sculptures are visible in the room.

Emmanuel Cavacos died in 1976, aged 91.

Background to the biographical sketch, above

Information about Emmanuel Cavacos is not very extensive. Thankfully, Emmanuel seems to have established a friendship with a Baltimore resident called Charles Fitzpatrick. After Cavacos moved permanently to France he continued to correspond with him. Mike Fitzpatrick (aka Piedmont Fossil), Charles Fitzpatrick’s grandson takes up the story. “Cavacos sent photographs of his studio and his sculptures and even an invitation to his wedding in October 1915. Considering that the wedding took place across the Atlantic and the great time and expense it would require to go there -- not to mention that fact that by then France was deep into World War I -- my grandfather was unable to attend. In 1930 Cavacos made a return visit to the United States for a couple of exhibitions, one in his old hometown of Baltimore and one in New York. I don’t know how successful his exhibitions were considering they took place during the first year of the Great Depression, but today his sculptures, if they can be found at all, seem to sell for between several hundred and several thousand dollars each. In the late 1960s my two sisters traveled to Europe and, at the request of my grandfather, they stopped by to visit (the by that time elderly) Mr. Cavacos at his Paris home”.

Thankfully Mike Fitzpatrick has posted the Cavacos photographs from that time on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/piedmont_fossil/sets/72157594585161747/

“Most of the photos in this set were sent to my grandfather by Emmanuel Cavacos soon after he moved to Paris. Almost all of them are inscribed on the reverse in the artist’s own handwriting.”

Cindy Anderson, is a fiancee of Pete Capsanes, who is the grandson of Theodore Andrew Cavacos, brother to Emmanuel and Constantine. These are all Baltimore Cavacos Kytherians. Cindy wrote to KAW:
"We just had Pete's family here and were talking about Emmanual Andrew Cavacos which is Pete's Great Great Uncle and the sculptor who ended up migrating from Greece, to Maryland back to Paris where he died. We have many of his sculpted pieces in the family".
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Photos, Kytherian Art
Kytherian Art

Aspiration, sculpture by Emmanuel Andrew Cavacos

Emmanuel Andrew Cavacos was born in Potamos, Kythera, on February 10th, 1885. He emigrated to the United States of America, when he was sixteen years old, and settled in Baltimore, in the suburb of Hampden, where his brother Constantine was living. Another brother Theodore also chose to live in Baltimore. (Theodore was married to fellow Kytherian Pothiti Chlentzos). In Baltimore he formed a close friendship with Charles Fitzpatrick, with whom he communicated for many years. Photographs and Arts Programs which Cavacos sent to Fitzpatrick form the basis for this (preliminary) biographical sketch.

Having displayed a decided artistic aptitude, he was sent to the Maryland Institute to study painting. He devoted four years to this pursuit, whilst at the same time experimenting with sculptural modeling. Ephraim Keyser, the veteran Baltimore sculptor, who for many years was Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute, was so impressed with the quality of his clay sketches that he advised him to give up painting and devote himself exclusively to sculpture.

Cavacos took this advise, and he made such rapid progress as a student of Ephraim Keyser, that in 1911 he was awarded the Rinehart Scholarship, which enabled him to go to the Beaux Arts School in Paris. In Paris he was known as Emmanuel Andre, Andre being the French version of his middle name, Andrew. In 1913, one of his works, Aspiration received an Honorable Mention at the Salon des Artistes Francais. The next year his Thinker attracted great attention at the Paris Salon. The first of this “Thinkers” is housed at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the second at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.

In Paris, On October 2nd, 1915, Cavacos married Pauline Pradelle. Pauline was a professional pianist. She practiced her art in the studio where Emmanuel executed his sculptures.

His work made him a well known figure in the art colony of Paris, and he was commissioned to do the portraits of a number of notable citizens, including Mlle. Mistinguett, a prominent actress; Bucot, and Marcelle Ragnon. In 1925 he received a silver medal for a fountain at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. As a tribute to his ability, in 1927, the French Government bestowed upon him the decoration, Officier de l’Acadamie.
In subsequent years he exhibited annually in the Salon, and also at the Salon des Humoristes de Paris, where his dancing figures were highly praised.
His work is in a number of important collections, including that of Queen Marie of Rumania, who purchased one of his marble figures, Grief.

Cavacos’ sculpture has been praised for its variety, able craftsmanship, and for the sense of rhythm it conveys. The French critics emphasized its inherently poetic qualities.

In 1930 Cavacos returned to the United States for the first time in eighteen years. His work was exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art in March of that year. His work was also shown in New York, and later in the year at Homeland. A group of 17 of his sculptures were also placed on display in the National Sculpture Society Exhibition in San Francisco. In May, 1930, he and his wife returned to Paris.

Information about Cavacos post 1930 is difficult to obtain. Hopefully someone can shed more light on his life, in particular the period from 1931 – 1976.

We do know that when members of his family died, Cavacos undertook to create a beautiful monument, and to send it to be erected in the Greek section of a Cemetery in Baltimore, where it still stands today.

It seems that his interest in sculpture continued until well into his old age. When granddaughters of Charles Fitzpatrick (his Baltimore friend) visited him in Paris in 1969, they were photographed with him in his art studio. Many sculptures are visible in the room.

Emmanuel Cavacos died in 1976, aged 91.

Background to the biographical sketch, above

Information about Emmanuel Cavacos is not very extensive. Thankfully, Emmanuel seems to have established a friendship with a Baltimore resident called Charles Fitzpatrick. After Cavacos moved permanently to France he continued to correspond with him. Mike Fitzpatrick (aka Piedmont Fossil), Charles Fitzpatrick’s grandson takes up the story. “Cavacos sent photographs of his studio and his sculptures and even an invitation to his wedding in October 1915. Considering that the wedding took place across the Atlantic and the great time and expense it would require to go there -- not to mention that fact that by then France was deep into World War I -- my grandfather was unable to attend. In 1930 Cavacos made a return visit to the United States for a couple of exhibitions, one in his old hometown of Baltimore and one in New York. I don’t know how successful his exhibitions were considering they took place during the first year of the Great Depression, but today his sculptures, if they can be found at all, seem to sell for between several hundred and several thousand dollars each. In the late 1960s my two sisters traveled to Europe and, at the request of my grandfather, they stopped by to visit (the by that time elderly) Mr. Cavacos at his Paris home”.

Thankfully Mike Fitzpatrick has posted the Cavacos photographs from that time on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/piedmont_fossil/sets/72157594585161747/

“Most of the photos in this set were sent to my grandfather by Emmanuel Cavacos soon after he moved to Paris. Almost all of them are inscribed on the reverse in the artist’s own handwriting.”

Cindy Anderson, is a fiancee of Pete Capsanes, who is the grandson of Theodore Andrew Cavacos, brother to Emmanuel and Constantine. These are all Baltimore Cavacos Kytherians. Cindy wrote to KAW:
"We just had Pete's family here and were talking about Emmanual Andrew Cavacos which is Pete's Great Great Uncle and the sculptor who ended up migrating from Greece, to Maryland back to Paris where he died. We have many of his sculpted pieces in the family".
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Photos, Kytherian Art
Vintage Portraits/ People

Three generations of Panaretos

Mrs. Eleni Cominos of Potamos kindly allowed me to photograph some of her family pictures. This image shows her great-grandparents, Demetrios Vretos Panaretos seated at the left of the picture, his wife Kalliope also seated, their son Ioannis (standing), with baby Demetrios (Eleni's father sitting on the lap of Demetrios Snr.)

The photograph was taken in 1910. Eleni confirmed that their family nick-name is 'notos.'
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Photos, Vintage Portraits/ People
Vintage Landscapes

POTAMOS MARKETS

the famous potamos markets in 1982, the markets have changed now, in years gone by the locals would bring their produce , friut , vegetables, olive oil, to be sold , these days the amount of local produce has diminished,now at the sunday markets, you will find to buy, paintings , jewellery, painted rocks , photos , but one thing hasnt changed in 300 years , a place to catch up, and share some island gossip!!!
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Photos, Vintage Landscapes
Island Churches & Icons

More frescoes on the roof of the Church of the Virgin Mary of Ilariotissa.

They are magnificent but there is a major problem.

Water is seaping through from the roof, when it rains, and damaging these priceless works of art. Water is not only destroying the frescoes, but lighting and other accoutrements on, and around, the ceiling, as well.

Aid with roof repairs, and damp proofing of the roof to the church oft the Panagia, Virgin Mary, of Ilariotissa in Potamos

The Ilariotissa Church in Potamos is kept in immaculate condition by the resident priest, Father Petros Mariatos, and an indefatigable Church Committee.

Father Petros Mariatos

Doctor Priest

With the Archbishop of Kythera, 2005 (far right)

Many Australian patrons also contribute to the needs of the Church . One such Australian Kytherian, is Mr John Mallos, Monterey, NSW, 2217. John accompanied George Poulos of kythera-family, Father Petros, and members of the Church Committee to inspect damage to the interior of the roof of the church.

The damaged roof is much more noticeable and distracting in view of the impeccable condition of the rest of the church. It is a tragedy that one of the largest and most beautiful churches on Kythera is being damaged in this way.

The waterproofing faults that allow this to occur must be rectified. It will be expensive to repair. The Committee is taking a very proactive stance, and has already accumulated funds in order to affect the necessary repairs.

Fr Petros and his Committee are seeking assistance to ensure that they act as quickly as possible to rectify the problem, so that the damage is kept to a minimum.

If you can assist please contact Father Petros

His contact details are:

Father Mariatos
Church of the Virgin Mary of Ilariotissa
Potamos.
Kythera. 80100
GREECE

++30 2736033339 (only after 21:30 hours)
++30 2736033330 (usually between 20:00-21:00)

and mobile: ++306977595869


History of the Church

The Building of the Church of The Virgin Mary of Ilariotissa of Potamos, Kythera. A History of Service

"The Church of the Virgin Mary of llariotissa in Potamos, one of the largest in Kythera, was constructed in 1905, and was inaugurated in 1908, when the decorative works were completed. The history of the construction is of interest because it is connected with the history of the island, and of Potamos, and the tempestuous era in Greek history at the beginning of the 20th century. Bishop Efthimios Kavvathas and Mayor Michael(Mihali) Megalokonomos played important roles. The Bishop inspired, and the May¬or organised the construction of this church. But the participation of the public counted above all. The men worked at the quarries, the Iime kilns, the scaffolds and the women at woodcutting, water transportation, weaving and embroidering. The children with their teacher were transporting the materials that ships and boats would unload, from the coast of St Pelagia to Potamos. But the penny of the poor also counted as gold, as well as donations from wealthy people from Alexandria and Smyrna. This is how the church was completed in seven months!"

- Kosmas Megalokonomos


The Church dominates the village of Potamos. As a Kytherian you only appreciate the beauty of the Church when you watch other European Christians enter the church for the first time. Its beauty is breathtaking.
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Photos, Island Churches & Icons
Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People

Panayiotis Alfieris & family

Panayiotis was one of the seven children of Giorgos Alfieris (1845-1920) and Spirithoula Argiris Alfieris (1856-1927) of Potamos, Kythera. Panayiotis immigrated to Egypt in the late 1890's. He married Zaferia Koroneos in 1910 and they had eight children who were all born in Cairo, Egypt.

 

Girls in front:  Stella Alfieris (1915-1985) and Katerina Alfieris (1922-2012) daughters of Panayiotis and Zaferia Alfieris.
First row: Kalliopi of Kosmas Livaditis,  Panayiotis Giorgos Alfieris (1882-1934), Evangelos P. Alfieris (1913-1991, son of Panayiotis Alfieris, Zaferia of Spiridonas Koronaios Alfieris (1890-1949, wife of Panayiotis Alfieris.
Back Row: Evangelos Dimitrios Koronaios, Kosmas Dimitrios Koronaios, and their father Dimitrios Spiridonas Koronais, brother of Zapheria Koronaios Alfieris.

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Photos, Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People
Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People

Spirithoula Argyri Alfieris (1855-1927) with sons Emmanuel on the left and Vrettos on the right.

Spirithoula was the daugher of Eleni and Yianni Argyris. Yiannis completed the carving of the alter at the monastery in Agia Moni in 1845. Spirithoula married George Alfieris from Potamos. They had six children; Panayiotis (Egypt), Vrettos , John (USA), Emmanuel, Evangelos, George, and Maria. Spiridoula immigrated to Australia around 1906.

 

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Photos, Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People
General History

The Life of Ioannis Panagioti (John Peter) Venardos

I’ve been researching my ancestor Ioannis Venardos (John Peter Venardos), and I thought people here might appreciate his story because it really feels like the classic Kytherian immigrant experience.

John was born on 10 October 1872 on Kythera, from the Potamos/Karavas area. His parents were Panagiotis Benardos and Diamanta Kapsani. He only finished the 6th grade, but he still managed to build a successful life in America through hard work and persistence.

 

Before emigrating, he served in the Greek military as a corporal in the Grecian Marines and fought against the Turks. He was even wounded in the hip during one battle and hospitalized for a short time.

 

He came to America in 1900. Ellis Island records show he arrived at Ellis Island on August 16, 1900 aboard the La Bretagne after leaving Le Havre, France. His last residence was listed as “Serigo” (Kythera). He arrived single, 26 years old, with very little formal education and probably no idea what his future would look like.

After spending time in St. Louis, he moved to Alton and joined his brother Constantine “Gus” Venardos in the candy business. Eventually John became known around town simply as “John Venardos, the candy man.” His homemade chocolates, peanut bars, chocolate-covered peanuts, and Karmelkorn were apparently famous locally.

 

What I find interesting is that he wasn’t just a candy maker. Over the years he invested in property, opened new stores, and became a respected figure in the local Greek-American community. During WWII he even organized a Home Guard group of Greek-American men in Alton.

 

Even after all those years in America, he stayed connected to Kythera. In 1929 he traveled back to the island after the deaths of his parents and brother to deal with family property matters, and relatives from Greece continued visiting him in Illinois years later.

 

He married Edith “Eda” Hack in 1906 and had four children: Elizabeth, Dia, Homer, and Nestor.

 

John died in 1968, just a week before turning 96, and is buried at Alton City Cemetery.

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History, General History
Current Affairs

Kytherian Society of California GLOBAL Kytherian ZOOM IX - Nov 15, 2025 (Nov 16 in Australia)

JOIN us for our next GLOBAL ZOOM!

 

Please check your time zone carefully.


Saturday, November 15, 2025/ Sunday, November 16, 2025 (Australia)

Saturday, November 15, 2025
 12:00 p.m.   San Francisco / Los Angeles 
 2:00 p.m.   Chicago / St. Louis
 3:00 p.m.   Baltimore / Boston / New York / Toronto 
 8:00 p.m.   Dublin / London
 9:00 p.m.  Berlin / Paris
10:00 p.m.  Athens / Cape Town

Sunday, November 16, 2025
 4:00 a.m.   Perth   

 6:00 a.m.   Brisbane 
 6:30  a.m.   Adelaide 

 7:00 a.m     Sydney / Canberra / Melbourne / Hobart

 

Attendance is FREE but we would appreciate if you would register to enable us to keep track of he number attending.

 

Complete for Registration Form here: https://forms.gle/PPpvoEJBDAKSDDMx7

 

If you have not heard about our GLOBAL ZOOMS, please visit our website: http://www.ksoca.com/global-zooms.html

 

We hope to see you there!

 

Feel free to email us if you have any questions.  kytheriansociety@ksoca.com

 

 

 

 

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Culture, Current Affairs
Diaspora Social Life

Drinking at the bar of the Quilpie Hotel, ca. 1921

Pictured from left: Peter Pisano, Roy Bromley, Bob Angus, unidentified barmaid and an unidentified gentleman standing next to the proprietor Jim Corones (right).
 
Quilpie is located 1010km west of Brisbane by road and 980km by rail and was proclaimed a town on the 29th April 1917. The township is situated on the western bank of the Bulloo River and is out of flood reach. Quilpie's importance is as a railhead. It is the centre from which cattle from the Channel Country and beyond are railed and in good seasons upwards of 60,000 cattle pass through the railhead. Sheep also pass through in large numbers. The opal is a very sought after commodity and the district is the home of the Boulder Opal.
Due to the town's location and it's low rainfall, Quilpie is intensely hot and dusty in summer. The temperature during January and February often exceeds 40 degrees celsius, while winters are mild. The town itself has a population of about 600 and its annual average rainfall is only approximately 300-500mm. (Information taken from: Quilpie Shire Council website, 2007, retrieved on 20 March 2007 from www.quilpie.qld.gov.au/visitors/Quilpie Info.shtml)

 

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Photos, Diaspora Social Life
Vintage Portraits/ People

Aristidis Nikolas Megalokonomos with 2 unknown men - Please help identify!

Aristidis Nikolas Megalokonomos was born in 1873. He was one of 10 children born to Nikolas Dimitrios Megalokonomos and Theohari Panagioti Benardou. 

Aristidis married Metaxou Theodoros Tzantioti.

 

He is seated in this photograph but we do not know the identiy of the men on either side of him. 

 

This photo was among the archive of photographs belonging to August "Gus" "Auggie" Conomos, who was the son of Antonios, Aristidis brother. 

Antonios was married to Vretoula Konstantine Trifilis. They immigrated to Baltimore, USA.

 

Please comment below if you know the identify of the men standing.

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Photos, Vintage Portraits/ People
Churches & Icons

xpona polla to all kytherians ...

very special day for all kytherians .. 12th may we celebrate our patron saint of kythera .. agios theodoros ...every year on the 12th may kytherians cemmorate the death of agios theodoros, the patron saint of the island .. the monastery of agios theodoros is just south of potamos and a wonderful panayri is held at the monastery to cemmorate the patron saint of kythera .. so xpona polla to all kytherians and to all kytherian theodores ...

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Photos, Churches & Icons
Churches & Icons

AGIOS THEODOROS

the church of agios theodoros . just outside potamos , agios theodoros is the patron saint of kythera , his bones are storedv within the church , theodoros was a priest on kythera he was from monivasia .. agios theodoros celebrates on the 12th may ...from the air you can see the byzantine architecture designed of the church.. 

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Photos, Churches & Icons
Life Stories

Anargyros Vretos Fatseas 1907 - 1998

‘Andrew’ Anargyros Vretos Fatseas

aka

Andrew Victor Fatseas (Andy)

 1907 – 1998

“Whether in bliss or in distress, I never forget the land of my birth. After all, it was mother Greece who instilled into me those moral virtues, without which I would not have appreciated as fully as I do now what Australia has given to me.”

‘Andrew’ Fatseas, Australia Day 1974

Anargyros Vretos Fatseas, son of Vretos and Smaragda Fatseas was born at Potamos, Cerigo, Greece on 29th November 1907. He received a sound education on the island before departing at the age of seven for Australia in April 1924.

 

His brother, ‘Jack’ Fatseas migrated to Australia in October 1920 with wife ‘Jean’ nee Fardouly. He was employed at Con Peters & Co. Tingha NSW, conducted by his Fardouly in-laws until taking up a partnership in S. Peter & Co Inverell in 1921. In 1922 he was a partner with his brother in-law, Harry Fardouly at the Alhambra Café in Byron Street.

 

With a position as a kitchen-man available at the Alhambra Café in Inverell, Anargyros departed Port Said, Egypt, aboard S.S. Hobson’s Bay, 4th April 1924 bound for Australian ports.

The S.S. Hobson’s Bay, of the Aberdeen and Commonwealth Line (ACL) a steamer 530 feet long with a gross tonnage of 14,198 tons was built in 1922 as a one of the famous fleet of “Bay” steamers. The passenger/Cargo ship accommodated up to 750 passengers (12 1stclass: 738 3rd class) and crew and travelled at an average speed of 15 knots. The Hobson’s Bay and sister ships maintained a regular monthly service from Southampton, England to the Australian ports of Fremantle, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, calling at Malta, Port Said and Colombo en route. The fare for the full single voyage, 3rd class, cost £45.

The Hobson’s Bay arrived at Fremantle on 25th April with 737 passengers for Australian ports, including 30 Greek migrants.

“Ship of all nations”

On the Hobson’s Bay

                                                FREMANTLE, Saturday.

 

“The steamer, Hobson’s Bay which arrived here yesterday, was aptly called the boat of all nations, as its passengers hailed from England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Sweden, Russia, Greece, Germany, Poland, Italy, Palestine, Cyrus and Holland. The newcomers totalled 737. The quotes for the various States are:- Fremantle, 179 of which 154 are assisted by the Government: Adelaide, 29 including 13 assisted: Melbourne, 178 including 3 assisted: Sydney, 278 including 76 assisted: Brisbane, 72 including 23 assisted. Included in the passenger list is the crew of the Australmead numbering 42. They were returned to Australia from Port Said, as the ship was sold to Greece.”

Evening News, Sydney, Sat Apr 1924.

 

Anargyros disembarked from the Hobson’s Bay at No 5 Walsh Bay, Sydney on 5th May 1924 with 14 fellow Greek passengers. Within a few days he was aboard a train to Glen Innes and then motor coach to Inverell.

The position at the Alhambra Café was not to his liking and his shortcomings with the English language prompted him to seek a different position of employment in Sydney. Alas after a period of disappointment he reluctantly took  a position as kitchen-man in a café at Kempsey in 1925. In the limited time of the long hours in the kitchen he found time to commence teaching himself English. In 1926 he moved to the quiet of Bundarra, working for Jim Aroney in the IXL Café. Here he continued teaching himself English, however the lack of Greeks of his own age and language difficulties with the local community, loneliness and isolation, he returned to Sydney in hope of better prospects outside the café scene.

Once again after depleting his meagre financial resources he returned to the café scene in the Bon Ton Sundae Shop (George Comino) at Goulburn in 1927. In 1931 after working at various cafes in NSW country towns he was able to secure temporary accommodation above a sundae shop in Newtown.

With improved language skills and experience, he found employment as caretaker of a mini-golf establishment and embarked on what can only be called a remarkable journey in life due to his perseverance and diligence in mastering the English language.

The new found confidence working outside café scene brought changes in his life as he continued to master English to the point where he began teaching English to Greek children and adults  in order that they would gain from his own experiences. During this period he met and courted Vera Radnidge and they married in 1935..

Anargyros, now better known as Andrew and ‘Andy,’ secured the position of news editor of Ethnikon Vema (Greek National Tribune, Sydney) in 1938, whilst continuing to conduct his tuition classes and raise a family. His writing was taken up as a respected voice of the Greek community in leading Sydney metropolitan newspapers, including the Sydney Morning Herald, The Daily Telegraph and Sun during the pre WW2 and WW2 years.

Anargyros Fatseas held the position of secretary of The Kytherian Association in 1938.

During the Second World War his services were called upon in the recruitment of Greek enlistments to determine their language skills.

“I was 23 when I was drafted into the army. They would try to find out how educated we were and how much we had picked up the language. A man by the name of Andrew Fatseas was sent to test us on our English literacy. He asked me how capable I was of speaking English to which I answered confidently, “Mr Fatseas you read the Herald and I’ll translate.” He was astonished and he then got me to teach the smaller classes.” - Emanuel Casimatis /Kythera Family Net:  History > Oral History of Emanuel Casimatis /submitted by Joshua Kepreotis on 31.01.2015

Anargyros Vr (known as Andrew Victor) was naturalized on 24th October, 1944, residing at 4 Malley Ave. Earlwood NSW. (Commonwealth Government Gazette 20 Dec 1944)

Post WW2 he established the Greek Orthodox Community School, in Paddington and was often called upon as Official Court interpreter.

In 1954 the first school text prepared especially for Greek children in Australia was published in Sydney. Entitled Didaktika anagnosmata kai digimata [Educational Readings and Short Stories] it was written by Anargyros Fatseas, and contained poems and prose pieces written by him on historical, geographical, social and other subjects about Greece and Australia.

 

The Australian Women’s Weekly printed a frank account by Anargyros of his migrant experience in January 1974, titled ‘Man who found luck in the Lucky Country’

Andrew V. Fatseas tells his story.

This story for Australia Day (1974) – the day marking European settlement in this country – tells what happened to a Greek migrant who arrived in 1924, 136 years after the first settler stepped ashore at Sydney ….. a story of joys and sorrows that are part of building a nation.

Australian Women’s Weekly, 30 Jan 1974)

Vera Fatseas (nee Radnidge) d 19 Sep 1981

 

Anargyros Vretos Fatseas died, 23 July 1998 and is buried in the Greek Orthodox portion of Rookwood Cemetery. He was survived by his children Victor, Thalia, Alexandra and their families.

 

Literary Works of Andrew Victor Fatseas

The Hymn to Liberty, ©1941

Sydney, ©1951

Readings and Short Stories (in Greek), ©1955

The Foreign-born, ©1959

The Blue Letter, ©1960

Grammar of Modern Greek, ©1960

Pride and Torture, ©1964

Reppas and the Matchmaker, ©1969

 

Research Assistance – 

Victor A. Fatseas, Bathurst NSW

Con Fardouly, Inverell NSW

 

 

Researched and written by Peter C. McCarthy, aka ‘Skoulandris’ Panagiotis Makarthis

Delungra NSW

21 August 2018. ©

 

 

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People, Life Stories
Life Stories

ELENI PANARETOU-KOMINOU

ELENI PANARETOU-KOMINOU

 

Family

My grandfather, John Panaretos, returned from Australia in 1906. He married my grandmother, Eleni Katsouli, who died a year later, 17 days after the birth of my father, Dimitris. The orphan child was then breastfed by Irini Prineas. When my father was three years old, my grandfather remarried and had four children with his second wife. My father had a difficult childhood, always having to do all the chores. He went to Athens, when my grandfather died, and worked at his cousin’s Nikos Koronaios ‘kafenio’. He spent quite a few years working in Athens, where he met my mother, Theodora, who lived there with an aunt of hers. My mother was from Logothetianika, Galakatos family. They married and she got pregnant with me. In 1938, when the whole world was in turmoil, they came to the island for a while. In the meantime World War II had broken out and they ended up staying.

I was born on the 26th October 1938 at home in Agia Triada. Now my paternal home is just a ruin, only a wall remains. My first brother John was born on the 4th March 1940, George on the 23rd April 1943, my sister Irini on the 7th August 1945. In July ’48 my youngest brother Emilios came, who has now sadly passed.

It was destined for our family to separate. Three of my siblings left for Australia, while Emilios and I stayed here. I was eleven years old when I too set out to leave for Australia, papers and passport where all ready. My uncle in Australia though, wanted a signed statement from my father relinquishing him of any responsibility if anything happened to me. My father was angered by his request, tore the letter and I didn’t go anywhere. By the time I was eigh, my brother John was already in Australia and my aunt wanted to take me too. However, my cousin jokingly claimed that he would pass me off as his girlfriend and on hearing this news, my aunt got annoyed and wrote to my father. Her advice was that I should marry first and then go to Australia with my husband to avoid any scandal. So, I married with the prospect of moving to Australia.

 

My husband Andreas for two years tried to win my attention but I ignored him. Not that he wasn’t handsome, but he liked going out, hunting and the kafenio. He was never at home, whereas I wanted someone interested in a more domestic life. Finally, he approached my father and told him that he liked me and was willing to marry me even without a dowry. My father agreed and advised me: “Elenitsa, marry him, he is a good boy, you’re still young, you can mold him the way you like and as you grow together, everything will be fine”. We married, but we didn’t go to Australia. Instead we lived in my great-grandmother’s house in Panaretianika, where we didn’t even have water or electricity. We stayed there seven years and in that time my first two children, Anastasia and Theodoros were born. 

It wasn’t an easy time, apart from the children, I had my fields, I also helped my in-laws with theirs, I sewed and I picked olives. I alone could pick 150 sacks of olives from the beginning of October till the end of February, if they hadn’t already fallen. One year, while picking, an olive branch broke and fell, breaking my leg in two places. At the time, Thodoros was just a baby. I went to Athens where I was told that I had to have my leg operated on, otherwise it would be 4 cm shorter than the other. My husband was afraid and didn’t want me to have the operation, but I was only 26-27 and I wanted to walk and not limp. I went ahead with the operation and I was consequently absent from my family for six months. My mother looked after my children while I was in Athens. When I returned to the island, Anastasia on seeing me with crutches got scared and broke out in tears. Thodoros didn’t recognize me and wouldn’t even talk to me for weeks. He would call his grandmother “mama”. After two months I had to go back to Athens to get the metal removed from my leg. On leaving, Thodoros begged me crying not to be too long, as he didn’t want to forget me again…

Shortly after, I fell pregnant with Dimitra.

The Occupation

My father had a ‘kafenio’ in Potamos where coffee would be roasted and ground. The aroma would fill up the whole square and everyone would say “Let’s go to Panaretos’ for coffee!” People from nearby villages, coming with their donkeys loaded for trade, would stop to enjoy a coffee. During the Occupation, though, everything closed down. There was no money and my father would do all kinds of jobs. One of these jobs was to bring in the nets on a friend’s fishing boat. He would go fishing with him at Lagada, Agia Pelagia. As he owned only one pair of shoes, to get to Pelagia he would often walk barefoot, so as not to ruin them. Only when he would get close to the shore, he would put them on to protect his feet from the thorns and jagged rocks. When the catch came in, the fish would be divided, the owner taking half and the other half shared amongst the workers. My father was considered the first mate, probably due to his strength. The basket where he kept his fish was the gathering spot for neighboring women to make secret exchanges, a hidden pot of oil under an apron, or flour carefully wrapped in a tea towel. For this reason we didn’t go hungry during the Occupation, because we bartered goods. The women of my neighborhood were all hard working. Many owned animals, which they used to plough and tend the fields. All the women of the family worked planting and reaping.

My mother kept having babies. At the age of 4 or 5 I didn’t go to school and she would entrust me with a bundle of soiled baby nappies that I would take to wash in a stream behind the cemetery of Potamos. I would spend the whole day washing nappies-there were no disposables then- as well as having to look over our ewe that I took along to graze. If by any chance I was late, she would come -baby in arms- to the top of the hill to call for me.

 

School years

I’ve worked since 5 years old. I attended primary school but in my second last year I had to stop when my brother Emilios was born to look after him, as my mother had injured her leg. Emilios would often call me ‘mama’, as it was I who took care of him. When my mother recovered I went back to school, finishing Potamos primary school at the age of 13. School was morning and afternoon then, except Saturdays which was only mornings. Children from Agia Pelagia and Agia Anastasia would spend all day at school, as there was no school bus. They would bring food from home and continue their lessons in the afternoon. There was no pressure on us then to study. I remember our teacher enjoyed organising gymnastic presentations and theatre productions. There were only 3 three teachers at the school, each having two classes to teach. Then the rich kids always got the good marks, if you were a poor kid you probably got a hiding. My father was often maddened by my teacher despite the fact that they were related and one time when the teacher had hit me severely-not to do with my lessons, but with petty village gossip-my dad confronted him and said: “Listen here Teacher! I didn’t bring up my kid so you could punch it around! I will report you even if you are my second cousin! I expect you to guide and properly advise my kid!”

On finishing primary school, I continued my studies in Home Economics at a public school in Potamos. I also did 4 years of dress making and a year of pattern making. I often think I’m

worthless and when my granddaughter hears me she says: “You, yiayia, you do everything for us! You cook, you sew, you bake, and you do so many things! Will I be like you when I grow up?”

 

Work

My husband was a carpenter and a craftsman. He was always helping his parents, as they were poor farmers. They had two oxen which they used to plough two small fields. They had several more children, it was difficult…

I had asked for work at the hospital, even as a cleaner, as I really was in need of the money. I was finally hired as cook, when the position opened and they requested a reliable person.

I have always been a hard worker. I had my gardens, I tended sheep and goats, I milked them and also made my own cheese, as well as working at the hospital. There was never enough time! Chores, children, work, what could you do? I didn’t go out, not even to the ‘platia’; I only went to church.

When my father died, my mother went to Australia and I no longer had her help around the house. I used to pay a girl to look after the baby. I looked after the other children, cooking for them and tending to them before I would go to work. I admit I had lots of help from my eldest daughter, Tasoula, who by 10 years of age could make a delicious dish of ‘gemista’!

I often would gather wild greens from my garden and serve them to the patients in the hospital, as well as fresh lemons from my tree to make them better. When there was no water, I would carry it from wells or springs so as I could wash and cook. No one helped me. When there was no electricity, I would light a neighboring wood fired oven, so the patients would have bread. I put a lot of personal effort into that job.

After 26 years employment, on my retirement, I realised that only 7 years had been calculated towards my pension. I had worked all those years uninsured and now I have to survive on a miniscule pension.

 

Australia

I first went to Australia in 1987 when my son Theodore got married. I stayed for three months and then again in 2007 for another three months. My last visit was in 2012 only for a short time as I had to return to my husband, who is afraid of flying and never goes anywhere.

When I first went to Australia it was rare to see an Asian, the second time there were considerably more and now they are everywhere. I also observed that a lot of businesses were family run, avoiding costs. Everybody worked, from the youngest to the oldest.

Poverty, though, is everywhere, even in Australia. I remember seeing people in the parks picking up cigarette butts off the ground. Not everyone there is comfortable, only the few are rich. Those who have made lots of money have many jobs and don’t spend a penny, that’s why they have money. Greeks, though, always tended to gamble. My brothers never gambled, but they never got rich either. Not that they didn’t succeed, as they lived well and helped support the family in Greece over the years.

My brother John had left at the age of 13. I hadn’t seen him in 34 years! When I arrived at the airport and he saw me from afar, he tried to jump the security rails to come and greet me, much to the disapproval of the airport personnel.  We had kept up correspondence over the years, but not often, because when I got married, I had the kids, chores, you know how it is…

 

Now and Then

Back then, we were obliged to clear and maintain our land. I still remember my grandfather who would chop and prune his way through walking tracks, paths and gullies, making sure not even a twig was out of place to avoid any chance of fire during the dry summer months. Not like now, where everything has overgrown with thorns and classified as forestry. Now you’re not even allowed to chop wood on your own land!

Because much land now has been abandoned, it’s been classified as forestry; we have no say on our own land. Not to mention the endless boring of water, that has exhausted the island’s natural water supply!

In my day you’d walk out and hear ‘good morning’, a good word; there was poverty, but people valued each other. The boys respected us girls and would never do anything to offend any of us. When we would go to the dances, which were held either at the Astikon School or the Community Hall-which is now the National Bank of Potamos-if a boy wanted to dance with me a ‘tsamiko’, a ‘syrto’ or a waltz, first he would have to ask my father for permission. Now everyone gangs up gossiping about each other, it didn’t use to be like that.

Everyone in the neighborhood watched out for each other. When I was a baby and my mother needed to go and get water she would often leave me under the supervision of the young girls, without payment, a thank you or a treat was more than enough. Nowadays in order to get anyone to do a chore, they’ll want at least 5 euros. Even a ‘good morning’ costs. I used to help the entire neighborhood. There was one old lady with poor eyesight who would wait for me at her door on my return from school and sometimes she would ask me to thread her a needle, other time when she had cleaned potatoes and onions, she would ask me to light the fire and put her meal on to cook. She was on her own and would often ask help from passersby, especially me.

We were poor then, but everyone got along and respected each other. I don’t know what caused people to change so much…

 

Joys of Life

I’ve been driving from an early age; in 1983 I went to Athens and got my license. My husband didn’t want me to get a car, so I got one secretly. At first he wouldn’t even get in the car, because he was afraid I might kill him. But gradually, he would get me to drive him around for his errands. Now, he says “I go anywhere with my wife driving, its others I’m afraid of”.

Summers, I would take my grandchildren swimming to Avlemonas, Paliopoli, Diakofti, Agia Pelagia-only to Likodimou I wouldn’t go; I was too scared of the winding road. I would take them to Milopotamos  to feed the ducks, to the springs at Karavas, to our fields, lots of places. And whenever they would get in the car, they’d all call out “Super Yiayia!”

After getting my pension, I’ve travelled quite a bit. I’ve been almost all around Greece, on school excursions with my grandchildren and extensively with the church group.

I have 9 grandchildren and four great grandchildren. Lots of people, lots of responsibilities, lots of winging and lots of love. I can’t complain, everybody loves me, especially my grandchildren. One time when my granddaughter’s class was asked to write about who they would like to be like when they grow up, most kids wrote about movie stars and famous people, whereas my granddaughter Eleni wrote that she would like to be like her yiaya Eleni, me!

Young people need to have a bit more patience and respect for each other, especially amongst couples. Happiness in life is the birth of your children, the marriage of your children, and their success in education. I feel blessed with my grandchildren. My little Marianthi comes and tells me that I’m the best yiayia in the world! That’s a blessing!

 

 

 

 

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People, Life Stories
Modern Portraits

the way we were !

kythera we dont see anymore, this  photo was taken in the early 80s, when it wasnt uncommon to see this on a regular basis on the main road of the island as the village folk would take their animals to the horafa to feed them , and in most cases if you were in a car you would have to stop to let the animals pass...thats potamo in the background ...

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Modern Portraits

lest we forget !!

great initiative from Mr.Peter Manea [ middle ] from sydney who from his own doing and costings is placing a war memorial plaque in potamos next year with all diaspora  kytherians  who served in any world wars .. well done peter thats great  !!....peter , the mayor announced this in potamos platia late june ... you will see all those great men and womens names engraved on that plague that served for their new countries ! .....

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Modern Portraits

' on the streets of your town '

funny who you can find walking the streets in the villages of kythera , here rugby league  legend peter wynn , on the left , and thats stephen trifyllis , meet in potamo in july , peter wynn played rugby league for australia and new soutrh wales  in the late seventies and played for parramatta in sydney in those famous parramatta sides , that contained players such us  peter sterling , mick cronin, arthur beetson , ray price , brett kenny ,eric grothe  to name a few that he played with  , peter told me he loves kythera and has been several times times to the island, he has kytherian friends in sydney  that have told peter  and his wife about the island , if you go to his sports store in sydney tell him you saw this story and  photo on the website .. go parra !! .. well after the mighty  brisbane  broncos !!

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Diaspora Social Life

i feel like dancing !!

 big social night for the kytherian assocation of quuensland with the annual spaletta dinner dance held in brisbane saturday 10th june , great food , great music , and plenty of dancing , a warm up for the dances on the island this summer .. great night well done to all !

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Diaspora Social Life

GREEK NATIONAL DAY ...

 president of the kytherian assocation of queensland australia .. mr. peter coroneo  [family from potamos and mylopotamos ].. laying a wreath on behalf of all queensland kytherians and attending the church service for Greek national Day at the greek orthdox church of St. George west end brisbane australia ... xpona polla and zito e ellada !!

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Obituaries

John G. Alfieris (Feb. 28, 1883 - Dec. 6, 1966) Oakland, CA, USA

John G. Alfieris

Feb. 28, 1883 - Dec. 6, 1966

 

Trisagion services for John G. Alfieris, 83, retired Oakland restaurant operator and patriarch of the East Bay Greek community, will be held at 8 o’clock tonight at Grant Miller’s, 2850 Telegraph Ave., Oakland, 

Services will be held at 11:45 a.m. tomorrow at the Greek Orthodox Church of the Ascension, 4700 Lincoln Ave., Oakland.

Mr. Alfieris, who sold his last downtown restaurant after suffering a heart attack in 1948, died Monday at his home, 203 Athol Ave., Oakland.He is survived by his wife, Mary, five children, 15 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

Mr. Alfieris and his wife were born on the island of Kythera, off the southern coast of Greece. They were married in Egypt in 1903 and came to Oakland shortly before the 1906 earthquake and fire.

Soon after, he opened a candy store and cafe in the Fruitvale district of Oakland. For many years he was Northern California subscription representative for the California Greek Newspaper.

Mr. Alfieris directed or acted in many Greek dramas for Greek Orthodox church and other groups. He was co-founder and past president of the Hellenic Community Church, Oakland; past president and co-founder of the Kytherian Society of the West Coast: president, past district governor and charter member of the Greek American Progressive Association (GAPA), and member of AHEPA Chapter 171 of Oakland. 

 

Oakland Tribune: Dec. 1966

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Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People

Marouli Kominos with her children

From the collection of Spiridoula Alfieris Georgopoulos

 

Marouli Kominos (nee Katsoulis) 1895-1956 with children Theodore (1922), Fotenoula (1916), Theodroa (1915) and Anthony 1922)

Mina Antonios Kominos and Marouli Theodoro Katsoulis were married in Kythera, 1 Jan 1931.

Mina died in 1924in Sydney, AU.

 

It was photographed in Esma Studios, Oxford St, Sydney. It is likely the photo was sent to relatives in Kythera.

On the back it says -

Ενθύμιο στη σεβαστή θεία Σπυριδουλα και Μαριγώ ... Μαρούλι Μ Κομνηνου Συδνεΰ

17 Ιουνίου 1924

(Translated as - Souvenir for the respected Aunt Spiridoula and Marigo
Marouli M. Kominou
Sydney, 17June 1924)

 

 

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Modern Landscapes

listen to the band !!

pleasant surprise at the potamo sunday markets in august the kytherian philharmonic band  surprised  shoppers   with a impromptu concert in the main street of potamo watched by a large crowd ...needless to say it brought the markets to a stand still for a while .. but it was worth it !!

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Working Life

working holiday !

Great opportunity for katina [ mavromati ] Black who did her work experience as a pharmacist in the pharmacy at potamo ..katina will finish her pharmacy studies at Queensland university at the end of this year .. katina is the daughter of john [ mavromati ] Black  of casino who is a pharmacist as well and annzina [ poteri ] Black from Toowoomba who were also on the island this summer ....katina enjoyed her work experience at the potamo pharmacy and gained valuable knowledge from her boss mano trifylli ...it was great to walk past the pharmacy and see katina assisting the customers with her friendly smile ... katina successfully combined working and enjoying all aspects of the kytherian summer , she also celebrated her 21st birthday with a great dinner at the famous platinos restraunt at beautiful mylopotamos  .. well done katina and all the best for the future ...

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Churches & Icons

agios theodoros ..

the parading of the icon of agios theodoros at agia paraskvi .. Taigum ..Brisbane .. Queensland ...to celbrate the patron saint of the island on the 12th may .. the morning service was followed by a morning tea for the attendees .. with plenty of chat about the up coming summer months in kythera ...

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AGIOS THEODOROS .. 12TH MAY

annual panayiri at agios theodoros  near potamo , to celebrate the patron saint of kythera .. agios theodoros xpona polla to all and especially all the theodores that celebrated yesterday .. here the procession heads out of the church with the icon and the bones of our saint of kythera ...a special thank you to chrissa fatseas photography potamos for this photograph

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Internet & Wireless

Chrissa Fatseas photography

Chrissa Fatseas photography in potamos next to the pharmacy , for all your photographic  needs while on the island .. Chrissa can photograph your special function from lunches, dinners , birthday parties , family reunions summer excursions, to weddings . also large  range of photo albums ,   picture frames , also Chrissa can place photos of kythera on coffee cups , calendars, key rings , fridge magnets  biros , etc. .. perfect presents to bring back home , photos of all dances , and major church services on file  , memory sticks for cameras , photos of your stay on kythera  can be placed on CDs or  memory sticks for safety…. so support local business when on the island .. call Chrissa on  0011 30 6974112419 or email … fxphoto@hotmail.com

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Working Life

kythera photo shop ...!

Photo  shop in downtown  potamos owned by chrissa fatseas , chrissa is a professional photographer and graduated from the athens techinical university .... chrissa will take photos while you are on the island of all social events such as weddings , christeings , birthday parties, meetings , anniversaries , special  family lunches or dinners , or book chriisa for a day out to take photos of you cruising and exploring the island with great shots of you and the island , her dad is george the taxi driver !! chrissa has over 10 years experience in professional photgraphy , the store is located as you enter potamo and right next door to the  pharmacy .. the store has a large range range of photo frames and photo  albums ...chrissa also keeps on file photos of  kytherian landcapes , villages , beaches for you to bring back home , also chrissa will photograph traditional events that take place on the island such as parades , saint church days , dances etc and also photos of the kytherian philarmonic orchestra.. chrissa will also arrange great souviners , photos of kythera on coffee cups , key rings , biros , fridge magnets, calendars etc ,  she can also download photos from your camera  onto CDs and USBs ,  .. .. while on kythera please support local business .. they need our patronage ...mobile is 6974112419... shop phone number ..2736038225 ... or visit www.fxphoto-kythera.gr... email is fxphoto@hotmail.com

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Building cultuarl identity through reading

The Weekend Neos Kosmos, (Melbourne)

Saturday 13th February 2016, Page 16

Author Melina Mallos has a winning formula for bringing children in touch with their cultural heritage that Cat while on holiday to her parents' birthplace

ANASTASIA TSIRTSAKIS

One can't think of the beautiful cobbled streets of the Greek islands without the meow of a cat springing to mind.
Whch is why the feline is the perfect protagonist for Melina Mallos' children's book Catch that Cat, which seeks to put children in touch with their Greek cultural heritage.

"A lot (of children] haven't travelled to Greece before. And now,as the generations are progressing, a lot of their grandparents aren't even talking to them in Greek," Melina explains. "So tile book was really about providing opportunities for kids to connect to their Greek heritage, as well as the language,and instil in them a desire to visit Greece and know more about their culture."

The Brisbane-based author was inspired to write Catch that Cat while on holiday to her parents birthplace of Kythera in 2007.

"My aunty lived in Athens and they had a cat in their apartment. They decided to take it to Kythera and leave it on the island; so this cat went from an urban city landscape to rural country. "The cat's still alive and lives on the island.and it survives by the neighbours feeding it," she says.

Keeping the book connected to its roots on the Greek island, the picture book is also being stocked by local booksellers and stores in Kythera. "I noticed there wasn't a souvenir book for kids on the island.So that's another reason I wrote the book, because I thought it was a missed opportunity for so many visitors who come; it's a good little gift that people could take back and share with their kids and grandkids", Melina explains.

Since the book's launch at Brisbane's Greek Festival in May last year,it has been well received both Down Under and in Greece. But for the author, her debut into the world of children's literature was very significant, in that she finally found a way to marry her background in early childhood education and passion for art.

Working with publishers at the Kytherian World Heritage Fund, administered under the auspices of the Kytherian Association of Australia, gave Melina the opportunity to collaborate with Athens­ based illustrator and translator Tety Solou.

With the book available in two editions - bilingual - both Greek and English - and in English alone - it has made it possible for people outside the Greek community to connect with the book's content. "I've been surprised there's been a broader appeal to people who don't have a Greek background. I get a lot of feedback about the
catchy rhyme in it," she says.

Aside from writing, Melina is a leading developer of collaborative
community projects and culturally enriching programs for children. Committed to sharing her knowledge on teaching cultural sensitivities with Australia's parents,she manages
to do so through regular guest blogging, article writing, public speaking and training. "I help children create bonds with their community and culture in order to build a strong sense of self, strengthen their relationships, increase their self-confidence, and experience meaningful connections," says Melina.

But don't worry, that's not the last we'll see of that cat.The author is currently working on her second children's book, a collaborative project through tile Cat Welfare Association of Kythera.

English only versions of Catch that Cat are available for purchase through www.catchthatcat.com (the website also includes free downloadoble kids' activities related to the Australian curriculum for promoting intercultural understanding).

For the bilingual edition, email secretary@kytherianassociation.com.au or phone (02) 9599 6998.

Melina is also available to deliver book readings and workshops for your community, school or cultural festival and can be contacted via her website.
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Life Stories

Building cultural identity through reading

The Weekend Neos Kosmos, (Melbourne)

Saturday 13th February 2016, Page 16

Author Melina Mallos has a winning formula for bringing children in touch with their cultural heritage that Cat while on holiday to her parents' birthplace

ANASTASIA TSIRTSAKIS

[[picture:"Weekend Neos Kosmos Sat 13th Feb 2016.jpg" ID:23337]]

One can't think of the beautiful cobbled streets of the Greek islands without the meow of a cat springing to mind.
Whch is why the feline is the perfect protagonist for Melina Mallos' children's book Catch that Cat, which seeks to put children in touch with their Greek cultural heritage.

"A lot (of children] haven't travelled to Greece before. And now,as the generations are progressing, a lot of their grandparents aren't even talking to them in Greek," Melina explains. "So tile book was really about providing opportunities for kids to connect to their Greek heritage, as well as the language,and instil in them a desire to visit Greece and know more about their culture."

The Brisbane-based author was inspired to write Catch that Cat while on holiday to her parents birthplace of Kythera in 2007.

"My aunty lived in Athens and they had a cat in their apartment. They decided to take it to Kythera and leave it on the island; so this cat went from an urban city landscape to rural country. "The cat's still alive and lives on the island.and it survives by the neighbours feeding it," she says.

Keeping the book connected to its roots on the Greek island, the picture book is also being stocked by local booksellers and stores in Kythera. "I noticed there wasn't a souvenir book for kids on the island.So that's another reason I wrote the book, because I thought it was a missed opportunity for so many visitors who come; it's a good little gift that people could take back and share with their kids and grandkids", Melina explains.

Since the book's launch at Brisbane's Greek Festival in May last year,it has been well received both Down Under and in Greece. But for the author, her debut into the world of children's literature was very significant, in that she finally found a way to marry her background in early childhood education and passion for art.

Working with publishers at the Kytherian World Heritage Fund, administered under the auspices of the Kytherian Association of Australia, gave Melina the opportunity to collaborate with Athens­ based illustrator and translator Tety Solou.

With the book available in two editions - bilingual - both Greek and English - and in English alone - it has made it possible for people outside the Greek community to connect with the book's content. "I've been surprised there's been a broader appeal to people who don't have a Greek background. I get a lot of feedback about the
catchy rhyme in it," she says.

Aside from writing, Melina is a leading developer of collaborative community projects and culturally enriching programs for children. Committed to sharing her knowledge on teaching cultural sensitivities with Australia's parents,she manages to do so through regular guest blogging, article writing, public speaking and training. "I help children create bonds with their community and culture in order to build a strong sense of self, strengthen their relationships, increase their self-confidence, and experience meaningful connections," says Melina.

But don't worry, that's not the last we'll see of that cat.The author is currently working on her second children's book, a collaborative project through tile Cat Welfare Association of Kythera.

English only versions of Catch that Cat are available for purchase through www.catchthatcat.com (the website also includes free downloadoble kids' activities related to the Australian curriculum for promoting intercultural understanding).

For the bilingual edition, email secretary@kytherianassociation.com.au or phone (02) 9599 6998.

Melina is also available to deliver book readings and workshops for your community, school or cultural festival and can be contacted via her website.
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People, Life Stories
Diaspora Working Life

Professor Minas Coroneo speaking to the award he received for Kythera,

at the 3rd Presentation of Ionian (Eptanisian) Union of Greece, Awards. Dr Manolis Kalokerinos, was the other awardee from Kythera.

[[picture:"Ionian Union of Greece LOGO.jpg" ID:23283]]

The awards were held on December 13, 2015,
December 13, 2015 in the National History Museum of the Old Parliament Building.

Invitation to Minas Coroneos to attend the ceremony to receive his award:

The awards ceremony takes place as an expression of respect and pride for Ionians who have excelled in various fields (art, science, culture, etc.) and helped to highlight their place of origin in their own special and unique way.

Consequently, we inform you that unanimously we have chosen among 14 personalities from the Ionian Islands, you Minas Coroneo from the island of Kythera, based on the undeniable recognition that you are one of the most distinguished ophthalmologists in the world. We would be deeply and emotionally honoured to have you and your present at the awards ceremony.

[[picture:"first day cover.tiff" ID:23281]]

[[picture:"IMG_5771.JPG" ID:23284]]

Hellenic Post stamp issue, in honour of Minas Coroneo

Please be advised that the IONIAN UNION of GREECE to further honour the winners will proceed to create a private collector's stamp - of philatelic value - through the Hellenic Post Office - in the form of a special commemorative series. (A day cover, will utilise your photo, and to be allocated to you).

Hoping for a the positive response to our invitation. Thank you in advance, and wish you every personal and professional success.

[[picture:"Heptanisian citation.tiff" ID:23282]]

The Board of IONIAN UNION of GREECE

The President
Eleni Konofaou
The General. Secretary
Maria Grammatikou
First Deputy Speaker: Evangelos Giannoulatos
Deputy President: Katerina Dragona
Treasurer: Dimitris Mauropous
Assistant Secretary: Angelina Bears
Assistant Treasurer: Gerasimos Rosolymos
Public Relations: Eleftherios Katopodis
Advisors:
Thomas Katsaros
Dimitrios Argyros
Kavvada Basilica
Manias Chrysostom
Loutas Nikolaos
Helen Death
Nikos Glytsos


Report by Lefkada News:

Ionian Islands awards in the old Parliament House

12/14/2015 Views

On Sunday afternoon members of the Ionian Union gathered in the centre of Athens to honour Ionians who have made Ionia (the Eptanisian (seven islands)) proud. For the 3rd year, Old Parliament House, hosted in its imposing hall representatives of the the arts, sciences, and entrepreneurship. From Corfu in the north to Kythera, in the south, Paxos, Ithaca, Lefkada, Zakynthos, and Kefalonia.

They brought together all the leading Ionians who in their professional pathways have managed to make the Ionian Islands a proud and innovative place, and put on show the ‘values and greatness of our island’. The evening began with the greeting of the Union of the Ionian Islands president, Helen Konofaou and poetic rendition entitled "flashed light and how the young person came to know himself”. It was directed by Peter Gallia with Giorgos Vlachos, Katerina Georgakis and Petros Gallia.

Vicky Leandros from Corfu was the first to receive her award. Vicky is a grand and consummate artist, but one of great modesty. She worked alongside Hector Botrini. She said, it all started in Corfu when they built their first restaurant – the wonderful Etrusco. The packed room then waited impatiently for the presentation to Paxos. This was because the award to Paxos was to be presented to Christopher Papakaliatis. The premier of his avant-garde second film "Another World” had occurred just a few days before. The audience delighted in Christopher’s success. He talked about returning to Paxos. About his childhood trips to the island, and the nostalgia. What can you say about the other award for Paxos? Spyros Katsimi. The journalist, writer. The words would be few.

Then it was the turn of Lefkada. And the whole room applauded interminably on hearing the name of Elias Logothetis, of Froufalou, in Lefkada. Although the award was for all the Ionian Islands ..., he said, with his unique brand of humour has, his heart was pounding in Lefkada. The award was received by the deputy of the Cultural Centre, Spyros Arvanitis.

The next award from Lefkada was for a man who is deceased, but still helps and supports, always during the difficult times for Lefkada and Greece. One of these was the recent earthquake. And it was none other than the late Spyros Sklavenitis, owner of the super market SKLAVENITIS. Lefkada was always the dearest place in his life. He passed on his love for Lefkada to his children, who today continue his work. His daughter Maria obviously moved, received the award and spoke of the ‘father of Lefkada’, from the heart. "We will always be next to Lefkas, she said, because we learnt our love of Lefkada from our father. “This even though we grew up in Piraeus; we feel that our life begins from Lefkada ". The award was presented to Maria Sklavenitis by MP Thanassis Kavvadas.

This year Kefalonia honoured Akis Tselenti. Akis is a Seismologist. "The earthquakes should be our friend there in the Ionian islands”, he said. “Thanks to earthquakes we have these beautiful beaches” He also spoke about the dignity of the Cephalonian against the devastating passage of Enceladus. Second Cephalonian to be awarded was Thanos Ascetic, a neurologist, and a psychiatrist specializing in sexual health issues.

Ithaca awarded the teacher John Karantzi – and a doctor and healthcare worker who had excelled abroad, Constantine Rosolymo. Zakynthos honoured a woman who was well received. The businesswoman Vagionia Stasinopoulou. The owner of Empnefstria which sells ‘fresh’ cosmetics, through 250 stores around the world. The business was begun utilising simple recipes from her Zakynthian grandmother.

A moving moment for audience occurred when the mother of the second Zakynthian awardee, the internationally famous tenor, Thimou Flemotomou, received the award for her child, thanking the organizers profusely.

Manolis Kalokerinos, for years the President of the Panhellenic Medical Association and director of the First Surgical Clinic of the General State Athens, from Kythera, needs no introduction. "It's our doctor," exclaimed those who came to the old parliament to honour him. And that was enough to distinguish this great personality from ‘Tsirigo’. Kythera also honoured the great scientist in the field of ophthalmology, from Australia, Minas Coroneo, who has performed extraordinary work in the field of the bionic eye.

[[picture:"IMG_5433.jpg" ID:23280]]

An award was made also to the benefactor of the classical music festival Paxos - late Englishman, John Gough. Gough possessed the vision to begin this unique festival 26 years ago. The award was presented to the organiser of the festival, Eleftheria Arvanitaki.

The master of ceremonies for the event was journalist Peter Koumplis.
Open full entry
Photos, Diaspora Working Life
FB Old photographs

Private collector's stamp for Professor Minas Coroneo issued through the Hellenic Post Office

Professor Minas Coroneo was awarded for Kythera, along with Dr Manolis Kalokerinos, at the 3rd Presentation of Ionian (Eptanisian) Union of Greece, Awards.

[[picture:"Ionian Union of Greece LOGO.jpg" ID:23283]]

The awards were held on December 13, 2015,
December 13, 2015 in the National History Museum of the Old Parliament Building.

Invitation to Minas Coroneos to attend the ceremony to receive his award:

The awards ceremony takes place as an expression of respect and pride for Ionians who have excelled in various fields (art, science, culture, etc.) and helped to highlight their place of origin in their own special and unique way.

Consequently, we inform you that unanimously we have chosen among 14 personalities from the Ionian Islands, you Minas Coroneo from the island of Kythera, based on the undeniable recognition that you are one of the most distinguished ophthalmologists in the world. We would be deeply and emotionally honoured to have you and your present at the awards ceremony.

[[picture:"first day cover.tiff" ID:23281]]

Hellenic Post stamp issue, in honour of Minas Coroneo

Please be advised that the IONIAN UNION of GREECE to further honour the winners will proceed to create a private collector's stamp - of philatelic value - through the Hellenic Post Office - in the form of a special commemorative series. (A day cover, will utilise your photo, and to be allocated to you).

Hoping for a the positive response to our invitation. Thank you in advance, and wish you every personal and professional success.

[[picture:"Heptanisian citation.tiff" ID:23282]]

The Board of IONIAN UNION of GREECE

The President
Eleni Konofaou
The General. Secretary
Maria Grammatikou
First Deputy Speaker: Evangelos Giannoulatos
Deputy President: Katerina Dragona
Treasurer: Dimitris Mauropous
Assistant Secretary: Angelina Bears
Assistant Treasurer: Gerasimos Rosolymos
Public Relations: Eleftherios Katopodis
Advisors:
Thomas Katsaros
Dimitrios Argyros
Kavvada Basilica
Manias Chrysostom
Loutas Nikolaos
Helen Death
Nikos Glytsos


Report by Lefkada News:

Ionian Islands awards in the old Parliament House

12/14/2015 Views

On Sunday afternoon members of the Ionian Union gathered in the centre of Athens to honour Ionians who have made Ionia (the Eptanisian (seven islands)) proud. For the 3rd year, Old Parliament House, hosted in its imposing hall representatives of the the arts, sciences, and entrepreneurship. From Corfu in the north to Kythera, in the south, Paxos, Ithaca, Lefkada, Zakynthos, and Kefalonia.

They brought together all the leading Ionians who in their professional pathways have managed to make the Ionian Islands a proud and innovative place, and put on show the ‘values and greatness of our island’. The evening began with the greeting of the Union of the Ionian Islands president, Helen Konofaou and poetic rendition entitled "flashed light and how the young person came to know himself”. It was directed by Peter Gallia with Giorgos Vlachos, Katerina Georgakis and Petros Gallia.

Vicky Leandros from Corfu was the first to receive her award. Vicky is a grand and consummate artist, but one of great modesty. She worked alongside Hector Botrini. She said, it all started in Corfu when they built their first restaurant – the wonderful Etrusco. The packed room then waited impatiently for the presentation to Paxos. This was because the award to Paxos was to be presented to Christopher Papakaliatis. The premier of his avant-garde second film "Another World” had occurred just a few days before. The audience delighted in Christopher’s success. He talked about returning to Paxos. About his childhood trips to the island, and the nostalgia. What can you say about the other award for Paxos? Spyros Katsimi. The journalist, writer. The words would be few.

Then it was the turn of Lefkada. And the whole room applauded interminably on hearing the name of Elias Logothetis, of Froufalou, in Lefkada. Although the award was for all the Ionian Islands ..., he said, with his unique brand of humour has, his heart was pounding in Lefkada. The award was received by the deputy of the Cultural Centre, Spyros Arvanitis.

The next award from Lefkada was for a man who is deceased, but still helps and supports, always during the difficult times for Lefkada and Greece. One of these was the recent earthquake. And it was none other than the late Spyros Sklavenitis, owner of the super market SKLAVENITIS. Lefkada was always the dearest place in his life. He passed on his love for Lefkada to his children, who today continue his work. His daughter Maria obviously moved, received the award and spoke of the ‘father of Lefkada’, from the heart. "We will always be next to Lefkas, she said, because we learnt our love of Lefkada from our father. “This even though we grew up in Piraeus; we feel that our life begins from Lefkada ". The award was presented to Maria Sklavenitis by MP Thanassis Kavvadas.

This year Kefalonia honoured Akis Tselenti. Akis is a Seismologist. "The earthquakes should be our friend there in the Ionian islands”, he said. “Thanks to earthquakes we have these beautiful beaches” He also spoke about the dignity of the Cephalonian against the devastating passage of Enceladus. Second Cephalonian to be awarded was Thanos Ascetic, a neurologist, and a psychiatrist specializing in sexual health issues.

Ithaca awarded the teacher John Karantzi – and a doctor and healthcare worker who had excelled abroad, Constantine Rosolymo. Zakynthos honoured a woman who was well received. The businesswoman Vagionia Stasinopoulou. The owner of Empnefstria which sells ‘fresh’ cosmetics, through 250 stores around the world. The business was begun utilising simple recipes from her Zakynthian grandmother.

A moving moment for audience occurred when the mother of the second Zakynthian awardee, the internationally famous tenor, Thimou Flemotomou, received the award for her child, thanking the organizers profusely.

Manolis Kalokerinos, for years the President of the Panhellenic Medical Association and director of the First Surgical Clinic of the General State Athens, from Kythera, needs no introduction. "It's our doctor," exclaimed those who came to the old parliament to honour him. And that was enough to distinguish this great personality from ‘Tsirigo’. Kythera also honoured the great scientist in the field of ophthalmology, from Australia, Minas Coroneo, who has performed extraordinary work in the field of the bionic eye.

[[picture:"IMG_5433.jpg" ID:23280]]

An award was made also to the benefactor of the classical music festival Paxos - late Englishman, John Gough. Gough possessed the vision to begin this unique festival 26 years ago. The award was presented to the organiser of the festival, Eleftheria Arvanitaki.

The master of ceremonies for the event was journalist Peter Koumplis.
Open full entry
History, FB Old photographs
Documents

Logo of the Ionian (Eptanisian) Union of Greece

Professor Minas Coroneo receives an Ionian Union awrad for Kythera, along with Dr Manolis Kalokerinos, at the 3rd Presentation of Ionian (Eptanisian) Union of Greece, Awards.

The awards were held on December 13, 2015,
December 13, 2015 in the National History Museum of the Old Parliament Building.

Invitation to Minas Coroneos to attend the ceremony to receive his award:

The awards ceremony takes place as an expression of respect and pride for Ionians who have excelled in various fields (art, science, culture, etc.) and helped to highlight their place of origin in their own special and unique way.

Consequently, we inform you that unanimously we have chosen among 14 personalities from the Ionian Islands, you Minas Coroneo from the island of Kythera, based on the undeniable recognition that you are one of the most distinguished ophthalmologists in the world. We would be deeply and emotionally honoured to have you and your present at the awards ceremony.

[[picture:"first day cover.tiff" ID:23281]]

Hellenic Post stamp issue, in honour of Minas Coroneo

Please be advised that the IONIAN UNION of GREECE to further honour the winners will proceed to create a private collector's stamp - of philatelic value - through the Hellenic Post Office - in the form of a special commemorative series. (A day cover, will utilise your photo, and to be allocated to you).

Hoping for a the positive response to our invitation. Thank you in advance, and wish you every personal and professional success.

[[picture:"Heptanisian citation.tiff" ID:23282]]

The Board of IONIAN UNION of GREECE

The President
Eleni Konofaou
The General. Secretary
Maria Grammatikou
First Deputy Speaker: Evangelos Giannoulatos
Deputy President: Katerina Dragona
Treasurer: Dimitris Mauropous
Assistant Secretary: Angelina Bears
Assistant Treasurer: Gerasimos Rosolymos
Public Relations: Eleftherios Katopodis
Advisors:
Thomas Katsaros
Dimitrios Argyros
Kavvada Basilica
Manias Chrysostom
Loutas Nikolaos
Helen Death
Nikos Glytsos


Report by Lefkada News:

Ionian Islands awards in the old Parliament House

12/14/2015 Views

On Sunday afternoon members of the Ionian Union gathered in the centre of Athens to honour Ionians who have made Ionia (the Eptanisian (seven islands)) proud. For the 3rd year, Old Parliament House, hosted in its imposing hall representatives of the the arts, sciences, and entrepreneurship. From Corfu in the north to Kythera, in the south, Paxos, Ithaca, Lefkada, Zakynthos, and Kefalonia.

They brought together all the leading Ionians who in their professional pathways have managed to make the Ionian Islands a proud and innovative place, and put on show the ‘values and greatness of our island’. The evening began with the greeting of the Union of the Ionian Islands president, Helen Konofaou and poetic rendition entitled "flashed light and how the young person came to know himself”. It was directed by Peter Gallia with Giorgos Vlachos, Katerina Georgakis and Petros Gallia.

Vicky Leandros from Corfu was the first to receive her award. Vicky is a grand and consummate artist, but one of great modesty. She worked alongside Hector Botrini. She said, it all started in Corfu when they built their first restaurant – the wonderful Etrusco. The packed room then waited impatiently for the presentation to Paxos. This was because the award to Paxos was to be presented to Christopher Papakaliatis. The premier of his avant-garde second film "Another World” had occurred just a few days before. The audience delighted in Christopher’s success. He talked about returning to Paxos. About his childhood trips to the island, and the nostalgia. What can you say about the other award for Paxos? Spyros Katsimi. The journalist, writer. The words would be few.

Then it was the turn of Lefkada. And the whole room applauded interminably on hearing the name of Elias Logothetis, of Froufalou, in Lefkada. Although the award was for all the Ionian Islands ..., he said, with his unique brand of humour has, his heart was pounding in Lefkada. The award was received by the deputy of the Cultural Centre, Spyros Arvanitis.

The next award from Lefkada was for a man who is deceased, but still helps and supports, always during the difficult times for Lefkada and Greece. One of these was the recent earthquake. And it was none other than the late Spyros Sklavenitis, owner of the super market SKLAVENITIS. Lefkada was always the dearest place in his life. He passed on his love for Lefkada to his children, who today continue his work. His daughter Maria obviously moved, received the award and spoke of the ‘father of Lefkada’, from the heart. "We will always be next to Lefkas, she said, because we learnt our love of Lefkada from our father. “This even though we grew up in Piraeus; we feel that our life begins from Lefkada ". The award was presented to Maria Sklavenitis by MP Thanassis Kavvadas.

This year Kefalonia honoured Akis Tselenti. Akis is a Seismologist. "The earthquakes should be our friend there in the Ionian islands”, he said. “Thanks to earthquakes we have these beautiful beaches” He also spoke about the dignity of the Cephalonian against the devastating passage of Enceladus. Second Cephalonian to be awarded was Thanos Ascetic, a neurologist, and a psychiatrist specializing in sexual health issues.

Ithaca awarded the teacher John Karantzi – and a doctor and healthcare worker who had excelled abroad, Constantine Rosolymo. Zakynthos honoured a woman who was well received. The businesswoman Vagionia Stasinopoulou. The owner of Empnefstria which sells ‘fresh’ cosmetics, through 250 stores around the world. The business was begun utilising simple recipes from her Zakynthian grandmother.

A moving moment for audience occurred when the mother of the second Zakynthian awardee, the internationally famous tenor, Thimou Flemotomou, received the award for her child, thanking the organizers profusely.

Manolis Kalokerinos, for years the President of the Panhellenic Medical Association and director of the First Surgical Clinic of the General State Athens, from Kythera, needs no introduction. "It's our doctor," exclaimed those who came to the old parliament to honour him. And that was enough to distinguish this great personality from ‘Tsirigo’. Kythera also honoured the great scientist in the field of ophthalmology, from Australia, Minas Coroneo, who has performed extraordinary work in the field of the bionic eye.

[[picture:"IMG_5433.jpg" ID:23280]]

An award was made also to the benefactor of the classical music festival Paxos - late Englishman, John Gough. Gough possessed the vision to begin this unique festival 26 years ago. The award was presented to the organiser of the festival, Eleftheria Arvanitaki.

The master of ceremonies for the event was journalist Peter Koumplis.
Open full entry
History, Documents
Documents

Ionian Union of Greece citation for Professor Minas Coroneo

advising him of his award. He was one of two candiadtes chosen from Kythera, along with Dr Manolis Kalokerinos, at the 3rd Presentation of Ionian (Eptanisian) Union of Greece, Awards.

The awards were held on December 13, 2015,
December 13, 2015 in the National History Museum of the Old Parliament Building.

Invitation to Minas Coroneos to attend the ceremony to receive his award:

The awards ceremony takes place as an expression of respect and pride for Ionians who have excelled in various fields (art, science, culture, etc.) and helped to highlight their place of origin in their own special and unique way.

Consequently, we inform you that unanimously we have chosen among 14 personalities from the Ionian Islands, you Minas Coroneo from the island of Kythera, based on the undeniable recognition that you are one of the most distinguished ophthalmologists in the world. We would be deeply and emotionally honoured to have you and your present at the awards ceremony.

[[picture:"first day cover.tiff" ID:23281]]

Hellenic Post stamp issue, in honour of Minas Coroneo

Please be advised that the IONIAN UNION of GREECE to further honour the winners will proceed to create a private collector's stamp - of philatelic value - through the Hellenic Post Office - in the form of a special commemorative series. (A day cover, will utilise your photo, and to be allocated to you).

Hoping for a the positive response to our invitation. Thank you in advance, and wish you every personal and professional success.

The Board of IONIAN UNION of GREECE

The President
Eleni Konofaou
The General. Secretary
Maria Grammatikou
First Deputy Speaker: Evangelos Giannoulatos
Deputy President: Katerina Dragona
Treasurer: Dimitris Mauropous
Assistant Secretary: Angelina Bears
Assistant Treasurer: Gerasimos Rosolymos
Public Relations: Eleftherios Katopodis
Advisors:
Thomas Katsaros
Dimitrios Argyros
Kavvada Basilica
Manias Chrysostom
Loutas Nikolaos
Helen Death
Nikos Glytsos


Report by Lefkada News:

Ionian Islands awards in the old Parliament House

12/14/2015 Views

On Sunday afternoon members of the Ionian Union gathered in the centre of Athens to honour Ionians who have made Ionia (the Eptanisian (seven islands)) proud. For the 3rd year, Old Parliament House, hosted in its imposing hall representatives of the the arts, sciences, and entrepreneurship. From Corfu in the north to Kythera, in the south, Paxos, Ithaca, Lefkada, Zakynthos, and Kefalonia.

They brought together all the leading Ionians who in their professional pathways have managed to make the Ionian Islands a proud and innovative place, and put on show the ‘values and greatness of our island’. The evening began with the greeting of the Union of the Ionian Islands president, Helen Konofaou and poetic rendition entitled "flashed light and how the young person came to know himself”. It was directed by Peter Gallia with Giorgos Vlachos, Katerina Georgakis and Petros Gallia.

Vicky Leandros from Corfu was the first to receive her award. Vicky is a grand and consummate artist, but one of great modesty. She worked alongside Hector Botrini. She said, it all started in Corfu when they built their first restaurant – the wonderful Etrusco. The packed room then waited impatiently for the presentation to Paxos. This was because the award to Paxos was to be presented to Christopher Papakaliatis. The premier of his avant-garde second film "Another World” had occurred just a few days before. The audience delighted in Christopher’s success. He talked about returning to Paxos. About his childhood trips to the island, and the nostalgia. What can you say about the other award for Paxos? Spyros Katsimi. The journalist, writer. The words would be few.

Then it was the turn of Lefkada. And the whole room applauded interminably on hearing the name of Elias Logothetis, of Froufalou, in Lefkada. Although the award was for all the Ionian Islands ..., he said, with his unique brand of humour has, his heart was pounding in Lefkada. The award was received by the deputy of the Cultural Centre, Spyros Arvanitis.

The next award from Lefkada was for a man who is deceased, but still helps and supports, always during the difficult times for Lefkada and Greece. One of these was the recent earthquake. And it was none other than the late Spyros Sklavenitis, owner of the super market SKLAVENITIS. Lefkada was always the dearest place in his life. He passed on his love for Lefkada to his children, who today continue his work. His daughter Maria obviously moved, received the award and spoke of the ‘father of Lefkada’, from the heart. "We will always be next to Lefkas, she said, because we learnt our love of Lefkada from our father. “This even though we grew up in Piraeus; we feel that our life begins from Lefkada ". The award was presented to Maria Sklavenitis by MP Thanassis Kavvadas.

This year Kefalonia honoured Akis Tselenti. Akis is a Seismologist. "The earthquakes should be our friend there in the Ionian islands”, he said. “Thanks to earthquakes we have these beautiful beaches” He also spoke about the dignity of the Cephalonian against the devastating passage of Enceladus. Second Cephalonian to be awarded was Thanos Ascetic, a neurologist, and a psychiatrist specializing in sexual health issues.

Ithaca awarded the teacher John Karantzi – and a doctor and healthcare worker who had excelled abroad, Constantine Rosolymo. Zakynthos honoured a woman who was well received. The businesswoman Vagionia Stasinopoulou. The owner of Empnefstria which sells ‘fresh’ cosmetics, through 250 stores around the world. The business was begun utilising simple recipes from her Zakynthian grandmother.

A moving moment for audience occurred when the mother of the second Zakynthian awardee, the internationally famous tenor, Thimou Flemotomou, received the award for her child, thanking the organizers profusely.

Manolis Kalokerinos, for years the President of the Panhellenic Medical Association and director of the First Surgical Clinic of the General State Athens, from Kythera, needs no introduction. "It's our doctor," exclaimed those who came to the old parliament to honour him. And that was enough to distinguish this great personality from ‘Tsirigo’. Kythera also honoured the great scientist in the field of ophthalmology, from Australia, Minas Coroneo, who has performed extraordinary work in the field of the bionic eye.

[[picture:"IMG_5433.jpg" ID:23280]]

An award was made also to the benefactor of the classical music festival Paxos - late Englishman, John Gough. Gough possessed the vision to begin this unique festival 26 years ago. The award was presented to the organiser of the festival, Eleftheria Arvanitaki.

The master of ceremonies for the event was journalist Peter Koumplis.
Open full entry
History, Documents
Diaspora Social Life

Minas Coroneo's private collector's stamp issued through Hellenic Post

Professor Minas Coroneo, wins the award for Kythera, along with Dr Manolis Kalokerinos, at the 3rd Presentation of Ionian (Eptanisian) Union of Greece, Awards.

The awards were held on December 13, 2015,
December 13, 2015 in the National History Museum of the Old Parliament Building.

Invitation to Minas Coroneos to attend the ceremony to receive his award:

The awards ceremony takes place as an expression of respect and pride for Ionians who have excelled in various fields (art, science, culture, etc.) and helped to highlight their place of origin in their own special and unique way.

Consequently, we inform you that unanimously we have chosen among 14 personalities from the Ionian Islands, you Minas Coroneo from the island of Kythera, based on the undeniable recognition that you are one of the most distinguished ophthalmologists in the world. We would be deeply and emotionally honoured to have you and your present at the awards ceremony.

Please be advised that the IONIAN UNION of GREECE to further honour the winners will proceed to create a private collector's stamp - of philatelic value - through the Hellenic Post Office - in the form of a special commemorative series. (A day cover, will utilise your photo, and to be allocated to you).

Hoping for a the positive response to our invitation. Thank you in advance, and wish you every personal and professional success.

The Board of IONIAN UNION of GREECE

The President
Eleni Konofaou
The General. Secretary
Maria Grammatikou
First Deputy Speaker: Evangelos Giannoulatos
Deputy President: Katerina Dragona
Treasurer: Dimitris Mauropous
Assistant Secretary: Angelina Bears
Assistant Treasurer: Gerasimos Rosolymos
Public Relations: Eleftherios Katopodis
Advisors:
Thomas Katsaros
Dimitrios Argyros
Kavvada Basilica
Manias Chrysostom
Loutas Nikolaos
Helen Death
Nikos Glytsos


Report by Lefkada News:

Ionian Islands awards in the old Parliament House

12/14/2015 Views

On Sunday afternoon members of the Ionian Union gathered in the centre of Athens to honour Ionians who have made Ionia (the Eptanisian (seven islands)) proud. For the 3rd year, Old Parliament House, hosted in its imposing hall representatives of the the arts, sciences, and entrepreneurship. From Corfu in the north to Kythera, in the south, Paxos, Ithaca, Lefkada, Zakynthos, and Kefalonia.

They brought together all the leading Ionians who in their professional pathways have managed to make the Ionian Islands a proud and innovative place, and put on show the ‘values and greatness of our island’. The evening began with the greeting of the Union of the Ionian Islands president, Helen Konofaou and poetic rendition entitled "flashed light and how the young person came to know himself”. It was directed by Peter Gallia with Giorgos Vlachos, Katerina Georgakis and Petros Gallia.

Vicky Leandros from Corfu was the first to receive her award. Vicky is a grand and consummate artist, but one of great modesty. She worked alongside Hector Botrini. She said, it all started in Corfu when they built their first restaurant – the wonderful Etrusco. The packed room then waited impatiently for the presentation to Paxos. This was because the award to Paxos was to be presented to Christopher Papakaliatis. The premier of his avant-garde second film "Another World” had occurred just a few days before. The audience delighted in Christopher’s success. He talked about returning to Paxos. About his childhood trips to the island, and the nostalgia. What can you say about the other award for Paxos? Spyros Katsimi. The journalist, writer. The words would be few.

Then it was the turn of Lefkada. And the whole room applauded interminably on hearing the name of Elias Logothetis, of Froufalou, in Lefkada. Although the award was for all the Ionian Islands ..., he said, with his unique brand of humour has, his heart was pounding in Lefkada. The award was received by the deputy of the Cultural Centre, Spyros Arvanitis.

The next award from Lefkada was for a man who is deceased, but still helps and supports, always during the difficult times for Lefkada and Greece. One of these was the recent earthquake. And it was none other than the late Spyros Sklavenitis, owner of the super market SKLAVENITIS. Lefkada was always the dearest place in his life. He passed on his love for Lefkada to his children, who today continue his work. His daughter Maria obviously moved, received the award and spoke of the ‘father of Lefkada’, from the heart. "We will always be next to Lefkas, she said, because we learnt our love of Lefkada from our father. “This even though we grew up in Piraeus; we feel that our life begins from Lefkada ". The award was presented to Maria Sklavenitis by MP Thanassis Kavvadas.

This year Kefalonia honoured Akis Tselenti. Akis is a Seismologist. "The earthquakes should be our friend there in the Ionian islands”, he said. “Thanks to earthquakes we have these beautiful beaches” He also spoke about the dignity of the Cephalonian against the devastating passage of Enceladus. Second Cephalonian to be awarded was Thanos Ascetic, a neurologist, and a psychiatrist specializing in sexual health issues.

Ithaca awarded the teacher John Karantzi – and a doctor and healthcare worker who had excelled abroad, Constantine Rosolymo. Zakynthos honoured a woman who was well received. The businesswoman Vagionia Stasinopoulou. The owner of Empnefstria which sells ‘fresh’ cosmetics, through 250 stores around the world. The business was begun utilising simple recipes from her Zakynthian grandmother.

A moving moment for audience occurred when the mother of the second Zakynthian awardee, the internationally famous tenor, Thimou Flemotomou, received the award for her child, thanking the organizers profusely.

Manolis Kalokerinos, for years the President of the Panhellenic Medical Association and director of the First Surgical Clinic of the General State Athens, from Kythera, needs no introduction. "It's our doctor," exclaimed those who came to the old parliament to honour him. And that was enough to distinguish this great personality from ‘Tsirigo’. Kythera also honoured the great scientist in the field of ophthalmology, from Australia, Minas Coroneo, who has performed extraordinary work in the field of the bionic eye.

[[picture:"IMG_5433.jpg" ID:23280]]

An award was made also to the benefactor of the classical music festival Paxos - late Englishman, John Gough. Gough possessed the vision to begin this unique festival 26 years ago. The award was presented to the organiser of the festival, Eleftheria Arvanitaki.

The master of ceremonies for the event was journalist Peter Koumplis.
Open full entry
Photos, Diaspora Social Life
Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People

Professor Minas Coroneo receives award, for Kythera,

along with Dr Manolis Kalokerinos, at the 3rd Presentation of Ionian (Eptanisian) Union of Greece, Awards.

The awards were held on December 13, 2015,
December 13, 2015 in the National History Museum of the Old Parliament Building.

Invitation to Minas Coroneos to attend the ceremony to receive his award:

The awards ceremony takes place as an expression of respect and pride for Ionians who have excelled in various fields (art, science, culture, etc.) and helped to highlight their place of origin in their own special and unique way.

Consequently, we inform you that unanimously we have chosen among 14 personalities from the Ionian Islands, you Minas Coroneo from the island of Kythera, based on the undeniable recognition that you are one of the most distinguished ophthalmologists in the world. We would be deeply and emotionally honoured to have you and your present at the awards ceremony.

Please be advised that the IONIAN UNION of GREECE to further honour the winners will proceed to create a private collector's stamp - of philatelic value - through the Hellenic Post Office - in the form of a special commemorative series. (A day cover, will utilise your photo, and to be allocated to you).

Hoping for a the positive response to our invitation. Thank you in advance, and wish you every personal and professional success.

The Board of IONIAN UNION of GREECE

The President
Eleni Konofaou
The General. Secretary
Maria Grammatikou
First Deputy Speaker: Evangelos Giannoulatos
Deputy President: Katerina Dragona
Treasurer: Dimitris Mauropous
Assistant Secretary: Angelina Bears
Assistant Treasurer: Gerasimos Rosolymos
Public Relations: Eleftherios Katopodis
Advisors:
Thomas Katsaros
Dimitrios Argyros
Kavvada Basilica
Manias Chrysostom
Loutas Nikolaos
Helen Death
Nikos Glytsos


Report by Lefkada News:

Ionian Islands awards in the old Parliament House

12/14/2015 Views

On Sunday afternoon members of the Ionian Union gathered in the centre of Athens to honour Ionians who have made Ionia (the Eptanisian (seven islands)) proud. For the 3rd year, Old Parliament House, hosted in its imposing hall representatives of the the arts, sciences, and entrepreneurship. From Corfu in the north to Kythera, in the south, Paxos, Ithaca, Lefkada, Zakynthos, and Kefalonia.

They brought together all the leading Ionians who in their professional pathways have managed to make the Ionian Islands a proud and innovative place, and put on show the ‘values and greatness of our island’. The evening began with the greeting of the Union of the Ionian Islands president, Helen Konofaou and poetic rendition entitled "flashed light and how the young person came to know himself”. It was directed by Peter Gallia with Giorgos Vlachos, Katerina Georgakis and Petros Gallia.

Vicky Leandros from Corfu was the first to receive her award. Vicky is a grand and consummate artist, but one of great modesty. She worked alongside Hector Botrini. She said, it all started in Corfu when they built their first restaurant – the wonderful Etrusco. The packed room then waited impatiently for the presentation to Paxos. This was because the award to Paxos was to be presented to Christopher Papakaliatis. The premier of his avant-garde second film "Another World” had occurred just a few days before. The audience delighted in Christopher’s success. He talked about returning to Paxos. About his childhood trips to the island, and the nostalgia. What can you say about the other award for Paxos? Spyros Katsimi. The journalist, writer. The words would be few.

Then it was the turn of Lefkada. And the whole room applauded interminably on hearing the name of Elias Logothetis, of Froufalou, in Lefkada. Although the award was for all the Ionian Islands ..., he said, with his unique brand of humour has, his heart was pounding in Lefkada. The award was received by the deputy of the Cultural Centre, Spyros Arvanitis.

The next award from Lefkada was for a man who is deceased, but still helps and supports, always during the difficult times for Lefkada and Greece. One of these was the recent earthquake. And it was none other than the late Spyros Sklavenitis, owner of the super market SKLAVENITIS. Lefkada was always the dearest place in his life. He passed on his love for Lefkada to his children, who today continue his work. His daughter Maria obviously moved, received the award and spoke of the ‘father of Lefkada’, from the heart. "We will always be next to Lefkas, she said, because we learnt our love of Lefkada from our father. “This even though we grew up in Piraeus; we feel that our life begins from Lefkada ". The award was presented to Maria Sklavenitis by MP Thanassis Kavvadas.

This year Kefalonia honoured Akis Tselenti. Akis is a Seismologist. "The earthquakes should be our friend there in the Ionian islands”, he said. “Thanks to earthquakes we have these beautiful beaches” He also spoke about the dignity of the Cephalonian against the devastating passage of Enceladus. Second Cephalonian to be awarded was Thanos Ascetic, a neurologist, and a psychiatrist specializing in sexual health issues.

Ithaca awarded the teacher John Karantzi – and a doctor and healthcare worker who had excelled abroad, Constantine Rosolymo. Zakynthos honoured a woman who was well received. The businesswoman Vagionia Stasinopoulou. The owner of Empnefstria which sells ‘fresh’ cosmetics, through 250 stores around the world. The business was begun utilising simple recipes from her Zakynthian grandmother.

A moving moment for audience occurred when the mother of the second Zakynthian awardee, the internationally famous tenor, Thimou Flemotomou, received the award for her child, thanking the organizers profusely.

Manolis Kalokerinos, for years the President of the Panhellenic Medical Association and director of the First Surgical Clinic of the General State Athens, from Kythera, needs no introduction. "It's our doctor," exclaimed those who came to the old parliament to honour him. And that was enough to distinguish this great personality from ‘Tsirigo’. Kythera also honoured the great scientist in the field of ophthalmology, from Australia, Minas Coroneo, who has performed extraordinary work in the field of the bionic eye.

An award was made also to the benefactor of the classical music festival Paxos - late Englishman, John Gough. Gough possessed the vision to begin this unique festival 26 years ago. The award was presented to the organiser of the festival, Eleftheria Arvanitaki.

The master of ceremonies for the event was journalist Peter Koumplis.
Open full entry
Photos, Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People
Current Affairs

Professor Minas Coroneo receives the award for Kythera

along with Dr Manolis Kalokerinos, at the 3rd Presentation of Ionian (Eptanisian) Union of Greece, Awards.

[[picture:"Ionian Union of Greece LOGO.jpg" ID:23283]]

The awards were held on December 13, 2015,
December 13, 2015 in the National History Museum of the Old Parliament Building.

Invitation to Minas Coroneos to attend the ceremony to receive his award:

The awards ceremony takes place as an expression of respect and pride for Ionians who have excelled in various fields (art, science, culture, etc.) and helped to highlight their place of origin in their own special and unique way.

Consequently, we inform you that unanimously we have chosen among 14 personalities from the Ionian Islands, you Minas Coroneo from the island of Kythera, based on the undeniable recognition that you are one of the most distinguished ophthalmologists in the world. We would be deeply and emotionally honoured to have you and your present at the awards ceremony.

[[picture:"first day cover.tiff" ID:23281]]

[[picture:"IMG_5771.JPG" ID:23284]]

Hellenic Post stamp issue, in honour of Minas Coroneo

Please be advised that the IONIAN UNION of GREECE to further honour the winners will proceed to create a private collector's stamp - of philatelic value - through the Hellenic Post Office - in the form of a special commemorative series. (A day cover, will utilise your photo, and to be allocated to you).

Hoping for a the positive response to our invitation. Thank you in advance, and wish you every personal and professional success.

[[picture:"Heptanisian citation.tiff" ID:23282]]

The Board of IONIAN UNION of GREECE

The President
Eleni Konofaou
The General. Secretary
Maria Grammatikou
First Deputy Speaker: Evangelos Giannoulatos
Deputy President: Katerina Dragona
Treasurer: Dimitris Mauropous
Assistant Secretary: Angelina Bears
Assistant Treasurer: Gerasimos Rosolymos
Public Relations: Eleftherios Katopodis
Advisors:
Thomas Katsaros
Dimitrios Argyros
Kavvada Basilica
Manias Chrysostom
Loutas Nikolaos
Helen Death
Nikos Glytsos

[[picture:"MTC Ionian award.tiff" ID:23285]]

Report by Lefkada News:

Ionian Islands awards in the old Parliament House

12/14/2015 Views

On Sunday afternoon members of the Ionian Union gathered in the centre of Athens to honour Ionians who have made Ionia (the Eptanisian (seven islands)) proud. For the 3rd year, Old Parliament House, hosted in its imposing hall representatives of the the arts, sciences, and entrepreneurship. From Corfu in the north to Kythera, in the south, Paxos, Ithaca, Lefkada, Zakynthos, and Kefalonia.

They brought together all the leading Ionians who in their professional pathways have managed to make the Ionian Islands a proud and innovative place, and put on show the ‘values and greatness of our island’. The evening began with the greeting of the Union of the Ionian Islands president, Helen Konofaou and poetic rendition entitled "flashed light and how the young person came to know himself”. It was directed by Peter Gallia with Giorgos Vlachos, Katerina Georgakis and Petros Gallia.

Vicky Leandros from Corfu was the first to receive her award. Vicky is a grand and consummate artist, but one of great modesty. She worked alongside Hector Botrini. She said, it all started in Corfu when they built their first restaurant – the wonderful Etrusco. The packed room then waited impatiently for the presentation to Paxos. This was because the award to Paxos was to be presented to Christopher Papakaliatis. The premier of his avant-garde second film "Another World” had occurred just a few days before. The audience delighted in Christopher’s success. He talked about returning to Paxos. About his childhood trips to the island, and the nostalgia. What can you say about the other award for Paxos? Spyros Katsimi. The journalist, writer. The words would be few.

Then it was the turn of Lefkada. And the whole room applauded interminably on hearing the name of Elias Logothetis, of Froufalou, in Lefkada. Although the award was for all the Ionian Islands ..., he said, with his unique brand of humour has, his heart was pounding in Lefkada. The award was received by the deputy of the Cultural Centre, Spyros Arvanitis.

The next award from Lefkada was for a man who is deceased, but still helps and supports, always during the difficult times for Lefkada and Greece. One of these was the recent earthquake. And it was none other than the late Spyros Sklavenitis, owner of the super market SKLAVENITIS. Lefkada was always the dearest place in his life. He passed on his love for Lefkada to his children, who today continue his work. His daughter Maria obviously moved, received the award and spoke of the ‘father of Lefkada’, from the heart. "We will always be next to Lefkas, she said, because we learnt our love of Lefkada from our father. “This even though we grew up in Piraeus; we feel that our life begins from Lefkada ". The award was presented to Maria Sklavenitis by MP Thanassis Kavvadas.

This year Kefalonia honoured Akis Tselenti. Akis is a Seismologist. "The earthquakes should be our friend there in the Ionian islands”, he said. “Thanks to earthquakes we have these beautiful beaches” He also spoke about the dignity of the Cephalonian against the devastating passage of Enceladus. Second Cephalonian to be awarded was Thanos Ascetic, a neurologist, and a psychiatrist specializing in sexual health issues.

Ithaca awarded the teacher John Karantzi – and a doctor and healthcare worker who had excelled abroad, Constantine Rosolymo. Zakynthos honoured a woman who was well received. The businesswoman Vagionia Stasinopoulou. The owner of Empnefstria which sells ‘fresh’ cosmetics, through 250 stores around the world. The business was begun utilising simple recipes from her Zakynthian grandmother.

A moving moment for audience occurred when the mother of the second Zakynthian awardee, the internationally famous tenor, Thimou Flemotomou, received the award for her child, thanking the organizers profusely.

Manolis Kalokerinos, for years the President of the Panhellenic Medical Association and director of the First Surgical Clinic of the General State Athens, from Kythera, needs no introduction. "It's our doctor," exclaimed those who came to the old parliament to honour him. And that was enough to distinguish this great personality from ‘Tsirigo’. Kythera also honoured the great scientist in the field of ophthalmology, from Australia, Minas Coroneo, who has performed extraordinary work in the field of the bionic eye.

[[picture:"IMG_5433.jpg" ID:23280]]

An award was made also to the benefactor of the classical music festival Paxos - late Englishman, John Gough. Gough possessed the vision to begin this unique festival 26 years ago. The award was presented to the organiser of the festival, Eleftheria Arvanitaki.

The master of ceremonies for the event was journalist Peter Koumplis.
Open full entry
Culture, Current Affairs
Documents

Catch that Cat. Book Cover

Author: Melina Mallos

When Published: 2015

Publisher: Kytherian World Heritage Fund

Available: /download/Book_Order_Form.pdf

ORDER FROM:
 

New Order Form Coming Soon, for all book orders contact Kythera House 02 9599 6998 or admin@kytherianassociation.com.au


Description: Hard back children's book. Beautifully illustrated. By Tety Solou.

Two editions: A bilingual version (Greek/English)
And an English version

ISBN: 978-0-9872473-7-7 (Bilingual)

Melina Mallos, Author

Melina Mallos was born in Athens and now lives in Brisbane, Australia. She is a passionate writer, researcher and early childhood expert. Melina was the inaugural Children’s and Family Programs Officer at the Queensland Art Gallery. She is well-known for initiating a popular toddler art program which for over ten years, has inspired thousands of children. A longstanding
interest in children’s art development led her to undertake a research masters at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). In 2010, Melina was awarded a Queensland-Smithsonian Fellowship to research learning programs in museums in Washington D.C. An Australian of Kytherian heritage, she regularly visits the island of Kythera. Melina’s mission is to connect children with their community and cultural background in fun and meaningful ways. Catch that Cat! is her first book for children.

To learn more about Melina, visit www.melinamallos.com


Tety Solou, Illustrator

Tety Solou was born in Athens, studied piano at the Greek Conservatory and Law at the University of Thrace. She didn’t become a musician nor followed the family tradition as a lawyer, because what she loves the most is to design and illustrate books for children and create cartoons and comics for adults. She has illustrated and designed more than 150 books, educational and fiction. Tety has collaborated with major newspapers and magazines creating comic strips, brain puzzles, board games etc. She also written and illustrated 40 books for children, two historical books for adults and has translated Lafcadio Hearn into Greek.

Tety is a member of the Greek IBBY and of the Greek Association of Tourism Journalists & Writers – FIJET.

When she visited Kythera, Tety was fascinated by the wonderful island, the history, the traditions and its nice people.

To learn more about Tety, visit www.tetysolou.wix.com/solos

Open full entry
History, Documents
Island Social Life

dining out !

two great eating venues in lower potamos the nearer the best yiro restaurant on the island and karinos cafeneo for coffee and light meals... while the national bank of Greece watches on !!!
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Photos, Island Social Life
Obituaries

Stratis "Tzambiras" Theodorakakis. The Pied Piper of Potamos

In the winter of 1980 a child of the Kytherian diaspora made her first pilgrimage to the island of her parents' birth with her two mid-teen sons in tow. A first cousin whom she had never met, a shopkeeper in Potamos, was one of the few relatives left on the island. In this shopkeeper they found a character of literary proportions, a man whose personality might have been lifted from the pages of a Kazantzakis or Durrell novel.

Their experiences of this man, Stratis Theodorakakis, would be mirrored by those of all who entered his cornucopia of a store. With a beaming smile and enthusiastic greeting he would be immediately helpful and, ever the gentleman, always polite. If Greek wasn't a customer's lingo he would attempt to open the doors of communication with whatever snippets of whichever languages he knew. Strati was a man well versed in the arts and at one time he may well have been the most cultured man on the island. When languages failed he was not averse to invoking the spirit of Aristophanes and acting out little comic & tragi-comic scenarios to describe events or objects.

He would reference paintings, sculptures, literature, poetry, and cinema to illustrate historical events. Always with enthusiasm and humour. However, his most beloved means of communication was always the music. Whether it was conducting his precious Philarmonia, or leading the marching band, or conducting the ladies' chorale or playing a guitar accompaniment to a vocalist, leg up on a chair like a Kytherian Don Juan, music was his element and his gift.

Who could ever forget Strati, nicknamed 'O Tzambiras' (the Trumpeter), trumpet in hand, leading the marching band through Potamos, and once finished jumping in front of the microphone to describe and give historical and cultural commentary to the Carnivale parade? Wherever the Trumpeter marched, the band would follow, as the rats of Hameln followed their Pied Piper. But this Pied Piper of Potamos would never lead his procession to the river depths but always to the heights to which he believed music could elevate one's soul. Whether an interested band member knew something or nothing about music Strati would take them under his wing if they wanted to play. If they had no instrument he would find them one. Such was his enthusiasm for the Philarmonia and band that he inspired them to design their own quasi-militaristic uniform, and here was a man for whom military uniforms may not have been such good luck.

As a teenager at the end of WW2 Strati donned the makeshift uniform of a resistance fighter, replete with shoulder slung ammo belts and a single-shot rifle, for a harmless photo for his friend. The ensuing picture found it's way to the pages of a local newspaper in a rural backwater in Australia. Unfortunately for Strati the uniform he was wearing was not that of the forces that prevailed during the Civil War and somehow the authorities were made aware of the picture. Strati was then inanely exiled to his own island, a kind of house arrest. However, true to his nature, he never resented his treatment - he always maintained that the experience made him a man and particularly the man that he became. And it was during this time that he met his beloved wife ZoZo, so what was there to moan and gripe about?

At the start of this year the sad news that Strati had passed on made it's way to the mother and her two sons in Australia. They subsequently returned to Kythera to find empty the emporium which had been a constant over the course of 35 years of visits to the island - no more Strati beaming proudly among his dizzying array of products, no more watching him patiently wrap a single envelope for a customer if that's all they wanted, no more the laughs and the shouted sales pitch, no more 20 year old postcards of faded scenes of Kythera and 60s era Germanic nuclear families opening Christmas presents in front of the fireplace, no more mythology-themed children's colouring books featuring satyrs and nude Aphrodites...

The anecdotes about Strati are many and they will be told by others over the years.

Rest in peace, Strati, but with the music which continues as your accompaniment.

Cameron Webb
Open full entry
People, Obituaries
Modern Landscapes

potamos school ...

December means school is still in , while here in Australia the school holiday' are in full swing .... the school children of potamos are on their way to another day of learning ..... my father who is 91 years of age attended the potamo school , so it has been educating little kytherian children for some years now ...
Open full entry
Photos, Modern Landscapes
Modern Portraits

'' ta calendar ''

group of local potamo kids going around the different shops in potamo singing Christmas carol's on Christmas eve , you could hear them from the bakery to the bank , this is a long time Greek tradition and it was wonderful to see that on Christmas and new years eve
Open full entry
Photos, Modern Portraits
Modern Landscapes

market day !

good to see the occasional produce stall at the Sunday markets at potamo , especially in the winter , on a cold and windy December Sunday morning its a tough day at the office , so when in kythera try to support the few remaining local produce seller
Open full entry
Photos, Modern Landscapes
Island Churches & Icons

epiphany / theophany church service laryourtisa potamos ... my 1000 photo entry !

this photo entry will be the 1000 photo of kythera I have entered on kythera family website since its beginnings ... I would like to thank the administrators of this website for the entering of photos ,stories and all information about the island from all kytherians in kythera and in other countries ...I would like to dedicate this entry to all the generations of the departure from the island the many 1000s of people that left the island to seek better lives and opportunities abroad , some never to return and others that returned to visit love ones many years later ,also I want to acknowledge the sorrow and pain that parents must of had when farewelling their children or family members at agia pelagia or at the drop of site at the now tree of sorrow site just outside of potamos ... also I would like to dedicate this photo to my father Theodore Trifyllis of trifyllianika , who left in the 30s aged only 14 , to come to Australia .. he told me that he was still waving goodbye to his parents till the island disappeared out of sight when the boat was turning past kavo mailo ...the stories of his time in kythera made me fall in love with the island , and this website allows us to pass on our stories and photos for all generations past and new to get to know kythera and to see what's happening on the island ... thank you to you all , I look forward to my next 1000 photos .... in this photo father mariatos at laryourtisa church in potamo for the 6th January epiphany service
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Photos, Island Churches & Icons
Modern Portraits

kythera landmark up for sale !!

well , im sure everyone that has been to the island has either stopped and bought something from the periptero or walked past this famous landmark of the island ... and now its up for sale , the past owner janni is selling the only periptero on the island to do other things, maybe sitting in that confined space finally got to him and its time to get out !!!!
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Photos, Modern Portraits
Working Life

the leader of the band

the late great stratis theodorokakis, shop owner for many many years at the platia in potamos , but most known for the contribution to the island for his music services , it wont be the same without stratis leading the famous kytherian municipal band at special occasions of the island ....thank you for the music stratis....
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Photos, Working Life
Diaspora Social Life

XFactor finalist - through to the third round

Congratulations Rochelle!
Rochelle Pitt-Watson from Cairns in far north Queensland is a nurse by profession, a mother of four children and a singer-songwriter.
Last night Rochelle was voted through to the third round of the Australia wide competition, XFactor shown on channel 7.
Rochelle is the granddaughter of 95 year old Rene Andronicos of Brisbane (author of the recent publication, Maudie..Put the Record on), and great-granddaughter of Theo G. Andronicos (born 1881) Potamos, on the island of Kythera.
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Photos, Diaspora Social Life
Diaspora Social Life

xfactor finalist

Rochelle Pitt, a mature age contestant, has successfully reached the finals of this year's Australia wide xfactor competition on channel 7.
We are very proud of her achievement and wish her every success. Rochelle is the grand-daughter of Rene Andronicos from Brisbane, (author of Maudie Put the Record On) and great-grandaughter of Theo G. Andronicos of Potomos.
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Photos, Diaspora Social Life
Notable Kytherians

Andrew P. Sourry OAM

Andrew Peter Sourry was born in Glen Innes, NSW in 1920. Both of Andrew’s parents were born in Kythera, Greece. His father, Panayioti (Peter), who was from Agia Anastasia, first arrived in Austalia on the boat 'Australia' in 1900. Peter returned to Greece to visit family and to fight in the Balkans War in Epirus, in North Western Greece, in 1912-1913. On this visit he met and married Andrew's mother, Marika Coroneo, from Potamos and together they emigrated to Australia in 1914 from Potamos, Kythera. Five children were born to Panayioti and Marika: Effie Sourris, Charles, Andrew, Eleni Venardos and Katina (‘Betty’) Pascall.

Andrew completed schooling at Armidale High School, NSW. In 1937 he was accepted to study Pharmacy at Sydney University from where he graduated with Honors in 1941. After registration he went to Lismore and enlisted in the Army Medical Corps in the AIF, serving in Rutherford and Tamworth, between December 1941 and early 1944. During this time he married Lois, who was an army nurse.

In 1944, the newly married Andrew, with his wife Lois' blessing, was granted the opportunity to travel to Greece as part of the medical contingent with Red Cross and United Nations Rehabilitation & Adminstration ( UNRA) where he served as a Deputy Assistant Commissioner. Along with 23 other Australians including 2 other Greek-Australians he spent 18 months based in Kozani in Northern Greece as a pharmacist and interpreter with these organisations. During the time of his service, Greece was in a period of Civil War from 1944-1946. The opportunity for Andrew to assist others by practicing his profession in a time of crisis and familiarise himself with the country of his heritage, had a marked impact on his life. For his work he was awarded the Bronze Medallion of the Greek Red Cross for Meritorious and Distinguished Service and was also made an Honorary Citizen of Kozani, the provincial capital of West Macedonia.

Andrew completed 50 years in pharmacy with pharmacies in Stanthorpe in Queensland from 1946-1949, Katoomba and in Gosford from 1952-1970, including an assistant and honorary pharmacist position at Gosford District Hospital and pharmacist at Roma Private Hospital at East Gosford. He retired from full time pharmacy in 1970 and became a locum pharmacist on the Central Coast from where he retired from pharmacy in 1991. He was the first president of the Central Coast Pharmacists Association.

After he retired, together with his wife Lois then a botanist and author, Andrew joined in her work in the field of conservation and together were active nature conservationists working for the establishment of National Parks and Nature Reserves on the Central Coast of NSW. Lois was passionate about environment issues all her life and greatly influenced Andrew's interest in the same. Her book entitled 'Trees of the Australian Bush' by Lois Sourry and Eric Worrell was a testament to her dedication. Lois was also a keen photographer and the majority of the photographs contained in the book were taken by her. Andrew's interest in photography was evident at this stage and together they took many photographs of botanic specimens and wildlife which are still used as reference material for journals and other publications. Together they were inaugural members of the Gosford Photographic Society.

After Lois' death in 1987, Andrew continued the work in conservation dedicating his life to the voluntary efforts of National Parks Association (NPA) and National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS). Both Andrew and Lois were founding members of the National Parks Association formed in 1957. He was an active member of the National Parks Association of NSW and the Gosford Wildlife Conservation Society. He worked in close liaison with the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Gosford City Council Coastal Open Space System Committee and in 1997 became one of only 10 people in NSW to be made an honorary life member of the National Parks Association of NSW.

In 2001 Andrew Sourry was awarded the distinctive Order of Australia Medal (OAM).The citation for his OAM states: ' For Service to conservation and the Envrionment, particularly as an advocate for establishing and maintaining national parks and nature reserves in the Gosford area '. Additionally, the citation reads : 'Involved in community efforts which resulted in the establishment or extensions of ... national parks and nature reserves in the Gosford area ... Retired member, Central Coast District National Parks and Wildlife Service Advisory Committee, assisting with the preparation of draft plans of management for various parks and reserves on the Central Coast … Honorary life member, National Parks Association of NSW and instigator of their publication A Proposal for the Protection of Remnant Rainforest in the Gosford and Wyong Area (1993).'

The areas that have been dedicated as National Parks and Nature Reserves on the Central Coast are numerous and Andrew was active in the formation of the following : Brisbane Waters National Park, the first National Park to be dedicated in 1959, Bouddi National Park, Wyrrabalong National Park on the North Entrance Peninsula, Wambina Nature Reserve, Palmgrove Nature Reserve, Cockle Bay Nature Reserve, Tuggerah Nature Reserve, Wamberal Lagoon Nature Reserve and Popran National Park north of the Hawesbury River.

The result of Andrew's hard work as cited in ' Significant Men of the Central Coast ' 2009 edition, ' can be seen in the beautiful reserved areas of the Central Coast. Many of these wild areas would have been destroyed by development if Andrew and his environmental colleagues had not worked so hard and for so long to conserve our natural environment.' His legacy lives on for the enjoyment of all those that visit the National Parks on the Central Coast of NSW.

Andrew is survived by his daughter, Dr. Marika A. Leibrandt (nee Sourry), his son-in-law, Roman and grandchildren, Julian and Tristan, together with Julian's wife Lee.

References:

1. Worrell and Sourry, Trees of the Australian Bush, Sydney, Angus & Robertson LTD, 1967.

2. Margaret Hardy, Significant Men of the Central Coast: Men Who Have Made A Difference, Gosford City Council, 2009, p.14.

3. Barbara Hobart, 'Profile : Andrew Sourry, National Parks Journal', Vol. 45, no. 2, 2001.

4. Ann Coward, The Kytherian, Newletter of the Kytherian Assocation of Australia, March 2001, pp 8-9.
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People, Notable Kytherians
Miscellaneous

simply the best !!

surely one of the best restaurants on the island winter or summer is Panaretos in potamos , summer for a great lunch and at dinner and in the winter down stairs in the warm cosy little restaurant ,here a traditional meal .. bumyes and a greek salad ..
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Modern Portraits

Dimitroula Venardos (Zantiotis) - August 1986

I took this photo of my paternal grandfather's (Peter) sister in Potamos on August 13, 1986.
Dimitroula married her sister Anastasia's widower, Yianni Venardos in around 1936.
Anastasia had five children and died from childbirth complications. Dimitroula was told it would be good if she raised her sister's children. Dimitroula did not have any children of her own.
The children are Bill (dec'd), Steve, Andrew, Eugenia and Grigoroula.
All the boys emigrated to Australia. Bill married Helen Lourandos (dec'd) and had one son, John.
Thank you to Maria Stephenson (Zantiotis) for this information.
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Modern Portraits

'' memories ''

the 'pappa' from agios theodoros shows me photos from his recent trip to Australia .. he asked me to give regards to all the people who gave him the lovely thoughts and wishes he received from his trip down under... and he wants Queensland to win 9 years state of origins in a row !! .. no only joking !!
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Island Social Life

come on in !!

in the summer everybody sits outdoors , but in winter ,the cold keeps everybody inside the cafeneos of kythera , here all the patrons of KAPINOS in potamo , enjoy the company of each other in the nice and warm interior....
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Working Life

methzaki time !!

KAPINOS cafeneo one of the more popular with locals at the platia in potamos, and on some days bbq octopus is on the menu, with a nice glass of ouzo, makes for a nice mezie on a chilly winters day ...
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Obituaries

Lest We Forget - Flying Officer William Gengos, Pte Steleanos Gengos

R.I.P

Flying Officer William Gengos 
Tobruk 12 August 1942

Private Steleanos Gengos
El Alemain 1 September 1942


The Gengos (Tzentzos) family who established themselves 1914-1922 in Inverell and later moved to Moree suffered the greatest loss with two family members Flying Officer William Gengos and Private Steleanos (Stan) Gengos, themselves cousins, killed within a few weeks of each other at Tobruk and El Alemain, North Africa in 1942.

Researched

Peter McCarthy (Makarthis)
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Island Churches & Icons

Large congregation present

During the Paramony ceremony of Epithany, the evening of the 5th January, 2014.

Lining up to receive holy communion.

For the meaning of Paramony and Epithany, read below.

Epiphany (Koine Greek: ἐπιφάνεια, epiphaneia, "manifestation", "striking appearance") or Theophany (Ancient Greek (ἡ) Θεοφάνεια, Τheophaneia meaning "vision of God"), which traditionally falls on January 6, is a Christian feast day that celebrates the revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ. Western Christians commemorate principally (but not solely) the visit of the Magi to the Baby Jesus, and thus Jesus' physical manifestation to the Gentiles. Eastern Christians commemorate the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River, seen as his manifestation to the world as the Son of God.

History

The observance had its origins in the Eastern Christian Churches and was a general celebration of the manifestation of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. It included the commemoration of his birth; the visit of the Magi to Bethlehem; all of Jesus' childhood events, up to and including his baptism in the Jordan by John the Baptist; and even the miracle at the wedding at Cana in Galilee.It seems fairly clear that the Baptism was the primary event being commemorated.

Adoration of the Magi by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, 17th century (Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio.
Christians fixed the date of the feast on January 6 quite early in their history. Ancient liturgies noted Illuminatio, Manifestatio, Declaratio (Illumination, Manifestation, Declaration); cf. Matthew 3:13–17; Luke 3:22; and John 2:1–11; where the Baptism and the Marriage at Cana were dwelt upon. Western Christians have traditionally emphasized the "Revelation to the Gentiles" mentioned in Luke, where the term Gentile means all non-Jewish peoples. The Biblical Magi, who represented the non-Jewish peoples of the world, paid homage to the infant Jesus in stark contrast to Herod the Great (King of Judea), who sought to kill him.[17] In this event, Christian writers also inferred a revelation to the Children of Israel. Saint John Chrysostom identified the significance of the meeting between the Magi and Herod's court: "The star had been hidden from them so that, on finding themselves without their guide, they would have no alternative but to consult the Jews. In this way the birth of Jesus would be made known to all."

The earliest reference to Epiphany as a Christian feast was in A.D. 361, by Ammianus Marcellinus St. Epiphanius says that January 6 is hemera genethlion toutestin epiphanion (Christ's "Birthday; that is, His Epiphany"). He also asserts that the Miracle at Cana occurred on the same calendar day.

In 385, the pilgrim Egeria (also known as Silvia) described a celebration in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, which she called "Epiphany" (epiphania) that commemorated the Nativity of Christ. Even at this early date, there was an octave associated with the feast.

In a sermon delivered on 25 December 380, St. Gregory of Nazianzus referred to the day as ta theophania ("the Theophany", an alternative name for Epiphany), saying expressly that it is a day commemorating he hagia tou Christou gennesis ("the holy nativity of Christ") and told his listeners that they would soon be celebrating the baptism of Christ. Then, on January 6 and 7, he preached two more sermons, wherein he declared that the celebration of the birth of Christ and the visitation of the Magi had already taken place, and that they would now commemorate his Baptism. At this time, celebration of the two events was beginning to be observed on separate occasions, at least in Cappadocia.
Saint John Cassian says that even in his time (beginning of the 5th century), the Egyptian monasteries celebrated the Nativity and Baptism together on January 6.The Armenian Apostolic Church continues to celebrate January 6 as the only commemoration of the Nativity.

Etymology and original word usage

The Koine Greek ἐπιφάνεια, epiphaneia derives from the verb "to appear" and means "manifestation," "appearance." In classical Greek it was used of the appearance of dawn, of an enemy in war, but especially of a manifestation of a deity to a worshipper (a theophany). In the Septuagint the word is used for a manifestation of the God of Israel (2 Maccabees 15:27). In the New Testament the word is used in 2 Timothy 1:10 to refer either to the birth of Christ or to his appearance after his resurrection, and five times to refer to the Second Coming.

Liturgical practice in Eastern Orthodox churches

Forefeast: The liturgical Forefeast of Theophany begins on January 1, and concludes with the Paramony on January 5.

Paramony: The Eve of the Feast is called Paramony (Greek: παραμονή, Slavonic: navechérie). Paramony is observed as a strict fast day, on which those faithful who are physically able, refrain from food until the first star is observed in the evening, when a meal with wine and oil may be taken. On this day the Royal Hours are celebrated, thus tying together the feasts of Nativity and Good Friday. The Royal Hours are followed by the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil which combines Vespers with the Divine Liturgy. During the Vespers, fifteen Old Testament lections which foreshadow the Baptism of Christ are read, and special antiphons are chanted. If the Feast of the Theophany falls on a Sunday or Monday, the Royal Hours are chanted on the previous Friday, and on the Paramony the Vesperal Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom is celebrated and the fasting is lessened to some degree.

Theophany Crucession. The priests throw a wooden cross in the Yantra river. Believers will then jump into the icy waters to "save" the cross.

Blessing of Waters: The Orthodox Churches perform the Great Blessing of Waters on Theophany.[42] The blessing is normally done twice: once on the Eve of the Feast—usually at a Baptismal font inside the church—and then again on the day of the feast, outdoors at a body of water. Following the Divine Liturgy, the clergy and people go in a Crucession (procession with the cross) to the nearest body of water, be it a beach, harbor, quay, river, lake, swimming pool, water depot, etc. (ideally, it should be a body of "living water"). At the end of the ceremony the priest will bless the waters. In the Greek practice, he does this by casting a cross into the water. If swimming is feasible on the spot, any number of volunteers may try to recover the cross. The person who gets the cross first swims back and returns it to the priest, who then delivers a special blessing to the swimmer and their household. Certain such ceremonies have achieved particular prominence, such as the one held annually at Tarpon Springs, Florida. In Russia, where the winters are severe, a hole will be cut into the ice so that the waters may be blessed. In such conditions, the cross is not cast into the water, but is held securely by the priest and dipped three times into the water.

The water that is blessed on this day is known as "Theophany Water" and is taken home by the faithful, and used with prayer as a blessing. People will not only bless themselves and their homes by sprinkling with Theophany Water, but will also drink it. The Orthodox Church teaches that Theophany Water differs from regular holy water in that with Theophany Water, the very nature of the water is changed and becomes incorrupt,[43] a miracle attested to as early as St. John Chrysostom.[44]

Theophany is a traditional day for performing Baptisms, and this is reflected in the Divine Liturgy by singing the baptismal hymn, "As many as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. Alleluia," in place of the Trisagion.

House Blessings: On Theophany the priest will begin making the round of the parishioner's homes to bless them. He will perform a short prayer service in each home, and then go through the entire house, gardens and outside-buildings, blessing them with the newly blessed Theophany Water, while all sing the Troparion and Kontakion of the feast. This is normally done on Theophany, or at least during the Afterfeast, but if the parishioners are numerous, and especially if many live far away from the church, it may take some time to bless each house. Traditionally, these blessings should all be finished before the beginning of Great Lent).

Afterfeast: The Feast of Theophany is followed by an eight-day Afterfeast on which the normal fasting laws are suspended. The Saturday and Sunday after Theophany have special readings assigned to them, which relate to the Temptation of Christ and to penance and perseverance in the Christian struggle. There is thus a liturgical continuum between the Feast of Theophany and the beginning of Great Lent.

The explanation of Epithany is from Wikipedia. The Wikipedia entry is much more extensive.
Open full entry
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Island Churches & Icons

Second altar amongst the congregation

During the Paramony ceremony of Epithany, the evening of the 5th January, 2014.

For the meaning of Paramony read below.

Epiphany (Koine Greek: ἐπιφάνεια, epiphaneia, "manifestation", "striking appearance") or Theophany (Ancient Greek (ἡ) Θεοφάνεια, Τheophaneia meaning "vision of God"), which traditionally falls on January 6, is a Christian feast day that celebrates the revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ. Western Christians commemorate principally (but not solely) the visit of the Magi to the Baby Jesus, and thus Jesus' physical manifestation to the Gentiles. Eastern Christians commemorate the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River, seen as his manifestation to the world as the Son of God.

History

The observance had its origins in the Eastern Christian Churches and was a general celebration of the manifestation of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. It included the commemoration of his birth; the visit of the Magi to Bethlehem; all of Jesus' childhood events, up to and including his baptism in the Jordan by John the Baptist; and even the miracle at the wedding at Cana in Galilee.It seems fairly clear that the Baptism was the primary event being commemorated.

Adoration of the Magi by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, 17th century (Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio.
Christians fixed the date of the feast on January 6 quite early in their history. Ancient liturgies noted Illuminatio, Manifestatio, Declaratio (Illumination, Manifestation, Declaration); cf. Matthew 3:13–17; Luke 3:22; and John 2:1–11; where the Baptism and the Marriage at Cana were dwelt upon. Western Christians have traditionally emphasized the "Revelation to the Gentiles" mentioned in Luke, where the term Gentile means all non-Jewish peoples. The Biblical Magi, who represented the non-Jewish peoples of the world, paid homage to the infant Jesus in stark contrast to Herod the Great (King of Judea), who sought to kill him.[17] In this event, Christian writers also inferred a revelation to the Children of Israel. Saint John Chrysostom identified the significance of the meeting between the Magi and Herod's court: "The star had been hidden from them so that, on finding themselves without their guide, they would have no alternative but to consult the Jews. In this way the birth of Jesus would be made known to all."

The earliest reference to Epiphany as a Christian feast was in A.D. 361, by Ammianus Marcellinus St. Epiphanius says that January 6 is hemera genethlion toutestin epiphanion (Christ's "Birthday; that is, His Epiphany"). He also asserts that the Miracle at Cana occurred on the same calendar day.

In 385, the pilgrim Egeria (also known as Silvia) described a celebration in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, which she called "Epiphany" (epiphania) that commemorated the Nativity of Christ. Even at this early date, there was an octave associated with the feast.

In a sermon delivered on 25 December 380, St. Gregory of Nazianzus referred to the day as ta theophania ("the Theophany", an alternative name for Epiphany), saying expressly that it is a day commemorating he hagia tou Christou gennesis ("the holy nativity of Christ") and told his listeners that they would soon be celebrating the baptism of Christ. Then, on January 6 and 7, he preached two more sermons, wherein he declared that the celebration of the birth of Christ and the visitation of the Magi had already taken place, and that they would now commemorate his Baptism. At this time, celebration of the two events was beginning to be observed on separate occasions, at least in Cappadocia.
Saint John Cassian says that even in his time (beginning of the 5th century), the Egyptian monasteries celebrated the Nativity and Baptism together on January 6.The Armenian Apostolic Church continues to celebrate January 6 as the only commemoration of the Nativity.

Etymology and original word usage

The Koine Greek ἐπιφάνεια, epiphaneia derives from the verb "to appear" and means "manifestation," "appearance." In classical Greek it was used of the appearance of dawn, of an enemy in war, but especially of a manifestation of a deity to a worshipper (a theophany). In the Septuagint the word is used for a manifestation of the God of Israel (2 Maccabees 15:27). In the New Testament the word is used in 2 Timothy 1:10 to refer either to the birth of Christ or to his appearance after his resurrection, and five times to refer to the Second Coming.

Liturgical practice in Eastern Orthodox churches

Forefeast: The liturgical Forefeast of Theophany begins on January 1, and concludes with the Paramony on January 5.

Paramony: The Eve of the Feast is called Paramony (Greek: παραμονή, Slavonic: navechérie). Paramony is observed as a strict fast day, on which those faithful who are physically able, refrain from food until the first star is observed in the evening, when a meal with wine and oil may be taken. On this day the Royal Hours are celebrated, thus tying together the feasts of Nativity and Good Friday. The Royal Hours are followed by the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil which combines Vespers with the Divine Liturgy. During the Vespers, fifteen Old Testament lections which foreshadow the Baptism of Christ are read, and special antiphons are chanted. If the Feast of the Theophany falls on a Sunday or Monday, the Royal Hours are chanted on the previous Friday, and on the Paramony the Vesperal Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom is celebrated and the fasting is lessened to some degree.

Theophany Crucession. The priests throw a wooden cross in the Yantra river. Believers will then jump into the icy waters to "save" the cross.

Blessing of Waters: The Orthodox Churches perform the Great Blessing of Waters on Theophany.[42] The blessing is normally done twice: once on the Eve of the Feast—usually at a Baptismal font inside the church—and then again on the day of the feast, outdoors at a body of water. Following the Divine Liturgy, the clergy and people go in a Crucession (procession with the cross) to the nearest body of water, be it a beach, harbor, quay, river, lake, swimming pool, water depot, etc. (ideally, it should be a body of "living water"). At the end of the ceremony the priest will bless the waters. In the Greek practice, he does this by casting a cross into the water. If swimming is feasible on the spot, any number of volunteers may try to recover the cross. The person who gets the cross first swims back and returns it to the priest, who then delivers a special blessing to the swimmer and their household. Certain such ceremonies have achieved particular prominence, such as the one held annually at Tarpon Springs, Florida. In Russia, where the winters are severe, a hole will be cut into the ice so that the waters may be blessed. In such conditions, the cross is not cast into the water, but is held securely by the priest and dipped three times into the water.

The water that is blessed on this day is known as "Theophany Water" and is taken home by the faithful, and used with prayer as a blessing. People will not only bless themselves and their homes by sprinkling with Theophany Water, but will also drink it. The Orthodox Church teaches that Theophany Water differs from regular holy water in that with Theophany Water, the very nature of the water is changed and becomes incorrupt,[43] a miracle attested to as early as St. John Chrysostom.[44]

Theophany is a traditional day for performing Baptisms, and this is reflected in the Divine Liturgy by singing the baptismal hymn, "As many as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. Alleluia," in place of the Trisagion.

House Blessings: On Theophany the priest will begin making the round of the parishioner's homes to bless them. He will perform a short prayer service in each home, and then go through the entire house, gardens and outside-buildings, blessing them with the newly blessed Theophany Water, while all sing the Troparion and Kontakion of the feast. This is normally done on Theophany, or at least during the Afterfeast, but if the parishioners are numerous, and especially if many live far away from the church, it may take some time to bless each house. Traditionally, these blessings should all be finished before the beginning of Great Lent).

Afterfeast: The Feast of Theophany is followed by an eight-day Afterfeast on which the normal fasting laws are suspended. The Saturday and Sunday after Theophany have special readings assigned to them, which relate to the Temptation of Christ and to penance and perseverance in the Christian struggle. There is thus a liturgical continuum between the Feast of Theophany and the beginning of Great Lent.

The explanation of Epithany is from Wikipedia. The Wikipedia entry is much more extensive.
Open full entry
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Island Churches & Icons

Epithany celebrated on Kythera. Paramony ceremony at Potamos

The positioning of a second alter, surrounded by palm leaves is interesting. Father Petros explained the effect is to set the "alter" down amongst the people, so that the "divine" is much more accessible to all.

For the the meaning of "paramony" - read below.

Epiphany (Koine Greek: ἐπιφάνεια, epiphaneia, "manifestation", "striking appearance") or Theophany (Ancient Greek (ἡ) Θεοφάνεια, Τheophaneia meaning "vision of God"), which traditionally falls on January 6, is a Christian feast day that celebrates the revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ. Western Christians commemorate principally (but not solely) the visit of the Magi to the Baby Jesus, and thus Jesus' physical manifestation to the Gentiles. Eastern Christians commemorate the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River, seen as his manifestation to the world as the Son of God.

History

The observance had its origins in the Eastern Christian Churches and was a general celebration of the manifestation of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. It included the commemoration of his birth; the visit of the Magi to Bethlehem; all of Jesus' childhood events, up to and including his baptism in the Jordan by John the Baptist; and even the miracle at the wedding at Cana in Galilee.It seems fairly clear that the Baptism was the primary event being commemorated.

Adoration of the Magi by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, 17th century (Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio.
Christians fixed the date of the feast on January 6 quite early in their history. Ancient liturgies noted Illuminatio, Manifestatio, Declaratio (Illumination, Manifestation, Declaration); cf. Matthew 3:13–17; Luke 3:22; and John 2:1–11; where the Baptism and the Marriage at Cana were dwelt upon. Western Christians have traditionally emphasized the "Revelation to the Gentiles" mentioned in Luke, where the term Gentile means all non-Jewish peoples. The Biblical Magi, who represented the non-Jewish peoples of the world, paid homage to the infant Jesus in stark contrast to Herod the Great (King of Judea), who sought to kill him.[17] In this event, Christian writers also inferred a revelation to the Children of Israel. Saint John Chrysostom identified the significance of the meeting between the Magi and Herod's court: "The star had been hidden from them so that, on finding themselves without their guide, they would have no alternative but to consult the Jews. In this way the birth of Jesus would be made known to all."

The earliest reference to Epiphany as a Christian feast was in A.D. 361, by Ammianus Marcellinus St. Epiphanius says that January 6 is hemera genethlion toutestin epiphanion (Christ's "Birthday; that is, His Epiphany"). He also asserts that the Miracle at Cana occurred on the same calendar day.

In 385, the pilgrim Egeria (also known as Silvia) described a celebration in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, which she called "Epiphany" (epiphania) that commemorated the Nativity of Christ. Even at this early date, there was an octave associated with the feast.

In a sermon delivered on 25 December 380, St. Gregory of Nazianzus referred to the day as ta theophania ("the Theophany", an alternative name for Epiphany), saying expressly that it is a day commemorating he hagia tou Christou gennesis ("the holy nativity of Christ") and told his listeners that they would soon be celebrating the baptism of Christ. Then, on January 6 and 7, he preached two more sermons, wherein he declared that the celebration of the birth of Christ and the visitation of the Magi had already taken place, and that they would now commemorate his Baptism. At this time, celebration of the two events was beginning to be observed on separate occasions, at least in Cappadocia.
Saint John Cassian says that even in his time (beginning of the 5th century), the Egyptian monasteries celebrated the Nativity and Baptism together on January 6.The Armenian Apostolic Church continues to celebrate January 6 as the only commemoration of the Nativity.

Etymology and original word usage

The Koine Greek ἐπιφάνεια, epiphaneia derives from the verb "to appear" and means "manifestation," "appearance." In classical Greek it was used of the appearance of dawn, of an enemy in war, but especially of a manifestation of a deity to a worshipper (a theophany). In the Septuagint the word is used for a manifestation of the God of Israel (2 Maccabees 15:27). In the New Testament the word is used in 2 Timothy 1:10 to refer either to the birth of Christ or to his appearance after his resurrection, and five times to refer to the Second Coming.

Liturgical practice in Eastern Orthodox churches

Forefeast: The liturgical Forefeast of Theophany begins on January 1, and concludes with the Paramony on January 5.

Paramony: The Eve of the Feast is called Paramony (Greek: παραμονή, Slavonic: navechérie). Paramony is observed as a strict fast day, on which those faithful who are physically able, refrain from food until the first star is observed in the evening, when a meal with wine and oil may be taken. On this day the Royal Hours are celebrated, thus tying together the feasts of Nativity and Good Friday. The Royal Hours are followed by the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil which combines Vespers with the Divine Liturgy. During the Vespers, fifteen Old Testament lections which foreshadow the Baptism of Christ are read, and special antiphons are chanted. If the Feast of the Theophany falls on a Sunday or Monday, the Royal Hours are chanted on the previous Friday, and on the Paramony the Vesperal Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom is celebrated and the fasting is lessened to some degree.

Theophany Crucession. The priests throw a wooden cross in the Yantra river. Believers will then jump into the icy waters to "save" the cross.

Blessing of Waters: The Orthodox Churches perform the Great Blessing of Waters on Theophany.[42] The blessing is normally done twice: once on the Eve of the Feast—usually at a Baptismal font inside the church—and then again on the day of the feast, outdoors at a body of water. Following the Divine Liturgy, the clergy and people go in a Crucession (procession with the cross) to the nearest body of water, be it a beach, harbor, quay, river, lake, swimming pool, water depot, etc. (ideally, it should be a body of "living water"). At the end of the ceremony the priest will bless the waters. In the Greek practice, he does this by casting a cross into the water. If swimming is feasible on the spot, any number of volunteers may try to recover the cross. The person who gets the cross first swims back and returns it to the priest, who then delivers a special blessing to the swimmer and their household. Certain such ceremonies have achieved particular prominence, such as the one held annually at Tarpon Springs, Florida. In Russia, where the winters are severe, a hole will be cut into the ice so that the waters may be blessed. In such conditions, the cross is not cast into the water, but is held securely by the priest and dipped three times into the water.

The water that is blessed on this day is known as "Theophany Water" and is taken home by the faithful, and used with prayer as a blessing. People will not only bless themselves and their homes by sprinkling with Theophany Water, but will also drink it. The Orthodox Church teaches that Theophany Water differs from regular holy water in that with Theophany Water, the very nature of the water is changed and becomes incorrupt,[43] a miracle attested to as early as St. John Chrysostom.[44]

Theophany is a traditional day for performing Baptisms, and this is reflected in the Divine Liturgy by singing the baptismal hymn, "As many as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. Alleluia," in place of the Trisagion.

House Blessings: On Theophany the priest will begin making the round of the parishioner's homes to bless them. He will perform a short prayer service in each home, and then go through the entire house, gardens and outside-buildings, blessing them with the newly blessed Theophany Water, while all sing the Troparion and Kontakion of the feast. This is normally done on Theophany, or at least during the Afterfeast, but if the parishioners are numerous, and especially if many live far away from the church, it may take some time to bless each house. Traditionally, these blessings should all be finished before the beginning of Great Lent).

Afterfeast: The Feast of Theophany is followed by an eight-day Afterfeast on which the normal fasting laws are suspended. The Saturday and Sunday after Theophany have special readings assigned to them, which relate to the Temptation of Christ and to penance and perseverance in the Christian struggle. There is thus a liturgical continuum between the Feast of Theophany and the beginning of Great Lent.

The explanation of Epithany is from Wikipedia. The Wikipedia entry is much more extensive.
Open full entry
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Island Social Life

Singing in the New Year

One of the most endearing Greek / Kytherian traditions is "singing in the New Year". Children go around the island in large groups, or in smaller groups (like these two young girls outside Astikon in Potamos), or as individuals.

They carry a triangle with them, ask the person or shop owner whether they can sing in Xmas / the New Year / Epithany, and after singing their carol, they are rewarded with money, which is put into a money box, which they carry with them.


From the explorecrete website:

Greek Christmas Carols , New Year and Epiphany Carols

A very old custom which remains today practically unchanged is the Greek Christmas carols, which is called calanda in Greek. Children, in groups of two or more, still make the rounds of houses singing carols, usually accompanied by the triangle or guitars, accordions or harmonicas.

The children go from house to house, knock on doors and ask: "shall we say them?" If the homeowner's answer is yes, the kids sing the Christmas carols for several minutes before finishing up with the wish, "And for the next year, many happy returns." Years ago the homeowners offered the children holiday sweets and pastries, but today they usually give them some money.

The carols are sung on the eves of Christmas, New Year and Epiphany, and they are different for each holiday.

History of Christmas Carols in Greece

The word calanda stems from the Latin calenda, which translates as "the beginning of the month." It is believed that the history of caroling goes deep into the past and connects with ancient Greece. In fact, they have even found carols written in those distant past days which are similar to the ones sung today. In ancient times the word for carols was Eiresioni , and children of that era held an effigy of a ship which depicted the arrival of the god Dionysos. Other times they held an olive or laurel branch decorated with red and white threads, on which they would tie the offerings of the homeowners.

This Eiresioni song from the Homeric period can still be heard today - with small changes - in the carols of Thrace:

In this house we came of the rich-landlord
May its doors open for the wealth to roll in
The wealth and happiness and desired peace should enter
And may its clay jugs fill with honey, wine and oil
And the kneading tub with rising dough.

Following are the Greek carols for each of the three holidays: Christmas Carols, New Year Carols and Epiphany Carols.

GREEK CHRISTMAS CAROLS

Good day lords
If it's your bidding
Of the Christ's divine birth
I will tell in your manse

Christ is being born today
In the town of Bethlehem
The heavens rejoice
And all creation delights

In the cave he is born
Within the horse manger
The king of the heavens
And Maker of all . . .

GREEK NEW YEAR CAROLS

First of the month and first of the year
My tall rosemary
Let our good year begin
Church with the holy throne

It is the beginning when Christ
Holy and spiritual
Will walk on earth
And cheer us up

St. Basil is on his way
And will not deign on us
From Kesaria
You're a Lady milady

GREEK EPIPHANY CAROLS

Today is the lights and the enlightment
The happiness is big and the sanctification

Down the Jordan River
Sits our Lady the Blessed Virgin Mary

She carries an organ, a candle she holds
And pleads with St. John.

St. John lord and Baptist
Baptize this divine child of mine

I shall ascend to the heavens
To gather roses and incense

Good day, good day
Good day to you master and the missus.
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Island Social Life

Singing in the New Year

One of the most endearing Greek / Kytherian traditions is "singing in the New Year". Children go around the island in large groups (like this one singing in the New Year at the National Bank of Greece in Potamos), or in smaller groups, or as individuals.

They carry a triangle with them, ask the person or shop owner whether they can sing in Xmas / the New Year / Epithany, and after singing their carol, they are rewarded with money, which is put into a money box, which they carry with them.


From the explorecrete website:

Greek Christmas Carols , New Year and Epiphany Carols

A very old custom which remains today practically unchanged is the Greek Christmas carols, which is called calanda in Greek. Children, in groups of two or more, still make the rounds of houses singing carols, usually accompanied by the triangle or guitars, accordions or harmonicas.

The children go from house to house, knock on doors and ask: "shall we say them?" If the homeowner's answer is yes, the kids sing the Christmas carols for several minutes before finishing up with the wish, "And for the next year, many happy returns." Years ago the homeowners offered the children holiday sweets and pastries, but today they usually give them some money.

The carols are sung on the eves of Christmas, New Year and Epiphany, and they are different for each holiday.

History of Christmas Carols in Greece

The word calanda stems from the Latin calenda, which translates as "the beginning of the month." It is believed that the history of caroling goes deep into the past and connects with ancient Greece. In fact, they have even found carols written in those distant past days which are similar to the ones sung today. In ancient times the word for carols was Eiresioni , and children of that era held an effigy of a ship which depicted the arrival of the god Dionysos. Other times they held an olive or laurel branch decorated with red and white threads, on which they would tie the offerings of the homeowners.

This Eiresioni song from the Homeric period can still be heard today - with small changes - in the carols of Thrace:

In this house we came of the rich-landlord
May its doors open for the wealth to roll in
The wealth and happiness and desired peace should enter
And may its clay jugs fill with honey, wine and oil
And the kneading tub with rising dough.

Following are the Greek carols for each of the three holidays: Christmas Carols, New Year Carols and Epiphany Carols.

GREEK CHRISTMAS CAROLS

Good day lords
If it's your bidding
Of the Christ's divine birth
I will tell in your manse

Christ is being born today
In the town of Bethlehem
The heavens rejoice
And all creation delights

In the cave he is born
Within the horse manger
The king of the heavens
And Maker of all . . .

GREEK NEW YEAR CAROLS

First of the month and first of the year
My tall rosemary
Let our good year begin
Church with the holy throne

It is the beginning when Christ
Holy and spiritual
Will walk on earth
And cheer us up

St. Basil is on his way
And will not deign on us
From Kesaria
You're a Lady milady

GREEK EPIPHANY CAROLS

Today is the lights and the enlightment
The happiness is big and the sanctification

Down the Jordan River
Sits our Lady the Blessed Virgin Mary

She carries an organ, a candle she holds
And pleads with St. John.

St. John lord and Baptist
Baptize this divine child of mine

I shall ascend to the heavens
To gather roses and incense

Good day, good day
Good day to you master and the missus.
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Photos, Island Social Life
Bibliography

Maudie... Put The Record On

Author: Rene Andronicos
When Published: 2013
Publisher: Blurb
Available: http://blur.by/1fANNcg
Description: This is the story of the only daughter of a Greek migrant from the island of Cerigo, also known as Kythera. Rene was born on Bastille Day, the 14th July 1919 and delivered by a midwife at the residence behind her parent’s mixed business at Given Terrace, Paddington.
Maudie... Put the Record On is a true story about the early part of Rene's life growing up in the Brisbane suburb of Red Hill between the years 1923 and 1938. It tells about the hardships her family experienced and how they coped especially with their mother’s illness during The Great Depression.

ISBN: 978-0-646-91273-8

[[picture:"maudie…_2e put the record on bw 1st ed.jpg" ID:21985]]
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Diaspora Social Life

94 year old Brisbane author, Rene Andronicos. The above article is from the Northside Chronicle dated 13th November 2013

Rene has a bubbly, happy, outgoing personality and often claims that she was born laughing. Blessed with a natural gift for story telling and sharp memory she needs little encouragement to launch into anecdotes about her early life. Cooking has featured a lot in her stories usually in association with her father, Theo, who had spent many years either working as a cook or cooking for the family.
Approximately thirty five years ago, Rene had a dream and in that dream she heard her father’s voice saying “Maudie…put the record on!” She mulled over the contents of the dream for a few weeks then began to write, and wrote and wrote continuing for the next few years, adding furthur information about that era gathered through research.
With the encouragement of her family her wish to have her book published has finally come to pass. These days there are fewer anecdotes and stories. There is less urgency in the telling. Her story has been told, written and published.
Rene is the only daughter of Theo G. Andronicos, born Potamos in 1881, who migrated to Sydney in 1897. He married Maude M. Whyte in Brisbane in 1914. Together they had four children, George, Emmanuel, Irene and James. Theo passed away in Brisbane in 1948.
contact details: gayehegeman@hotmail.com
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Life Stories

A Greek Soldier is Buried

A Greek Soldier is Buried

(From “The Hillston Spectator and Lachlan Advertiser,” Thursday 21 June 1945)
We take the following from the Lithgow “Clarion” of 1st May 1945:-
“The funeral of late Mr. Simon Cordato, aged 65, of Main Street, Katoomba was held on Sunday afternoon. The service of the Greek Orthodox Church was held in St. Hilda’s Church of England by Rev. B. Christomes of Sydney.
Almost one hundred of the Greek Community were present, and followed the service with attention and reverence. Rev. Christomes also officiated at the Church of England portion of Katoomba Cemetery.

The late Mr Cordato served in the 1914-18 War, and was a member of the R.S.A.I.L.A., Leura Sub-Branch. On the coffin the Union Jack and Greek Flag were draped. The Greek community were represented by the Greek Consul General, Mr. A. Vrisakis.
The chief mourners were his wife and son. The Leura Sub-Branch was represented by J. White, G. Armstrong and F. Lampson. Katoomba Council was represented by the Deputy Mayor, Ald. W. Snelson, Wor. Master Harvey Gordon attended on behalf Lodge Katoomba 118, of which Lodge Mr. Cordato was a member. Rotary Club was represented by Mr. Bob Meek and the Coroner’s Court by Mr.P. Endicott. The Greek residents were represented by Mr. Jack Simos. There were also Greek soldiers in A.I.F. uniform present. The business people of the town were represented by Mr. Peter and H. Cholerton.. The wreaths were numerous and about 25 cars followed the cortege to the cemetery.”

The late Mr. Cordato will always be remembered by Hillstonites who were present at the 1934 Diggers’ Ball, when he entered the Hall mounted on a pony owned by Mr. Hughie Borden, passed a guard of honour of Diggers , dressed as Gypos, and then declared the ball open in Arabic, which was translated into English by Charlie Buchanan.
Truly, what a night that was!

Authors Notes
(This report from The Hillston Spectator is unedited to preserve authenticity and reflect community attitudes of the period)
Simon Cordato (Stellianos Emmanuel Theodorakakis) was born 1880, Potamos, Cerigo, Greece arriving at Sydney, NSW on GMS Zieten 17 Jan 1904.

Simon, like many Greeks served his ‘time’ in oyster saloons, including his brother Kyriakos Cordato at Armidale NSW until 1908 when he conducted Cordato Bros. Oyster Saloon in Walker Street, Casino NSW. He returned to Greece 1909 and married Cornelia Chambaris at Potamos returning to Casino shortly afterwards with his wife.

Simon with wife Kornelia and children Ekaterene, Hariklia and Emmanuel returned to Kythera 1919 for a holiday leaving the business in the hands of their partners, Con and Theo Chambaris. The duration of their stay in Greece was extended as Simon was ‘called to colours’ and they returned to Casino August 1922.

“The Richmond River Express and Casino Kyogle Advertiser, Wednesday 23 August 1922 p 2 Article”
ON THE GRECIAN FRONTIER
--
AFFAIRS IN ASIA MINOR
--
CASINOITE WITH GREEK COLORS

“Mr. Simon Cordato, of the firm Chambiras and Chambiras, Casino, who left for Greece on a holiday tour some three years ago, returned to Casino last week. Some months after arrival in his home land, Mr. Cordato who is a reservist of the Grecian Army, was called to the colors in Asia Minor, where hostilities with the Turks were opened. With the infantry forces, Mr. Cordato saw service at Smyrna, around which centre the biggest battles on this frontier were fought. In the advance from Smyrna to Eysee Sehir, along which line the Greeks are now firmly established, Mr. Cordato states that there was evidence on every hand of the appalling atrocities of the Turks. In the wake of their retreat villages and towns were pillaged and burnt, among the ruins of which were mutilated bodies of Christians, including many women and children. Many Christian refugees, including Armenians and Greeks, were picked up, who told of appalling treatment by the Turks.

In an interview with an “Express” representative, Mr. Cordato stated that the Grecian Army on the Eysee Sehir frontier is now 450,000 strong, without the remotest chance of the Turks penetrating the line. “Greece’s army on this line,” he added, “is so firmly established that it can be safely reduced to 100,000.”
Mr. Cordato offered the opinion that France is largely blameable for the continuation of hostilities by the withdrawal of her troops from Cylekia, as otherwise by now the Turks would have been put to rout, contending in this that the French army was withdrawn through the country’s economic interests in Turkey in respect of trade relations.

At the present time and for the past eight months, Mr. Cordato states that the fighting between Turkey and Greece has practically ceased, being confined to isolated skirmishes at infrequent intervals.

Questioned regarding Greece’s internal affairs, Mr. Cordato stated that the Greek population now regretted the overthrow of Venizelos, believing at the last elections that with his defeat war would cease. “They have learned the reverse,” remarked Mr. Cordato, “and at the next elections his return is almost assured.”

Author’s notes continued-
The evaluation of the situation in Smyrna by Simon Cordato was soon dashed shortly afterwards as Turkish forces on 9 September 1922, expelled the Greek Army from Turkish territory and reclaimed Smyrna as Izmir.

Simon Cordato with his family removed to Hillston NSW 1923 trading as Cordato Bros remaining until 1935 when they again returned to Kythera. Perhaps sensing the dark clouds gathering over Europe they returned to Australia 1938, settling finally in Katoomba with his brother Jack Cordato at the ‘All British Café.’
Kornelia Cordato passed away 27 January 1973 and is interred with her husband at Katoomba Cemetery.

Researched and written
Peter McCarthy ( Makarthis)
Inverell, NSW
3 October 2013
©S.Peter & Co 2013
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Zacharias Panaretos (1918)

Zacharias Panaretos, aged 10. Also known as Jim Panos or by me as Pappou.

Every time I went to see Pappou he would give me a $2 coin from his pocket, and then I subsequently raided the fridge for rizogalo. We sat in the sun by the window as he did crosswords and generally appreciated the beauty of knowledge, while I ate rizogalo and wondered why Pappou was better than me at lego.
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Ayios Theothoros at rest in Kythera House, Rockdale

after performing its primary function on Ayios Theothoros' feast day.

Ayios Theothoros is the patron saint of the island of Kythera.

The Ayios Theothoros Feast Day, is commemorated on May 12th

This year the Kytherian Association of Australia chose to celebrate the feast day at St. Catherine Greek Orthodox Church, Mascot N.S.W. Australia

Church: 180 Coward Street, Mascot
Phone: 02 9667 1001, Fax: 02 9667 4721
Old Church: 13 – 15 Tunbridge Street, Mascot
Phone: 02 9669 2420
Postal: P.O. Box 81, Mascot 2020

The beautiful ceremony was conducted by the Parish Priest, the Reverend Athanasios Giatsios

The Kytherian Association of Australia (KAA) has celebrated the feast day of Ayios Theothoros since its inception in 1922.

The responsibility to celebrate the feast day is enshrined in the Constitution of the KAA.

This year 40 Kytherians attended the Mass at St Catherines.

Historical sketch

The monastery of Ayios Theothoros on Kythera was built by craftsmen from Monemvasia at the place where a smaller one previously existed and where Saint Theodoros had lived like a hermit the 10th century. The Saint was born in Koroni and came to Kythera when the island was deserted. For this reason he is perceived by the Kytherians to be the one who brought life to the island. Ayios Theothoros died on the 12th of May 961 A.C. and his body was found intact three years later.


With the blessing of Agios Theodoros to all of you, XRONIA POLLA.
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Members of the Committee of the Kytherian Association of Australia at the Ayios Theothoros celebrations

Here they are gathered together at the end of the ceremony.

Front row. Victor Kepreotis, President. Kathy Samios, Vice-President

Back row, left to night: Theo Poulos, Michael Mallos, George Poulos

Ayios Theothoros is the patron saint of the island of Kythera.

The Ayios Theothoros Feast Day, is commemorated on May 12th

This year the Kytherian Association of Australia chose to celebrate the feast day at St. Catherine Greek Orthodox Church, Mascot N.S.W. Australia

Church: 180 Coward Street, Mascot
Phone: 02 9667 1001, Fax: 02 9667 4721
Old Church: 13 – 15 Tunbridge Street, Mascot
Phone: 02 9669 2420
Postal: P.O. Box 81, Mascot 2020

The beautiful ceremony was conducted by the Parish Priest, the Reverend Athanasios Giatsios

The Kytherian Association of Australia (KAA) has celebrated the feast day of Ayios Theothoros since its inception in 1922.

The responsibility to celebrate the feast day is enshrined in the Constitution of the KAA.

This year 40 Kytherians attended the Mass at St Catherines.

Historical sketch

The monastery of Ayios Theothoros on Kythera was built by craftsmen from Monemvasia at the place where a smaller one previously existed and where Saint Theodoros had lived like a hermit the 10th century. The Saint was born in Koroni and came to Kythera when the island was deserted. For this reason he is perceived by the Kytherians to be the one who brought life to the island. Ayios Theothoros died on the 12th of May 961 A.C. and his body was found intact three years later.


With the blessing of Agios Theodoros to all of you, XRONIA POLLA.
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97 year old Mr Sklavos, from Parramatta attended the Ayios Theothoros celebrations

He is standing in front of the icon at the end of the ceremony.

Ayios Theothoros is the patron saint of the island of Kythera.

The Ayios Theothoros Feast Day, is commemorated on May 12th

This year the Kytherian Association of Australia chose to celebrate the feast day at St. Catherine Greek Orthodox Church, Mascot N.S.W. Australia

Church: 180 Coward Street, Mascot
Phone: 02 9667 1001, Fax: 02 9667 4721
Old Church: 13 – 15 Tunbridge Street, Mascot
Phone: 02 9669 2420
Postal: P.O. Box 81, Mascot 2020

The beautiful ceremony was conducted by the Parish Priest, the Reverend Athanasios Giatsios

The Kytherian Association of Australia (KAA) has celebrated the feast day of Ayios Theothoros since its inception in 1922.

The responsibility to celebrate the feast day is enshrined in the Constitution of the KAA.

This year 40 Kytherians attended the Mass at St Catherines.

Historical sketch

The monastery of Ayios Theothoros on Kythera was built by craftsmen from Monemvasia at the place where a smaller one previously existed and where Saint Theodoros had lived like a hermit the 10th century. The Saint was born in Koroni and came to Kythera when the island was deserted. For this reason he is perceived by the Kytherians to be the one who brought life to the island. Ayios Theothoros died on the 12th of May 961 A.C. and his body was found intact three years later.


With the blessing of Agios Theodoros to all of you, XRONIA POLLA.
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A number of Kytherians attended the feast day celebrations of Ayios Theothoros, 2013

Here they are gathered together at the end of the ceremony.

Ayios Theothoros is the patron saint of the island of Kythera.

The Ayios Theothoros Feast Day, is commemorated on May 12th

This year the Kytherian Association of Australia chose to celebrate the feast day at St. Catherine Greek Orthodox Church, Mascot N.S.W. Australia

Church: 180 Coward Street, Mascot
Phone: 02 9667 1001, Fax: 02 9667 4721
Old Church: 13 – 15 Tunbridge Street, Mascot
Phone: 02 9669 2420
Postal: P.O. Box 81, Mascot 2020

The beautiful ceremony was conducted by the Parish Priest, the Reverend Athanasios Giatsios

The Kytherian Association of Australia (KAA) has celebrated the feast day of Ayios Theothoros since its inception in 1922.

The responsibility to celebrate the feast day is enshrined in the Constitution of the KAA.

This year 40 Kytherians attended the Mass at St Catherines.

Historical sketch

The monastery of Ayios Theothoros on Kythera was built by craftsmen from Monemvasia at the place where a smaller one previously existed and where Saint Theodoros had lived like a hermit the 10th century. The Saint was born in Koroni and came to Kythera when the island was deserted. For this reason he is perceived by the Kytherians to be the one who brought life to the island. Ayios Theothoros died on the 12th of May 961 A.C. and his body was found intact three years later.


With the blessing of Agios Theodoros to all of you, XRONIA POLLA.
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Parish Priest, the Reverend Athanasios Giatsios conducting the final ceremony

in front of the decorated icon of Ayios Theothoros. On the feast day of Ayios Theothoros, 2013

Ayios Theothoros is the patron saint of the island of Kythera.

The Ayios Theothoros Feast Day, is commemorated on May 12th

This year the Kytherian Association of Australia chose to celebrate the feast day at St. Catherine Greek Orthodox Church, Mascot N.S.W. Australia

Church: 180 Coward Street, Mascot
Phone: 02 9667 1001, Fax: 02 9667 4721
Old Church: 13 – 15 Tunbridge Street, Mascot
Phone: 02 9669 2420
Postal: P.O. Box 81, Mascot 2020

The beautiful ceremony was conducted by the Parish Priest, the Reverend Athanasios Giatsios

The Kytherian Association of Australia (KAA) has celebrated the feast day of Ayios Theothoros since its inception in 1922.

The responsibility to celebrate the feast day is enshrined in the Constitution of the KAA.

This year 40 Kytherians attended the Mass at St Catherines.

Historical sketch

The monastery of Ayios Theothoros on Kythera was built by craftsmen from Monemvasia at the place where a smaller one previously existed and where Saint Theodoros had lived like a hermit the 10th century. The Saint was born in Koroni and came to Kythera when the island was deserted. For this reason he is perceived by the Kytherians to be the one who brought life to the island. Ayios Theothoros died on the 12th of May 961 A.C. and his body was found intact three years later.


With the blessing of Agios Theodoros to all of you, XRONIA POLLA.
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Some of the beautifil iconography on the wall of St. Catherines Church, Mascot, Sydney

....on the feast day of Ayios Theothoros, 2013

Ayios Theothoros is the patron saint of the island of Kythera.

The Ayios Theothoros Feast Day, is commemorated on May 12th

This year the Kytherian Association of Australia chose to celebrate the feast day at St. Catherine Greek Orthodox Church, Mascot N.S.W. Australia

Church: 180 Coward Street, Mascot
Phone: 02 9667 1001, Fax: 02 9667 4721
Old Church: 13 – 15 Tunbridge Street, Mascot
Phone: 02 9669 2420
Postal: P.O. Box 81, Mascot 2020

The beautiful ceremony was conducted by the Parish Priest, the Reverend Athanasios Giatsios

The Kytherian Association of Australia (KAA) has celebrated the feast day of Ayios Theothoros since its inception in 1922.

The responsibility to celebrate the feast day is enshrined in the Constitution of the KAA.

This year 40 Kytherians attended the Mass at St Catherines.

Historical sketch

The monastery of Ayios Theothoros on Kythera was built by craftsmen from Monemvasia at the place where a smaller one previously existed and where Saint Theodoros had lived like a hermit the 10th century. The Saint was born in Koroni and came to Kythera when the island was deserted. For this reason he is perceived by the Kytherians to be the one who brought life to the island. Ayios Theothoros died on the 12th of May 961 A.C. and his body was found intact three years later.


With the blessing of Agios Theodoros to all of you, XRONIA POLLA.
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The packed interior of St Catherines Church, Mascot, Sydney

....on the feast day of Ayios Theothoros, 2013

Ayios Theothoros is the patron saint of the island of Kythera.

The Ayios Theothoros Feast Day, is commemorated on May 12th

This year the Kytherian Association of Australia chose to celebrate the feast day at St. Catherine Greek Orthodox Church, Mascot N.S.W. Australia

Church: 180 Coward Street, Mascot
Phone: 02 9667 1001, Fax: 02 9667 4721
Old Church: 13 – 15 Tunbridge Street, Mascot
Phone: 02 9669 2420
Postal: P.O. Box 81, Mascot 2020

The beautiful ceremony was conducted by the Parish Priest, the Reverend Athanasios Giatsios

The Kytherian Association of Australia (KAA) has celebrated the feast day of Ayios Theothoros since its inception in 1922.

The responsibility to celebrate the feast day is enshrined in the Constitution of the KAA.

This year 40 Kytherians attended the Mass at St Catherines.

Historical sketch

The monastery of Ayios Theothoros on Kythera was built by craftsmen from Monemvasia at the place where a smaller one previously existed and where Saint Theodoros had lived like a hermit the 10th century. The Saint was born in Koroni and came to Kythera when the island was deserted. For this reason he is perceived by the Kytherians to be the one who brought life to the island. Ayios Theothoros died on the 12th of May 961 A.C. and his body was found intact three years later.


With the blessing of Agios Theodoros to all of you, XRONIA POLLA.
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Exterior of St Catherine's Church, Mascot, Sydney

....on the feast day of Ayios Theothoros, 2013

Ayios Theothoros is the patron saint of the island of Kythera.

The Ayios Theothoros Feast Day, is commemorated on May 12th

This year the Kytherian Association of Australia chose to celebrate the feast day at St. Catherine Greek Orthodox Church, Mascot N.S.W. Australia

Church: 180 Coward Street, Mascot
Phone: 02 9667 1001, Fax: 02 9667 4721
Old Church: 13 – 15 Tunbridge Street, Mascot
Phone: 02 9669 2420
Postal: P.O. Box 81, Mascot 2020

The beautiful ceremony was conducted by the Parish Priest, the Reverend Athanasios Giatsios

The Kytherian Association of Australia (KAA) has celebrated the feast day of Ayios Theothoros since its inception in 1922.

The responsibility to celebrate the feast day is enshrined in the Constitution of the KAA.

This year 40 Kytherians attended the Mass at St Catherines.

Historical sketch

The monastery of Ayios Theothoros on Kythera was built by craftsmen from Monemvasia at the place where a smaller one previously existed and where Saint Theodoros had lived like a hermit the 10th century. The Saint was born in Koroni and came to Kythera when the island was deserted. For this reason he is perceived by the Kytherians to be the one who brought life to the island. Ayios Theothoros died on the 12th of May 961 A.C. and his body was found intact three years later.


With the blessing of Agios Theodoros to all of you, XRONIA POLLA.
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The icon of Ayios Theothoros on display at St Catherines on ....

....the feast day of Ayios Theothoros, 2013

Ayios Theothoros is the patron saint of the island of Kythera.

The Ayios Theothoros Feast Day, is commemorated on May 12th

This year the Kytherian Association of Australia chose to celebrate the feast day at St. Catherine Greek Orthodox Church, Mascot N.S.W. Australia

Church: 180 Coward Street, Mascot
Phone: 02 9667 1001, Fax: 02 9667 4721
Old Church: 13 – 15 Tunbridge Street, Mascot
Phone: 02 9669 2420
Postal: P.O. Box 81, Mascot 2020

The beautiful ceremony was conducted by the Parish Priest, the Reverend Athanasios Giatsios

The Kytherian Association of Australia (KAA) has celebrated the feast day of Ayios Theothoros since its inception in 1922.

The responsibility to celebrate the feast day is enshrined in the Constitution of the KAA.

This year 40 Kytherians attended the Mass at St Catherines.

Historical sketch

The monastery of Ayios Theothoros on Kythera was built by craftsmen from Monemvasia at the place where a smaller one previously existed and where Saint Theodoros had lived like a hermit the 10th century. The Saint was born in Koroni and came to Kythera when the island was deserted. For this reason he is perceived by the Kytherians to be the one who brought life to the island. Ayios Theothoros died on the 12th of May 961 A.C. and his body was found intact three years later.


With the blessing of Agios Theodoros to all of you, XRONIA POLLA.
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The icon of Ayios Theothoros on display at St Catherines on ....

....the feast day of Ayios Theothoros, 2013

Ayios Theothoros is the patron saint of the island of Kythera.

The Ayios Theothoros Feast Day, is commemorated on May 12th

This year the Kytherian Association of Australia chose to celebrate the feast day at St. Catherine Greek Orthodox Church, Mascot N.S.W. Australia

Church: 180 Coward Street, Mascot
Phone: 02 9667 1001, Fax: 02 9667 4721
Old Church: 13 – 15 Tunbridge Street, Mascot
Phone: 02 9669 2420
Postal: P.O. Box 81, Mascot 2020

The beautiful ceremony was conducted by the Parish Priest, the Reverend Athanasios Giatsios

The Kytherian Association of Australia (KAA) has celebrated the feast day of Ayios Theothoros since its inception in 1922.

The responsibility to celebrate the feast day is enshrined in the Constitution of the KAA.

This year 40 Kytherians attended the Mass at St Catherines.

Historical sketch

The monastery of Ayios Theothoros on Kythera was built by craftsmen from Monemvasia at the place where a smaller one previously existed and where Saint Theodoros had lived like a hermit the 10th century. The Saint was born in Koroni and came to Kythera when the island was deserted. For this reason he is perceived by the Kytherians to be the one who brought life to the island. Ayios Theothoros died on the 12th of May 961 A.C. and his body was found intact three years later.


With the blessing of Agios Theodoros to all of you, XRONIA POLLA.
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The Metropoliti addressing the large crowd that attended

....the feast day of Ayios Theothoros, 2013

At the Monastery of Ayios Theothoros, Kythera

The Ayios Theothoros Feast Day, is commemorated on May 12th

Historical sketch

The monastery of Saint Theodoros was built by craftsmen from Monemvasia at the place where a smaller one previously existed and where Saint Theodoros had lived like a hermit the 10th century. The Saint was born in Koroni and came to Kythera when the island was deserted. For this reason he is perceived by the Kytherians to be the one who brought life to the island. Saint Theodoros died on the 12th of May 961 A.C. and his body was found intact three years later.

From Ioannis Mavromatis

The Kytherians celebrated with faith and splendor today, 12 May 2013, Agios Theodoros name day. It is important that the Holy icon of Panagia Myrtidiotissa was also there. That happens about every 30 years, because of the late this year Pasha date.

A special guest invited by Metropolitan Serafim was the Metropolitan of East Attica, Nikolaos, a well known and wise person, who was the key speaker and blessed the people. The Philarmonic Orchestra of Potamos directed by Stratis Theodorakakis-Tsabiras added pomp and pulse.

Some 50 pilgrims from Koroni, Ag. Theodoros birth place attended as every year, as well.

With the melodic and harmonic psalms of the Kytherian Chorus directed by George Lourandos-Pieros, every one had a real celebration.

With the blessing of Agios Theodoros to all of you, XRONIA POLLA.
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Strati and the Kytherian Band at

The Celebration of the feast day of Ayios Theothoros, 2103

At the Monastery of Ayios Theothoros, Kythera

The Ayios Theothoros Feast Day, is commemorated on May 12th

Historical sketch

The monastery of Saint Theodoros was built by craftsmen from Monemvasia at the place where a smaller one previously existed and where Saint Theodoros had lived like a hermit the 10th century. The Saint was born in Koroni and came to Kythera when the island was deserted. For this reason he is perceived by the Kytherians to be the one who brought life to the island. Saint Theodoros died on the 12th of May 961 A.C. and his body was found intact three years later.

From Ioannis Mavromatis

The Kytherians celebrated with faith and splendor today, 12 May 2013, Agios Theodoros name day. It is important that the Holy icon of Panagia Myrtidiotissa was also there. That happens about every 30 years, because of the late this year Pasha date.

A special guest invited by Metropolitan Serafim was the Metropolitan of East Attica, Nikolaos, a well known and wise person, who was the key speaker and blessed the people. The Philarmonic Orchestra of Potamos directed by Stratis Theodorakakis-Tsabiras added pomp and pulse.

Some 50 pilgrims from Koroni, Ag. Theodoros birth place attended as every year, as well.

With the melodic and harmonic psalms of the Kytherian Chorus directed by George Lourandos-Pieros, every one had a real celebration.

With the blessing of Agios Theodoros to all of you, XRONIA POLLA.
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Island Churches & Icons

Exterior of the Church in the Monastery of Ayios Theothoros

Celebration of the Feast Day of Ayios Theothoros, 2013

At the Monastery of Ayios Theothoros, Kythera

The Ayios Theothoros Feast Day, is commemorated on May 12th

Historical sketch

The monastery of Saint Theodoros was built by craftsmen from Monemvasia at the place where a smaller one previously existed and where Saint Theodoros had lived like a hermit the 10th century. The Saint was born in Koroni and came to Kythera when the island was deserted. For this reason he is perceived by the Kytherians to be the one who brought life to the island. Saint Theodoros died on the 12th of May 961 A.C. and his body was found intact three years later.

From Ioannis Mavromatis

The Kytherians celebrated with faith and splendor today, 12 May 2013, Agios Theodoros name day. It is important that the Holy icon of Panagia Myrtidiotissa was also there. That happens about every 30 years, because of the late this year Pasha date.

A special guest invited by Metropolitan Serafim was the Metropolitan of East Attica, Nikolaos, a well known and wise person, who was the key speaker and blessed the people. The Philarmonic Orchestra of Potamos directed by Stratis Theodorakakis-Tsabiras added pomp and pulse.

Some 50 pilgrims from Koroni, Ag. Theodoros birth place attended as every year, as well.

With the melodic and harmonic psalms of the Kytherian Chorus directed by George Lourandos-Pieros, every one had a real celebration.

With the blessing of Agios Theodoros to all of you, XRONIA POLLA.
Open full entry
Photos, Island Churches & Icons
Island Churches & Icons

Icons on display during the ............

..........celebration of the Feast Day of Ayios Theothoros

At the Monastery of Ayios Theothoros, Kythera

The Ayios Theothoros Feast Day, is commemorated on May 12th

Historical sketch

The monastery of Saint Theodoros was built by craftsmen from Monemvasia at the place where a smaller one previously existed and where Saint Theodoros had lived like a hermit the 10th century. The Saint was born in Koroni and came to Kythera when the island was deserted. For this reason he is perceived by the Kytherians to be the one who brought life to the island. Saint Theodoros died on the 12th of May 961 A.C. and his body was found intact three years later.

From Ioannis Mavromatis

The Kytherians celebrated with faith and splendor today, 12 May 2013, Agios Theodoros name day. It is important that the Holy icon of Panagia Myrtidiotissa was also there. That happens about every 30 years, because of the late this year Pasha date.

A special guest invited by Metropolitan Serafim was the Metropolitan of East Attica, Nikolaos, a well known and wise person, who was the key speaker and blessed the people. The Philarmonic Orchestra of Potamos directed by Stratis Theodorakakis-Tsabiras added pomp and pulse.

Some 50 pilgrims from Koroni, Ag. Theodoros birth place attended as every year, as well.

With the melodic and harmonic psalms of the Kytherian Chorus directed by George Lourandos-Pieros, every one had a real celebration.

With the blessing of Agios Theodoros to all of you, XRONIA POLLA.
Open full entry
Photos, Island Churches & Icons
Island Churches & Icons

Celebration of the Feast Day of Ayios Theothoros

At the Monastery of Ayios Theothoros, Kythera

The Ayios Theothoros Feast Day, is commemorated on May 12th

Historical sketch

The monastery of Saint Theodoros was built by craftsmen from Monemvasia at the place where a smaller one previously existed and where Saint Theodoros had lived like a hermit the 10th century. The Saint was born in Koroni and came to Kythera when the island was deserted. For this reason he is perceived by the Kytherians to be the one who brought life to the island. Saint Theodoros died on the 12th of May 961 A.C. and his body was found intact three years later.

From Ioannis Mavromatis

The Kytherians celebrated with faith and splendor today, 12 May 2013, Agios Theodoros name day. It is important that the Holy icon of Panagia Myrtidiotissa was also there. That happens about every 30 years, because of the late this year Pasha date.

A special guest invited by Metropolitan Serafim was the Metropolitan of East Attica, Nikolaos, a well known and wise person, who was the key speaker and blessed the people. The Philarmonic Orchestra of Potamos directed by Stratis Theodorakakis-Tsabiras added pomp and pulse.

Some 50 pilgrims from Koroni, Ag. Theodoros birth place attended as every year, as well.

With the melodic and harmonic psalms of the Kytherian Chorus directed by George Lourandos-Pieros, every one had a real celebration.

With the blessing of Agios Theodoros to all of you, XRONIA POLLA.
Open full entry
Photos, Island Churches & Icons
Documents

Kalypso Michalakaki. Kytherian Immigrants and Their Organisations. History of the Kytherian Associations in Smyrna Alexandria and Attica.

***Important announcement. This book was printed in April 2013, and is now available for sale in Greece and Europe. Copies are being shipped to Australia, and it will soon be available for sale in Australia as well.

With additional chapters on the Kytherian Associations in Athens and Pireaus, and in Australia and the USAS.

Based on a Ph.D thesis completed at the University of Athens, Greece, under the supervision of Professor George Leontsinis.

Author: Kalypso Michalakaki

When Published: 2012

Publisher: Kytherian Associations of Athens and Pireaus, and the Kytherian World Heritage Fund

Available: From July 2012

Description:

Purchase from the author, Kalypso Michalakaki.

Email Kalypso here


CONTENTS


ABBREVIATIONS.....Pg. 10
PREFACE..... 11
INTRODUCTION..... 13

PART A

KYTHERIAN ASSOCIATIONAL ORGANISATION ABROAD..... 25

1st Chapter: Characteristics of the Kytherian migration to Smyrna.....27
2nd Chapter: Kytherian community of Smyrna.....29
3rd Chapter: Kytherian community of Alexandria.....61
4th Chapter: Associational organisation of U.S.A. and Australia.....87

PART B

KYTHERIAN ASSOCIATIONAL ORGANISATION IN GREECE

1st Chapter: Kytherian community of Piraeus – Kytherian Brotherhood Piraeus-Athens.....101
2nd Chapter: Kytherian community of Athens
Kytherian Association of Athens.....147
3rd Chapter: Embellishing Cultural Association of Alimos Myrtidiotissa......205
4th Chapter: Educational Welfare and contribution to Education and Culture.....229
Conclusion.....238

SOURCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY.....243

APPENDIX

Α. Statutes of Kytherian Brotherhoods.....373
1.1. Kytherian Brotherhood of Smyrna(1887).....375
1.2. Kytherian Brotherhood of Smyrna (1892).....380
2. Statutes of Kytherian Brotherhoods of Australia
2.1. Kytherian Brotherhood of N. Wales (1922).....388
2.2. Kytherian Brotherhood of Sydney (1936).....391
2.3. Kytherian Brotherhood of Brisbane (1944).....395
2.4. Kytherian Brotherhood of Cambera (1985).....397
3. Statutes of Kytherian Brotherhoods of U.S.A.
3.1. Kytherian Brotherhood of N. York (1919).....398
3.2. Kytherian Brotherhood of Baltimore (1930).....399
3.3. Kytherian Brotherhood of St. Luis (S. Francisco 1918)
3.4. Kytherian Brotherhood “Gen. Koronaiou” of California (1950).....401

Through the history of the Kytherian Brotherhood of Piraeus and the Kytherian Association of Athens, elements of Australian contribution towards projects on the island emerge. This contribution can also be seen in the chapter “Educational Welfare and Contribution to Education and Culture”.

Below, (in Greek) is Section 3: The Kytherian Associations in Australia and America.

ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΟ ΤΡΙΤΟ

ΣΩΜΑΤΕΙΑΚΗ ΟΡΓΑΝΩΣΗ ΤΩΝ ΚΥΘΗΡΙΩΝ
ΣΤΗΝ ΑΥΣΤΡΑΛΙΑ ΚΑΙ ΣΤΗΝ ΑΜΕΡΙΚΗ

Ένα άλλο ισχυρό ρεύµα Κυθηρίων µεταναστών κινείται κατά τον 19ο και 20όν αιώνα προς την Αυστραλία και την Αµερική. Η Κυθηραϊκή µετανάστευση προς την Αυστραλία έλαβε επιδηµικές διαστάσεις κατά την περίοδο 1890-1950. Οι Κυθήριοι έχουν µια παρουσία τουλάχιστον 130 ετών στην Αυστραλία, όπου βρίσκονται εγκατεστηµένοι κυρίως στο Σίδνεϋ, στην Καµπέρα και στη Βρισβάνη . Το µεταφορικό µέσο της συγκεκριµένης περιόδου, που συνέδεε τις δύο χώρες, Ελλάδα-Αυστραλία, ήταν φυσικά το πλοίο. Συγκεκριµένα, αναφέρουµε τα υπερωκεάνεια Κυρήνεια, Πατρίς, Αυστραλίς και Αµερικανίς, τα οποία περνούσαν µέσω του λιµανιού του Πορτ-Σάΐντ. Αργότερα, χρησιµοποιούνταν τα αεροπλάνα τα οποία αντικατέστησαν σταδιακά τα πλοία.
H ιστορία της κυθηραϊκής µετανάστευσης κατατάσσεται στην εθνική ιστορία, τόσο της Ελλάδας όσο και της Αυστραλίας. Οι Κυθήριοι µετανάστες ήταν τόσο σηµαντική δύναµη του Ελληνισμού στην Αυστραλία, ώστε να θεωρούνται ότι δηµιούργησαν την οικονοµική και πνευµατική του υποδοµή. Επίσης, ήταν σηµαντικός παράγοντας διαµόρφωσης κριτηρίων των ελληνικών µετοικεσιών που ακολούθησαν. Αρχικά ο ισχνός αριθµός και η διασπορά των Κυθηρίων στις αχανείς εκτάσεις της Αυστραλίας προξένησαν αδυναµίες στην οργάνωση του κυθηραϊσµού. Βέβαια, στις δυσκολίες της σωµατειακής οργάνωσης συνετέλεσε και η γενικότερη κοινωνική κατάσταση των Ελλήνων αποίκων στην Αυστραλία. Ο µεγάλος αριθµός σωµατείων καλλιέργησε καχυποψία, ανταγωνισµό και επιφυλακτικότητα. Σε πολλές περιπτώσεις τα εθνοτοπικά σωµατεία αποµόνωναν τα µέλη τους από τους οµογενείς «ξένους» και τον Έλληνα από τον Έλληνα .
Το φαινόµενο της µεγάλης σε αριθµό Κυθηραϊκής διασποράς στην Αυστραλία οδήγησε στα τελευταία χρόνια στη δηµιουργία ιστοσελίδας , όπου παρέχονται πληροφορίες για την κυθηραϊκή µετανάστευση και στοιχεία χρήσιµα για την σύνταξη οικογενειακών δέντρων. ∆ηµιουργήθηκε το 2003 από Κυθηρίους της διασποράς µε στόχο τη λειτουργία ενός αρχείου της πολιτιστικής κληρονοµιάς των Κυθήρων. Μάλιστα, η συγκεκριµένη ιστοσελίδα παρουσιάστηκε στα Κύθηρα τον Αύγουστο του 2005 από τον J. Prineas, κύριο οργανωτή της. Επίσης, ο Ηλίας Μαρσέλος, έχει ιδρύσει το Ινστιτούτο του Κυθηραϊσµού (2002), µε κύριο σκοπό την ανάπτυξη της επικοινωνίας και της σύσφιξης των δεσµών των απανταχού της γης Κυθηρίων, τόσο µεταξύ των µελών του Ινστιτούτου, όσο και µε άλλα µέλη Συλλόγων, σωµατείων, Ιδρυµάτων στην Ελλάδα και το εξωτερικό µε παρεµφερείς προς το Ιστιτούτο σκοπούς, σε προσωπικό, επαγγελµατικό επίπεδο .
O Ηλίας Μαρσέλος οργάνωσε σχετικά συνέδρια στα Κύθηρα και πρόσφατα στην Αυστραλία. Ακόµη, σχετικά µε τη σωµατειακή οργάνωση των Κυθηρίων στην Cambera της Αυστραλίας, το 2006. Για τη συλλογική οργάνωση των Κυθηρίων στην Αυστραλία, που εκφράστηκε µε την ίδρυση Αδελφοτήτων καθώς και για την κυθηραϊκή παροικία, γίνεται αναφορά από τον Αλλίµονο στη διατριβή του . Πληροφορίες και στοιχεία για την κυθηραϊκή µετανάστευση περιλαµβάνονται και στο βιβλίο του Ι. Κοµνηνού «Η εν ζωή Αυστραλία». Αναφέρονται επίσης σηµαίνουσες προσωπικότητες του ελληνισµού της Αυστραλίας, µεταξύ των οποίων και Κυθήριοι. Kαταγράφονται τα ονόµατά τους, ο χρόνος και ο τόπος εγκατάστασής τους στην Αυστραλία καθώς και οι επαγγελματικές τους ενασχολήσεις. Αναφέρεται, επίσης, ότι Κυθήριοι ευρίσκοντο στη Νότιο Αυστραλία.
Ο πρώτος Έλληνας στην Αυστραλία ήταν ο Κυθήριος Αθανάσιος Κοµνηνός, ο οποίος ήλθε από τη Σµύρνη, που ήταν η πρώτη του εγκατάσταση, στην Αυστραλία το 1877. Από τη Σµύρνη ήλθε στην Αυστραλία και ο Κυθήριος Νικόλαος Αρώνης. Παρατηρείται, δηλαδή, το γνωστό φαινόµενο της επαναµετανάστευσης µε την αλυσιδωτή µεταναστευτική κίνηση από Κύθηρα προς Σµύρνη και από Σµύρνη προς Αυστραλία και Αµερική. Τα παραπάνω επιβεβαιώνονται και από την προφορική µαρτυρία της Κυθήριας από την Αλεξάνδρεια που αναφέρθηκε στο προηγούµενο κεφάλαιο. Αλλά και ένα άλλο παράδειγµα είναι η περίπτωση του Νικόλαου Αρώνη, ο οποίος ήλθε από τη Σµύρνη στην Αυστραλία, το 1902.
Οι λόγοι που οδήγησαν τους Κυθηρίους να µεταναστεύσουν από την Σµύρνη ή την Αλεξάνδρεια προς Αυστραλία ή Αµερική ήταν δύο: αφενός οι καλύτερες οικονοµικές και επαγγελµατικές συνθήκες, αφετέρου ο κυθηραϊκός ιστός ο οποίος δηµιουργείτο σιγά - σιγά, οπότε οι εγκατεστηµένοι εκεί Κυθήριοι αναζητούσαν την ενίσχυσή του µε µέλη των οικογενειών τους ή συγχωριανών τους ή γενικότερα των συµπατριωτών τους.
Σχετικά µε την κυθηραϊκή διασπορά σε Σίδνεϋ και Καµπέρα έχει πραγµατοποιηθεί µελέτη που αφορά στη διαχρονική προσέγγιση της κυθηραϊκής ταυτότητας στην Αυστραλία κάνοντας µια ιστορική αναδροµή τα cafés της υπαίθρου . Tα cafés και τα fish shops των Κυθηρίων δηµιουργήθηκαν στο Σίδνεϋ και αργότερα σε µικρές πόλεις της αυστραλιανής υπαίθρου της νοτίου Ουαλίας και της Κουησλάνδης. Γι’ αυτό και έχουµε στη διάθεσή µας το καταστατικό της Κυθηραϊκής Αδελφότητας της Ουαλίας. (βλ. παράρτηµα σ. 388). Σχετικά µε το θέµα έχουν ασχοληθεί κατά καιρούς επιστήµονες της ελληνικής µετανάστευσης στην Αυστραλία . Τα cafés των Κυθηρίων κατέκλυσαν την ύπαιθρο της Αυστραλίας από το 1920 µέχρι τα τέλη της δεκαετίας του 1960. Aπό τα τέλη της δεκαετίας του 1960 οι Κυθήριοι άρχισαν να εγκα- ταλείπουν τις µικρές πόλεις της υπαίθρου και να συγκεντρώνονται στο Σίδνεϋ, στην Καµπέρα και στο Μπρίσµπαν.
Απαραίτητος συνδετικός κρίκος των αποδήµων Κυθηρίων στην Αυστραλία είναι τα θρησκευτικά τους σύµβολα, όπως καθορίζονται στα καταστατικά των Αδελφοτήτων. Πρόκειται για την Παναγία τη Μυρτιδιώτισσα, τον Άγιο Θεόδωρο και την Αγία Μόνη. H µεταφορά των Αγίων προστατών των Κυθήρων στο τόπο µετανάστευσης των Κυθηρίων αποίκων µετέτρεψε το χώρο σε τόπο. Η λατρεία αυτή ανακαλεί στη µνήµη τους τη γενέθλια γη τους . Oι εορτασµοί των επετείων από τα κυθηραϊκά σωµατεία της διασποράς εκφράζουν την κυθηραϊκή ταυτότητα. Ο εορτασµός των Αγίων, µάλιστα, ανακοινώνεται στον κυθηραϊκό τύπο και τα τελευταία χρόνια και στην ιστοσελίδα των Κυθήρων . Έχουµε ήδη µιλήσει για τη λατρεία των Κυθηρίων προς την Παναγία τη Μυρτιδιώτισσα. Εδώ θα αναφερθούµε σύντοµα στον Όσιο Θεόδωρο και την Αγία Ελέσα, τοπικούς αγίους των Κυθήρων. Ο Όσιος Θεόδωρος γεννήθηκε στη Κορώνη της Μεσσηνίας. Μεγαλώνοντας πήγε στη Ρώµη, ενώ είχε ήδη γίνει διάκονος και αργότερα στη Μονεµβασία και από εκεί στα Αντικύθηρα. Εγκαταστάθηκε εκεί στη Μονή Βάκχου και Σεργίου. Στα Κύθηρα πήγε να µονάσει κατά τη περίοδο του Ρωµανού Β΄(959-963) ή Νικηφόρου Φωκά(963-969) . Έζησε έντεκα µήνες στα Κύθηρα, ασκητικά και πέθανε στις 12 Μαΐου, γι’ αυτό κάθε χρόνο τελείται την ηµέρα αυτή η τοπική γιορτή του προστάτη των Κυθήρων . Ο τάφος του Οσίου βρίσκεται στον οµώνυµο ναό. Πιστεύεται, ότι αυτός χτίστηκε στο πεδίο του προγενέστερου ναού των Αγίων Σεργίου και Βάκχου. Η Αγία Ελέσσα γεννήθηκε στην Πελοπόννησο από πατέρα ειδωλολάτρη και µητέρα Χριστιανή. Στα 14 χρόνια της και, ενώ έχασε την µητέρα της που την βάπφτισε Χριστιανή, σκέφτηκε ότι δε µπορεί να ζήσει µε τον ειδωλολάτρη πατέρα της, και γι’ αυτό έφυγε για τα Κύθηρα όπου και ασκήτευσε. Εκεί την βρήκε ο πατέρας της και, αφού την βασάνισε, την αποκεφάλισε τη 1η Αυγούστου 375 µ.Χ. Έτσι ο τοπικός εορτασµός της ορίζεται κάθε πρώτη Αυγούστου και γίνεται στη µονή της Αγ. Ελέσας στα Κύθηρα, όπου µαρτυρείται ότι αρχικά διεσώθη, ενώ καταδιωκόταν από τον πατέρα της.
Η ανάγκη εορτασµού των τοπικών Αγίων στους τόπους µετοίκησης εκφράζεται µε την παράλληλη ίδρυση των ελληνικών Κοινοτήτων και ελληνικών ναών. Πιο συγκεκριµένα, ο πρώτος ελληνικός ορθόδοξος Ναός στο Σίδνεϋ, της Αγίας Τριάδος, ανηγέρθη το 1898 και την ίδια χρονιά συστάθηκε η Ελληνική Κοινότητα του Σίδνεϋ, ενώ ο πρώτος ελληνικός ορθόδοξος Ναός της Μελβούρνης, ο Ευαγγελισµός της Θεοτόκου, ανηγέρθη το 1900 και ένα χρόνο αργότερα συστάθηκε η ελληνική Κοινότητα της Μελβούρνης. Μέρος της κυθηραϊκής ταυτότητας αποτελεί η λατρεία της Παναγίας της Μυρτιδιώτισσας, σύµβολο των Κυθηρίων. Ο ιδιαίτερος αυτός θρησκευτικός δεσµός των Κυθηρίων µε την Παναγία την Μυρτιδιώτισσα εκδηλώνεται µε την ανέγερση ναού αφιερωµένου σ’αυτήν, στο προάστιο του Σίδνεϋ Cogra Kogarah, καθώς και στο Ντάµπο . Συγκεκριµένα, στην ανέγερση εκκλησίας την Παναγία τη Μυρτιδιώτισσα στο Ντάµπο το έτος 1960, αναφέρεται ο Τσούνης στη διδακτορική του διατριβή στην οποία κάνει λόγο και για άλλες ελληνικές ορθόδοξες εκκλησίες της Αυστραλίας.
Η αναγκαιότητα της παρουσίας της αυθεντικής εικόνας της προστάτιδας του νησιού στην Αυστραλία κατά τον εορτασµό της στις 24 Σεπτεµβρίου επεκτάθηκε και εκτός του κύκλου της κυθηραϊκής παροικίας, µε συνέπεια ο Αρχιεπίσκοπος Αυστραλίας Ιεζεκιήλ το 1972 να ζητήσει από τον τότε Μητροπολίτη Γυθείου και Οιτύλου Σωτήριο, όπου ανήκε η Μητρόπολη Κυθήρων, να επιτρέψει τη µεταφορά της εικόνας στην Αυστραλία για τον εορτασµό. Ωστόσο, η Ιερά Σύνοδος απάντησε αρνητικά επικαλούµενη λόγους ασφαλείας της εικόνας. Ως συµβιβαστική λύση προτάθηκε η αποστολή αντιγράφου προς την Αρχιεπισκοπή Αυστραλίας .
Για την Παναγία τη Μυρτιδιώτισσα η παράδοση αναφέρει την εύρεση της εικόνας το 1160 ή τον 15ο αιώνα, στην περιοχή της σηµερινής Μονής από ένα βοσκό. Η σκηνή είναι αποτυπωµένη στην εικόνα που φιλοτεχνήθηκε από το Νικόλαο Θεόφιλο Σπιθάκη το 1837. Πήρε δε το όνοµα Μυρτιδιώτισσα από τον τόπο που βρέθηκε, σε µία περιοχή δυτικά των Κυθήρων, η οποία ήταν κατάφυτη από µυρτιές .
Η θρησκευτικότητα των Κυθηρίων µεταναστών, εκτός από την τέλεση των εορτασµών των τριών Αγίων, αποτυπώνεται και σε ένα από τα σύµβολα της σφραγίδας της Κυθηραϊκής Αδελφότητας που είναι τα παρακάτω: το νησί των Κυθήρων που βρίσκεται στη µέση και αναφέρεται στο πραγµατικό, στο γεωφυσικό στοιχείο, δεξιά η εικόνα της προστάτιδας του νησιού Παναγίας της Μυρτιδιώτισσας, που αναφέρεται στο θρησκευτικό σύµβολο και αριστερά η λατρευόµενη Θεά Αφροδίτη, που αποτελεί το µυθικό σύµβολο. Στο κέντρο και γύρω από τη σφραγίδα βρίσκονται οι λέξεις: «Κυθηραϊκή Αδελφότητα Αυστραλίας τα Κύθηρα». Το σχήµα του νησιού εκπροσωπεί τη φυσική του κατάσταση, η προστάτιδα των Κυθήρων Παναγία εκπροσωπεί το θρησκευτικό σύµβολο και η Θεά Αφοδίτη εκφράζει το µυθικό σύµβολο . Εποµένως η σφραγίδα παραπέµπει τους Κυθηρίους απόδηµους της Αυστραλίας στο νησί τους και ανασύρει και διατηρεί στη µνήµη τους, τα χαρακτηριστικά στοιχεία του γενέθλιου τόπου.
Σύµφωνα µε το Καταστατικό της Κυθηραϊκής Αδελφότητας του Σίδνεϋ που συντάχτηκε το 1922 στην ελληνική γλώσσα, βασικοί σκοποί της Αδελφότητας είναι η σύσφιξη των σχέσεων µεταξύ των Κυθηρίων που διαµένουν στο Σίδνεϋ, η βοήθεια και η προστασία των απόρων Κυθηρίων, καθώς και η συνδροµή σε οποιοδήποτε κοινωφελές έργο (βλ. παράρτηµα σ. 391, 394).
Στο 45ο άρθρο ορίζεται η υποχρέωση της Αδελφότητας να τελεί τρία πανηγύρια στον Ιερό Ναό της Ελληνικής Ορθοδόξου Κοινότητας, τα οποία θα σχετίζονται άµεσα µε το θρησκευτικό συναίσθηµα των Κυθηρίων. Πρόκειται για πανηγύρια που διοργανώνονται στη γιορτή της Παναγίας της Μυρτιδιώτισσας, του Αγίου Θεοδώρου και της Αγίας Ελέσσας (Οσιοµάρτυρες). Μια από τις δραστηριότητες αυτής της Αδελφότητας αποτελεί η έκδοση µηνιαίων περιοδικών “newsletter”.
Η Κυθηραϊκή Αδελφότητα του Σίδνεϋ, με εγγεγραμμένες πάνω από 550 οικογένειες, αριθµεί πάνω από 1.500 µέλη. Η αριθµητική δύναµη της Αδελφότητας του Μπρίσµπαν είναι επίσης 1500 µέλη µε εγγεγραµµένες 550 οικογένειες και της Καµπέρα ανέρχεται περίπου στα 250 µέλη που προέρχονται από 120 οικογένειες περίπου. Εκτός από τα τρία µεγάλα σωµατεία, οι Κυθήριοι συσπειρώνονται και σε ένα άλλο άτυπο σωµατείο, το Καραβίτικο, το οποίο συμπεριλαμβάνει αποκλειστικά καταγόµενους από τον Καραβά των Κυθήρων. Το σωματείο αυτό εορτάζει στις 12 Φεβρουαρίου τον Άγιο Χαράλαµπο, τον Άγιο του χωριού τους. Kαι εδώ ο συµβολισµός µεταφέρεται από τον τόπο καταγωγής τον Καραβά των Κυθήρων στο τόπο µετανάστευσης, στην ευρύτερη περιοχή του Σίδνεϋ. Tην σχετική δραστηριότητα καταγράφει η ιστοσελίδα του Κythera family-net.
Ακολουθεί χρονολογικά η Κυθηραϊκή Αδελφότητα του Μπρίσµπαν, η οποία δηµιουργήθηκε το 1944 (βλ. Καταστατικό σ. 395-396). Κατά τον Αλίµονο υπήρχε Κυθηραϊκός σύλλογος στο Κουίνσλαντ ήδη από το 1934 και στη πόλη Καµπέρα από τo 1985. ∆ιευκρινίζουµε ότι Κουίνσλαντ είναι ο νοµός και Καµπέρα η πρωτεύουσά του . Το Καταστατικό που διαθέτουµε συντάχθηκε το 1944 και αναφέρεται σε εταιρεία του υποµνήµατος της Κυθηραϊκής Αδελφότητας (βλ. παράρτηµα σ. 397). Βασικός σκοπός της εταιρείας, σύµφωνα µε το καταστατικό της είναι: η διαχείριση των οικονοµικών της Κυθηραϊκής Αδελφότητας µε την ιδιότητα της εταιρείας, ώστε να έχει τη δυνατότητα να κάνει συναλλαγές οικονοµικού τύπου. Η Επωνυμία της εταιρείας αυτής, κατά το καταστατικό της είναι Κυθηραϊκή Αδελφότητα του Κουίνσλαντ . Επιπλέον, στους σκοπούς της Αδελφότητας περιλαµβάνεται η φροντίδα, η προσφορά ευκαιριών και η διευκόλυνση ατόµων που έχουν γεννηθεί στα Κύθηρα, των οικογενειών και των συγγενών τους. Καθορίζονται επίσης, οι εορτασµοί των τοπικών-Κυθηραϊκών θρησκευτικών Αγίων. Συγκεκριµένα, του Αγίου Θεοδώρου στις 12 Μαΐου, της Παναγίας της Μυρτιδιώτισσας στις 24 Σεπτεµβρίου και της Αγίας Ελέσσας την 1η Αυγούστου µε τη συνοδεία αρτοκλασίας .
Οι Κυθήριοι ανέπτυξαν γενικά σηµαντική επιχειρηµατική δραστηριότητα στην Αυστραλία και δημιούργησαν από τις πλέον πολυάριθµες και δραστήριες ελληνικές κοινότητες που διακρίθηκαν σε πολλούς τοµείς δραστηριότητας. Αυτό συνετέλεσε στην προσφορά τους στην οικονοµική και κοινωνική ζωή των συµπατριωτών τους. Πέρα, όµως, από τη µεγάλη προσφορά τους στην εστία µετανάστευσης, οι Κυθήριοι επιχειρηµατίες προέβησαν σε εξίσου σηµαντικές προσφορές προς τη γενέτειρά τους. Aναφέρουµε χαρακτηριστικά το Γρηγόρη Κασιµάτη του οποίου η οικογένεια ανέπτυξε κοινωφελή δράση . Προσέφερε οικόπεδα για την ανοικοδόµηση του Γηροκοµείου Κυθήρων και του Νοσοκοµείου Κυθήρων . Η οικογένειά του ανέπτυξε φιλανθρωπική δράση και στην Αυστραλία. Οι Κυθήριοι πάροικοι της Αυστραλίας βοήθησαν το γενέθλιο τόπο τους σε µικρά και µεγάλα έργα του νησιού κάνοντας εράνους. Τέτοια έργα είναι: το Γυµνάσιο στη Χώρα, σχολεία, νοσοκοµείο, γηροκοµείο, λιµάνια, δρόµοι.
Από το τέλος του 19ου αιώνα, παράλληλα µε τα µεταναστευτικά ρεύµατα προς την Αυστραλία, παρατηρούνται και µεταναστευτικά ρεύµατα προς την Αµερική Το µαζικό µεταναστευτικό ρεύµα προς την Αµερική πρωτοεµφανίστηκε στη δεκαετία του 1890 και ήταν µεγαλύτερο από εκείνο της Αυστραλίας κατά την ίδια εποχή. Οι ιδιαίτερες κοινωνικοπολιτικές συνθήκες οδήγησαν και σε ένα µεταγενέστερο µεταναστευτικό ρεύµα προς την Αµερική. Συγκεκριµένα, στα χρόνια του Μεσοπολέµου, ο αριθµός των παλαιών εµπορικών παροικιών περιορίστηκε, ενώ αντίθετα αυξήθηκαν οι νέες περιοχές εγκατάστασης, που δηµιουργήθηκαν εξαιτίας της µαζικής µετανάστευσης. Οι Έλληνες του εξωτερικού είχαν γίνει εκεί δεκτοί κάτω από αφοµοιωτικές πιέσεις, καθώς µετά το 1922 οι δεσµοί τους µε την Ελλάδα, και ιδιαίτερα µε το ελληνικό κράτος, είχαν αποδυναµωθεί. Στις παραµονές του Β’ Παγκοσµίου Πολέµου η διαδικασία αυτή είχε ως αποτέλεσµα την αναδιαµόρφωση της σχέσης ανάµεσα στους Έλληνες του εξωτερικού και των κοινωνιών που τους φιλοξενούσαν, καθώς και με τους µετανάστες στην Ελλάδα. Αν και η σχέση της Ελλάδας µε τους Έλληνες του εξωτερικού στην περίοδο του Μεσοπολέµου αρχικά αποδυναµώθηκε, ωστόσο πριν από το Β’ Παγκόσµιο Πόλεµο παρέµεινε ενεργή, υπό νέα όµως βάση. Η κατάρρευση της Μεγάλης Ιδέας τερµάτισε τη συγκεκριμένη µακρόχρονη πολιτική της Ελλάδας, η οποία ζητούσε τη βοήθεια των Ελλήνων του εξωτερικού. Πριν από το 1922 η βοήθεια αυτή αφορούσε σε οικονοµικές συνεισφορές, πολιτική υποστήριξη στην Μεγάλη Ιδέα και αποστολή εθελοντών για τους Βαλκανικούς πολέµους και τον Α΄ Παγκόσµιο Πόλεµο. Ωστόσο, οι προσπάθειες για την οικονοµική ανόρθωση της χώρας δεν µπορούσαν να τελεσφορήσουν. Γύρω στο 1930 Έλληνες από τις Ηνωµένες Πολιτείες και την Αίγυπτο άρχισαν να επενδύουν στην Ελλάδα. Η δικτατορία του Μεταξά προσπάθησε να επιτύχει την πολιτική στήριξη των Ελλήνων της Αιγύπτου και των Ηνωµένων Πολιτειών. Η πολιτική προς τους µετανάστες στις Ηνωµένες Πολιτείες καθοριζόταν από την πολιτική γραµµή που θα ακολουθούσε το Κογκρέσο. Κατά την περίοδο του Μεσοπολέµου παρατηρήθηκε µείωση του ρεύµατος της µετανάστευσης από την Ελλάδα. Όταν οι Ηνωµένες Πολιτείες έθεσαν φραγµό στη µετανάστευση το 1924, ο αριθµός των Ελλήνων που εισέρχονταν στη χώρα µειώθηκε. Η µαζική µετανάστευση από την Ελλάδα άρχισε στα τέλη του 19ου αιώνα και µέχρι τα 1930 υπήρχαν σχεδόν 200.000 Έλληνες στις Ηνωµένες Πολιτείες. Η ντόπια κοινωνία επιθυµούσε να ενσωµατωθούν όλοι οι µετανάστες και να εξαµερικανιστούν .
Τα πλοία που εξυπηρέτησαν τη γραµµή Ελλάδα - Αµερική ήταν την περίοδο πριν το Β΄ Παγκόσµιο πόλεµο και στις αρχές του 20ού αιώνα τα υπερωκεάνεια: Μωραϊτης, Πατρίς 1, Πατρίς 2 και Βύρων. H εφηµερίδα Λακωνία του Μαϊου του 1911 ανέφερε ότι τα καράβια Πατρίς, Θεµιστοκλής και Αθήναι προσέγγιζαν από το Γύθειο για Νέα Υόρκη . Μετά τον πόλεµο τα υπερωκεάνεια Νέα Ελλάς, Βασίλισσα Φρειδερίκη, Ολυµπία, και Άννα Μαρία εκτελούσαν το δροµολόγιο Ελλάδα - Αµερική. Τα υπερωκεάνεια αποτέλεσαν το µέσο που µετέφερε τους Έλληνες µετανάστες στην Αµερική, µεταξύ των οποίων και τους Κυθηρίους, τη χρονική περίοδο πριν από το Β΄ παγκόσµιο πόλεµο έως τις αρχές του 20ού αιώνα. Αργότερα χρησιµοποιήθηκαν τα αεροπλάνα που αντικατέστησαν σταδιακά τα πλοία.
Μέσα σ’ αυτό το γενικότερο µεταναστευτικό πλαίσιο εντάχθηκαν και οι Κυθήριοι. Αρχειακό υλικό των ∆ηµοτικών διαµερισµάτων των Κυθήρων αποτυπώνει αυτή την κινητικότητα. Παραθέτουμε ενδεικτικά ορισμένο από αυτό το απόσπασµα του Μητρώου Αρρένων της Κοινότητας του Ποταµού του 1899 περιλαµβάνει τα παρακάτω κυθηραϊκα ονόµατα, όπως του Κορωναίου Παναγιώτη του Κυριάκου που διαµένει στην Αµερική, µε αύξοντα αριθµό 8. Ένα άλλο χαρακτηριστικό δείγµα αποτελεί η πηγή του εκλογικού καταλόγου της Κοινότητας Αρωνιαδίκων, όπου αναφέρεται ο Αρώνης ή Καστρίσιος Κων/νος του Θεοδώρου, ετών 34, γεωργός, που διαµένει στην Αµερική. Στην ίδια πηγή καταγράφονται και τα παρακάτω ονόµατα µε τα εξής στοιχεία: µε αριθµό 34 ο Αρώνης ή Μινούκος ∆ηµήτριος του Εµµανουήλ µε αριθµό 7, 34 ετών, γεωργός, ο Αρώνης Παναγιώτης του ∆ηµητρίου, 42 ετών, σιδηρουργός, µε αριθµό 13 και Αρώνης Λεωνίδας του ∆ηµητρίου, 29 ετών, σιδηρουργός, µε αριθµό 20 .
Στρατολογικός πίνακας του 1933 καταγράφει τον Βενάρδο Ιωάννη του Κωνσταντίνου από την Αγ. Αναστασία, οικισµό µεταξύ Ποταµού και Καραβά, κατ’ επάγγελµα µάγειρας, να έχει µόνιµη κατοικία την Αµερική . Επίσης, στρατολογικός πίνακας του έτους 1938 του Ποταµού παρουσιάζει τον Σουρή ∆ηµήτρη του Γεωργίου, με έτος γέννησης το 1917, να διαμένει στην Αµερική .
Συνέπεια αυτής της πληθυσµιακής κινητικότητας καθώς και της εγκατάστασής τους υπήρξε ίδρυση Αδελφοτήτων σε πόλεις - εστίες της Κυθηραϊκής εγκατάστασης: N. Υόρκη, Βαλτιµόρη, Άγιος Λουδοβίκος, Καλιφόρνια . Πρώτη Κυθηραϊκή Αδελφότητα στην Αµερική είναι του Αγίου Λουδοβίκου, η οποία ιδρύθηκε το 1918 (βλ. παράρτηµα σ. 401). Η Κυθηραϊκή Αδελφότητα στη Νέα Υόρκη, που είναι και η µεγαλύτερη, ιδρύθηκε το 1919. Βασικοί σκοποί της είναι η ανάπτυξη της ιδέας της αλληλεγγύης και αλληλοβοήθειας, η έµπνευση σεβασµού και αγάπης προς τους θεσµούς της θετής πατρίδας, η καλλιέργεια αγαθών σχέσεων των µελών προς τους Αµερικανούς συµπολίτες τους, η διακήρυξη των αισθηµάτων και καθηκόντων προς την Πατρίδα και τη θρησκεία. Επίσης, η
παροχή ηθικής και υλικής υποστήριξης στα µέλη της Αδελφότητας και η περίθαλψη των ασθενών και αναπήρων µελών .
Tακτικά µέλη της Αδελφότητας είναι τα διαµένοντα στην Νέα Υόρκη και στα περίχωρά της (βλ. παραρτ. σ. 398). Στο 18ο άρθρο του καταστατικού ορίζεται, ότι οι Κυθήριοι που ασθενούσαν, ή υφίσταντο κάποια σωµατική βλάβη, δικαιούντο χρηµατικού βοηθήµατος µόνο µία φορά το έτος µε την έγκριση του διοικητικού συµβουλίου και υπήρχε συγκεκριµένος περιορισµός για τη χρονική διάρκεια χορήγησης του βοηθήματος στο ίδιο πρόσωπο. Κάθε τακτικό µέλος µε ανάγκη νοσηλείας στο νοσοκοµείο δικαιούτο χρηµατικό βοήθηµα $ 20,00 την εβδοµάδα µέχρι πέντε εβδοµάδες. Εάν κρινόταν αναγκαίο, ήταν δυνατόν να του παραχωρηθεί επιπλέον αναρρωτική βοήθεια µέχρι $ 15.00 την εβδοµάδα για δύο συνεχείς εβδοµάδες. Προέβλεπε, επίσης, την κατ’ οίκον νοσηλεία και μετά από τη φροντίδα περιποιήσεως του γιατρού της Αδελφότητας το πάσχον µέλος δικαιούτο χρηµατικού βοηθήµατος $15.00 την εβδοµάδα και τις υπηρεσίες του γιατρού της Αδελφότητας µόνο για τρεις συνεχείς εβδοµάδες .
Προέβλεπε, επίσης, χρηµατικό βοήθηµα $ 100.000 χωρίς καµία άλλη υποχρέωση. Επιπλέον, για την κηδεία απόρου µέλους της η Αδελφότητα προέβλεπε, όχι πάνω από $ 100.000 και την παροχή της αναγκαίας φροντίδας. Στο 22ο άρθρο καθορίζεται ο εορτασµός της Αδελφότητας την πρώτη Κυριακή µετά τις 24 Σεπτεµβρίου µε συνοδεία αρτοκλασίας και κατά προτίµηση στον Καθεδρικό Ναό όπου υπήρχε και η εικόνα της Παναγίας της Μυρτιδιώτισσας, η οποία δωρήθηκε στο Ναό από την Κυθηραϊκή Αδελφότητα Νέας Υόρκης. Στο 23ο άρθρο καθορίζεται η σφραγίδα, η οποία και φέρει το έµβληµα της Αδελφότητας: η περιστερά µε κλάδο ελαίας .
H Kυθηραϊκή Αδελφότητα της Νέας Υόρκης πραγµατοποιεί τρεις εκδηλώσεις το χρόνο. Κορυφαία εορταστική εκδήλωση είναι, όπως προαναφέρθηκε, ο εορτασµός της Παναγίας της Μυρτιδιώτισσας, με την αφιερωμένη σε Αυτήν Εικόνα, στολισµένη µε λουλούδια και µυρτιές. Μετά τον εκκλησιασμό συγκεντρώνονταν για φαγητό και χορό, ώστε µε αφορµή το θρησκευτικό εορτασµό να προσφέρεται η ευκαιρία στους Κυθηρίους της Νέας Υόρκης να συσπειρώνονται. Ίδια ευκαιρία παρουσιάζεται και τον Ιανουάριο µε την κοπή της βασιλόπιτας, όπου προσφέρονται δώρα στα παιδιά σε κέντρο της πόλης. Το καλοκαίρι οργανώνεται εκδροµή σε παραλία της Νέας Υόρκης . Στην πρόσκληση αναφέρεται στο κάλεσµα καφέ και άρτου σε κάποιο χώρο της κοινότητας και στο µεσηµβρινό γεύµα που ακολουθεί σε εστιατόριο της Νέας Υόρκης. Στον εορτασµό συµµετείχαν περίπου 50 άτοµα, ενώ παλιότερα συµµετείχαν 120. Όλες αυτές οι ευκαιρίες έχουν σκοπό τη διατήρηση των σχέσεων των Κυθηρίων που ζουν στη Ν. Υόρκη και στα περίχωρά της.
Αδελφότητες από τα Κύθηρα ιδρύθηκαν στη Βαλτιµόρη το 1930 και στη Καλιφόρνια το 1950. Στη Βαλτιµόρη και στα περίχωρα οι Κυθήριοι δηµιούργησαν την Κυθηραϊκή Αδελφότητα Βαλτιµόρης και περιχώρων. Ένα σηµαντικό στοιχείο είναι ο συµβολισµός στη σφραγίδα. Σύµφωνα µε το πιο πρόσφατο καταστατικό, φέρει το έµβληµα της Αδελφότητας στο κέντρο και περιμετρικά την ονοµασία της στην ελληνική και αγγλική γλώσσα . Σκοπός της Αδελφότητας ήταν η ανάπτυξη της αλληλεγγύης και αλληλοβοήθειας. Επιπλέον, η παροχή ηθικής και υλικής υποστήριξης στα µέλη της Αδελφότητας και η περίθαλψη ασθενών και αναπήρων µελών. Στο 22ο άρθρο του καταστατικού καθορίζεται ο εορτασµός της Αδελφότητας στη γιορτή της ιάσεως του Παραλύτου από την Παναγία την Μυρτιδιώτισσα. Ως ημέρα εορτασμού ορίζεται η πρώτη Κυριακή µετά την 24η Σεπτεµβρίου µε αρτοκλασία και κάθε επισηµότητα στο κοινοτικό Ναό. Το δε βράδυ της ίδιας ηµέρας γίνεται χοροεσπερίδα. Στο 21ο άρθρο του καταστατικού ορίζεται η φιλική σχέση µε άλλα σωµατεία όµοιας φύσεως είτε αυτά είναι εγκατεστηµένα στη Βαλτιµόρη, είτε σε άλλες πόλεις. Στο πιο πρόσφατο καταστατικό καθορίζεται με ακρίβεια η επισηµότητα µε την οποία εορτάζεται η Παναγία η Μυρτιδιώτισσα. (βλ. παράρτηµα σ. 399,400).
Ιδιαίτερο ενδιαφέρον παρουσιάζει το καταστατικό της Κυθηραϊκής Αδελφότητας της Καλιφόρνιας του 1950, το οποίο εκτός από την επωνυµία της Κυθηραϊκής Αδελφότητας, φέρει και την επωνυµία του Πάνου Κορωναίου: «By-laws of the Cytherian brothterhood General Koronaios». Το κύριο γραφείο της Αδελφότητας είναι στην πόλη Oalkand, χώρα Alameda, κράτος Καλιφόρνιας. O ετήσιος, κυρίως θρησκευτικός εορτασµός της Αδελφότητας είναι η 24η Σεπτεµβρίου, ηµέρα εορτασµού της Παναγίας της Μυρτιδιώτισσας. Ο κύριος συµβολισµός της Αδελφότητας αποτυπώνεται στη σφραγίδα της, όπου στο κέντρο είναι χαραγµένη η εικόνα του καταγόµενου από τον Ποταµό Κυθήρων στρατηγού Kορωναίου και στο περιθώριο το όνοµα Cytherian Brotherhood. Εκτός από το πρωταρχικό καταστατικό του 1950, έχοντας στη διάθεσή µας και το καταστατικό του 1997, που αναθεωρήθηκε, µπορούµε να προβούµε σε ορισµένες επιπλέον παρατηρήσεις (βλ. παράρτηµα σ. 402,403).
Στους στόχους της Αδελφότητας συµπεριλαµβάνονται η προώθηση και διευκόλυνση του συμφέροντος τους των προσώπων των οποίων η καταγωγή είναι από το νησί Kythera, ώστε να ενισχυθούν οι κοινωνικές δραστηριότητες µεταξύ των µελών της και να επεκταθεί η ηθική και υλική βοήθεια στους ενδεείς κατοίκους Kythera. Μία άλλη σηµαντική παρατήρηση είναι ότι στον τίτλο του καταστατικού του 1950 αναφέρεται το επίθετο του Κυθήριου στρατηγού Πάνου Κορωναίου, προσώπου Ευρωπαϊκής Εμβέλειας με στρατιωτική, πολιτική και κοινωνική δράση. Και οι Κυθήριοι πάροικοι της Αµερικής συνετέλεσαν σε έργα του νησιού µε αντιπροσωπευτικές προσφορές το Λουράντειο ∆ηµοτικό Σχολείο Καρβουνάδας από τον οµογενή Λουράντο και το ∆ηµοτικό Σχολείο Λειβαδίου µε την προσφορά του οµογενή Σεµιτέκολου.
Και στην Αµερική λειτούργησε το οικογενειακό σύστηµα για τους Κυθηρίους. ∆ηλαδή, εγκαθίστατο αρχικά ένα µέλος της οικογενείας το οποίο στη συνέχεια καλούσε και κάποιο άλλο στον τόπο εγκατάστασης.
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History, Documents
Documents

Certificate that accompanied the award of the Gold Cross of St Andrew

....to Professor Minas Coroneo, by Archbishop Stylianos on his name day, Monday November 26th, 2012.

Very few of the St Andrews Crosses have ever been awarded. Only 4 of the Gold St Andrew Cross have been awarded.

The Cross is presented for valuable services to the Church and the community. The Cross was presented along with a certificate, signed by His Eminence, with the wording “Honorary Award / The Gold Cross of St Andrew is hereby presented to Minas Coroneo ”.
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History, Documents
Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People

Professor Minas Coroneo was awarded the Gold Cross of St Andrew

by Archbishop Stylianos on his name day, Monday November 26th, 2012. Very few of the St Andrews Crosses have ever been awarded. Only 4 of the Gold St Andrew Cross have been awarded.

The Cross is presented for valuable services to the Church and the community. The Cross was presented along with a certificate, signed by His Eminence, with the wording “Honorary Award / The Gold Cross of St Andrew is hereby presented to Minas Coroneo ”.
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Photos, Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People
Current Affairs

Professor Minas Coroneo was awarded the Gold Cross of St Andrew

by Archbishop Stylianos on his name day, Monday November 26th, 2012.

[[picture:"Minas Coroneo St Andrews Cross.jpg" ID:20906]]

Very few of the St Andrews Crosses have ever been awarded. Only 4 of the Gold St Andrew Cross have been awarded.

The Cross is presented for valuable services to the Church and the community. The Cross was presented along with a certificate, signed by His Eminence, with the wording “Honorary Award / The Gold Cross of St Andrew is hereby presented to Minas Coroneo ”.

[[picture:"Minas Coroneo St Andrews Cross Certificate.jpg" ID:20907]]
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Culture, Current Affairs

Spiridoula's Kitchen - Pastitsio

[[picture:"IMG_3281.jpg" ID:20890]]

Watch this YouTube video, to learn step by step, how to make Spiridoula Alfieris Georgopoulos fabulous Pastitsio.

Click to watch Spiridoula’s Kitchen – Pastitsio on YOUTUBE

Filmed in her home in Potamos, Kythera.
August 3, 2012

Photos, VIdeo & Editing by Vikki Vrettos Fraioli
Music: Perasma Sta Kythera
Life Stories

A recent email from Ted (Theodore) Panaretos, USA 5-11-12

Quiet day looking over some old Emails. My name is Theodore Panaretos, son of Minas Panaretos. My Grandfather, Theodore had children, Panagiotis, Alexandros, Minas, Aspacia, Maria, and Eleni. Granmother Anthe had lost a child upon leaving Smyrna during the Catastophe.
I recall at the age of 12 or 14 being with my Grandfather at his death. I was born in 1928. I recall that they had put vedouses on his back to try and help him. Did not work --he passed. I had looked at the chart and found a Theodore - left of center of the page. I do not think that Theodore was my grandfather since - if I recall his death at the age of 12, would have made him 140 years old. Have you done anymore with the chart. (ref to Telemachos Combis Panaretos family tree chart)
Off the subject, do you have knowledge of a professor of archeology George Mylonas, who sat on the academy In Greece. I was in Greec e shortly after his death. He's a good friend of my father as well as Aristotle Onasis. My father and Mr. Onasis met on the island of Rhodes. Mr. Onasis wanted my father to send me to Greece to meet someone. I did not go. I have often wondered what happened to Mr. Mylonas. I had called his widow, she was very upset about something. I could not get out of her what it was. Would you know anything about that? I have really enjoyed your work on the family tree. Thank you and hope you have time to do further work.
You have no idea how much I miss my father. I only wish we could have gone to Greece together. Problem was one of had tot take care of the family business. After his death I bought my mother and brother out of the restaurant, ran it alone for 10 years. In 1970, I tired of 14 hours a day, leased the place out and returned to Law School. I am now 84 years old. I have one case going in the United States Supreme Court. Mother remarried sometime after dad died. Never liked him. Mother died in 1968 I think.
My father used to call me 'professor"--he would have really enjoyed my practice of Law. I have written a book about a murder trial I conducted in 1980. There was some talk about making a movie of the book; however I haver not heard anything about it since it was mentioned. contact for Ted: tppanther@att.net
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People, Life Stories

Spiridoula's Kitchen - Moussaka

[[picture:"IMG_2579 - Version 2.jpg" ID:20827]]

Spiridoula (Alfieris) Georgopoulos shows us how to make Moussaka in her home in Potamos.
[[picture:"IMG_9461 - Version 2.JPG" ID:20828]]
July 25, 2012
Click to watch Spiridoula’s Kitchen – Moussaka on YOUTUBE

Photos, Video & Editing by Vikki Vrettos Fraioli
Music from the album - 100% Stavros Xarchakos, Vol. 3
Youssouroum
Vale ki Allo Piatoo Sto Trapezi
Aponi Zoi
Modern Landscapes

''speakers corner''

top end of potamos at selinas cafeneo the problems of the island , greece and the world are discussed and solved by the wise men of the area !!! although not many ears to hear their solutions on a quiet october afternoon....
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Photos, Modern Landscapes
Obituaries

Jim Cominos

All who knew Jim "Tsigli" Cominos know he had a great zest for life.

He was born in Potamos Kythera in May 1923. When war came to Kythera he joined the partizans fighting against the enemies and even took part in capturing two German soldiers on Kythera.

[[picture:"00001G.jpg" ID:20358]]

In the late 1940s migrated to Sydney. He married Rothanthi ( Rosie) Maneas in the mid 1950's and had two daughters Poppy and Helen.

Jim and Rosie settled in Surry Hills before moving to Kingsford in the early 1970's, where he enjoyed many happy hours gardening.

He had a great gift for grafting trees and many friends and relatives have trees he has grafted for them. He was very handy with his hands, I always remember going to his place to find him in his garden or fixing something, especially in Kythera when he was always fixing his fishing boat.

His two passions however were the sea and Kythera. He was a strong swimmer and avid fisherman. He made numerous trips back to Greece ,some alone but most with his wife Rosie. His last trip in 2010 was also shared by his beloved grandchildren.

But it will be the image of Tsigli dancing the Zembekiko that will live on in the memories of all who knew him and how he gave great kefi to any party he attended.

His family Rosie, Poppy, Helen , sons in law Barry and Nick and grandchildren Alex and Christina along with relatives and friends will miss him dearly.
As will I.

Tsigli may you rest in peace!
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People, Obituaries
Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People

Nick G Marcello

From the Voice of Kythera, newspaper, 1927.

Nick G Marcello was born on the 15th August,1880, in Potamos, Kythera. He emigrated to Australia on the 6th November,1907 on the ‘Bremen.’

Ann Coward has revealed that Stamati Marcello (a brother?) was a partner with Cosmas Cassimatis, (first President), and several others including, Nick Cassimatis, Nick Travasaros, Stratis Tzannes and John Megaloconomos in the Canberra Cafe in Oxford Street, Taylor Square, Sydney.

He is one of the Founding fathers of the Kytherian Brotherhood / Association of Australia. He held the position of Treasurer in the Foundation Committee of the Kytherian Brotherhood / Asociation - 1922-1924.

If you have other photographs of Nick G Marcello, and / or a more comprehensive life story, please email, George C Poulos?
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Photos, Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People
Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People

Family of Nick G Marcello

From the Voice of Kythera, newspaper, 1927.

Nick G Marcello was born on the 15th August,1880, in Potamos, Kythera. He emigrated to Australia on the 6th November,1907 on the ‘Bremen.’

Ann Coward has revealed that Stamati Marcello (a brother?) was a partner with Cosmas Cassimatis, (first President), and several others including, Nick Cassimatis, Nick Travasaros, Stratis Tzannes and John Megaloconomos in the Canberra Cafe in Oxford Street, Taylor Square, Sydney.

He is one of the Founding fathers of the Kytherian Brotherhood / Association of Australia. He held the position of Treasurer in the Foundation Committee of the Kytherian Brotherhood / Asociation - 1922-1924.

If you have other photographs of Nick G Marcello, and / or a more comprehensive life story, please email, George C Poulos?
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Photos, Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People
Diaspora Social Life

At Ship-A-Hoy just before leaving for the Kythira Ball at Riverside Plaza

Captain Mike and his crew, in fancy dress. There they took the "Premier" award for their presentation in costume, of the "scuttled ship's crew", February 17th, 1940.

It could only happen in NEW YORK, NEW YORK

From the records of the Kythirian Association of New York

Details about the Association:

President: George Kassimatis
Vice President: Malio Belessis
Treasurer: Kathy Patakis-Schenker
Secretary: Anna Stratigos-Formont
Web Master: Francine Moustakalis

The Secretary - Anna Stratigos-Formont,
can be contacted via email here

Click Here to Visit the Website of the Kythirian Association of New York

Historical Background

The Kythira Association of New York was formed in 1919 with Stefanos Fatseas as its first president. He owned the Rockasy Restaurant at 42nd Street (P. Panaretos, 2001).

Committee of the Grand Mask & Civic Ball, c.1919.

Kytherian Celebration and Dinner, Hotel Empire, New York, Sept 29. 1946

In 2001 there were approximately 500 members.

They gather to cut the Vasilopita at a picnic by the sea. They hold a yearly dance and have artoclasia on September 24th each year. They participate in the March 25 parade on 5th Avenue, carrying along the Kytherian labarum. They donated the icon of Panaghia Myrtidiotisa and placed it in a beautiful throne in the Holy Trinity Cathedral in New York.

Their descendants are well-educated and have become medical doctors, attorneys, successful financiers and business persons.

The U.S. ambassador to Greece is a member of New York's Kytherian Society in that his parents were from the village of Kalamos.

There is a provision in the Society's constitution to provide assistance to the sick and the poor of Kytherian descent. The Society pays for doctors' bills, funeral expenses and even transportation of deceased bodies for burial in Kythera.

Background History

History of Migration

From the geocities site:

http://us.geocities.com/raissis/genea4.html

The early American migration pattern is in sharp contrast with the Australian experience; here early Greek settlement tended more to collective enterprise rather than the cumulative effect of individual adventures; eg. 1,400 Greeks founded the communal settlement of New Smyrna in the colony of Florida as early as 1768. Nevertheless, there was still only a small number of Greeks in the USA until the world wide depression of the 1890's turned the trickle of Greek migration into a flood. Between 1890 and 1900, 16,000 Greeks entered the country, a mere 1,400 of whom settled in New York which, even so, had only previously been home to no more than about 100. However, by 1893 there were sufficient numbers to support the establishment of New York's first Greek fraternal organization, the Brotherhood of Athena.

Like other immigrants, the Greeks came to North America to find a better life; they emigrated because of economic necessity, the lack of opportunity in their homeland, or to escape the repression of local governmental officials. Their aim was to make money and return to their homeland and, as a result, until 1910 almost all Greek immigrants were primarily male. But despite their original intentions most did not return and instead remained in the United States and raised families.

Between 1900 and 1915 close to 25% of all Greek males between the ages of 15 and 45 departed for America. By 1913 20,000 of them had chosen to settle in New York, amongst whom was the small Kytherian community which formed the Kytherian Brotherhood of New York in 1917. Twenty four other regional groups had formed Greek fraternal organizations in New York by 1911 which precluded achieving the dominance which the Kytherians achieved in Sydney.

With continuing mass migration and the influx of Asia Minor refugees, nearly 400,000 Greeks had arrived in the USA by 1924. Most entered the food catering trades but unlike Australia a greater proportion also moved into other fields such as construction, taxi cabs, dock laboring and the fur and hotel industries. A steady stream continued in the ensuing decades and by the outbreak of WW2 over 53,000 Greek-Americans were recorded in New York city alone, of whom over 50% were Greek born. By the late 1940's New York had overtaken Chicago as the home to the largest Greek American community in North America.

Strong family ties, fervent Greek nationalism, hard work and upward mobility have been the dominant traits of the Greek immigrant of New York city. Beginning with little capital, thousands entered the American middle class with amazing rapidity. As in Australia, they generally did not make a life career of working for wages but sought to own their own independent businesses as soon as possible.

Today New York city is home to at least 500,000 Greek-Americans, is the headquarters of the Greek Archdiocese of North and South America, has two Greek language daily papers and a plethora of weekly and monthly publications, and is home to hundreds of Greek fraternal, professional, educational, social and religious groups. For a more detailed history of the Greek-American community of New York visit the

"Vryonis Centre" http://www.glavx.org/
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Photos, Diaspora Social Life
Diaspora Social Life

Kytherian Celebration and Dinner, Hotel Empire, New York, Sept 29. 1946

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

President: George Kassimatis
Vice President: Malio Belessis
Treasurer: Kathy Patakis-Schenker
Secretary: Anna Stratigos-Formont
Web Master: Francine Moustakalis

The Secretary - Anna Stratigos-Formont,
can be contacted via email here

Click Here to Visit the Website of the Kythirian Association of New York

Historical Background

The Kythira Association of New York was formed in 1919 with Stefanos Fatseas as its first president. He owned the Rockasy Restaurant at 42nd Street (P. Panaretos, 2001).

Committee of the Grand Mask & Civic Ball, c.1919.

In 2001 there were approximately 500 members.

They gather to cut the Vasilopita at a picnic by the sea. They hold a yearly dance and have artoclasia on September 24th each year. They participate in the March 25 parade on 5th Avenue, carrying along the Kytherian labarum. They donated the icon of Panaghia Myrtidiotisa and placed it in a beautiful throne in the Holy Trinity Cathedral in New York.

Their descendants are well-educated and have become medical doctors, attorneys, successful financiers and business persons.

The U.S. ambassador to Greece is a member of New York's Kytherian Society in that his parents were from the village of Kalamos.

There is a provision in the Society's constitution to provide assistance to the sick and the poor of Kytherian descent. The Society pays for doctors' bills, funeral expenses and even transportation of deceased bodies for burial in Kythera.

Background History

History of Migration

From the geocities site:

http://us.geocities.com/raissis/genea4.html

The early American migration pattern is in sharp contrast with the Australian experience; here early Greek settlement tended more to collective enterprise rather than the cumulative effect of individual adventures; eg. 1,400 Greeks founded the communal settlement of New Smyrna in the colony of Florida as early as 1768. Nevertheless, there was still only a small number of Greeks in the USA until the world wide depression of the 1890's turned the trickle of Greek migration into a flood. Between 1890 and 1900, 16,000 Greeks entered the country, a mere 1,400 of whom settled in New York which, even so, had only previously been home to no more than about 100. However, by 1893 there were sufficient numbers to support the establishment of New York's first Greek fraternal organization, the Brotherhood of Athena.

Like other immigrants, the Greeks came to North America to find a better life; they emigrated because of economic necessity, the lack of opportunity in their homeland, or to escape the repression of local governmental officials. Their aim was to make money and return to their homeland and, as a result, until 1910 almost all Greek immigrants were primarily male. But despite their original intentions most did not return and instead remained in the United States and raised families.

Between 1900 and 1915 close to 25% of all Greek males between the ages of 15 and 45 departed for America. By 1913 20,000 of them had chosen to settle in New York, amongst whom was the small Kytherian community which formed the Kytherian Brotherhood of New York in 1917. Twenty four other regional groups had formed Greek fraternal organizations in New York by 1911 which precluded achieving the dominance which the Kytherians achieved in Sydney.

With continuing mass migration and the influx of Asia Minor refugees, nearly 400,000 Greeks had arrived in the USA by 1924. Most entered the food catering trades but unlike Australia a greater proportion also moved into other fields such as construction, taxi cabs, dock laboring and the fur and hotel industries. A steady stream continued in the ensuing decades and by the outbreak of WW2 over 53,000 Greek-Americans were recorded in New York city alone, of whom over 50% were Greek born. By the late 1940's New York had overtaken Chicago as the home to the largest Greek American community in North America.

Strong family ties, fervent Greek nationalism, hard work and upward mobility have been the dominant traits of the Greek immigrant of New York city. Beginning with little capital, thousands entered the American middle class with amazing rapidity. As in Australia, they generally did not make a life career of working for wages but sought to own their own independent businesses as soon as possible.

Today New York city is home to at least 500,000 Greek-Americans, is the headquarters of the Greek Archdiocese of North and South America, has two Greek language daily papers and a plethora of weekly and monthly publications, and is home to hundreds of Greek fraternal, professional, educational, social and religious groups. For a more detailed history of the Greek-American community of New York visit the

"Vryonis Centre" http://www.glavx.org/
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Photos, Diaspora Social Life
Bibliography

Kalypso Michalakaki. Kytherian Immigrants and Their Organisations. History of the Kytherian Associations in Smyrna Alexandria and Attica.

***Important announcement. This book was printed in April 2013, and is now available for sale in Greece and Europe. Copies have now been shipped to Australia, and it is available for sale in Australia as well.

The book contains additional chapters on the Kytherian Associations in Athens and Pireaus, and in Australia and the USAS.

Based on a Ph.D thesis completed at the University of Athens, Greece, under the supervision of Professor George Leontsinis.

Author: Kalypso Michalakaki

When Published: 2012

Publisher: Kytherian Associations of Athens and Pireaus, and the Kytherian World Heritage Fund

Available: From July 2012

Description:

Purchase from the author, Kalypso Michalakaki.

Email Calypso here

***Kalypso's book can now be purchased in Australia from the Kytherian World Heritage Fund & The Kytherian Association of Australia***

PRICE: $40

George C. Poulos: 02 93888320

Email George Poulos

Email Angelo Notaras

Order more of the 30+ books from the KWHF catalogue by downloading the Order Form, here:

/download/Book_Order_Form.pdf

Kytherian Association of Australia, Book Orders

or Email Administration, Kytherian Association of Australia

[[picture:"Kalypso Michaelakaki Kytherian Immigrants and Their Organisations.jpg" ID:21248]]

CONTENTS


ABBREVIATIONS.....Pg. 10
PREFACE..... 11
INTRODUCTION..... 13

PART A

KYTHERIAN ASSOCIATIONAL ORGANISATION ABROAD..... 25

1st Chapter: Characteristics of the Kytherian migration to Smyrna.....27
2nd Chapter: Kytherian community of Smyrna.....29
3rd Chapter: Kytherian community of Alexandria.....61
4th Chapter: Associational organisation of U.S.A. and Australia.....87

PART B

KYTHERIAN ASSOCIATIONAL ORGANISATION IN GREECE

1st Chapter: Kytherian community of Piraeus – Kytherian Brotherhood Piraeus-Athens.....101
2nd Chapter: Kytherian community of Athens
Kytherian Association of Athens.....147
3rd Chapter: Embellishing Cultural Association of Alimos Myrtidiotissa......205
4th Chapter: Educational Welfare and contribution to Education and Culture.....229
Conclusion.....238

SOURCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY.....243

APPENDIX

Α. Statutes of Kytherian Brotherhoods.....373
1.1. Kytherian Brotherhood of Smyrna(1887).....375
1.2. Kytherian Brotherhood of Smyrna (1892).....380
2. Statutes of Kytherian Brotherhoods of Australia
2.1. Kytherian Brotherhood of N. Wales (1922).....388
2.2. Kytherian Brotherhood of Sydney (1936).....391
2.3. Kytherian Brotherhood of Brisbane (1944).....395
2.4. Kytherian Brotherhood of Cambera (1985).....397
3. Statutes of Kytherian Brotherhoods of U.S.A.
3.1. Kytherian Brotherhood of N. York (1919).....398
3.2. Kytherian Brotherhood of Baltimore (1930).....399
3.3. Kytherian Brotherhood of St. Luis (S. Francisco 1918)
3.4. Kytherian Brotherhood “Gen. Koronaiou” of California (1950).....401

Through the history of the Kytherian Brotherhood of Piraeus and the Kytherian Association of Athens, elements of Australian contribution towards projects on the island emerge. This contribution can also be seen in the chapter “Educational Welfare and Contribution to Education and Culture”.

Below, (in Greek) is Section 3: The Kytherian Associations in Australia and America.

ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΟ ΤΡΙΤΟ

ΣΩΜΑΤΕΙΑΚΗ ΟΡΓΑΝΩΣΗ ΤΩΝ ΚΥΘΗΡΙΩΝ
ΣΤΗΝ ΑΥΣΤΡΑΛΙΑ ΚΑΙ ΣΤΗΝ ΑΜΕΡΙΚΗ

Ένα άλλο ισχυρό ρεύµα Κυθηρίων µεταναστών κινείται κατά τον 19ο και 20όν αιώνα προς την Αυστραλία και την Αµερική. Η Κυθηραϊκή µετανάστευση προς την Αυστραλία έλαβε επιδηµικές διαστάσεις κατά την περίοδο 1890-1950. Οι Κυθήριοι έχουν µια παρουσία τουλάχιστον 130 ετών στην Αυστραλία, όπου βρίσκονται εγκατεστηµένοι κυρίως στο Σίδνεϋ, στην Καµπέρα και στη Βρισβάνη . Το µεταφορικό µέσο της συγκεκριµένης περιόδου, που συνέδεε τις δύο χώρες, Ελλάδα-Αυστραλία, ήταν φυσικά το πλοίο. Συγκεκριµένα, αναφέρουµε τα υπερωκεάνεια Κυρήνεια, Πατρίς, Αυστραλίς και Αµερικανίς, τα οποία περνούσαν µέσω του λιµανιού του Πορτ-Σάΐντ. Αργότερα, χρησιµοποιούνταν τα αεροπλάνα τα οποία αντικατέστησαν σταδιακά τα πλοία.
H ιστορία της κυθηραϊκής µετανάστευσης κατατάσσεται στην εθνική ιστορία, τόσο της Ελλάδας όσο και της Αυστραλίας. Οι Κυθήριοι µετανάστες ήταν τόσο σηµαντική δύναµη του Ελληνισμού στην Αυστραλία, ώστε να θεωρούνται ότι δηµιούργησαν την οικονοµική και πνευµατική του υποδοµή. Επίσης, ήταν σηµαντικός παράγοντας διαµόρφωσης κριτηρίων των ελληνικών µετοικεσιών που ακολούθησαν. Αρχικά ο ισχνός αριθµός και η διασπορά των Κυθηρίων στις αχανείς εκτάσεις της Αυστραλίας προξένησαν αδυναµίες στην οργάνωση του κυθηραϊσµού. Βέβαια, στις δυσκολίες της σωµατειακής οργάνωσης συνετέλεσε και η γενικότερη κοινωνική κατάσταση των Ελλήνων αποίκων στην Αυστραλία. Ο µεγάλος αριθµός σωµατείων καλλιέργησε καχυποψία, ανταγωνισµό και επιφυλακτικότητα. Σε πολλές περιπτώσεις τα εθνοτοπικά σωµατεία αποµόνωναν τα µέλη τους από τους οµογενείς «ξένους» και τον Έλληνα από τον Έλληνα .
Το φαινόµενο της µεγάλης σε αριθµό Κυθηραϊκής διασποράς στην Αυστραλία οδήγησε στα τελευταία χρόνια στη δηµιουργία ιστοσελίδας , όπου παρέχονται πληροφορίες για την κυθηραϊκή µετανάστευση και στοιχεία χρήσιµα για την σύνταξη οικογενειακών δέντρων. ∆ηµιουργήθηκε το 2003 από Κυθηρίους της διασποράς µε στόχο τη λειτουργία ενός αρχείου της πολιτιστικής κληρονοµιάς των Κυθήρων. Μάλιστα, η συγκεκριµένη ιστοσελίδα παρουσιάστηκε στα Κύθηρα τον Αύγουστο του 2005 από τον J. Prineas, κύριο οργανωτή της. Επίσης, ο Ηλίας Μαρσέλος, έχει ιδρύσει το Ινστιτούτο του Κυθηραϊσµού (2002), µε κύριο σκοπό την ανάπτυξη της επικοινωνίας και της σύσφιξης των δεσµών των απανταχού της γης Κυθηρίων, τόσο µεταξύ των µελών του Ινστιτούτου, όσο και µε άλλα µέλη Συλλόγων, σωµατείων, Ιδρυµάτων στην Ελλάδα και το εξωτερικό µε παρεµφερείς προς το Ιστιτούτο σκοπούς, σε προσωπικό, επαγγελµατικό επίπεδο .
O Ηλίας Μαρσέλος οργάνωσε σχετικά συνέδρια στα Κύθηρα και πρόσφατα στην Αυστραλία. Ακόµη, σχετικά µε τη σωµατειακή οργάνωση των Κυθηρίων στην Cambera της Αυστραλίας, το 2006. Για τη συλλογική οργάνωση των Κυθηρίων στην Αυστραλία, που εκφράστηκε µε την ίδρυση Αδελφοτήτων καθώς και για την κυθηραϊκή παροικία, γίνεται αναφορά από τον Αλλίµονο στη διατριβή του . Πληροφορίες και στοιχεία για την κυθηραϊκή µετανάστευση περιλαµβάνονται και στο βιβλίο του Ι. Κοµνηνού «Η εν ζωή Αυστραλία». Αναφέρονται επίσης σηµαίνουσες προσωπικότητες του ελληνισµού της Αυστραλίας, µεταξύ των οποίων και Κυθήριοι. Kαταγράφονται τα ονόµατά τους, ο χρόνος και ο τόπος εγκατάστασής τους στην Αυστραλία καθώς και οι επαγγελματικές τους ενασχολήσεις. Αναφέρεται, επίσης, ότι Κυθήριοι ευρίσκοντο στη Νότιο Αυστραλία.
Ο πρώτος Έλληνας στην Αυστραλία ήταν ο Κυθήριος Αθανάσιος Κοµνηνός, ο οποίος ήλθε από τη Σµύρνη, που ήταν η πρώτη του εγκατάσταση, στην Αυστραλία το 1877. Από τη Σµύρνη ήλθε στην Αυστραλία και ο Κυθήριος Νικόλαος Αρώνης. Παρατηρείται, δηλαδή, το γνωστό φαινόµενο της επαναµετανάστευσης µε την αλυσιδωτή µεταναστευτική κίνηση από Κύθηρα προς Σµύρνη και από Σµύρνη προς Αυστραλία και Αµερική. Τα παραπάνω επιβεβαιώνονται και από την προφορική µαρτυρία της Κυθήριας από την Αλεξάνδρεια που αναφέρθηκε στο προηγούµενο κεφάλαιο. Αλλά και ένα άλλο παράδειγµα είναι η περίπτωση του Νικόλαου Αρώνη, ο οποίος ήλθε από τη Σµύρνη στην Αυστραλία, το 1902.
Οι λόγοι που οδήγησαν τους Κυθηρίους να µεταναστεύσουν από την Σµύρνη ή την Αλεξάνδρεια προς Αυστραλία ή Αµερική ήταν δύο: αφενός οι καλύτερες οικονοµικές και επαγγελµατικές συνθήκες, αφετέρου ο κυθηραϊκός ιστός ο οποίος δηµιουργείτο σιγά - σιγά, οπότε οι εγκατεστηµένοι εκεί Κυθήριοι αναζητούσαν την ενίσχυσή του µε µέλη των οικογενειών τους ή συγχωριανών τους ή γενικότερα των συµπατριωτών τους.
Σχετικά µε την κυθηραϊκή διασπορά σε Σίδνεϋ και Καµπέρα έχει πραγµατοποιηθεί µελέτη που αφορά στη διαχρονική προσέγγιση της κυθηραϊκής ταυτότητας στην Αυστραλία κάνοντας µια ιστορική αναδροµή τα cafés της υπαίθρου . Tα cafés και τα fish shops των Κυθηρίων δηµιουργήθηκαν στο Σίδνεϋ και αργότερα σε µικρές πόλεις της αυστραλιανής υπαίθρου της νοτίου Ουαλίας και της Κουησλάνδης. Γι’ αυτό και έχουµε στη διάθεσή µας το καταστατικό της Κυθηραϊκής Αδελφότητας της Ουαλίας. (βλ. παράρτηµα σ. 388). Σχετικά µε το θέµα έχουν ασχοληθεί κατά καιρούς επιστήµονες της ελληνικής µετανάστευσης στην Αυστραλία . Τα cafés των Κυθηρίων κατέκλυσαν την ύπαιθρο της Αυστραλίας από το 1920 µέχρι τα τέλη της δεκαετίας του 1960. Aπό τα τέλη της δεκαετίας του 1960 οι Κυθήριοι άρχισαν να εγκα- ταλείπουν τις µικρές πόλεις της υπαίθρου και να συγκεντρώνονται στο Σίδνεϋ, στην Καµπέρα και στο Μπρίσµπαν.
Απαραίτητος συνδετικός κρίκος των αποδήµων Κυθηρίων στην Αυστραλία είναι τα θρησκευτικά τους σύµβολα, όπως καθορίζονται στα καταστατικά των Αδελφοτήτων. Πρόκειται για την Παναγία τη Μυρτιδιώτισσα, τον Άγιο Θεόδωρο και την Αγία Μόνη. H µεταφορά των Αγίων προστατών των Κυθήρων στο τόπο µετανάστευσης των Κυθηρίων αποίκων µετέτρεψε το χώρο σε τόπο. Η λατρεία αυτή ανακαλεί στη µνήµη τους τη γενέθλια γη τους . Oι εορτασµοί των επετείων από τα κυθηραϊκά σωµατεία της διασποράς εκφράζουν την κυθηραϊκή ταυτότητα. Ο εορτασµός των Αγίων, µάλιστα, ανακοινώνεται στον κυθηραϊκό τύπο και τα τελευταία χρόνια και στην ιστοσελίδα των Κυθήρων . Έχουµε ήδη µιλήσει για τη λατρεία των Κυθηρίων προς την Παναγία τη Μυρτιδιώτισσα. Εδώ θα αναφερθούµε σύντοµα στον Όσιο Θεόδωρο και την Αγία Ελέσα, τοπικούς αγίους των Κυθήρων. Ο Όσιος Θεόδωρος γεννήθηκε στη Κορώνη της Μεσσηνίας. Μεγαλώνοντας πήγε στη Ρώµη, ενώ είχε ήδη γίνει διάκονος και αργότερα στη Μονεµβασία και από εκεί στα Αντικύθηρα. Εγκαταστάθηκε εκεί στη Μονή Βάκχου και Σεργίου. Στα Κύθηρα πήγε να µονάσει κατά τη περίοδο του Ρωµανού Β΄(959-963) ή Νικηφόρου Φωκά(963-969) . Έζησε έντεκα µήνες στα Κύθηρα, ασκητικά και πέθανε στις 12 Μαΐου, γι’ αυτό κάθε χρόνο τελείται την ηµέρα αυτή η τοπική γιορτή του προστάτη των Κυθήρων . Ο τάφος του Οσίου βρίσκεται στον οµώνυµο ναό. Πιστεύεται, ότι αυτός χτίστηκε στο πεδίο του προγενέστερου ναού των Αγίων Σεργίου και Βάκχου. Η Αγία Ελέσσα γεννήθηκε στην Πελοπόννησο από πατέρα ειδωλολάτρη και µητέρα Χριστιανή. Στα 14 χρόνια της και, ενώ έχασε την µητέρα της που την βάπφτισε Χριστιανή, σκέφτηκε ότι δε µπορεί να ζήσει µε τον ειδωλολάτρη πατέρα της, και γι’ αυτό έφυγε για τα Κύθηρα όπου και ασκήτευσε. Εκεί την βρήκε ο πατέρας της και, αφού την βασάνισε, την αποκεφάλισε τη 1η Αυγούστου 375 µ.Χ. Έτσι ο τοπικός εορτασµός της ορίζεται κάθε πρώτη Αυγούστου και γίνεται στη µονή της Αγ. Ελέσας στα Κύθηρα, όπου µαρτυρείται ότι αρχικά διεσώθη, ενώ καταδιωκόταν από τον πατέρα της.
Η ανάγκη εορτασµού των τοπικών Αγίων στους τόπους µετοίκησης εκφράζεται µε την παράλληλη ίδρυση των ελληνικών Κοινοτήτων και ελληνικών ναών. Πιο συγκεκριµένα, ο πρώτος ελληνικός ορθόδοξος Ναός στο Σίδνεϋ, της Αγίας Τριάδος, ανηγέρθη το 1898 και την ίδια χρονιά συστάθηκε η Ελληνική Κοινότητα του Σίδνεϋ, ενώ ο πρώτος ελληνικός ορθόδοξος Ναός της Μελβούρνης, ο Ευαγγελισµός της Θεοτόκου, ανηγέρθη το 1900 και ένα χρόνο αργότερα συστάθηκε η ελληνική Κοινότητα της Μελβούρνης. Μέρος της κυθηραϊκής ταυτότητας αποτελεί η λατρεία της Παναγίας της Μυρτιδιώτισσας, σύµβολο των Κυθηρίων. Ο ιδιαίτερος αυτός θρησκευτικός δεσµός των Κυθηρίων µε την Παναγία την Μυρτιδιώτισσα εκδηλώνεται µε την ανέγερση ναού αφιερωµένου σ’αυτήν, στο προάστιο του Σίδνεϋ Cogra Kogarah, καθώς και στο Ντάµπο . Συγκεκριµένα, στην ανέγερση εκκλησίας την Παναγία τη Μυρτιδιώτισσα στο Ντάµπο το έτος 1960, αναφέρεται ο Τσούνης στη διδακτορική του διατριβή στην οποία κάνει λόγο και για άλλες ελληνικές ορθόδοξες εκκλησίες της Αυστραλίας.
Η αναγκαιότητα της παρουσίας της αυθεντικής εικόνας της προστάτιδας του νησιού στην Αυστραλία κατά τον εορτασµό της στις 24 Σεπτεµβρίου επεκτάθηκε και εκτός του κύκλου της κυθηραϊκής παροικίας, µε συνέπεια ο Αρχιεπίσκοπος Αυστραλίας Ιεζεκιήλ το 1972 να ζητήσει από τον τότε Μητροπολίτη Γυθείου και Οιτύλου Σωτήριο, όπου ανήκε η Μητρόπολη Κυθήρων, να επιτρέψει τη µεταφορά της εικόνας στην Αυστραλία για τον εορτασµό. Ωστόσο, η Ιερά Σύνοδος απάντησε αρνητικά επικαλούµενη λόγους ασφαλείας της εικόνας. Ως συµβιβαστική λύση προτάθηκε η αποστολή αντιγράφου προς την Αρχιεπισκοπή Αυστραλίας .
Για την Παναγία τη Μυρτιδιώτισσα η παράδοση αναφέρει την εύρεση της εικόνας το 1160 ή τον 15ο αιώνα, στην περιοχή της σηµερινής Μονής από ένα βοσκό. Η σκηνή είναι αποτυπωµένη στην εικόνα που φιλοτεχνήθηκε από το Νικόλαο Θεόφιλο Σπιθάκη το 1837. Πήρε δε το όνοµα Μυρτιδιώτισσα από τον τόπο που βρέθηκε, σε µία περιοχή δυτικά των Κυθήρων, η οποία ήταν κατάφυτη από µυρτιές .
Η θρησκευτικότητα των Κυθηρίων µεταναστών, εκτός από την τέλεση των εορτασµών των τριών Αγίων, αποτυπώνεται και σε ένα από τα σύµβολα της σφραγίδας της Κυθηραϊκής Αδελφότητας που είναι τα παρακάτω: το νησί των Κυθήρων που βρίσκεται στη µέση και αναφέρεται στο πραγµατικό, στο γεωφυσικό στοιχείο, δεξιά η εικόνα της προστάτιδας του νησιού Παναγίας της Μυρτιδιώτισσας, που αναφέρεται στο θρησκευτικό σύµβολο και αριστερά η λατρευόµενη Θεά Αφροδίτη, που αποτελεί το µυθικό σύµβολο. Στο κέντρο και γύρω από τη σφραγίδα βρίσκονται οι λέξεις: «Κυθηραϊκή Αδελφότητα Αυστραλίας τα Κύθηρα». Το σχήµα του νησιού εκπροσωπεί τη φυσική του κατάσταση, η προστάτιδα των Κυθήρων Παναγία εκπροσωπεί το θρησκευτικό σύµβολο και η Θεά Αφοδίτη εκφράζει το µυθικό σύµβολο . Εποµένως η σφραγίδα παραπέµπει τους Κυθηρίους απόδηµους της Αυστραλίας στο νησί τους και ανασύρει και διατηρεί στη µνήµη τους, τα χαρακτηριστικά στοιχεία του γενέθλιου τόπου.
Σύµφωνα µε το Καταστατικό της Κυθηραϊκής Αδελφότητας του Σίδνεϋ που συντάχτηκε το 1922 στην ελληνική γλώσσα, βασικοί σκοποί της Αδελφότητας είναι η σύσφιξη των σχέσεων µεταξύ των Κυθηρίων που διαµένουν στο Σίδνεϋ, η βοήθεια και η προστασία των απόρων Κυθηρίων, καθώς και η συνδροµή σε οποιοδήποτε κοινωφελές έργο (βλ. παράρτηµα σ. 391, 394).
Στο 45ο άρθρο ορίζεται η υποχρέωση της Αδελφότητας να τελεί τρία πανηγύρια στον Ιερό Ναό της Ελληνικής Ορθοδόξου Κοινότητας, τα οποία θα σχετίζονται άµεσα µε το θρησκευτικό συναίσθηµα των Κυθηρίων. Πρόκειται για πανηγύρια που διοργανώνονται στη γιορτή της Παναγίας της Μυρτιδιώτισσας, του Αγίου Θεοδώρου και της Αγίας Ελέσσας (Οσιοµάρτυρες). Μια από τις δραστηριότητες αυτής της Αδελφότητας αποτελεί η έκδοση µηνιαίων περιοδικών “newsletter”.
Η Κυθηραϊκή Αδελφότητα του Σίδνεϋ, με εγγεγραμμένες πάνω από 550 οικογένειες, αριθµεί πάνω από 1.500 µέλη. Η αριθµητική δύναµη της Αδελφότητας του Μπρίσµπαν είναι επίσης 1500 µέλη µε εγγεγραµµένες 550 οικογένειες και της Καµπέρα ανέρχεται περίπου στα 250 µέλη που προέρχονται από 120 οικογένειες περίπου. Εκτός από τα τρία µεγάλα σωµατεία, οι Κυθήριοι συσπειρώνονται και σε ένα άλλο άτυπο σωµατείο, το Καραβίτικο, το οποίο συμπεριλαμβάνει αποκλειστικά καταγόµενους από τον Καραβά των Κυθήρων. Το σωματείο αυτό εορτάζει στις 12 Φεβρουαρίου τον Άγιο Χαράλαµπο, τον Άγιο του χωριού τους. Kαι εδώ ο συµβολισµός µεταφέρεται από τον τόπο καταγωγής τον Καραβά των Κυθήρων στο τόπο µετανάστευσης, στην ευρύτερη περιοχή του Σίδνεϋ. Tην σχετική δραστηριότητα καταγράφει η ιστοσελίδα του Κythera family-net.
Ακολουθεί χρονολογικά η Κυθηραϊκή Αδελφότητα του Μπρίσµπαν, η οποία δηµιουργήθηκε το 1944 (βλ. Καταστατικό σ. 395-396). Κατά τον Αλίµονο υπήρχε Κυθηραϊκός σύλλογος στο Κουίνσλαντ ήδη από το 1934 και στη πόλη Καµπέρα από τo 1985. ∆ιευκρινίζουµε ότι Κουίνσλαντ είναι ο νοµός και Καµπέρα η πρωτεύουσά του . Το Καταστατικό που διαθέτουµε συντάχθηκε το 1944 και αναφέρεται σε εταιρεία του υποµνήµατος της Κυθηραϊκής Αδελφότητας (βλ. παράρτηµα σ. 397). Βασικός σκοπός της εταιρείας, σύµφωνα µε το καταστατικό της είναι: η διαχείριση των οικονοµικών της Κυθηραϊκής Αδελφότητας µε την ιδιότητα της εταιρείας, ώστε να έχει τη δυνατότητα να κάνει συναλλαγές οικονοµικού τύπου. Η Επωνυμία της εταιρείας αυτής, κατά το καταστατικό της είναι Κυθηραϊκή Αδελφότητα του Κουίνσλαντ . Επιπλέον, στους σκοπούς της Αδελφότητας περιλαµβάνεται η φροντίδα, η προσφορά ευκαιριών και η διευκόλυνση ατόµων που έχουν γεννηθεί στα Κύθηρα, των οικογενειών και των συγγενών τους. Καθορίζονται επίσης, οι εορτασµοί των τοπικών-Κυθηραϊκών θρησκευτικών Αγίων. Συγκεκριµένα, του Αγίου Θεοδώρου στις 12 Μαΐου, της Παναγίας της Μυρτιδιώτισσας στις 24 Σεπτεµβρίου και της Αγίας Ελέσσας την 1η Αυγούστου µε τη συνοδεία αρτοκλασίας .
Οι Κυθήριοι ανέπτυξαν γενικά σηµαντική επιχειρηµατική δραστηριότητα στην Αυστραλία και δημιούργησαν από τις πλέον πολυάριθµες και δραστήριες ελληνικές κοινότητες που διακρίθηκαν σε πολλούς τοµείς δραστηριότητας. Αυτό συνετέλεσε στην προσφορά τους στην οικονοµική και κοινωνική ζωή των συµπατριωτών τους. Πέρα, όµως, από τη µεγάλη προσφορά τους στην εστία µετανάστευσης, οι Κυθήριοι επιχειρηµατίες προέβησαν σε εξίσου σηµαντικές προσφορές προς τη γενέτειρά τους. Aναφέρουµε χαρακτηριστικά το Γρηγόρη Κασιµάτη του οποίου η οικογένεια ανέπτυξε κοινωφελή δράση . Προσέφερε οικόπεδα για την ανοικοδόµηση του Γηροκοµείου Κυθήρων και του Νοσοκοµείου Κυθήρων . Η οικογένειά του ανέπτυξε φιλανθρωπική δράση και στην Αυστραλία. Οι Κυθήριοι πάροικοι της Αυστραλίας βοήθησαν το γενέθλιο τόπο τους σε µικρά και µεγάλα έργα του νησιού κάνοντας εράνους. Τέτοια έργα είναι: το Γυµνάσιο στη Χώρα, σχολεία, νοσοκοµείο, γηροκοµείο, λιµάνια, δρόµοι.
Από το τέλος του 19ου αιώνα, παράλληλα µε τα µεταναστευτικά ρεύµατα προς την Αυστραλία, παρατηρούνται και µεταναστευτικά ρεύµατα προς την Αµερική Το µαζικό µεταναστευτικό ρεύµα προς την Αµερική πρωτοεµφανίστηκε στη δεκαετία του 1890 και ήταν µεγαλύτερο από εκείνο της Αυστραλίας κατά την ίδια εποχή. Οι ιδιαίτερες κοινωνικοπολιτικές συνθήκες οδήγησαν και σε ένα µεταγενέστερο µεταναστευτικό ρεύµα προς την Αµερική. Συγκεκριµένα, στα χρόνια του Μεσοπολέµου, ο αριθµός των παλαιών εµπορικών παροικιών περιορίστηκε, ενώ αντίθετα αυξήθηκαν οι νέες περιοχές εγκατάστασης, που δηµιουργήθηκαν εξαιτίας της µαζικής µετανάστευσης. Οι Έλληνες του εξωτερικού είχαν γίνει εκεί δεκτοί κάτω από αφοµοιωτικές πιέσεις, καθώς µετά το 1922 οι δεσµοί τους µε την Ελλάδα, και ιδιαίτερα µε το ελληνικό κράτος, είχαν αποδυναµωθεί. Στις παραµονές του Β’ Παγκοσµίου Πολέµου η διαδικασία αυτή είχε ως αποτέλεσµα την αναδιαµόρφωση της σχέσης ανάµεσα στους Έλληνες του εξωτερικού και των κοινωνιών που τους φιλοξενούσαν, καθώς και με τους µετανάστες στην Ελλάδα. Αν και η σχέση της Ελλάδας µε τους Έλληνες του εξωτερικού στην περίοδο του Μεσοπολέµου αρχικά αποδυναµώθηκε, ωστόσο πριν από το Β’ Παγκόσµιο Πόλεµο παρέµεινε ενεργή, υπό νέα όµως βάση. Η κατάρρευση της Μεγάλης Ιδέας τερµάτισε τη συγκεκριμένη µακρόχρονη πολιτική της Ελλάδας, η οποία ζητούσε τη βοήθεια των Ελλήνων του εξωτερικού. Πριν από το 1922 η βοήθεια αυτή αφορούσε σε οικονοµικές συνεισφορές, πολιτική υποστήριξη στην Μεγάλη Ιδέα και αποστολή εθελοντών για τους Βαλκανικούς πολέµους και τον Α΄ Παγκόσµιο Πόλεµο. Ωστόσο, οι προσπάθειες για την οικονοµική ανόρθωση της χώρας δεν µπορούσαν να τελεσφορήσουν. Γύρω στο 1930 Έλληνες από τις Ηνωµένες Πολιτείες και την Αίγυπτο άρχισαν να επενδύουν στην Ελλάδα. Η δικτατορία του Μεταξά προσπάθησε να επιτύχει την πολιτική στήριξη των Ελλήνων της Αιγύπτου και των Ηνωµένων Πολιτειών. Η πολιτική προς τους µετανάστες στις Ηνωµένες Πολιτείες καθοριζόταν από την πολιτική γραµµή που θα ακολουθούσε το Κογκρέσο. Κατά την περίοδο του Μεσοπολέµου παρατηρήθηκε µείωση του ρεύµατος της µετανάστευσης από την Ελλάδα. Όταν οι Ηνωµένες Πολιτείες έθεσαν φραγµό στη µετανάστευση το 1924, ο αριθµός των Ελλήνων που εισέρχονταν στη χώρα µειώθηκε. Η µαζική µετανάστευση από την Ελλάδα άρχισε στα τέλη του 19ου αιώνα και µέχρι τα 1930 υπήρχαν σχεδόν 200.000 Έλληνες στις Ηνωµένες Πολιτείες. Η ντόπια κοινωνία επιθυµούσε να ενσωµατωθούν όλοι οι µετανάστες και να εξαµερικανιστούν .
Τα πλοία που εξυπηρέτησαν τη γραµµή Ελλάδα - Αµερική ήταν την περίοδο πριν το Β΄ Παγκόσµιο πόλεµο και στις αρχές του 20ού αιώνα τα υπερωκεάνεια: Μωραϊτης, Πατρίς 1, Πατρίς 2 και Βύρων. H εφηµερίδα Λακωνία του Μαϊου του 1911 ανέφερε ότι τα καράβια Πατρίς, Θεµιστοκλής και Αθήναι προσέγγιζαν από το Γύθειο για Νέα Υόρκη . Μετά τον πόλεµο τα υπερωκεάνεια Νέα Ελλάς, Βασίλισσα Φρειδερίκη, Ολυµπία, και Άννα Μαρία εκτελούσαν το δροµολόγιο Ελλάδα - Αµερική. Τα υπερωκεάνεια αποτέλεσαν το µέσο που µετέφερε τους Έλληνες µετανάστες στην Αµερική, µεταξύ των οποίων και τους Κυθηρίους, τη χρονική περίοδο πριν από το Β΄ παγκόσµιο πόλεµο έως τις αρχές του 20ού αιώνα. Αργότερα χρησιµοποιήθηκαν τα αεροπλάνα που αντικατέστησαν σταδιακά τα πλοία.
Μέσα σ’ αυτό το γενικότερο µεταναστευτικό πλαίσιο εντάχθηκαν και οι Κυθήριοι. Αρχειακό υλικό των ∆ηµοτικών διαµερισµάτων των Κυθήρων αποτυπώνει αυτή την κινητικότητα. Παραθέτουμε ενδεικτικά ορισμένο από αυτό το απόσπασµα του Μητρώου Αρρένων της Κοινότητας του Ποταµού του 1899 περιλαµβάνει τα παρακάτω κυθηραϊκα ονόµατα, όπως του Κορωναίου Παναγιώτη του Κυριάκου που διαµένει στην Αµερική, µε αύξοντα αριθµό 8. Ένα άλλο χαρακτηριστικό δείγµα αποτελεί η πηγή του εκλογικού καταλόγου της Κοινότητας Αρωνιαδίκων, όπου αναφέρεται ο Αρώνης ή Καστρίσιος Κων/νος του Θεοδώρου, ετών 34, γεωργός, που διαµένει στην Αµερική. Στην ίδια πηγή καταγράφονται και τα παρακάτω ονόµατα µε τα εξής στοιχεία: µε αριθµό 34 ο Αρώνης ή Μινούκος ∆ηµήτριος του Εµµανουήλ µε αριθµό 7, 34 ετών, γεωργός, ο Αρώνης Παναγιώτης του ∆ηµητρίου, 42 ετών, σιδηρουργός, µε αριθµό 13 και Αρώνης Λεωνίδας του ∆ηµητρίου, 29 ετών, σιδηρουργός, µε αριθµό 20 .
Στρατολογικός πίνακας του 1933 καταγράφει τον Βενάρδο Ιωάννη του Κωνσταντίνου από την Αγ. Αναστασία, οικισµό µεταξύ Ποταµού και Καραβά, κατ’ επάγγελµα µάγειρας, να έχει µόνιµη κατοικία την Αµερική . Επίσης, στρατολογικός πίνακας του έτους 1938 του Ποταµού παρουσιάζει τον Σουρή ∆ηµήτρη του Γεωργίου, με έτος γέννησης το 1917, να διαμένει στην Αµερική .
Συνέπεια αυτής της πληθυσµιακής κινητικότητας καθώς και της εγκατάστασής τους υπήρξε ίδρυση Αδελφοτήτων σε πόλεις - εστίες της Κυθηραϊκής εγκατάστασης: N. Υόρκη, Βαλτιµόρη, Άγιος Λουδοβίκος, Καλιφόρνια . Πρώτη Κυθηραϊκή Αδελφότητα στην Αµερική είναι του Αγίου Λουδοβίκου, η οποία ιδρύθηκε το 1918 (βλ. παράρτηµα σ. 401). Η Κυθηραϊκή Αδελφότητα στη Νέα Υόρκη, που είναι και η µεγαλύτερη, ιδρύθηκε το 1919. Βασικοί σκοποί της είναι η ανάπτυξη της ιδέας της αλληλεγγύης και αλληλοβοήθειας, η έµπνευση σεβασµού και αγάπης προς τους θεσµούς της θετής πατρίδας, η καλλιέργεια αγαθών σχέσεων των µελών προς τους Αµερικανούς συµπολίτες τους, η διακήρυξη των αισθηµάτων και καθηκόντων προς την Πατρίδα και τη θρησκεία. Επίσης, η
παροχή ηθικής και υλικής υποστήριξης στα µέλη της Αδελφότητας και η περίθαλψη των ασθενών και αναπήρων µελών .
Tακτικά µέλη της Αδελφότητας είναι τα διαµένοντα στην Νέα Υόρκη και στα περίχωρά της (βλ. παραρτ. σ. 398). Στο 18ο άρθρο του καταστατικού ορίζεται, ότι οι Κυθήριοι που ασθενούσαν, ή υφίσταντο κάποια σωµατική βλάβη, δικαιούντο χρηµατικού βοηθήµατος µόνο µία φορά το έτος µε την έγκριση του διοικητικού συµβουλίου και υπήρχε συγκεκριµένος περιορισµός για τη χρονική διάρκεια χορήγησης του βοηθήματος στο ίδιο πρόσωπο. Κάθε τακτικό µέλος µε ανάγκη νοσηλείας στο νοσοκοµείο δικαιούτο χρηµατικό βοήθηµα $ 20,00 την εβδοµάδα µέχρι πέντε εβδοµάδες. Εάν κρινόταν αναγκαίο, ήταν δυνατόν να του παραχωρηθεί επιπλέον αναρρωτική βοήθεια µέχρι $ 15.00 την εβδοµάδα για δύο συνεχείς εβδοµάδες. Προέβλεπε, επίσης, την κατ’ οίκον νοσηλεία και μετά από τη φροντίδα περιποιήσεως του γιατρού της Αδελφότητας το πάσχον µέλος δικαιούτο χρηµατικού βοηθήµατος $15.00 την εβδοµάδα και τις υπηρεσίες του γιατρού της Αδελφότητας µόνο για τρεις συνεχείς εβδοµάδες .
Προέβλεπε, επίσης, χρηµατικό βοήθηµα $ 100.000 χωρίς καµία άλλη υποχρέωση. Επιπλέον, για την κηδεία απόρου µέλους της η Αδελφότητα προέβλεπε, όχι πάνω από $ 100.000 και την παροχή της αναγκαίας φροντίδας. Στο 22ο άρθρο καθορίζεται ο εορτασµός της Αδελφότητας την πρώτη Κυριακή µετά τις 24 Σεπτεµβρίου µε συνοδεία αρτοκλασίας και κατά προτίµηση στον Καθεδρικό Ναό όπου υπήρχε και η εικόνα της Παναγίας της Μυρτιδιώτισσας, η οποία δωρήθηκε στο Ναό από την Κυθηραϊκή Αδελφότητα Νέας Υόρκης. Στο 23ο άρθρο καθορίζεται η σφραγίδα, η οποία και φέρει το έµβληµα της Αδελφότητας: η περιστερά µε κλάδο ελαίας .
H Kυθηραϊκή Αδελφότητα της Νέας Υόρκης πραγµατοποιεί τρεις εκδηλώσεις το χρόνο. Κορυφαία εορταστική εκδήλωση είναι, όπως προαναφέρθηκε, ο εορτασµός της Παναγίας της Μυρτιδιώτισσας, με την αφιερωμένη σε Αυτήν Εικόνα, στολισµένη µε λουλούδια και µυρτιές. Μετά τον εκκλησιασμό συγκεντρώνονταν για φαγητό και χορό, ώστε µε αφορµή το θρησκευτικό εορτασµό να προσφέρεται η ευκαιρία στους Κυθηρίους της Νέας Υόρκης να συσπειρώνονται. Ίδια ευκαιρία παρουσιάζεται και τον Ιανουάριο µε την κοπή της βασιλόπιτας, όπου προσφέρονται δώρα στα παιδιά σε κέντρο της πόλης. Το καλοκαίρι οργανώνεται εκδροµή σε παραλία της Νέας Υόρκης . Στην πρόσκληση αναφέρεται στο κάλεσµα καφέ και άρτου σε κάποιο χώρο της κοινότητας και στο µεσηµβρινό γεύµα που ακολουθεί σε εστιατόριο της Νέας Υόρκης. Στον εορτασµό συµµετείχαν περίπου 50 άτοµα, ενώ παλιότερα συµµετείχαν 120. Όλες αυτές οι ευκαιρίες έχουν σκοπό τη διατήρηση των σχέσεων των Κυθηρίων που ζουν στη Ν. Υόρκη και στα περίχωρά της.
Αδελφότητες από τα Κύθηρα ιδρύθηκαν στη Βαλτιµόρη το 1930 και στη Καλιφόρνια το 1950. Στη Βαλτιµόρη και στα περίχωρα οι Κυθήριοι δηµιούργησαν την Κυθηραϊκή Αδελφότητα Βαλτιµόρης και περιχώρων. Ένα σηµαντικό στοιχείο είναι ο συµβολισµός στη σφραγίδα. Σύµφωνα µε το πιο πρόσφατο καταστατικό, φέρει το έµβληµα της Αδελφότητας στο κέντρο και περιμετρικά την ονοµασία της στην ελληνική και αγγλική γλώσσα . Σκοπός της Αδελφότητας ήταν η ανάπτυξη της αλληλεγγύης και αλληλοβοήθειας. Επιπλέον, η παροχή ηθικής και υλικής υποστήριξης στα µέλη της Αδελφότητας και η περίθαλψη ασθενών και αναπήρων µελών. Στο 22ο άρθρο του καταστατικού καθορίζεται ο εορτασµός της Αδελφότητας στη γιορτή της ιάσεως του Παραλύτου από την Παναγία την Μυρτιδιώτισσα. Ως ημέρα εορτασμού ορίζεται η πρώτη Κυριακή µετά την 24η Σεπτεµβρίου µε αρτοκλασία και κάθε επισηµότητα στο κοινοτικό Ναό. Το δε βράδυ της ίδιας ηµέρας γίνεται χοροεσπερίδα. Στο 21ο άρθρο του καταστατικού ορίζεται η φιλική σχέση µε άλλα σωµατεία όµοιας φύσεως είτε αυτά είναι εγκατεστηµένα στη Βαλτιµόρη, είτε σε άλλες πόλεις. Στο πιο πρόσφατο καταστατικό καθορίζεται με ακρίβεια η επισηµότητα µε την οποία εορτάζεται η Παναγία η Μυρτιδιώτισσα. (βλ. παράρτηµα σ. 399,400).
Ιδιαίτερο ενδιαφέρον παρουσιάζει το καταστατικό της Κυθηραϊκής Αδελφότητας της Καλιφόρνιας του 1950, το οποίο εκτός από την επωνυµία της Κυθηραϊκής Αδελφότητας, φέρει και την επωνυµία του Πάνου Κορωναίου: «By-laws of the Cytherian brothterhood General Koronaios». Το κύριο γραφείο της Αδελφότητας είναι στην πόλη Oalkand, χώρα Alameda, κράτος Καλιφόρνιας. O ετήσιος, κυρίως θρησκευτικός εορτασµός της Αδελφότητας είναι η 24η Σεπτεµβρίου, ηµέρα εορτασµού της Παναγίας της Μυρτιδιώτισσας. Ο κύριος συµβολισµός της Αδελφότητας αποτυπώνεται στη σφραγίδα της, όπου στο κέντρο είναι χαραγµένη η εικόνα του καταγόµενου από τον Ποταµό Κυθήρων στρατηγού Kορωναίου και στο περιθώριο το όνοµα Cytherian Brotherhood. Εκτός από το πρωταρχικό καταστατικό του 1950, έχοντας στη διάθεσή µας και το καταστατικό του 1997, που αναθεωρήθηκε, µπορούµε να προβούµε σε ορισµένες επιπλέον παρατηρήσεις (βλ. παράρτηµα σ. 402,403).
Στους στόχους της Αδελφότητας συµπεριλαµβάνονται η προώθηση και διευκόλυνση του συμφέροντος τους των προσώπων των οποίων η καταγωγή είναι από το νησί Kythera, ώστε να ενισχυθούν οι κοινωνικές δραστηριότητες µεταξύ των µελών της και να επεκταθεί η ηθική και υλική βοήθεια στους ενδεείς κατοίκους Kythera. Μία άλλη σηµαντική παρατήρηση είναι ότι στον τίτλο του καταστατικού του 1950 αναφέρεται το επίθετο του Κυθήριου στρατηγού Πάνου Κορωναίου, προσώπου Ευρωπαϊκής Εμβέλειας με στρατιωτική, πολιτική και κοινωνική δράση. Και οι Κυθήριοι πάροικοι της Αµερικής συνετέλεσαν σε έργα του νησιού µε αντιπροσωπευτικές προσφορές το Λουράντειο ∆ηµοτικό Σχολείο Καρβουνάδας από τον οµογενή Λουράντο και το ∆ηµοτικό Σχολείο Λειβαδίου µε την προσφορά του οµογενή Σεµιτέκολου.
Και στην Αµερική λειτούργησε το οικογενειακό σύστηµα για τους Κυθηρίους. ∆ηλαδή, εγκαθίστατο αρχικά ένα µέλος της οικογενείας το οποίο στη συνέχεια καλούσε και κάποιο άλλο στον τόπο εγκατάστασης.
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Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People

John Damianos Andronicus

(1894-1973), coffee merchant, was born on 23 October 1894 at Mylopatamo (Potamós), Kythera, Greece, youngest of eleven children of Damianos Nicholas Andronicus, fisherman, and his wife Vassiliki, née Karidis.

The pressure of population on limited resources encouraged migration, as it had done in Greece for centuries. John followed five of his brothers to Australia, reaching Sydney in the Bremen on 10 November 1908. He went to school, initially with no knowledge of English, at West Maitland and Tamworth before joining his brothers' business in 1910.

The most prominent of them, Emanuel, had opened a chocolate shop—with coffee as a sideline—in George Street near Circular Quay in 1904. The Andronicus brothers also conducted an enterprising wholesale business with Greek shopkeepers in several country towns.

Emanuel prospered. He was Greek consul in Sydney in 1924-30 and helped many Greeks to establish themselves in what he always thought was a land of opportunity. A warm supporter of the Labor Party, he encouraged Greek Australians to vote in State and Federal elections.

Meanwhile John was learning the business: he became skilled in tea and coffee blending, and in assisting with sales, especially on the north coast. He, too, prospered, and was naturalized in 1924. On 29 December 1928 he married Kathleen Ellen Gordon at St Sophia's, the Greek Orthodox cathedral in Sydney. They were to have two sons, Charles and George.

In 1936 John bought the firm and next year established Andronicus Bros. He and the indefatigable Kathleen ran the business between them. From Arabia, Africa, India, Brazil and New Guinea, they imported coffee beans which they roasted and ground for both the retail and wholesale trades; in addition, they sold continental foods such as olives, sesame seeds, cheeses and halva, as well as hand-made chocolates. John worked fourteen hours a day, seven days a week; it would be years before he could spend much time on his extensive coin collection, his passion for woodworking, his love of boating, or his penchant for driving fast cars.

The influx of European migrants after 1945 helped to acquaint Australians with foreign tastes and increased the popularity of European foods. The advent of Nescafé instant coffee in 1947 appears to have stimulated demand for real coffee. Soon the Andronicus family was selling their coffee in bulk to grocers' shops and cafés. In the early 1960s Charles and George established their own wholesale company, Andronicus Coffee Pty Ltd.

John and Kathleen continued at the George Street shop until 1973 when it was closed to make way for 'development' (the Regent hotel now stands on the site). Three months later, on 15 July 1973, Andronicus died at his Gordon home and was cremated with Anglican rites; his wife and sons survived him.

John had long aspired to build a business that could be taken over and enjoyed by his sons. In this ambition he eminently succeeded. He left a well-established company with an excellent reputation for stability and probity. His sons found no difficulty in obtaining credit to expand until, in 1983, they sold out, like so many successful Australian family businesses in recent decades, to a multi-national corporation, in this case the Swiss-owned Nestlé Australia Ltd.

Select Bibliography

R. Ostrow, The New Boy Network (Melb, 1987);

K. Dunstan, The Perfect Cup (Syd, 1989);

Sydney Morning Herald, 14 Aug 1954, 9 Feb 1960, 11 Feb 1974;

naturalisation file, A1/1 24/26002 (National Archives of Australia); private information.

Author: D. W. A. Baker
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Photos, Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People
Kytherian Art

Emmanuel Cavacos' sculpture Danseuse (Ballerina) 1915 as seen from above

Emmanuel Andrew Cavacos was born in Potamos, Kythera, on February 10th, 1885. He emigrated to the United States of America, when he was sixteen years old, and settled in Baltimore, in the suburb of Hampden, where his brother Constantine was living. Another brother Theodore also chose to live in Baltimore. (Theodore was married to fellow Kytherian Pothiti Chlentzos). In Baltimore he formed a close friendship with Charles Fitzpatrick, with whom he communicated for many years. Photographs and Arts Programs which Cavacos sent to Fitzpatrick form the basis for this (preliminary) biographical sketch.

Having displayed a decided artistic aptitude, he was sent to the Maryland Institute to study painting. He devoted four years to this pursuit, whilst at the same time experimenting with sculptural modeling. Ephraim Keyser, the veteran Baltimore sculptor, who for many years was Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute, was so impressed with the quality of his clay sketches that he advised him to give up painting and devote himself exclusively to sculpture.

Cavacos took this advise, and he made such rapid progress as a student of Ephraim Keyser, that in 1911 he was awarded the Rinehart Scholarship, which enabled him to go to the Beaux Arts School in Paris. In Paris he was known as Emmanuel Andre, Andre being the French version of his middle name, Andrew.

In 1913, one of his works, Aspiration received an Honorable Mention at the Salon des Artistes Francais. The next year his Thinker attracted great attention at the Paris Salon. The first of this “Thinkers” is housed at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the second at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.

In Paris, On October 2nd, 1915, Cavacos married Pauline Pradelle.
Pauline was a professional pianist. She practiced her art in the studio where Emmanuel executed his sculptures.

His work made him a well known figure in the art colony of Paris, and he was commissioned to do the portraits of a number of notable citizens, including Mlle. Mistinguett, a prominent actress; Bucot, and Marcelle Ragnon. In 1925 he received a silver medal for a fountain at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. As a tribute to his ability, in 1927, the French Government bestowed upon him the decoration, Officier de l’Acadamie.
In subsequent years he exhibited annually in the Salon, and also at the Salon des Humoristes de Paris, where his dancing figures were highly praised. His work is in a number of important collections, including that of Queen Marie of Rumania, who purchased one of his marble figures, Grief.

Cavacos’ sculpture has been praised for its variety, able craftsmanship, and for the sense of rhythm it conveys. The French critics emphasized its inherently poetic qualities.

In 1930 Cavacos returned to the United States for the first time in eighteen years. His work was exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art in March of that year. His work was also shown in New York, and later in the year at Homeland. A group of 17 of his sculptures were also placed on display in the National Sculpture Society Exhibition in San Francisco. In May, 1930, he and his wife returned to Paris.

Information about Cavacos post 1930 is difficult to obtain. Hopefully someone can shed more light on his life, in particular the period from 1931 – 1976.

We do know that when members of his family died, Cavacos undertook to create a beautiful monument, and to send it to be erected in the Greek section of a Cemetery in Baltimore, where it still stands today.

It seems that his interest in sculpture continued until well into his old age. When granddaughters of Charles Fitzpatrick (his Baltimore friend) visited him in Paris in 1969, they were photographed with him in his art studio. Many sculptures are visible in the room.

Emmanuel Cavacos died in 1976, aged 91.

Background to the biographical sketch, above

Information about Emmanuel Cavacos is not very extensive. Thankfully, Emmanuel seems to have established a friendship with a Baltimore resident called Charles Fitzpatrick. After Cavacos moved permanently to France he continued to correspond with him. Mike Fitzpatrick (aka Piedmont Fossil), Charles Fitzpatrick’s grandson takes up the story. “Cavacos sent photographs of his studio and his sculptures and even an invitation to his wedding in October 1915. Considering that the wedding took place across the Atlantic and the great time and expense it would require to go there -- not to mention that fact that by then France was deep into World War I -- my grandfather was unable to attend. In 1930 Cavacos made a return visit to the United States for a couple of exhibitions, one in his old hometown of Baltimore and one in New York. I don’t know how successful his exhibitions were considering they took place during the first year of the Great Depression, but today his sculptures, if they can be found at all, seem to sell for between several hundred and several thousand dollars each. In the late 1960s my two sisters traveled to Europe and, at the request of my grandfather, they stopped by to visit (the by that time elderly) Mr. Cavacos at his Paris home”.

Thankfully Mike Fitzpatrick has posted the Cavacos photographs from that time on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/piedmont_fossil/sets/72157594585161747/

“Most of the photos in this set were sent to my grandfather by Emmanuel Cavacos soon after he moved to Paris. Almost all of them are inscribed on the reverse in the artist’s own handwriting.”

Cindy Anderson, is a fiancee of Pete Capsanes, who is the grandson of Theodore Andrew Cavacos, brother to Emmanuel and Constantine. These are all Baltimore Cavacos Kytherians. Cindy wrote to KAW:
"We just had Pete's family here and were talking about Emmanual Andrew Cavacos which is Pete's Great Great Uncle and the sculptor who ended up migrating from Greece, to Maryland back to Paris where he died. We have many of his sculpted pieces in the family".
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Photos, Kytherian Art
USA

Cavacos gravestones in front of the monument created by Emmanuel Cavacos, in the Greek section of Woodlawn Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland

When members of his family died, Emmanuel Cavacos, undertook to create a beautiful monument, and to send it to be erected in the Greek section of this Cemetery in Baltimore. These gravestones lie in front of that monument.

Woodlawn Cemetery
2130 Woodlawn Drive
Baltimore, Maryland, 21207

Greek-Americans and Kytherian-Americans interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery have been chronicled by Parish Historian, Nicholas M Prevos, in the book, Gone But Not Forgotten. A Definitive History of the Greek Section of Woodlawn Cemetery.

The Cavacos monument features in this book.

Nicholas M Prevos is the Parish Historian of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation, the publishers of the book.

Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation,
24 West Preston Street,
Baltimore, Maryland, 21201.

Emmanuel Andrew Cavacos was born in Potamos, Kythera, on February 10th, 1885. He emigrated to the United States of America, when he was sixteen years old, and settled in Baltimore, in the suburb of Hampden, where his brother Constantine was living. Another brother Theodore also chose to live in Baltimore. (Theodore was married to fellow Kytherian Pothiti Chlentzos). In Baltimore he formed a close friendship with Charles Fitzpatrick, with whom he communicated for many years. Photographs and Arts Programs which Cavacos sent to Fitzpatrick form the basis for this (preliminary) biographical sketch.

Having displayed a decided artistic aptitude, he was sent to the Maryland Institute to study painting. He devoted four years to this pursuit, whilst at the same time experimenting with sculptural modeling. Ephraim Keyser, the veteran Baltimore sculptor, who for many years was Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute, was so impressed with the quality of his clay sketches that he advised him to give up painting and devote himself exclusively to sculpture.

Cavacos took this advise, and he made such rapid progress as a student of Ephraim Keyser, that in 1911 he was awarded the Rinehart Scholarship, which enabled him to go to the Beaux Arts School in Paris. In Paris he was known as Emmanuel Andre, Andre being the French version of his middle name, Andrew.

In 1913, one of his works, Aspiration received an Honorable Mention at the Salon des Artistes Francais. The next year his Thinker attracted great attention at the Paris Salon. The first of this “Thinkers” is housed at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the second at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.

In Paris, On October 2nd, 1915, Cavacos married Pauline Pradelle. Pauline was a professional pianist. She practiced her art in the studio where Emmanuel executed his sculptures.

His work made him a well known figure in the art colony of Paris, and he was commissioned to do the portraits of a number of notable citizens, including Mlle. Mistinguett, a prominent actress; Bucot, and Marcelle Ragnon. In 1925 he received a silver medal for a fountain at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. As a tribute to his ability, in 1927, the French Government bestowed upon him the decoration, Officier de l’Acadamie.
In subsequent years he exhibited annually in the Salon, and also at the Salon des Humoristes de Paris, where his dancing figures were highly praised. His work is in a number of important collections, including that of Queen Marie of Rumania, who purchased one of his marble figures, Grief.

Cavacos’ sculpture has been praised for its variety, able craftsmanship, and for the sense of rhythm it conveys. The French critics emphasized its inherently poetic qualities.

In 1930 Cavacos returned to the United States for the first time in eighteen years. His work was exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art in March of that year. His work was also shown in New York, and later in the year at Homeland. A group of 17 of his sculptures were also placed on display in the National Sculpture Society Exhibition in San Francisco. In May, 1930, he and his wife returned to Paris.

Information about Cavacos post 1930 is difficult to obtain. Hopefully someone can shed more light on his life, in particular the period from 1931 – 1976.

We do know that when members of his family died, Cavacos undertook to create a beautiful monument, and to send it to be erected in the Greek section of a Cemetery in Baltimore, where it still stands today.

It seems that his interest in sculpture continued until well into his old age. When granddaughters of Charles Fitzpatrick (his Baltimore friend) visited him in Paris in 1969, they were photographed with him in his art studio. Many sculptures are visible in the room.

Emmanuel Cavacos died in 1976, aged 91.

Background to the biographical sketch, above

Information about Emmanuel Cavacos is not very extensive. Thankfully, Emmanuel seems to have established a friendship with a Baltimore resident called Charles Fitzpatrick. After Cavacos moved permanently to France he continued to correspond with him. Mike Fitzpatrick (aka Piedmont Fossil), Charles Fitzpatrick’s grandson takes up the story. “Cavacos sent photographs of his studio and his sculptures and even an invitation to his wedding in October 1915. Considering that the wedding took place across the Atlantic and the great time and expense it would require to go there -- not to mention that fact that by then France was deep into World War I -- my grandfather was unable to attend. In 1930 Cavacos made a return visit to the United States for a couple of exhibitions, one in his old hometown of Baltimore and one in New York. I don’t know how successful his exhibitions were considering they took place during the first year of the Great Depression, but today his sculptures, if they can be found at all, seem to sell for between several hundred and several thousand dollars each. In the late 1960s my two sisters traveled to Europe and, at the request of my grandfather, they stopped by to visit (the by that time elderly) Mr. Cavacos at his Paris home”.

Thankfully Mike Fitzpatrick has posted the Cavacos photographs from that time on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/piedmont_fossil/sets/72157594585161747/

“Most of the photos in this set were sent to my grandfather by Emmanuel Cavacos soon after he moved to Paris. Almost all of them are inscribed on the reverse in the artist’s own handwriting.”

Cindy Anderson, is a fiancee of Pete Capsanes, who is the grandson of Theodore Andrew Cavacos, brother to Emmanuel and Constantine. These are all Baltimore Cavacos Kytherians. Cindy wrote to KAW:
"We just had Pete's family here and were talking about Emmanual Andrew Cavacos which is Pete's Great Great Uncle and the sculptor who ended up migrating from Greece, to Maryland back to Paris where he died. We have many of his sculpted pieces in the family".
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Gravestones, USA
Documents

Wedding Invitation Envelope - Emmanuel Kavacos and Pauline Pradelle, Paris 1915

The Wedding invitation read:

Mister and Mrs Marius PRADELLE request the honour of your presence at the marriage of Miss Pauline PRADELLE, their daughter, with Mister Emmanuel A. Cavacos.

Mister Theodore A. Cavacos requests the honor of your presence at the marriage of Mister Emmanuel A. CAVACOS, his son, with Miss Pauline PRADELLE.

By reason of the circumstances, entrance to the Marriage which will take place in Paris on Saturday, 2 October 1915, is strictly limited.

Emmanuel Andrew Cavacos was born in Potamos, Kythera, on February 10th, 1885. He emigrated to the United States of America, when he was sixteen years old, and settled in Baltimore, in the suburb of Hampden, where his brother Constantine was living. Another brother Theodore also chose to live in Baltimore. (Theodore was married to fellow Kytherian Pothiti Chlentzos). In Baltimore he formed a close friendship with Charles Fitzpatrick, with whom he communicated for many years. Photographs and Arts Programs which Cavacos sent to Fitzpatrick form the basis for this (preliminary) biographical sketch.

Having displayed a decided artistic aptitude, he was sent to the Maryland Institute to study painting. He devoted four years to this pursuit, whilst at the same time experimenting with sculptural modeling. Ephraim Keyser, the veteran Baltimore sculptor, who for many years was Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute, was so impressed with the quality of his clay sketches that he advised him to give up painting and devote himself exclusively to sculpture.

Cavacos took this advise, and he made such rapid progress as a student of Ephraim Keyser, that in 1911 he was awarded the Rinehart Scholarship, which enabled him to go to the Beaux Arts School in Paris. In Paris he was known as Emmanuel Andre, Andre being the French version of his middle name, Andrew.

In 1913, one of his works, Aspiration received an Honorable Mention at the Salon des Artistes Francais. The next year his Thinker attracted great attention at the Paris Salon. The first of this “Thinkers” is housed at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the second at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.

In Paris, On October 2nd, 1915, Cavacos married Pauline Pradelle. Pauline was a professional pianist. She practiced her art in the studio where Emmanuel executed his sculptures.

His work made him a well known figure in the art colony of Paris, and he was commissioned to do the portraits of a number of notable citizens, including Mlle. Mistinguett, a prominent actress; Bucot, and Marcelle Ragnon. In 1925 he received a silver medal for a fountain at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. As a tribute to his ability, in 1927, the French Government bestowed upon him the decoration, Officier de l’Acadamie.
In subsequent years he exhibited annually in the Salon, and also at the Salon des Humoristes de Paris, where his dancing figures were highly praised.
His work is in a number of important collections, including that of Queen Marie of Rumania, who purchased one of his marble figures, Grief.

Cavacos’ sculpture has been praised for its variety, able craftsmanship, and for the sense of rhythm it conveys. The French critics emphasized its inherently poetic qualities.

In 1930 Cavacos returned to the United States for the first time in eighteen years. His work was exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art in March of that year. His work was also shown in New York, and later in the year at Homeland. A group of 17 of his sculptures were also placed on display in the National Sculpture Society Exhibition in San Francisco. In May, 1930, he and his wife returned to Paris.

Information about Cavacos post 1930 is difficult to obtain. Hopefully someone can shed more light on his life, in particular the period from 1931 – 1976.

We do know that when members of his family died, Cavacos undertook to create a beautiful monument, and to send it to be erected in the Greek section of a Cemetery in Baltimore, where it still stands today.

It seems that his interest in sculpture continued until well into his old age. When granddaughters of Charles Fitzpatrick (his Baltimore friend) visited him in Paris in 1969, they were photographed with him in his art studio. Many sculptures are visible in the room.

Emmanuel Cavacos died in 1976, aged 91.

Background to the biographical sketch, above

Information about Emmanuel Cavacos is not very extensive. Thankfully, Emmanuel seems to have established a friendship with a Baltimore resident called Charles Fitzpatrick. After Cavacos moved permanently to France he continued to correspond with him. Mike Fitzpatrick (aka Piedmont Fossil), Charles Fitzpatrick’s grandson takes up the story. “Cavacos sent photographs of his studio and his sculptures and even an invitation to his wedding in October 1915. Considering that the wedding took place across the Atlantic and the great time and expense it would require to go there -- not to mention that fact that by then France was deep into World War I -- my grandfather was unable to attend. In 1930 Cavacos made a return visit to the United States for a couple of exhibitions, one in his old hometown of Baltimore and one in New York. I don’t know how successful his exhibitions were considering they took place during the first year of the Great Depression, but today his sculptures, if they can be found at all, seem to sell for between several hundred and several thousand dollars each. In the late 1960s my two sisters traveled to Europe and, at the request of my grandfather, they stopped by to visit (the by that time elderly) Mr. Cavacos at his Paris home”.

Thankfully Mike Fitzpatrick has posted the Cavacos photographs from that time on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/piedmont_fossil/sets/72157594585161747/

“Most of the photos in this set were sent to my grandfather by Emmanuel Cavacos soon after he moved to Paris. Almost all of them are inscribed on the reverse in the artist’s own handwriting.”

Cindy Anderson, is a fiancee of Pete Capsanes, who is the grandson of Theodore Andrew Cavacos, brother to Emmanuel and Constantine. These are all Baltimore Cavacos Kytherians. Cindy wrote to KAW:
"We just had Pete's family here and were talking about Emmanual Andrew Cavacos which is Pete's Great Great Uncle and the sculptor who ended up migrating from Greece, to Maryland back to Paris where he died. We have many of his sculpted pieces in the family".
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History, Documents
Documents

Wedding Invitation - Emmanuel Kavacos and Pauline Pradelle, Paris 1915

Translation of the French:
Mister and Mrs Marius PRADELLE request the honour of your presence at the marriage of Miss Pauline PRADELLE, their daughter, with Mister Emmanuel A. Cavacos.

Mister Theodore A. Cavacos requests the honor of your presence at the marriage of Mister Emmanuel A. CAVACOS, his son, with Miss Pauline PRADELLE.

By reason of the circumstances, entrance to the Marriage which will take place in Paris on Saturday, 2 October 1915, is strictly limited.

Emmanuel Andrew Cavacos was born in Potamos, Kythera, on February 10th, 1885. He emigrated to the United States of America, when he was sixteen years old, and settled in Baltimore, in the suburb of Hampden, where his brother Constantine was living. Another brother Theodore also chose to live in Baltimore. (Theodore was married to fellow Kytherian Pothiti Chlentzos). In Baltimore he formed a close friendship with Charles Fitzpatrick, with whom he communicated for many years. Photographs and Arts Programs which Cavacos sent to Fitzpatrick form the basis for this (preliminary) biographical sketch.

Having displayed a decided artistic aptitude, he was sent to the Maryland Institute to study painting. He devoted four years to this pursuit, whilst at the same time experimenting with sculptural modeling. Ephraim Keyser, the veteran Baltimore sculptor, who for many years was Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute, was so impressed with the quality of his clay sketches that he advised him to give up painting and devote himself exclusively to sculpture.

Cavacos took this advise, and he made such rapid progress as a student of Ephraim Keyser, that in 1911 he was awarded the Rinehart Scholarship, which enabled him to go to the Beaux Arts School in Paris. In Paris he was known as Emmanuel Andre, Andre being the French version of his middle name, Andrew.

In 1913, one of his works, Aspiration received an Honorable Mention at the Salon des Artistes Francais. The next year his Thinker attracted great attention at the Paris Salon. The first of this “Thinkers” is housed at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the second at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.

In Paris, On October 2nd, 1915, Cavacos married Pauline Pradelle. Pauline was a professional pianist. She practiced her art in the studio where Emmanuel executed his sculptures.

His work made him a well known figure in the art colony of Paris, and he was commissioned to do the portraits of a number of notable citizens, including Mlle. Mistinguett, a prominent actress; Bucot, and Marcelle Ragnon. In 1925 he received a silver medal for a fountain at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. As a tribute to his ability, in 1927, the French Government bestowed upon him the decoration, Officier de l’Acadamie.
In subsequent years he exhibited annually in the Salon, and also at the Salon des Humoristes de Paris, where his dancing figures were highly praised.
His work is in a number of important collections, including that of Queen Marie of Rumania, who purchased one of his marble figures, Grief.

Cavacos’ sculpture has been praised for its variety, able craftsmanship, and for the sense of rhythm it conveys. The French critics emphasized its inherently poetic qualities.

In 1930 Cavacos returned to the United States for the first time in eighteen years. His work was exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art in March of that year. His work was also shown in New York, and later in the year at Homeland. A group of 17 of his sculptures were also placed on display in the National Sculpture Society Exhibition in San Francisco. In May, 1930, he and his wife returned to Paris.

Information about Cavacos post 1930 is difficult to obtain. Hopefully someone can shed more light on his life, in particular the period from 1931 – 1976.

We do know that when members of his family died, Cavacos undertook to create a beautiful monument, and to send it to be erected in the Greek section of a Cemetery in Baltimore, where it still stands today.

It seems that his interest in sculpture continued until well into his old age. When granddaughters of Charles Fitzpatrick (his Baltimore friend) visited him in Paris in 1969, they were photographed with him in his art studio. Many sculptures are visible in the room.

Emmanuel Cavacos died in 1976, aged 91.

Background to the biographical sketch, above

Information about Emmanuel Cavacos is not very extensive. Thankfully, Emmanuel seems to have established a friendship with a Baltimore resident called Charles Fitzpatrick. After Cavacos moved permanently to France he continued to correspond with him. Mike Fitzpatrick (aka Piedmont Fossil), Charles Fitzpatrick’s grandson takes up the story. “Cavacos sent photographs of his studio and his sculptures and even an invitation to his wedding in October 1915. Considering that the wedding took place across the Atlantic and the great time and expense it would require to go there -- not to mention that fact that by then France was deep into World War I -- my grandfather was unable to attend. In 1930 Cavacos made a return visit to the United States for a couple of exhibitions, one in his old hometown of Baltimore and one in New York. I don’t know how successful his exhibitions were considering they took place during the first year of the Great Depression, but today his sculptures, if they can be found at all, seem to sell for between several hundred and several thousand dollars each. In the late 1960s my two sisters traveled to Europe and, at the request of my grandfather, they stopped by to visit (the by that time elderly) Mr. Cavacos at his Paris home”.

Thankfully Mike Fitzpatrick has posted the Cavacos photographs from that time on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/piedmont_fossil/sets/72157594585161747/

“Most of the photos in this set were sent to my grandfather by Emmanuel Cavacos soon after he moved to Paris. Almost all of them are inscribed on the reverse in the artist’s own handwriting.”

Cindy Anderson, is a fiancee of Pete Capsanes, who is the grandson of Theodore Andrew Cavacos, brother to Emmanuel and Constantine. These are all Baltimore Cavacos Kytherians. Cindy wrote to KAW:
"We just had Pete's family here and were talking about Emmanual Andrew Cavacos which is Pete's Great Great Uncle and the sculptor who ended up migrating from Greece, to Maryland back to Paris where he died. We have many of his sculpted pieces in the family".
Open full entry
History, Documents
Documents

Biographical Sketch of Emmanuel Cavacos

Included in the Programme for Exhibitions held in Baltimore and New York in March and April 1930.

Baltimore Museum of Art. March 1st to March 25th 1930.

Mitch Galleries. 108 West 57th Street, March 31st to April 12th 1930.

34 Works were exhibited. These included:


1. Portrait of as Dancer (marble)
2. The Kiss (marble jaune de Sienne)
3. Agony of the Soul (terra cotta)
4. Portait of Dr Herbert A Gibbons (bronze)
5. Youth (terra cotta)
6. The Source (marble jaune de Sienne)
7. Springtime (marble rose de Milan)
8. Grief (marble jaune de Sienne)
9. The Arabesques (bronze)
10. Arabesque (bronze)
11. Arabesque (bronze)
12. Joy (bronze)
13. The Breeze (bronze)
14. Whirlwind (bronze)
15. Le Belle Dherlys (bronze)
16. The Dance (bronze)
17. Little Dancer (bronze)
18. Ash Tray “Faunesse” (bronze)
19. Ash Tray “Faune” (bronze)
20. Little Dancer (bronze)
21. Small Head (bronze)
22. Grief (bronze)
23. Indolence (bronze)
24. Despair (bronze)
25. Springtime (bronze)
26. Fascination (bronze)
27. Danse Du Baiser (bronze)
28. Bacchus (bronze)
29. The Kiss (bronze)
30. Lindbergh (bronze)
31. The Effort (bronze)
32. Strength and Suppleness (bronze)
33. Fascination (bronze)
34. Baby (terra cotta composition Cavacos)


Emmanuel Andrew Cavacos was born in Potamos, Kythera, on February 10th, 1885. He emigrated to the United States of America, when he was sixteen years old, and settled in Baltimore, in the suburb of Hampden, where his brother Constantine was living. Another brother Theodore also chose to live in Baltimore. (Theodore was married to fellow Kytherian Pothiti Chlentzos). In Baltimore he formed a close friendship with Charles Fitzpatrick, with whom he communicated for many years. Photographs and Arts Programs which Cavacos sent to Fitzpatrick form the basis for this (preliminary) biographical sketch.

Having displayed a decided artistic aptitude, he was sent to the Maryland Institute to study painting. He devoted four years to this pursuit, whilst at the same time experimenting with sculptural modeling. Ephraim Keyser, the veteran Baltimore sculptor, who for many years was Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute, was so impressed with the quality of his clay sketches that he advised him to give up painting and devote himself exclusively to sculpture.

Cavacos took this advise, and he made such rapid progress as a student of Ephraim Keyser, that in 1911 he was awarded the Rinehart Scholarship, which enabled him to go to the Beaux Arts School in Paris. In Paris he was known as Emmanuel Andre, Andre being the French version of his middle name, Andrew.

In 1913, one of his works, Aspiration received an Honorable Mention at the Salon des Artistes Francais. The next year his Thinker attracted great attention at the Paris Salon. The first of this “Thinkers” is housed at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the second at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.

In Paris, On October 2nd, 1915, Cavacos married Pauline Pradelle. Pauline was a professional pianist. She practiced her art in the studio where Emmanuel executed his sculptures.

His work made him a well known figure in the art colony of Paris, and he was commissioned to do the portraits of a number of notable citizens, including Mlle. Mistinguett, a prominent actress; Bucot, and Marcelle Ragnon. In 1925 he received a silver medal for a fountain at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. As a tribute to his ability, in 1927, the French Government bestowed upon him the decoration, Officier de l’Acadamie.
In subsequent years he exhibited annually in the Salon, and also at the Salon des Humoristes de Paris, where his dancing figures were highly praised.
His work is in a number of important collections, including that of Queen Marie of Rumania, who purchased one of his marble figures, Grief.

Cavacos’ sculpture has been praised for its variety, able craftsmanship, and for the sense of rhythm it conveys. The French critics emphasized its inherently poetic qualities.

In 1930 Cavacos returned to the United States for the first time in eighteen years. His work was exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art in March of that year. His work was also shown in New York, and later in the year at Homeland. A group of 17 of his sculptures were also placed on display in the National Sculpture Society Exhibition in San Francisco. In May, 1930, he and his wife returned to Paris.

Information about Cavacos post 1930 is difficult to obtain. Hopefully someone can shed more light on his life, in particular the period from 1931 – 1976.

We do know that when members of his family died, Cavacos undertook to create a beautiful monument, and to send it to be erected in the Greek section of a Cemetery in Baltimore, where it still stands today.

It seems that his interest in sculpture continued until well into his old age. When granddaughters of Charles Fitzpatrick (his Baltimore friend) visited him in Paris in 1969, they were photographed with him in his art studio. Many sculptures are visible in the room.

Emmanuel Cavacos died in 1976, aged 91.

Background to the biographical sketch, above

Information about Emmanuel Cavacos is not very extensive. Thankfully, Emmanuel seems to have established a friendship with a Baltimore resident called Charles Fitzpatrick. After Cavacos moved permanently to France he continued to correspond with him. Mike Fitzpatrick (aka Piedmont Fossil), Charles Fitzpatrick’s grandson takes up the story. “Cavacos sent photographs of his studio and his sculptures and even an invitation to his wedding in October 1915. Considering that the wedding took place across the Atlantic and the great time and expense it would require to go there -- not to mention that fact that by then France was deep into World War I -- my grandfather was unable to attend. In 1930 Cavacos made a return visit to the United States for a couple of exhibitions, one in his old hometown of Baltimore and one in New York. I don’t know how successful his exhibitions were considering they took place during the first year of the Great Depression, but today his sculptures, if they can be found at all, seem to sell for between several hundred and several thousand dollars each. In the late 1960s my two sisters traveled to Europe and, at the request of my grandfather, they stopped by to visit (the by that time elderly) Mr. Cavacos at his Paris home”.

Thankfully Mike Fitzpatrick has posted the Cavacos photographs from that time on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/piedmont_fossil/sets/72157594585161747/

“Most of the photos in this set were sent to my grandfather by Emmanuel Cavacos soon after he moved to Paris. Almost all of them are inscribed on the reverse in the artist’s own handwriting.”

Cindy Anderson, is a fiancee of Pete Capsanes, who is the grandson of Theodore Andrew Cavacos, brother to Emmanuel and Constantine. These are all Baltimore Cavacos Kytherians. Cindy wrote to KAW:
"We just had Pete's family here and were talking about Emmanual Andrew Cavacos which is Pete's Great Great Uncle and the sculptor who ended up migrating from Greece, to Maryland back to Paris where he died. We have many of his sculpted pieces in the family".
Open full entry
History, Documents
Documents

Emmanuel Cavacos Exhibition of Sculptures in New York

Mitch Galleries. 108 West 57th Street, March 31st to April 12th 1930.

Signed by Emmanuel Cavacos.

34 Works were exhibited. These included:


1. Portrait of as Dancer (marble)
2. The Kiss (marble jaune de Sienne)
3. Agony of the Soul (terra cotta)
4. Portait of Dr Herbert A Gibbons (bronze)
5. Youth (terra cotta)
6. The Source (marble jaune de Sienne)
7. Springtime (marble rose de Milan)
8. Grief (marble jaune de Sienne)
9. The Arabesques (bronze)
10. Arabesque (bronze)
11. Arabesque (bronze)
12. Joy (bronze)
13. The Breeze (bronze)
14. Whirlwind (bronze)
15. Le Belle Dherlys (bronze)
16. The Dance (bronze)
17. Little Dancer (bronze)
18. Ash Tray “Faunesse” (bronze)
19. Ash Tray “Faune” (bronze)
20. Little Dancer (bronze)
21. Small Head (bronze)
22. Grief (bronze)
23. Indolence (bronze)
24. Despair (bronze)
25. Springtime (bronze)
26. Fascination (bronze)
27. Danse Du Baiser (bronze)
28. Bacchus (bronze)
29. The Kiss (bronze)
30. Lindbergh (bronze)
31. The Effort (bronze)
32. Strength and Suppleness (bronze)
33. Fascination (bronze)
34. Baby (terra cotta composition Cavacos)


Emmanuel Andrew Cavacos was born in Potamos, Kythera, on February 10th, 1885. He emigrated to the United States of America, when he was sixteen years old, and settled in Baltimore, in the suburb of Hampden, where his brother Constantine was living. Another brother Theodore also chose to live in Baltimore. (Theodore was married to fellow Kytherian Pothiti Chlentzos). In Baltimore he formed a close friendship with Charles Fitzpatrick, with whom he communicated for many years. Photographs and Arts Programs which Cavacos sent to Fitzpatrick form the basis for this (preliminary) biographical sketch.

Having displayed a decided artistic aptitude, he was sent to the Maryland Institute to study painting. He devoted four years to this pursuit, whilst at the same time experimenting with sculptural modeling. Ephraim Keyser, the veteran Baltimore sculptor, who for many years was Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute, was so impressed with the quality of his clay sketches that he advised him to give up painting and devote himself exclusively to sculpture.

Cavacos took this advise, and he made such rapid progress as a student of Ephraim Keyser, that in 1911 he was awarded the Rinehart Scholarship, which enabled him to go to the Beaux Arts School in Paris. In Paris he was known as Emmanuel Andre, Andre being the French version of his middle name, Andrew.

In 1913, one of his works, Aspiration received an Honorable Mention at the Salon des Artistes Francais. The next year his Thinker attracted great attention at the Paris Salon. The first of this “Thinkers” is housed at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the second at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.

In Paris, On October 2nd, 1915, Cavacos married Pauline Pradelle. Pauline was a professional pianist. She practiced her art in the studio where Emmanuel executed his sculptures.

His work made him a well known figure in the art colony of Paris, and he was commissioned to do the portraits of a number of notable citizens, including Mlle. Mistinguett, a prominent actress; Bucot, and Marcelle Ragnon. In 1925 he received a silver medal for a fountain at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. As a tribute to his ability, in 1927, the French Government bestowed upon him the decoration, Officier de l’Acadamie.
In subsequent years he exhibited annually in the Salon, and also at the Salon des Humoristes de Paris, where his dancing figures were highly praised.
His work is in a number of important collections, including that of Queen Marie of Rumania, who purchased one of his marble figures, Grief.

Cavacos’ sculpture has been praised for its variety, able craftsmanship, and for the sense of rhythm it conveys. The French critics emphasized its inherently poetic qualities.

In 1930 Cavacos returned to the United States for the first time in eighteen years. His work was exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art in March of that year. His work was also shown in New York, and later in the year at Homeland. A group of 17 of his sculptures were also placed on display in the National Sculpture Society Exhibition in San Francisco. In May, 1930, he and his wife returned to Paris.

Information about Cavacos post 1930 is difficult to obtain. Hopefully someone can shed more light on his life, in particular the period from 1931 – 1976.

We do know that when members of his family died, Cavacos undertook to create a beautiful monument, and to send it to be erected in the Greek section of a Cemetery in Baltimore, where it still stands today.

It seems that his interest in sculpture continued until well into his old age. When granddaughters of Charles Fitzpatrick (his Baltimore friend) visited him in Paris in 1969, they were photographed with him in his art studio. Many sculptures are visible in the room.

Emmanuel Cavacos died in 1976, aged 91.

Background to the biographical sketch, above

Information about Emmanuel Cavacos is not very extensive. Thankfully, Emmanuel seems to have established a friendship with a Baltimore resident called Charles Fitzpatrick. After Cavacos moved permanently to France he continued to correspond with him. Mike Fitzpatrick (aka Piedmont Fossil), Charles Fitzpatrick’s grandson takes up the story. “Cavacos sent photographs of his studio and his sculptures and even an invitation to his wedding in October 1915. Considering that the wedding took place across the Atlantic and the great time and expense it would require to go there -- not to mention that fact that by then France was deep into World War I -- my grandfather was unable to attend. In 1930 Cavacos made a return visit to the United States for a couple of exhibitions, one in his old hometown of Baltimore and one in New York. I don’t know how successful his exhibitions were considering they took place during the first year of the Great Depression, but today his sculptures, if they can be found at all, seem to sell for between several hundred and several thousand dollars each. In the late 1960s my two sisters traveled to Europe and, at the request of my grandfather, they stopped by to visit (the by that time elderly) Mr. Cavacos at his Paris home”.

Thankfully Mike Fitzpatrick has posted the Cavacos photographs from that time on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/piedmont_fossil/sets/72157594585161747/

“Most of the photos in this set were sent to my grandfather by Emmanuel Cavacos soon after he moved to Paris. Almost all of them are inscribed on the reverse in the artist’s own handwriting.”

Cindy Anderson, is a fiancee of Pete Capsanes, who is the grandson of Theodore Andrew Cavacos, brother to Emmanuel and Constantine. These are all Baltimore Cavacos Kytherians. Cindy wrote to KAW:
"We just had Pete's family here and were talking about Emmanual Andrew Cavacos which is Pete's Great Great Uncle and the sculptor who ended up migrating from Greece, to Maryland back to Paris where he died. We have many of his sculpted pieces in the family".
Open full entry
History, Documents
Documents

Program for an Exhibition of Sculpture Emmanuel Cavacos sculptures, Baltimore, 1930

Baltimore Museum of Art. March 1st to March 25th 1930.

34 Works were exhibited. These included:


1. Portrait of as Dancer (marble)
2. The Kiss (marble jaune de Sienne)
3. Agony of the Soul (terra cotta)
4. Portait of Dr Herbert A Gibbons (bronze)
5. Youth (terra cotta)
6. The Source (marble jaune de Sienne)
7. Springtime (marble rose de Milan)
8. Grief (marble jaune de Sienne)
9. The Arabesques (bronze)
10. Arabesque (bronze)
11. Arabesque (bronze)
12. Joy (bronze)
13. The Breeze (bronze)
14. Whirlwind (bronze)
15. Le Belle Dherlys (bronze)
16. The Dance (bronze)
17. Little Dancer (bronze)
18. Ash Tray “Faunesse” (bronze)
19. Ash Tray “Faune” (bronze)
20. Little Dancer (bronze)
21. Small Head (bronze)
22. Grief (bronze)
23. Indolence (bronze)
24. Despair (bronze)
25. Springtime (bronze)
26. Fascination (bronze)
27. Danse Du Baiser (bronze)
28. Bacchus (bronze)
29. The Kiss (bronze)
30. Lindbergh (bronze)
31. The Effort (bronze)
32. Strength and Suppleness (bronze)
33. Fascination (bronze)
34. Baby (terra cotta composition Cavacos)


Emmanuel Andrew Cavacos was born in Potamos, Kythera, on February 10th, 1885. He emigrated to the United States of America, when he was sixteen years old, and settled in Baltimore, in the suburb of Hampden, where his brother Constantine was living. Another brother Theodore also chose to live in Baltimore. (Theodore was married to fellow Kytherian Pothiti Chlentzos). In Baltimore he formed a close friendship with Charles Fitzpatrick, with whom he communicated for many years. Photographs and Arts Programs which Cavacos sent to Fitzpatrick form the basis for this (preliminary) biographical sketch.

Having displayed a decided artistic aptitude, he was sent to the Maryland Institute to study painting. He devoted four years to this pursuit, whilst at the same time experimenting with sculptural modeling. Ephraim Keyser, the veteran Baltimore sculptor, who for many years was Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute, was so impressed with the quality of his clay sketches that he advised him to give up painting and devote himself exclusively to sculpture.

Cavacos took this advise, and he made such rapid progress as a student of Ephraim Keyser, that in 1911 he was awarded the Rinehart Scholarship, which enabled him to go to the Beaux Arts School in Paris. In Paris he was known as Emmanuel Andre, Andre being the French version of his middle name, Andrew.

In 1913, one of his works, Aspiration received an Honorable Mention at the Salon des Artistes Francais. The next year his Thinker attracted great attention at the Paris Salon. The first of this “Thinkers” is housed at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the second at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.

In Paris, On October 2nd, 1915, Cavacos married Pauline Pradelle. Pauline was a professional pianist. She practiced her art in the studio where Emmanuel executed his sculptures.

His work made him a well known figure in the art colony of Paris, and he was commissioned to do the portraits of a number of notable citizens, including Mlle. Mistinguett, a prominent actress; Bucot, and Marcelle Ragnon. In 1925 he received a silver medal for a fountain at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. As a tribute to his ability, in 1927, the French Government bestowed upon him the decoration, Officier de l’Acadamie.
In subsequent years he exhibited annually in the Salon, and also at the Salon des Humoristes de Paris, where his dancing figures were highly praised.
His work is in a number of important collections, including that of Queen Marie of Rumania, who purchased one of his marble figures, Grief.

Cavacos’ sculpture has been praised for its variety, able craftsmanship, and for the sense of rhythm it conveys. The French critics emphasized its inherently poetic qualities.

In 1930 Cavacos returned to the United States for the first time in eighteen years. His work was exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art in March of that year. His work was also shown in New York, and later in the year at Homeland. A group of 17 of his sculptures were also placed on display in the National Sculpture Society Exhibition in San Francisco. In May, 1930, he and his wife returned to Paris.

Information about Cavacos post 1930 is difficult to obtain. Hopefully someone can shed more light on his life, in particular the period from 1931 – 1976.

We do know that when members of his family died, Cavacos undertook to create a beautiful monument, and to send it to be erected in the Greek section of a Cemetery in Baltimore, where it still stands today.

It seems that his interest in sculpture continued until well into his old age. When granddaughters of Charles Fitzpatrick (his Baltimore friend) visited him in Paris in 1969, they were photographed with him in his art studio. Many sculptures are visible in the room.

Emmanuel Cavacos died in 1976, aged 91.

Background to the biographical sketch, above

Information about Emmanuel Cavacos is not very extensive. Thankfully, Emmanuel seems to have established a friendship with a Baltimore resident called Charles Fitzpatrick. After Cavacos moved permanently to France he continued to correspond with him. Mike Fitzpatrick (aka Piedmont Fossil), Charles Fitzpatrick’s grandson takes up the story. “Cavacos sent photographs of his studio and his sculptures and even an invitation to his wedding in October 1915. Considering that the wedding took place across the Atlantic and the great time and expense it would require to go there -- not to mention that fact that by then France was deep into World War I -- my grandfather was unable to attend. In 1930 Cavacos made a return visit to the United States for a couple of exhibitions, one in his old hometown of Baltimore and one in New York. I don’t know how successful his exhibitions were considering they took place during the first year of the Great Depression, but today his sculptures, if they can be found at all, seem to sell for between several hundred and several thousand dollars each. In the late 1960s my two sisters traveled to Europe and, at the request of my grandfather, they stopped by to visit (the by that time elderly) Mr. Cavacos at his Paris home”.

Thankfully Mike Fitzpatrick has posted the Cavacos photographs from that time on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/piedmont_fossil/sets/72157594585161747/

“Most of the photos in this set were sent to my grandfather by Emmanuel Cavacos soon after he moved to Paris. Almost all of them are inscribed on the reverse in the artist’s own handwriting.”

Cindy Anderson, is a fiancee of Pete Capsanes, who is the grandson of Theodore Andrew Cavacos, brother to Emmanuel and Constantine. These are all Baltimore Cavacos Kytherians. Cindy wrote to KAW:
"We just had Pete's family here and were talking about Emmanual Andrew Cavacos which is Pete's Great Great Uncle and the sculptor who ended up migrating from Greece, to Maryland back to Paris where he died. We have many of his sculpted pieces in the family".
Open full entry
History, Documents
Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People

Emmanuel Cavacos, at about age 84 in his studio in Paris

standing before a large recumbent sculpture of Aphrodite.

Emmanuel Andrew Cavacos was born in Potamos, Kythera, on February 10th, 1885. He emigrated to the United States of America, when he was sixteen years old, and settled in Baltimore, in the suburb of Hampden, where his brother Constantine was living. Another brother Theodore also chose to live in Baltimore. (Theodore was married to fellow Kytherian Pothiti Chlentzos). In Baltimore he formed a close friendship with Charles Fitzpatrick, with whom he communicated for many years. Photographs and Arts Programs which Cavacos sent to Fitzpatrick form the basis for this (preliminary) biographical sketch.

Having displayed a decided artistic aptitude, he was sent to the Maryland Institute to study painting. He devoted four years to this pursuit, whilst at the same time experimenting with sculptural modeling. Ephraim Keyser, the veteran Baltimore sculptor, who for many years was Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute, was so impressed with the quality of his clay sketches that he advised him to give up painting and devote himself exclusively to sculpture.

Cavacos took this advise, and he made such rapid progress as a student of Ephraim Keyser, that in 1911 he was awarded the Rinehart Scholarship, which enabled him to go to the Beaux Arts School in Paris. In Paris he was known as Emmanuel Andre, Andre being the French version of his middle name, Andrew.

In 1913, one of his works, Aspiration received an Honorable Mention at the Salon des Artistes Francais. The next year his Thinker attracted great attention at the Paris Salon. The first of this “Thinkers” is housed at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the second at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.

In Paris, On October 2nd, 1915, Cavacos married Pauline Pradelle. Pauline was a professional pianist. She practiced her art in the studio where Emmanuel executed his sculptures.

His work made him a well known figure in the art colony of Paris, and he was commissioned to do the portraits of a number of notable citizens, including Mlle. Mistinguett, a prominent actress; Bucot, and Marcelle Ragnon. In 1925 he received a silver medal for a fountain at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. As a tribute to his ability, in 1927, the French Government bestowed upon him the decoration, Officier de l’Acadamie.
In subsequent years he exhibited annually in the Salon, and also at the Salon des Humoristes de Paris, where his dancing figures were highly praised.
His work is in a number of important collections, including that of Queen Marie of Rumania, who purchased one of his marble figures, Grief.

Cavacos’ sculpture has been praised for its variety, able craftsmanship, and for the sense of rhythm it conveys. The French critics emphasized its inherently poetic qualities.

In 1930 Cavacos returned to the United States for the first time in eighteen years. His work was exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art in March of that year. His work was also shown in New York, and later in the year at Homeland. A group of 17 of his sculptures were also placed on display in the National Sculpture Society Exhibition in San Francisco. In May, 1930, he and his wife returned to Paris.

Information about Cavacos post 1930 is difficult to obtain. Hopefully someone can shed more light on his life, in particular the period from 1931 – 1976.

We do know that when members of his family died, Cavacos undertook to create a beautiful monument, and to send it to be erected in the Greek section of a Cemetery in Baltimore, where it still stands today.

It seems that his interest in sculpture continued until well into his old age. When granddaughters of Charles Fitzpatrick (his Baltimore friend) visited him in Paris in 1969, they were photographed with him in his art studio. Many sculptures are visible in the room.

Emmanuel Cavacos died in 1976, aged 91.

Background to the biographical sketch, above

Information about Emmanuel Cavacos is not very extensive. Thankfully, Emmanuel seems to have established a friendship with a Baltimore resident called Charles Fitzpatrick. After Cavacos moved permanently to France he continued to correspond with him. Mike Fitzpatrick (aka Piedmont Fossil), Charles Fitzpatrick’s grandson takes up the story. “Cavacos sent photographs of his studio and his sculptures and even an invitation to his wedding in October 1915. Considering that the wedding took place across the Atlantic and the great time and expense it would require to go there -- not to mention that fact that by then France was deep into World War I -- my grandfather was unable to attend. In 1930 Cavacos made a return visit to the United States for a couple of exhibitions, one in his old hometown of Baltimore and one in New York. I don’t know how successful his exhibitions were considering they took place during the first year of the Great Depression, but today his sculptures, if they can be found at all, seem to sell for between several hundred and several thousand dollars each. In the late 1960s my two sisters traveled to Europe and, at the request of my grandfather, they stopped by to visit (the by that time elderly) Mr. Cavacos at his Paris home”.

Thankfully Mike Fitzpatrick has posted the Cavacos photographs from that time on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/piedmont_fossil/sets/72157594585161747/

“Most of the photos in this set were sent to my grandfather by Emmanuel Cavacos soon after he moved to Paris. Almost all of them are inscribed on the reverse in the artist’s own handwriting.”

Cindy Anderson, is a fiancee of Pete Capsanes, who is the grandson of Theodore Andrew Cavacos, brother to Emmanuel and Constantine. These are all Baltimore Cavacos Kytherians. Cindy wrote to KAW:
"We just had Pete's family here and were talking about Emmanual Andrew Cavacos which is Pete's Great Great Uncle and the sculptor who ended up migrating from Greece, to Maryland back to Paris where he died. We have many of his sculpted pieces in the family".
Open full entry
Photos, Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People
Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People

Emmanual Cavacos. Year the photo was taken is unknown.

Emmanuel Andrew Cavacos was born in Potamos, Kythera, on February 10th, 1885. He emigrated to the United States of America, when he was sixteen years old, and settled in Baltimore, in the suburb of Hampden, where his brother Constantine was living. Another brother Theodore also chose to live in Baltimore. (Theodore was married to fellow Kytherian Pothiti Chlentzos). In Baltimore he formed a close friendship with Charles Fitzpatrick, with whom he communicated for many years. Photographs and Arts Programs which Cavacos sent to Fitzpatrick form the basis for this (preliminary) biographical sketch.

Having displayed a decided artistic aptitude, he was sent to the Maryland Institute to study painting. He devoted four years to this pursuit, whilst at the same time experimenting with sculptural modeling. Ephraim Keyser, the veteran Baltimore sculptor, who for many years was Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute, was so impressed with the quality of his clay sketches that he advised him to give up painting and devote himself exclusively to sculpture.

Cavacos took this advise, and he made such rapid progress as a student of Ephraim Keyser, that in 1911 he was awarded the Rinehart Scholarship, which enabled him to go to the Beaux Arts School in Paris. In Paris he was known as Emmanuel Andre, Andre being the French version of his middle name, Andrew.

In 1913, one of his works, Aspiration received an Honorable Mention at the Salon des Artistes Francais. The next year his Thinker attracted great attention at the Paris Salon. The first of this “Thinkers” is housed at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the second at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.

In Paris, On October 2nd, 1915, Cavacos married Pauline Pradelle. Pauline was a professional pianist. She practiced her art in the studio where Emmanuel executed his sculptures.

His work made him a well known figure in the art colony of Paris, and he was commissioned to do the portraits of a number of notable citizens, including Mlle. Mistinguett, a prominent actress; Bucot, and Marcelle Ragnon. In 1925 he received a silver medal for a fountain at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. As a tribute to his ability, in 1927, the French Government bestowed upon him the decoration, Officier de l’Acadamie.
In subsequent years he exhibited annually in the Salon, and also at the Salon des Humoristes de Paris, where his dancing figures were highly praised.
His work is in a number of important collections, including that of Queen Marie of Rumania, who purchased one of his marble figures, Grief.

Cavacos’ sculpture has been praised for its variety, able craftsmanship, and for the sense of rhythm it conveys. The French critics emphasized its inherently poetic qualities.

In 1930 Cavacos returned to the United States for the first time in eighteen years. His work was exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art in March of that year. His work was also shown in New York, and later in the year at Homeland. A group of 17 of his sculptures were also placed on display in the National Sculpture Society Exhibition in San Francisco. In May, 1930, he and his wife returned to Paris.

Information about Cavacos post 1930 is difficult to obtain. Hopefully someone can shed more light on his life, in particular the period from 1931 – 1976.

We do know that when members of his family died, Cavacos undertook to create a beautiful monument, and to send it to be erected in the Greek section of a Cemetery in Baltimore, where it still stands today.

It seems that his interest in sculpture continued until well into his old age. When granddaughters of Charles Fitzpatrick (his Baltimore friend) visited him in Paris in 1969, they were photographed with him in his art studio. Many sculptures are visible in the room.

Emmanuel Cavacos died in 1976, aged 91.

Background to the biographical sketch, above

Information about Emmanuel Cavacos is not very extensive. Thankfully, Emmanuel seems to have established a friendship with a Baltimore resident called Charles Fitzpatrick. After Cavacos moved permanently to France he continued to correspond with him. Mike Fitzpatrick (aka Piedmont Fossil), Charles Fitzpatrick’s grandson takes up the story. “Cavacos sent photographs of his studio and his sculptures and even an invitation to his wedding in October 1915. Considering that the wedding took place across the Atlantic and the great time and expense it would require to go there -- not to mention that fact that by then France was deep into World War I -- my grandfather was unable to attend. In 1930 Cavacos made a return visit to the United States for a couple of exhibitions, one in his old hometown of Baltimore and one in New York. I don’t know how successful his exhibitions were considering they took place during the first year of the Great Depression, but today his sculptures, if they can be found at all, seem to sell for between several hundred and several thousand dollars each. In the late 1960s my two sisters traveled to Europe and, at the request of my grandfather, they stopped by to visit (the by that time elderly) Mr. Cavacos at his Paris home”.

Thankfully Mike Fitzpatrick has posted the Cavacos photographs from that time on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/piedmont_fossil/sets/72157594585161747/

“Most of the photos in this set were sent to my grandfather by Emmanuel Cavacos soon after he moved to Paris. Almost all of them are inscribed on the reverse in the artist’s own handwriting.”

Cindy Anderson, is a fiancee of Pete Capsanes, who is the grandson of Theodore Andrew Cavacos, brother to Emmanuel and Constantine. These are all Baltimore Cavacos Kytherians. Cindy wrote to KAW:
"We just had Pete's family here and were talking about Emmanual Andrew Cavacos which is Pete's Great Great Uncle and the sculptor who ended up migrating from Greece, to Maryland back to Paris where he died. We have many of his sculpted pieces in the family".
Open full entry
Photos, Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People
Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People

Two happy couples the Cavacos & the Conlons.

Pauline (nee, Predelle) and Emmanuel Cavacos are on the left.

Emmanuel Andrew Cavacos was born in Potamos, Kythera, on February 10th, 1885. He emigrated to the United States of America, when he was sixteen years old, and settled in Baltimore, in the suburb of Hampden, where his brother Constantine was living. Another brother Theodore also chose to live in Baltimore. (Theodore was married to fellow Kytherian Pothiti Chlentzos). In Baltimore he formed a close friendship with Charles Fitzpatrick, with whom he communicated for many years. Photographs and Arts Programs which Cavacos sent to Fitzpatrick form the basis for this (preliminary) biographical sketch.

Having displayed a decided artistic aptitude, he was sent to the Maryland Institute to study painting. He devoted four years to this pursuit, whilst at the same time experimenting with sculptural modeling. Ephraim Keyser, the veteran Baltimore sculptor, who for many years was Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute, was so impressed with the quality of his clay sketches that he advised him to give up painting and devote himself exclusively to sculpture.

Cavacos took this advise, and he made such rapid progress as a student of Ephraim Keyser, that in 1911 he was awarded the Rinehart Scholarship, which enabled him to go to the Beaux Arts School in Paris. In Paris he was known as Emmanuel Andre, Andre being the French version of his middle name, Andrew.

In 1913, one of his works, Aspiration received an Honorable Mention at the Salon des Artistes Francais. The next year his Thinker attracted great attention at the Paris Salon. The first of this “Thinkers” is housed at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the second at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.

In Paris, On October 2nd, 1915, Cavacos married Pauline Pradelle. Pauline was a professional pianist. She practiced her art in the studio where Emmanuel executed his sculptures.

His work made him a well known figure in the art colony of Paris, and he was commissioned to do the portraits of a number of notable citizens, including Mlle. Mistinguett, a prominent actress; Bucot, and Marcelle Ragnon. In 1925 he received a silver medal for a fountain at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. As a tribute to his ability, in 1927, the French Government bestowed upon him the decoration, Officier de l’Acadamie.
In subsequent years he exhibited annually in the Salon, and also at the Salon des Humoristes de Paris, where his dancing figures were highly praised.
His work is in a number of important collections, including that of Queen Marie of Rumania, who purchased one of his marble figures, Grief.

Cavacos’ sculpture has been praised for its variety, able craftsmanship, and for the sense of rhythm it conveys. The French critics emphasized its inherently poetic qualities.

In 1930 Cavacos returned to the United States for the first time in eighteen years. His work was exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art in March of that year. His work was also shown in New York, and later in the year at Homeland. A group of 17 of his sculptures were also placed on display in the National Sculpture Society Exhibition in San Francisco. In May, 1930, he and his wife returned to Paris.

Information about Cavacos post 1930 is difficult to obtain. Hopefully someone can shed more light on his life, in particular the period from 1931 – 1976.

We do know that when members of his family died, Cavacos undertook to create a beautiful monument, and to send it to be erected in the Greek section of a Cemetery in Baltimore, where it still stands today.

It seems that his interest in sculpture continued until well into his old age. When granddaughters of Charles Fitzpatrick (his Baltimore friend) visited him in Paris in 1969, they were photographed with him in his art studio. Many sculptures are visible in the room.

Emmanuel Cavacos died in 1976, aged 91.

Background to the biographical sketch, above

Information about Emmanuel Cavacos is not very extensive. Thankfully, Emmanuel seems to have established a friendship with a Baltimore resident called Charles Fitzpatrick. After Cavacos moved permanently to France he continued to correspond with him. Mike Fitzpatrick (aka Piedmont Fossil), Charles Fitzpatrick’s grandson takes up the story. “Cavacos sent photographs of his studio and his sculptures and even an invitation to his wedding in October 1915. Considering that the wedding took place across the Atlantic and the great time and expense it would require to go there -- not to mention that fact that by then France was deep into World War I -- my grandfather was unable to attend. In 1930 Cavacos made a return visit to the United States for a couple of exhibitions, one in his old hometown of Baltimore and one in New York. I don’t know how successful his exhibitions were considering they took place during the first year of the Great Depression, but today his sculptures, if they can be found at all, seem to sell for between several hundred and several thousand dollars each. In the late 1960s my two sisters traveled to Europe and, at the request of my grandfather, they stopped by to visit (the by that time elderly) Mr. Cavacos at his Paris home”.

Thankfully Mike Fitzpatrick has posted the Cavacos photographs from that time on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/piedmont_fossil/sets/72157594585161747/

“Most of the photos in this set were sent to my grandfather by Emmanuel Cavacos soon after he moved to Paris. Almost all of them are inscribed on the reverse in the artist’s own handwriting.”

Cindy Anderson, is a fiancee of Pete Capsanes, who is the grandson of Theodore Andrew Cavacos, brother to Emmanuel and Constantine. These are all Baltimore Cavacos Kytherians. Cindy wrote to KAW:
"We just had Pete's family here and were talking about Emmanual Andrew Cavacos which is Pete's Great Great Uncle and the sculptor who ended up migrating from Greece, to Maryland back to Paris where he died. We have many of his sculpted pieces in the family".
Open full entry
Photos, Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People
Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People

Emmanuel Cavacos. Unmarked and undated photo of in Emmanuel in his Paris studio

Emmanuel Andrew Cavacos was born in Potamos, Kythera, on February 10th, 1885. He emigrated to the United States of America, when he was sixteen years old, and settled in Baltimore, in the suburb of Hampden, where his brother Constantine was living. Another brother Theodore also chose to live in Baltimore. (Theodore was married to fellow Kytherian Pothiti Chlentzos). In Baltimore he formed a close friendship with Charles Fitzpatrick, with whom he communicated for many years. Photographs and Arts Programs which Cavacos sent to Fitzpatrick form the basis for this (preliminary) biographical sketch.

Having displayed a decided artistic aptitude, he was sent to the Maryland Institute to study painting. He devoted four years to this pursuit, whilst at the same time experimenting with sculptural modeling. Ephraim Keyser, the veteran Baltimore sculptor, who for many years was Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute, was so impressed with the quality of his clay sketches that he advised him to give up painting and devote himself exclusively to sculpture.

Cavacos took this advise, and he made such rapid progress as a student of Ephraim Keyser, that in 1911 he was awarded the Rinehart Scholarship, which enabled him to go to the Beaux Arts School in Paris. In Paris he was known as Emmanuel Andre, Andre being the French version of his middle name, Andrew.

In 1913, one of his works, Aspiration received an Honorable Mention at the Salon des Artistes Francais. The next year his Thinker attracted great attention at the Paris Salon. The first of this “Thinkers” is housed at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the second at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.

In Paris, On October 2nd, 1915, Cavacos married Pauline Pradelle. Pauline was a professional pianist. She practiced her art in the studio where Emmanuel executed his sculptures.

His work made him a well known figure in the art colony of Paris, and he was commissioned to do the portraits of a number of notable citizens, including Mlle. Mistinguett, a prominent actress; Bucot, and Marcelle Ragnon. In 1925 he received a silver medal for a fountain at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. As a tribute to his ability, in 1927, the French Government bestowed upon him the decoration, Officier de l’Acadamie.
In subsequent years he exhibited annually in the Salon, and also at the Salon des Humoristes de Paris, where his dancing figures were highly praised.
His work is in a number of important collections, including that of Queen Marie of Rumania, who purchased one of his marble figures, Grief.

Cavacos’ sculpture has been praised for its variety, able craftsmanship, and for the sense of rhythm it conveys. The French critics emphasized its inherently poetic qualities.

In 1930 Cavacos returned to the United States for the first time in eighteen years. His work was exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art in March of that year. His work was also shown in New York, and later in the year at Homeland. A group of 17 of his sculptures were also placed on display in the National Sculpture Society Exhibition in San Francisco. In May, 1930, he and his wife returned to Paris.

Information about Cavacos post 1930 is difficult to obtain. Hopefully someone can shed more light on his life, in particular the period from 1931 – 1976.

We do know that when members of his family died, Cavacos undertook to create a beautiful monument, and to send it to be erected in the Greek section of a Cemetery in Baltimore, where it still stands today.

It seems that his interest in sculpture continued until well into his old age. When granddaughters of Charles Fitzpatrick (his Baltimore friend) visited him in Paris in 1969, they were photographed with him in his art studio. Many sculptures are visible in the room.

Emmanuel Cavacos died in 1976, aged 91.

Background to the biographical sketch, above

Information about Emmanuel Cavacos is not very extensive. Thankfully, Emmanuel seems to have established a friendship with a Baltimore resident called Charles Fitzpatrick. After Cavacos moved permanently to France he continued to correspond with him. Mike Fitzpatrick (aka Piedmont Fossil), Charles Fitzpatrick’s grandson takes up the story. “Cavacos sent photographs of his studio and his sculptures and even an invitation to his wedding in October 1915. Considering that the wedding took place across the Atlantic and the great time and expense it would require to go there -- not to mention that fact that by then France was deep into World War I -- my grandfather was unable to attend. In 1930 Cavacos made a return visit to the United States for a couple of exhibitions, one in his old hometown of Baltimore and one in New York. I don’t know how successful his exhibitions were considering they took place during the first year of the Great Depression, but today his sculptures, if they can be found at all, seem to sell for between several hundred and several thousand dollars each. In the late 1960s my two sisters traveled to Europe and, at the request of my grandfather, they stopped by to visit (the by that time elderly) Mr. Cavacos at his Paris home”.

Thankfully Mike Fitzpatrick has posted the Cavacos photographs from that time on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/piedmont_fossil/sets/72157594585161747/

“Most of the photos in this set were sent to my grandfather by Emmanuel Cavacos soon after he moved to Paris. Almost all of them are inscribed on the reverse in the artist’s own handwriting.”

Cindy Anderson, is a fiancee of Pete Capsanes, who is the grandson of Theodore Andrew Cavacos, brother to Emmanuel and Constantine. These are all Baltimore Cavacos Kytherians. Cindy wrote to KAW:
"We just had Pete's family here and were talking about Emmanual Andrew Cavacos which is Pete's Great Great Uncle and the sculptor who ended up migrating from Greece, to Maryland back to Paris where he died. We have many of his sculpted pieces in the family".
Open full entry
Photos, Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People
Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People

Emmanual Cavacos and friends in Paris, August 22 1912

With friends in "fancy dress".

Photo taken in the year after his arrival in Paris from Baltimore.

Emmanuel Andrew Cavacos was born in Potamos, Kythera, on February 10th, 1885. He emigrated to the United States of America, when he was sixteen years old, and settled in Baltimore, in the suburb of Hampden, where his brother Constantine was living. Another brother Theodore also chose to live in Baltimore. (Theodore was married to fellow Kytherian Pothiti Chlentzos). In Baltimore he formed a close friendship with Charles Fitzpatrick, with whom he communicated for many years. Photographs and Arts Programs which Cavacos sent to Fitzpatrick form the basis for this (preliminary) biographical sketch.

Having displayed a decided artistic aptitude, he was sent to the Maryland Institute to study painting. He devoted four years to this pursuit, whilst at the same time experimenting with sculptural modeling. Ephraim Keyser, the veteran Baltimore sculptor, who for many years was Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute, was so impressed with the quality of his clay sketches that he advised him to give up painting and devote himself exclusively to sculpture.

Cavacos took this advise, and he made such rapid progress as a student of Ephraim Keyser, that in 1911 he was awarded the Rinehart Scholarship, which enabled him to go to the Beaux Arts School in Paris. In Paris he was known as Emmanuel Andre, Andre being the French version of his middle name, Andrew.

In 1913, one of his works, Aspiration received an Honorable Mention at the Salon des Artistes Francais. The next year his Thinker attracted great attention at the Paris Salon. The first of this “Thinkers” is housed at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the second at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.

In Paris, On October 2nd, 1915, Cavacos married Pauline Pradelle. Pauline was a professional pianist. She practiced her art in the studio where Emmanuel executed his sculptures.

His work made him a well known figure in the art colony of Paris, and he was commissioned to do the portraits of a number of notable citizens, including Mlle. Mistinguett, a prominent actress; Bucot, and Marcelle Ragnon. In 1925 he received a silver medal for a fountain at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. As a tribute to his ability, in 1927, the French Government bestowed upon him the decoration, Officier de l’Acadamie.
In subsequent years he exhibited annually in the Salon, and also at the Salon des Humoristes de Paris, where his dancing figures were highly praised.
His work is in a number of important collections, including that of Queen Marie of Rumania, who purchased one of his marble figures, Grief.

Cavacos’ sculpture has been praised for its variety, able craftsmanship, and for the sense of rhythm it conveys. The French critics emphasized its inherently poetic qualities.

In 1930 Cavacos returned to the United States for the first time in eighteen years. His work was exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art in March of that year. His work was also shown in New York, and later in the year at Homeland. A group of 17 of his sculptures were also placed on display in the National Sculpture Society Exhibition in San Francisco. In May, 1930, he and his wife returned to Paris.

Information about Cavacos post 1930 is difficult to obtain. Hopefully someone can shed more light on his life, in particular the period from 1931 – 1976.

We do know that when members of his family died, Cavacos undertook to create a beautiful monument, and to send it to be erected in the Greek section of a Cemetery in Baltimore, where it still stands today.

It seems that his interest in sculpture continued until well into his old age. When granddaughters of Charles Fitzpatrick (his Baltimore friend) visited him in Paris in 1969, they were photographed with him in his art studio. Many sculptures are visible in the room.

Emmanuel Cavacos died in 1976, aged 91.

Background to the biographical sketch, above

Information about Emmanuel Cavacos is not very extensive. Thankfully, Emmanuel seems to have established a friendship with a Baltimore resident called Charles Fitzpatrick. After Cavacos moved permanently to France he continued to correspond with him. Mike Fitzpatrick (aka Piedmont Fossil), Charles Fitzpatrick’s grandson takes up the story. “Cavacos sent photographs of his studio and his sculptures and even an invitation to his wedding in October 1915. Considering that the wedding took place across the Atlantic and the great time and expense it would require to go there -- not to mention that fact that by then France was deep into World War I -- my grandfather was unable to attend. In 1930 Cavacos made a return visit to the United States for a couple of exhibitions, one in his old hometown of Baltimore and one in New York. I don’t know how successful his exhibitions were considering they took place during the first year of the Great Depression, but today his sculptures, if they can be found at all, seem to sell for between several hundred and several thousand dollars each. In the late 1960s my two sisters traveled to Europe and, at the request of my grandfather, they stopped by to visit (the by that time elderly) Mr. Cavacos at his Paris home”.

Thankfully Mike Fitzpatrick has posted the Cavacos photographs from that time on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/piedmont_fossil/sets/72157594585161747/

“Most of the photos in this set were sent to my grandfather by Emmanuel Cavacos soon after he moved to Paris. Almost all of them are inscribed on the reverse in the artist’s own handwriting.”

Cindy Anderson, is a fiancee of Pete Capsanes, who is the grandson of Theodore Andrew Cavacos, brother to Emmanuel and Constantine. These are all Baltimore Cavacos Kytherians. Cindy wrote to KAW:
"We just had Pete's family here and were talking about Emmanual Andrew Cavacos which is Pete's Great Great Uncle and the sculptor who ended up migrating from Greece, to Maryland back to Paris where he died. We have many of his sculpted pieces in the family".
Open full entry
Photos, Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People
Diaspora Weddings and Proxenia

Wedding party of Emmanuel Cavacos and Pauline Pradelle 2

Wedding Party In this view, looking from the other end of the table, the bride and groom are seated in the center on the right Oct 2 1915 Paris.

Emmanuel Andrew Cavacos was born in Potamos, Kythera, on February 10th, 1885. He emigrated to the United States of America, when he was sixteen years old, and settled in Baltimore, in the suburb of Hampden, where his brother Constantine was living. Another brother Theodore also chose to live in Baltimore. (Theodore was married to fellow Kytherian Pothiti Chlentzos). In Baltimore he formed a close friendship with Charles Fitzpatrick, with whom he communicated for many years. Photographs and Arts Programs which Cavacos sent to Fitzpatrick form the basis for this (preliminary) biographical sketch.

Having displayed a decided artistic aptitude, he was sent to the Maryland Institute to study painting. He devoted four years to this pursuit, whilst at the same time experimenting with sculptural modeling. Ephraim Keyser, the veteran Baltimore sculptor, who for many years was Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute, was so impressed with the quality of his clay sketches that he advised him to give up painting and devote himself exclusively to sculpture.

Cavacos took this advise, and he made such rapid progress as a student of Ephraim Keyser, that in 1911 he was awarded the Rinehart Scholarship, which enabled him to go to the Beaux Arts School in Paris. In Paris he was known as Emmanuel Andre, Andre being the French version of his middle name, Andrew.

In 1913, one of his works, Aspiration received an Honorable Mention at the Salon des Artistes Francais. The next year his Thinker attracted great attention at the Paris Salon. The first of this “Thinkers” is housed at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the second at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.

In Paris, On October 2nd, 1915, Cavacos married Pauline Pradelle. Pauline was a professional pianist. She practiced her art in the studio where Emmanuel executed his sculptures.

His work made him a well known figure in the art colony of Paris, and he was commissioned to do the portraits of a number of notable citizens, including Mlle. Mistinguett, a prominent actress; Bucot, and Marcelle Ragnon. In 1925 he received a silver medal for a fountain at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. As a tribute to his ability, in 1927, the French Government bestowed upon him the decoration, Officier de l’Acadamie.
In subsequent years he exhibited annually in the Salon, and also at the Salon des Humoristes de Paris, where his dancing figures were highly praised.
His work is in a number of important collections, including that of Queen Marie of Rumania, who purchased one of his marble figures, Grief.

Cavacos’ sculpture has been praised for its variety, able craftsmanship, and for the sense of rhythm it conveys. The French critics emphasized its inherently poetic qualities.

In 1930 Cavacos returned to the United States for the first time in eighteen years. His work was exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art in March of that year. His work was also shown in New York, and later in the year at Homeland. A group of 17 of his sculptures were also placed on display in the National Sculpture Society Exhibition in San Francisco. In May, 1930, he and his wife returned to Paris.

Information about Cavacos post 1930 is difficult to obtain. Hopefully someone can shed more light on his life, in particular the period from 1931 – 1976.

We do know that when members of his family died, Cavacos undertook to create a beautiful monument, and to send it to be erected in the Greek section of a Cemetery in Baltimore, where it still stands today.

It seems that his interest in sculpture continued until well into his old age. When granddaughters of Charles Fitzpatrick (his Baltimore friend) visited him in Paris in 1969, they were photographed with him in his art studio. Many sculptures are visible in the room.

Emmanuel Cavacos died in 1976, aged 91.

Background to the biographical sketch, above

Information about Emmanuel Cavacos is not very extensive. Thankfully, Emmanuel seems to have established a friendship with a Baltimore resident called Charles Fitzpatrick. After Cavacos moved permanently to France he continued to correspond with him. Mike Fitzpatrick (aka Piedmont Fossil), Charles Fitzpatrick’s grandson takes up the story. “Cavacos sent photographs of his studio and his sculptures and even an invitation to his wedding in October 1915. Considering that the wedding took place across the Atlantic and the great time and expense it would require to go there -- not to mention that fact that by then France was deep into World War I -- my grandfather was unable to attend. In 1930 Cavacos made a return visit to the United States for a couple of exhibitions, one in his old hometown of Baltimore and one in New York. I don’t know how successful his exhibitions were considering they took place during the first year of the Great Depression, but today his sculptures, if they can be found at all, seem to sell for between several hundred and several thousand dollars each. In the late 1960s my two sisters traveled to Europe and, at the request of my grandfather, they stopped by to visit (the by that time elderly) Mr. Cavacos at his Paris home”.

Thankfully Mike Fitzpatrick has posted the Cavacos photographs from that time on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/piedmont_fossil/sets/72157594585161747/

“Most of the photos in this set were sent to my grandfather by Emmanuel Cavacos soon after he moved to Paris. Almost all of them are inscribed on the reverse in the artist’s own handwriting.”

Cindy Anderson, is a fiancee of Pete Capsanes, who is the grandson of Theodore Andrew Cavacos, brother to Emmanuel and Constantine. These are all Baltimore Cavacos Kytherians. Cindy wrote to KAW:
"We just had Pete's family here and were talking about Emmanual Andrew Cavacos which is Pete's Great Great Uncle and the sculptor who ended up migrating from Greece, to Maryland back to Paris where he died. We have many of his sculpted pieces in the family".
Open full entry
Photos, Diaspora Weddings and Proxenia
Diaspora Weddings and Proxenia

Wedding party of Emmanuel Cavacos and Pauline Pradelle

The bride (Pauline Pradelle) and groom (Emmanuel Cavacos) are seated second and third from left Oct 2 1915 Paris

Emmanuel Andrew Cavacos was born in Potamos, Kythera, on February 10th, 1885. He emigrated to the United States of America, when he was sixteen years old, and settled in Baltimore, in the suburb of Hampden, where his brother Constantine was living. Another brother Theodore also chose to live in Baltimore. (Theodore was married to fellow Kytherian Pothiti Chlentzos). In Baltimore he formed a close friendship with Charles Fitzpatrick, with whom he communicated for many years. Photographs and Arts Programs which Cavacos sent to Fitzpatrick form the basis for this (preliminary) biographical sketch.

Having displayed a decided artistic aptitude, he was sent to the Maryland Institute to study painting. He devoted four years to this pursuit, whilst at the same time experimenting with sculptural modeling. Ephraim Keyser, the veteran Baltimore sculptor, who for many years was Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute, was so impressed with the quality of his clay sketches that he advised him to give up painting and devote himself exclusively to sculpture.

Cavacos took this advise, and he made such rapid progress as a student of Ephraim Keyser, that in 1911 he was awarded the Rinehart Scholarship, which enabled him to go to the Beaux Arts School in Paris. In Paris he was known as Emmanuel Andre, Andre being the French version of his middle name, Andrew.

In 1913, one of his works, Aspiration received an Honorable Mention at the Salon des Artistes Francais. The next year his Thinker attracted great attention at the Paris Salon. The first of this “Thinkers” is housed at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the second at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.

In Paris, On October 2nd, 1915, Cavacos married Pauline Pradelle. Pauline was a professional pianist. She practiced her art in the studio where Emmanuel executed his sculptures.

His work made him a well known figure in the art colony of Paris, and he was commissioned to do the portraits of a number of notable citizens, including Mlle. Mistinguett, a prominent actress; Bucot, and Marcelle Ragnon. In 1925 he received a silver medal for a fountain at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. As a tribute to his ability, in 1927, the French Government bestowed upon him the decoration, Officier de l’Acadamie.
In subsequent years he exhibited annually in the Salon, and also at the Salon des Humoristes de Paris, where his dancing figures were highly praised.
His work is in a number of important collections, including that of Queen Marie of Rumania, who purchased one of his marble figures, Grief.

Cavacos’ sculpture has been praised for its variety, able craftsmanship, and for the sense of rhythm it conveys. The French critics emphasized its inherently poetic qualities.

In 1930 Cavacos returned to the United States for the first time in eighteen years. His work was exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art in March of that year. His work was also shown in New York, and later in the year at Homeland. A group of 17 of his sculptures were also placed on display in the National Sculpture Society Exhibition in San Francisco. In May, 1930, he and his wife returned to Paris.

Information about Cavacos post 1930 is difficult to obtain. Hopefully someone can shed more light on his life, in particular the period from 1931 – 1976.

We do know that when members of his family died, Cavacos undertook to create a beautiful monument, and to send it to be erected in the Greek section of a Cemetery in Baltimore, where it still stands today.

It seems that his interest in sculpture continued until well into his old age. When granddaughters of Charles Fitzpatrick (his Baltimore friend) visited him in Paris in 1969, they were photographed with him in his art studio. Many sculptures are visible in the room.

Emmanuel Cavacos died in 1976, aged 91.

Background to the biographical sketch, above

Information about Emmanuel Cavacos is not very extensive. Thankfully, Emmanuel seems to have established a friendship with a Baltimore resident called Charles Fitzpatrick. After Cavacos moved permanently to France he continued to correspond with him. Mike Fitzpatrick (aka Piedmont Fossil), Charles Fitzpatrick’s grandson takes up the story. “Cavacos sent photographs of his studio and his sculptures and even an invitation to his wedding in October 1915. Considering that the wedding took place across the Atlantic and the great time and expense it would require to go there -- not to mention that fact that by then France was deep into World War I -- my grandfather was unable to attend. In 1930 Cavacos made a return visit to the United States for a couple of exhibitions, one in his old hometown of Baltimore and one in New York. I don’t know how successful his exhibitions were considering they took place during the first year of the Great Depression, but today his sculptures, if they can be found at all, seem to sell for between several hundred and several thousand dollars each. In the late 1960s my two sisters traveled to Europe and, at the request of my grandfather, they stopped by to visit (the by that time elderly) Mr. Cavacos at his Paris home”.

Thankfully Mike Fitzpatrick has posted the Cavacos photographs from that time on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/piedmont_fossil/sets/72157594585161747/

“Most of the photos in this set were sent to my grandfather by Emmanuel Cavacos soon after he moved to Paris. Almost all of them are inscribed on the reverse in the artist’s own handwriting.”

Cindy Anderson, is a fiancee of Pete Capsanes, who is the grandson of Theodore Andrew Cavacos, brother to Emmanuel and Constantine. These are all Baltimore Cavacos Kytherians. Cindy wrote to KAW:
"We just had Pete's family here and were talking about Emmanual Andrew Cavacos which is Pete's Great Great Uncle and the sculptor who ended up migrating from Greece, to Maryland back to Paris where he died. We have many of his sculpted pieces in the family".
Open full entry
Photos, Diaspora Weddings and Proxenia
Kytherian Art

Emmanuel Cavacos Signature at the base of sculpture, 1915

Emmanuel Andrew Cavacos was born in Potamos, Kythera, on February 10th, 1885. He emigrated to the United States of America, when he was sixteen years old, and settled in Baltimore, in the suburb of Hampden, where his brother Constantine was living. Another brother Theodore also chose to live in Baltimore. (Theodore was married to fellow Kytherian Pothiti Chlentzos). In Baltimore he formed a close friendship with Charles Fitzpatrick, with whom he communicated for many years. Photographs and Arts Programs which Cavacos sent to Fitzpatrick form the basis for this (preliminary) biographical sketch.

Having displayed a decided artistic aptitude, he was sent to the Maryland Institute to study painting. He devoted four years to this pursuit, whilst at the same time experimenting with sculptural modeling. Ephraim Keyser, the veteran Baltimore sculptor, who for many years was Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute, was so impressed with the quality of his clay sketches that he advised him to give up painting and devote himself exclusively to sculpture.

Cavacos took this advise, and he made such rapid progress as a student of Ephraim Keyser, that in 1911 he was awarded the Rinehart Scholarship, which enabled him to go to the Beaux Arts School in Paris. In Paris he was known as Emmanuel Andre, Andre being the French version of his middle name, Andrew.

In 1913, one of his works, Aspiration received an Honorable Mention at the Salon des Artistes Francais. The next year his Thinker attracted great attention at the Paris Salon. The first of this “Thinkers” is housed at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the second at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.

In Paris, On October 2nd, 1915, Cavacos married Pauline Pradelle. Pauline was a professional pianist. She practiced her art in the studio where Emmanuel executed his sculptures.

His work made him a well known figure in the art colony of Paris, and he was commissioned to do the portraits of a number of notable citizens, including Mlle. Mistinguett, a prominent actress; Bucot, and Marcelle Ragnon. In 1925 he received a silver medal for a fountain at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. As a tribute to his ability, in 1927, the French Government bestowed upon him the decoration, Officier de l’Acadamie.
In subsequent years he exhibited annually in the Salon, and also at the Salon des Humoristes de Paris, where his dancing figures were highly praised.
His work is in a number of important collections, including that of Queen Marie of Rumania, who purchased one of his marble figures, Grief.

Cavacos’ sculpture has been praised for its variety, able craftsmanship, and for the sense of rhythm it conveys. The French critics emphasized its inherently poetic qualities.

In 1930 Cavacos returned to the United States for the first time in eighteen years. His work was exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art in March of that year. His work was also shown in New York, and later in the year at Homeland. A group of 17 of his sculptures were also placed on display in the National Sculpture Society Exhibition in San Francisco. In May, 1930, he and his wife returned to Paris.

Information about Cavacos post 1930 is difficult to obtain. Hopefully someone can shed more light on his life, in particular the period from 1931 – 1976.

We do know that when members of his family died, Cavacos undertook to create a beautiful monument, and to send it to be erected in the Greek section of a Cemetery in Baltimore, where it still stands today.

It seems that his interest in sculpture continued until well into his old age. When granddaughters of Charles Fitzpatrick (his Baltimore friend) visited him in Paris in 1969, they were photographed with him in his art studio. Many sculptures are visible in the room.

Emmanuel Cavacos died in 1976, aged 91.

Background to the biographical sketch, above

Information about Emmanuel Cavacos is not very extensive. Thankfully, Emmanuel seems to have established a friendship with a Baltimore resident called Charles Fitzpatrick. After Cavacos moved permanently to France he continued to correspond with him. Mike Fitzpatrick (aka Piedmont Fossil), Charles Fitzpatrick’s grandson takes up the story. “Cavacos sent photographs of his studio and his sculptures and even an invitation to his wedding in October 1915. Considering that the wedding took place across the Atlantic and the great time and expense it would require to go there -- not to mention that fact that by then France was deep into World War I -- my grandfather was unable to attend. In 1930 Cavacos made a return visit to the United States for a couple of exhibitions, one in his old hometown of Baltimore and one in New York. I don’t know how successful his exhibitions were considering they took place during the first year of the Great Depression, but today his sculptures, if they can be found at all, seem to sell for between several hundred and several thousand dollars each. In the late 1960s my two sisters traveled to Europe and, at the request of my grandfather, they stopped by to visit (the by that time elderly) Mr. Cavacos at his Paris home”.

Thankfully Mike Fitzpatrick has posted the Cavacos photographs from that time on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/piedmont_fossil/sets/72157594585161747/

“Most of the photos in this set were sent to my grandfather by Emmanuel Cavacos soon after he moved to Paris. Almost all of them are inscribed on the reverse in the artist’s own handwriting.”

Cindy Anderson, is a fiancee of Pete Capsanes, who is the grandson of Theodore Andrew Cavacos, brother to Emmanuel and Constantine. These are all Baltimore Cavacos Kytherians. Cindy wrote to KAW:
"We just had Pete's family here and were talking about Emmanual Andrew Cavacos which is Pete's Great Great Uncle and the sculptor who ended up migrating from Greece, to Maryland back to Paris where he died. We have many of his sculpted pieces in the family".
Open full entry
Photos, Kytherian Art
Kytherian Art

Three sculptures by Emmanuel Cavacos

The artworks are identifed as,

'The Kiss' dancing
'Whirlwind' bronze
'Springtime' bronze

Autographed photograph To dear Chas. Fitzpatrick, Em. Cavacos, March 1930

Emmanuel Andrew Cavacos was born in Potamos, Kythera, on February 10th, 1885. He emigrated to the United States of America, when he was sixteen years old, and settled in Baltimore, in the suburb of Hampden, where his brother Constantine was living. Another brother Theodore also chose to live in Baltimore. (Theodore was married to fellow Kytherian Pothiti Chlentzos). In Baltimore he formed a close friendship with Charles Fitzpatrick, with whom he communicated for many years. Photographs and Arts Programs which Cavacos sent to Fitzpatrick form the basis for this (preliminary) biographical sketch.

Having displayed a decided artistic aptitude, he was sent to the Maryland Institute to study painting. He devoted four years to this pursuit, whilst at the same time experimenting with sculptural modeling. Ephraim Keyser, the veteran Baltimore sculptor, who for many years was Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute, was so impressed with the quality of his clay sketches that he advised him to give up painting and devote himself exclusively to sculpture.

Cavacos took this advise, and he made such rapid progress as a student of Ephraim Keyser, that in 1911 he was awarded the Rinehart Scholarship, which enabled him to go to the Beaux Arts School in Paris. In Paris he was known as Emmanuel Andre, Andre being the French version of his middle name, Andrew.

In 1913, one of his works, Aspiration received an Honorable Mention at the Salon des Artistes Francais. The next year his Thinker attracted great attention at the Paris Salon. The first of this “Thinkers” is housed at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the second at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.

In Paris, On October 2nd, 1915, Cavacos married Pauline Pradelle. Pauline was a professional pianist. She practiced her art in the studio where Emmanuel executed his sculptures.

His work made him a well known figure in the art colony of Paris, and he was commissioned to do the portraits of a number of notable citizens, including Mlle. Mistinguett, a prominent actress; Bucot, and Marcelle Ragnon. In 1925 he received a silver medal for a fountain at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. As a tribute to his ability, in 1927, the French Government bestowed upon him the decoration, Officier de l’Acadamie.
In subsequent years he exhibited annually in the Salon, and also at the Salon des Humoristes de Paris, where his dancing figures were highly praised.
His work is in a number of important collections, including that of Queen Marie of Rumania, who purchased one of his marble figures, Grief.

Cavacos’ sculpture has been praised for its variety, able craftsmanship, and for the sense of rhythm it conveys. The French critics emphasized its inherently poetic qualities.

In 1930 Cavacos returned to the United States for the first time in eighteen years. His work was exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art in March of that year. His work was also shown in New York, and later in the year at Homeland. A group of 17 of his sculptures were also placed on display in the National Sculpture Society Exhibition in San Francisco. In May, 1930, he and his wife returned to Paris.

Information about Cavacos post 1930 is difficult to obtain. Hopefully someone can shed more light on his life, in particular the period from 1931 – 1976.

We do know that when members of his family died, Cavacos undertook to create a beautiful monument, and to send it to be erected in the Greek section of a Cemetery in Baltimore, where it still stands today.

It seems that his interest in sculpture continued until well into his old age. When granddaughters of Charles Fitzpatrick (his Baltimore friend) visited him in Paris in 1969, they were photographed with him in his art studio. Many sculptures are visible in the room.

Emmanuel Cavacos died in 1976, aged 91.

Background to the biographical sketch, above

Information about Emmanuel Cavacos is not very extensive. Thankfully, Emmanuel seems to have established a friendship with a Baltimore resident called Charles Fitzpatrick. After Cavacos moved permanently to France he continued to correspond with him. Mike Fitzpatrick (aka Piedmont Fossil), Charles Fitzpatrick’s grandson takes up the story. “Cavacos sent photographs of his studio and his sculptures and even an invitation to his wedding in October 1915. Considering that the wedding took place across the Atlantic and the great time and expense it would require to go there -- not to mention that fact that by then France was deep into World War I -- my grandfather was unable to attend. In 1930 Cavacos made a return visit to the United States for a couple of exhibitions, one in his old hometown of Baltimore and one in New York. I don’t know how successful his exhibitions were considering they took place during the first year of the Great Depression, but today his sculptures, if they can be found at all, seem to sell for between several hundred and several thousand dollars each. In the late 1960s my two sisters traveled to Europe and, at the request of my grandfather, they stopped by to visit (the by that time elderly) Mr. Cavacos at his Paris home”.

Thankfully Mike Fitzpatrick has posted the Cavacos photographs from that time on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/piedmont_fossil/sets/72157594585161747/

“Most of the photos in this set were sent to my grandfather by Emmanuel Cavacos soon after he moved to Paris. Almost all of them are inscribed on the reverse in the artist’s own handwriting.”

Cindy Anderson, is a fiancee of Pete Capsanes, who is the grandson of Theodore Andrew Cavacos, brother to Emmanuel and Constantine. These are all Baltimore Cavacos Kytherians. Cindy wrote to KAW:
"We just had Pete's family here and were talking about Emmanual Andrew Cavacos which is Pete's Great Great Uncle and the sculptor who ended up migrating from Greece, to Maryland back to Paris where he died. We have many of his sculpted pieces in the family".
Open full entry
Photos, Kytherian Art
Kytherian Art

Nude female bronze by Emmanuel Cavacos

Emmanuel Andrew Cavacos was born in Potamos, Kythera, on February 10th, 1885. He emigrated to the United States of America, when he was sixteen years old, and settled in Baltimore, in the suburb of Hampden, where his brother Constantine was living. Another brother Theodore also chose to live in Baltimore. (Theodore was married to fellow Kytherian Pothiti Chlentzos). In Baltimore he formed a close friendship with Charles Fitzpatrick, with whom he communicated for many years. Photographs and Arts Programs which Cavacos sent to Fitzpatrick form the basis for this (preliminary) biographical sketch.

Having displayed a decided artistic aptitude, he was sent to the Maryland Institute to study painting. He devoted four years to this pursuit, whilst at the same time experimenting with sculptural modeling. Ephraim Keyser, the veteran Baltimore sculptor, who for many years was Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute, was so impressed with the quality of his clay sketches that he advised him to give up painting and devote himself exclusively to sculpture.

Cavacos took this advise, and he made such rapid progress as a student of Ephraim Keyser, that in 1911 he was awarded the Rinehart Scholarship, which enabled him to go to the Beaux Arts School in Paris. In Paris he was known as Emmanuel Andre, Andre being the French version of his middle name, Andrew.

In 1913, one of his works, Aspiration received an Honorable Mention at the Salon des Artistes Francais. The next year his Thinker attracted great attention at the Paris Salon. The first of this “Thinkers” is housed at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the second at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.

In Paris, On October 2nd, 1915, Cavacos married Pauline Pradelle. Pauline was a professional pianist. She practiced her art in the studio where Emmanuel executed his sculptures.

His work made him a well known figure in the art colony of Paris, and he was commissioned to do the portraits of a number of notable citizens, including Mlle. Mistinguett, a prominent actress; Bucot, and Marcelle Ragnon. In 1925 he received a silver medal for a fountain at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. As a tribute to his ability, in 1927, the French Government bestowed upon him the decoration, Officier de l’Acadamie.
In subsequent years he exhibited annually in the Salon, and also at the Salon des Humoristes de Paris, where his dancing figures were highly praised.
His work is in a number of important collections, including that of Queen Marie of Rumania, who purchased one of his marble figures, Grief.

Cavacos’ sculpture has been praised for its variety, able craftsmanship, and for the sense of rhythm it conveys. The French critics emphasized its inherently poetic qualities.

In 1930 Cavacos returned to the United States for the first time in eighteen years. His work was exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art in March of that year. His work was also shown in New York, and later in the year at Homeland. A group of 17 of his sculptures were also placed on display in the National Sculpture Society Exhibition in San Francisco. In May, 1930, he and his wife returned to Paris.

Information about Cavacos post 1930 is difficult to obtain. Hopefully someone can shed more light on his life, in particular the period from 1931 – 1976.

We do know that when members of his family died, Cavacos undertook to create a beautiful monument, and to send it to be erected in the Greek section of a Cemetery in Baltimore, where it still stands today.

It seems that his interest in sculpture continued until well into his old age. When granddaughters of Charles Fitzpatrick (his Baltimore friend) visited him in Paris in 1969, they were photographed with him in his art studio. Many sculptures are visible in the room.

Emmanuel Cavacos died in 1976, aged 91.

Background to the biographical sketch, above

Information about Emmanuel Cavacos is not very extensive. Thankfully, Emmanuel seems to have established a friendship with a Baltimore resident called Charles Fitzpatrick. After Cavacos moved permanently to France he continued to correspond with him. Mike Fitzpatrick (aka Piedmont Fossil), Charles Fitzpatrick’s grandson takes up the story. “Cavacos sent photographs of his studio and his sculptures and even an invitation to his wedding in October 1915. Considering that the wedding took place across the Atlantic and the great time and expense it would require to go there -- not to mention that fact that by then France was deep into World War I -- my grandfather was unable to attend. In 1930 Cavacos made a return visit to the United States for a couple of exhibitions, one in his old hometown of Baltimore and one in New York. I don’t know how successful his exhibitions were considering they took place during the first year of the Great Depression, but today his sculptures, if they can be found at all, seem to sell for between several hundred and several thousand dollars each. In the late 1960s my two sisters traveled to Europe and, at the request of my grandfather, they stopped by to visit (the by that time elderly) Mr. Cavacos at his Paris home”.

Thankfully Mike Fitzpatrick has posted the Cavacos photographs from that time on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/piedmont_fossil/sets/72157594585161747/

“Most of the photos in this set were sent to my grandfather by Emmanuel Cavacos soon after he moved to Paris. Almost all of them are inscribed on the reverse in the artist’s own handwriting.”

Cindy Anderson, is a fiancee of Pete Capsanes, who is the grandson of Theodore Andrew Cavacos, brother to Emmanuel and Constantine. These are all Baltimore Cavacos Kytherians. Cindy wrote to KAW:
"We just had Pete's family here and were talking about Emmanual Andrew Cavacos which is Pete's Great Great Uncle and the sculptor who ended up migrating from Greece, to Maryland back to Paris where he died. We have many of his sculpted pieces in the family".
Open full entry
Photos, Kytherian Art
Kytherian Art

The Thinker, 1914 by Emmanuel Cavacos. The clay model in his studio 1915

Emmanuel Andrew Cavacos was born in Potamos, Kythera, on February 10th, 1885. He emigrated to the United States of America, when he was sixteen years old, and settled in Baltimore, in the suburb of Hampden, where his brother Constantine was living. Another brother Theodore also chose to live in Baltimore. (Theodore was married to fellow Kytherian Pothiti Chlentzos). In Baltimore he formed a close friendship with Charles Fitzpatrick, with whom he communicated for many years. Photographs and Arts Programs which Cavacos sent to Fitzpatrick form the basis for this (preliminary) biographical sketch.

Having displayed a decided artistic aptitude, he was sent to the Maryland Institute to study painting. He devoted four years to this pursuit, whilst at the same time experimenting with sculptural modeling. Ephraim Keyser, the veteran Baltimore sculptor, who for many years was Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute, was so impressed with the quality of his clay sketches that he advised him to give up painting and devote himself exclusively to sculpture.

Cavacos took this advise, and he made such rapid progress as a student of Ephraim Keyser, that in 1911 he was awarded the Rinehart Scholarship, which enabled him to go to the Beaux Arts School in Paris. In Paris he was known as Emmanuel Andre, Andre being the French version of his middle name, Andrew.

In 1913, one of his works, Aspiration received an Honorable Mention at the Salon des Artistes Francais. The next year his Thinker attracted great attention at the Paris Salon. The first of this “Thinkers” is housed at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the second at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.

In Paris, On October 2nd, 1915, Cavacos married Pauline Pradelle. Pauline was a professional pianist. She practiced her art in the studio where Emmanuel executed his sculptures.

His work made him a well known figure in the art colony of Paris, and he was commissioned to do the portraits of a number of notable citizens, including Mlle. Mistinguett, a prominent actress; Bucot, and Marcelle Ragnon. In 1925 he received a silver medal for a fountain at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. As a tribute to his ability, in 1927, the French Government bestowed upon him the decoration, Officier de l’Acadamie.
In subsequent years he exhibited annually in the Salon, and also at the Salon des Humoristes de Paris, where his dancing figures were highly praised.
His work is in a number of important collections, including that of Queen Marie of Rumania, who purchased one of his marble figures, Grief.

Cavacos’ sculpture has been praised for its variety, able craftsmanship, and for the sense of rhythm it conveys. The French critics emphasized its inherently poetic qualities.

In 1930 Cavacos returned to the United States for the first time in eighteen years. His work was exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art in March of that year. His work was also shown in New York, and later in the year at Homeland. A group of 17 of his sculptures were also placed on display in the National Sculpture Society Exhibition in San Francisco. In May, 1930, he and his wife returned to Paris.

Information about Cavacos post 1930 is difficult to obtain. Hopefully someone can shed more light on his life, in particular the period from 1931 – 1976.

We do know that when members of his family died, Cavacos undertook to create a beautiful monument, and to send it to be erected in the Greek section of a Cemetery in Baltimore, where it still stands today.

It seems that his interest in sculpture continued until well into his old age. When granddaughters of Charles Fitzpatrick (his Baltimore friend) visited him in Paris in 1969, they were photographed with him in his art studio. Many sculptures are visible in the room.

Emmanuel Cavacos died in 1976, aged 91.

Background to the biographical sketch, above

Information about Emmanuel Cavacos is not very extensive. Thankfully, Emmanuel seems to have established a friendship with a Baltimore resident called Charles Fitzpatrick. After Cavacos moved permanently to France he continued to correspond with him. Mike Fitzpatrick (aka Piedmont Fossil), Charles Fitzpatrick’s grandson takes up the story. “Cavacos sent photographs of his studio and his sculptures and even an invitation to his wedding in October 1915. Considering that the wedding took place across the Atlantic and the great time and expense it would require to go there -- not to mention that fact that by then France was deep into World War I -- my grandfather was unable to attend. In 1930 Cavacos made a return visit to the United States for a couple of exhibitions, one in his old hometown of Baltimore and one in New York. I don’t know how successful his exhibitions were considering they took place during the first year of the Great Depression, but today his sculptures, if they can be found at all, seem to sell for between several hundred and several thousand dollars each. In the late 1960s my two sisters traveled to Europe and, at the request of my grandfather, they stopped by to visit (the by that time elderly) Mr. Cavacos at his Paris home”.

Thankfully Mike Fitzpatrick has posted the Cavacos photographs from that time on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/piedmont_fossil/sets/72157594585161747/

“Most of the photos in this set were sent to my grandfather by Emmanuel Cavacos soon after he moved to Paris. Almost all of them are inscribed on the reverse in the artist’s own handwriting.”

Cindy Anderson, is a fiancee of Pete Capsanes, who is the grandson of Theodore Andrew Cavacos, brother to Emmanuel and Constantine. These are all Baltimore Cavacos Kytherians. Cindy wrote to KAW:
"We just had Pete's family here and were talking about Emmanual Andrew Cavacos which is Pete's Great Great Uncle and the sculptor who ended up migrating from Greece, to Maryland back to Paris where he died. We have many of his sculpted pieces in the family".
Open full entry
Photos, Kytherian Art
Kytherian Art

Nude female bronze by Emmanuel Cavacos

Emmanuel Andrew Cavacos was born in Potamos, Kythera, on February 10th, 1885. He emigrated to the United States of America, when he was sixteen years old, and settled in Baltimore, in the suburb of Hampden, where his brother Constantine was living. Another brother Theodore also chose to live in Baltimore. (Theodore was married to fellow Kytherian Pothiti Chlentzos). In Baltimore he formed a close friendship with Charles Fitzpatrick, with whom he communicated for many years. Photographs and Arts Programs which Cavacos sent to Fitzpatrick form the basis for this (preliminary) biographical sketch.

Having displayed a decided artistic aptitude, he was sent to the Maryland Institute to study painting. He devoted four years to this pursuit, whilst at the same time experimenting with sculptural modeling. Ephraim Keyser, the veteran Baltimore sculptor, who for many years was Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute, was so impressed with the quality of his clay sketches that he advised him to give up painting and devote himself exclusively to sculpture.

Cavacos took this advise, and he made such rapid progress as a student of Ephraim Keyser, that in 1911 he was awarded the Rinehart Scholarship, which enabled him to go to the Beaux Arts School in Paris. In Paris he was known as Emmanuel Andre, Andre being the French version of his middle name, Andrew.

In 1913, one of his works, Aspiration received an Honorable Mention at the Salon des Artistes Francais. The next year his Thinker attracted great attention at the Paris Salon. The first of this “Thinkers” is housed at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the second at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.

In Paris, On October 2nd, 1915, Cavacos married Pauline Pradelle. Pauline was a professional pianist. She practiced her art in the studio where Emmanuel executed his sculptures.

His work made him a well known figure in the art colony of Paris, and he was commissioned to do the portraits of a number of notable citizens, including Mlle. Mistinguett, a prominent actress; Bucot, and Marcelle Ragnon. In 1925 he received a silver medal for a fountain at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. As a tribute to his ability, in 1927, the French Government bestowed upon him the decoration, Officier de l’Acadamie.
In subsequent years he exhibited annually in the Salon, and also at the Salon des Humoristes de Paris, where his dancing figures were highly praised.
His work is in a number of important collections, including that of Queen Marie of Rumania, who purchased one of his marble figures, Grief.

Cavacos’ sculpture has been praised for its variety, able craftsmanship, and for the sense of rhythm it conveys. The French critics emphasized its inherently poetic qualities.

In 1930 Cavacos returned to the United States for the first time in eighteen years. His work was exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art in March of that year. His work was also shown in New York, and later in the year at Homeland. A group of 17 of his sculptures were also placed on display in the National Sculpture Society Exhibition in San Francisco. In May, 1930, he and his wife returned to Paris.

Information about Cavacos post 1930 is difficult to obtain. Hopefully someone can shed more light on his life, in particular the period from 1931 – 1976.

We do know that when members of his family died, Cavacos undertook to create a beautiful monument, and to send it to be erected in the Greek section of a Cemetery in Baltimore, where it still stands today.

It seems that his interest in sculpture continued until well into his old age. When granddaughters of Charles Fitzpatrick (his Baltimore friend) visited him in Paris in 1969, they were photographed with him in his art studio. Many sculptures are visible in the room.

Emmanuel Cavacos died in 1976, aged 91.

Background to the biographical sketch, above

Information about Emmanuel Cavacos is not very extensive. Thankfully, Emmanuel seems to have established a friendship with a Baltimore resident called Charles Fitzpatrick. After Cavacos moved permanently to France he continued to correspond with him. Mike Fitzpatrick (aka Piedmont Fossil), Charles Fitzpatrick’s grandson takes up the story. “Cavacos sent photographs of his studio and his sculptures and even an invitation to his wedding in October 1915. Considering that the wedding took place across the Atlantic and the great time and expense it would require to go there -- not to mention that fact that by then France was deep into World War I -- my grandfather was unable to attend. In 1930 Cavacos made a return visit to the United States for a couple of exhibitions, one in his old hometown of Baltimore and one in New York. I don’t know how successful his exhibitions were considering they took place during the first year of the Great Depression, but today his sculptures, if they can be found at all, seem to sell for between several hundred and several thousand dollars each. In the late 1960s my two sisters traveled to Europe and, at the request of my grandfather, they stopped by to visit (the by that time elderly) Mr. Cavacos at his Paris home”.

Thankfully Mike Fitzpatrick has posted the Cavacos photographs from that time on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/piedmont_fossil/sets/72157594585161747/

“Most of the photos in this set were sent to my grandfather by Emmanuel Cavacos soon after he moved to Paris. Almost all of them are inscribed on the reverse in the artist’s own handwriting.”

Cindy Anderson, is a fiancee of Pete Capsanes, who is the grandson of Theodore Andrew Cavacos, brother to Emmanuel and Constantine. These are all Baltimore Cavacos Kytherians. Cindy wrote to KAW:
"We just had Pete's family here and were talking about Emmanual Andrew Cavacos which is Pete's Great Great Uncle and the sculptor who ended up migrating from Greece, to Maryland back to Paris where he died. We have many of his sculpted pieces in the family".
Open full entry
Photos, Kytherian Art
Kytherian Art

Head of Bacchante Paris 7 10 1913. Sculpture by Emmanuel Cavacos

Emmanuel Andrew Cavacos was born in Potamos, Kythera, on February 10th, 1885. He emigrated to the United States of America, when he was sixteen years old, and settled in Baltimore, in the suburb of Hampden, where his brother Constantine was living. Another brother Theodore also chose to live in Baltimore. (Theodore was married to fellow Kytherian Pothiti Chlentzos). In Baltimore he formed a close friendship with Charles Fitzpatrick, with whom he communicated for many years. Photographs and Arts Programs which Cavacos sent to Fitzpatrick form the basis for this (preliminary) biographical sketch.

Having displayed a decided artistic aptitude, he was sent to the Maryland Institute to study painting. He devoted four years to this pursuit, whilst at the same time experimenting with sculptural modeling. Ephraim Keyser, the veteran Baltimore sculptor, who for many years was Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute, was so impressed with the quality of his clay sketches that he advised him to give up painting and devote himself exclusively to sculpture.

Cavacos took this advise, and he made such rapid progress as a student of Ephraim Keyser, that in 1911 he was awarded the Rinehart Scholarship, which enabled him to go to the Beaux Arts School in Paris. In Paris he was known as Emmanuel Andre, Andre being the French version of his middle name, Andrew.

In 1913, one of his works, Aspiration received an Honorable Mention at the Salon des Artistes Francais. The next year his Thinker attracted great attention at the Paris Salon. The first of this “Thinkers” is housed at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the second at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.

In Paris, On October 2nd, 1915, Cavacos married Pauline Pradelle. Pauline was a professional pianist. She practiced her art in the studio where Emmanuel executed his sculptures.

His work made him a well known figure in the art colony of Paris, and he was commissioned to do the portraits of a number of notable citizens, including Mlle. Mistinguett, a prominent actress; Bucot, and Marcelle Ragnon. In 1925 he received a silver medal for a fountain at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. As a tribute to his ability, in 1927, the French Government bestowed upon him the decoration, Officier de l’Acadamie.
In subsequent years he exhibited annually in the Salon, and also at the Salon des Humoristes de Paris, where his dancing figures were highly praised.
His work is in a number of important collections, including that of Queen Marie of Rumania, who purchased one of his marble figures, Grief.

Cavacos’ sculpture has been praised for its variety, able craftsmanship, and for the sense of rhythm it conveys. The French critics emphasized its inherently poetic qualities.

In 1930 Cavacos returned to the United States for the first time in eighteen years. His work was exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art in March of that year. His work was also shown in New York, and later in the year at Homeland. A group of 17 of his sculptures were also placed on display in the National Sculpture Society Exhibition in San Francisco. In May, 1930, he and his wife returned to Paris.

Information about Cavacos post 1930 is difficult to obtain. Hopefully someone can shed more light on his life, in particular the period from 1931 – 1976.

We do know that when members of his family died, Cavacos undertook to create a beautiful monument, and to send it to be erected in the Greek section of a Cemetery in Baltimore, where it still stands today.

It seems that his interest in sculpture continued until well into his old age. When granddaughters of Charles Fitzpatrick (his Baltimore friend) visited him in Paris in 1969, they were photographed with him in his art studio. Many sculptures are visible in the room.

Emmanuel Cavacos died in 1976, aged 91.

Background to the biographical sketch, above

Information about Emmanuel Cavacos is not very extensive. Thankfully, Emmanuel seems to have established a friendship with a Baltimore resident called Charles Fitzpatrick. After Cavacos moved permanently to France he continued to correspond with him. Mike Fitzpatrick (aka Piedmont Fossil), Charles Fitzpatrick’s grandson takes up the story. “Cavacos sent photographs of his studio and his sculptures and even an invitation to his wedding in October 1915. Considering that the wedding took place across the Atlantic and the great time and expense it would require to go there -- not to mention that fact that by then France was deep into World War I -- my grandfather was unable to attend. In 1930 Cavacos made a return visit to the United States for a couple of exhibitions, one in his old hometown of Baltimore and one in New York. I don’t know how successful his exhibitions were considering they took place during the first year of the Great Depression, but today his sculptures, if they can be found at all, seem to sell for between several hundred and several thousand dollars each. In the late 1960s my two sisters traveled to Europe and, at the request of my grandfather, they stopped by to visit (the by that time elderly) Mr. Cavacos at his Paris home”.

Thankfully Mike Fitzpatrick has posted the Cavacos photographs from that time on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/piedmont_fossil/sets/72157594585161747/

“Most of the photos in this set were sent to my grandfather by Emmanuel Cavacos soon after he moved to Paris. Almost all of them are inscribed on the reverse in the artist’s own handwriting.”

Cindy Anderson, is a fiancee of Pete Capsanes, who is the grandson of Theodore Andrew Cavacos, brother to Emmanuel and Constantine. These are all Baltimore Cavacos Kytherians. Cindy wrote to KAW:
"We just had Pete's family here and were talking about Emmanual Andrew Cavacos which is Pete's Great Great Uncle and the sculptor who ended up migrating from Greece, to Maryland back to Paris where he died. We have many of his sculpted pieces in the family".
Open full entry
Photos, Kytherian Art
Kytherian Art

1915. Art Studio of Emmanuel Cavacos, Paris.

Emmanuel Andrew Cavacos was born in Potamos, Kythera, on February 10th, 1885. He emigrated to the United States of America, when he was sixteen years old, and settled in Baltimore, in the suburb of Hampden, where his brother Constantine was living. Another brother Theodore also chose to live in Baltimore. (Theodore was married to fellow Kytherian Pothiti Chlentzos). In Baltimore he formed a close friendship with Charles Fitzpatrick, with whom he communicated for many years. Photographs and Arts Programs which Cavacos sent to Fitzpatrick form the basis for this (preliminary) biographical sketch.

Having displayed a decided artistic aptitude, he was sent to the Maryland Institute to study painting. He devoted four years to this pursuit, whilst at the same time experimenting with sculptural modeling. Ephraim Keyser, the veteran Baltimore sculptor, who for many years was Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute, was so impressed with the quality of his clay sketches that he advised him to give up painting and devote himself exclusively to sculpture.

Cavacos took this advise, and he made such rapid progress as a student of Ephraim Keyser, that in 1911 he was awarded the Rinehart Scholarship, which enabled him to go to the Beaux Arts School in Paris. In Paris he was known as Emmanuel Andre, Andre being the French version of his middle name, Andrew.

In 1913, one of his works, Aspiration received an Honorable Mention at the Salon des Artistes Francais. The next year his Thinker attracted great attention at the Paris Salon. The first of this “Thinkers” is housed at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the second at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.

In Paris, On October 2nd, 1915, Cavacos married Pauline Pradelle. Pauline was a professional pianist. She practiced her art in the studio where Emmanuel executed his sculptures.

His work made him a well known figure in the art colony of Paris, and he was commissioned to do the portraits of a number of notable citizens, including Mlle. Mistinguett, a prominent actress; Bucot, and Marcelle Ragnon. In 1925 he received a silver medal for a fountain at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. As a tribute to his ability, in 1927, the French Government bestowed upon him the decoration, Officier de l’Acadamie.
In subsequent years he exhibited annually in the Salon, and also at the Salon des Humoristes de Paris, where his dancing figures were highly praised.
His work is in a number of important collections, including that of Queen Marie of Rumania, who purchased one of his marble figures, Grief.

Cavacos’ sculpture has been praised for its variety, able craftsmanship, and for the sense of rhythm it conveys. The French critics emphasized its inherently poetic qualities.

In 1930 Cavacos returned to the United States for the first time in eighteen years. His work was exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art in March of that year. His work was also shown in New York, and later in the year at Homeland. A group of 17 of his sculptures were also placed on display in the National Sculpture Society Exhibition in San Francisco. In May, 1930, he and his wife returned to Paris.

Information about Cavacos post 1930 is difficult to obtain. Hopefully someone can shed more light on his life, in particular the period from 1931 – 1976.

We do know that when members of his family died, Cavacos undertook to create a beautiful monument, and to send it to be erected in the Greek section of a Cemetery in Baltimore, where it still stands today.

It seems that his interest in sculpture continued until well into his old age. When granddaughters of Charles Fitzpatrick (his Baltimore friend) visited him in Paris in 1969, they were photographed with him in his art studio. Many sculptures are visible in the room.

Emmanuel Cavacos died in 1976, aged 91.

Background to the biographical sketch, above

Information about Emmanuel Cavacos is not very extensive. Thankfully, Emmanuel seems to have established a friendship with a Baltimore resident called Charles Fitzpatrick. After Cavacos moved permanently to France he continued to correspond with him. Mike Fitzpatrick (aka Piedmont Fossil), Charles Fitzpatrick’s grandson takes up the story. “Cavacos sent photographs of his studio and his sculptures and even an invitation to his wedding in October 1915. Considering that the wedding took place across the Atlantic and the great time and expense it would require to go there -- not to mention that fact that by then France was deep into World War I -- my grandfather was unable to attend. In 1930 Cavacos made a return visit to the United States for a couple of exhibitions, one in his old hometown of Baltimore and one in New York. I don’t know how successful his exhibitions were considering they took place during the first year of the Great Depression, but today his sculptures, if they can be found at all, seem to sell for between several hundred and several thousand dollars each. In the late 1960s my two sisters traveled to Europe and, at the request of my grandfather, they stopped by to visit (the by that time elderly) Mr. Cavacos at his Paris home”.

Thankfully Mike Fitzpatrick has posted the Cavacos photographs from that time on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/piedmont_fossil/sets/72157594585161747/

“Most of the photos in this set were sent to my grandfather by Emmanuel Cavacos soon after he moved to Paris. Almost all of them are inscribed on the reverse in the artist’s own handwriting.”

Cindy Anderson, is a fiancee of Pete Capsanes, who is the grandson of Theodore Andrew Cavacos, brother to Emmanuel and Constantine. These are all Baltimore Cavacos Kytherians. Cindy wrote to KAW:
"We just had Pete's family here and were talking about Emmanual Andrew Cavacos which is Pete's Great Great Uncle and the sculptor who ended up migrating from Greece, to Maryland back to Paris where he died. We have many of his sculpted pieces in the family".
Open full entry
Photos, Kytherian Art
Kytherian Art

Aspiration Paris 7 10 1913. Sculpture by Emmanuel Cavacos

The woman in the background may be his then fiance, later wife, Pauline Pradelle.

Emmanuel Andrew Cavacos was born in Potamos, Kythera, on February 10th, 1885. He emigrated to the United States of America, when he was sixteen years old, and settled in Baltimore, in the suburb of Hampden, where his brother Constantine was living. Another brother Theodore also chose to live in Baltimore. (Theodore was married to fellow Kytherian Pothiti Chlentzos). In Baltimore he formed a close friendship with Charles Fitzpatrick, with whom he communicated for many years. Photographs and Arts Programs which Cavacos sent to Fitzpatrick form the basis for this (preliminary) biographical sketch.

Having displayed a decided artistic aptitude, he was sent to the Maryland Institute to study painting. He devoted four years to this pursuit, whilst at the same time experimenting with sculptural modeling. Ephraim Keyser, the veteran Baltimore sculptor, who for many years was Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute, was so impressed with the quality of his clay sketches that he advised him to give up painting and devote himself exclusively to sculpture.

Cavacos took this advise, and he made such rapid progress as a student of Ephraim Keyser, that in 1911 he was awarded the Rinehart Scholarship, which enabled him to go to the Beaux Arts School in Paris. In Paris he was known as Emmanuel Andre, Andre being the French version of his middle name, Andrew.

In 1913, one of his works, Aspiration received an Honorable Mention at the Salon des Artistes Francais. The next year his Thinker attracted great attention at the Paris Salon. The first of this “Thinkers” is housed at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the second at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.

In Paris, On October 2nd, 1915, Cavacos married Pauline Pradelle. Pauline was a professional pianist. She practiced her art in the studio where Emmanuel executed his sculptures.

His work made him a well known figure in the art colony of Paris, and he was commissioned to do the portraits of a number of notable citizens, including Mlle. Mistinguett, a prominent actress; Bucot, and Marcelle Ragnon. In 1925 he received a silver medal for a fountain at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. As a tribute to his ability, in 1927, the French Government bestowed upon him the decoration, Officier de l’Acadamie.
In subsequent years he exhibited annually in the Salon, and also at the Salon des Humoristes de Paris, where his dancing figures were highly praised.
His work is in a number of important collections, including that of Queen Marie of Rumania, who purchased one of his marble figures, Grief.

Cavacos’ sculpture has been praised for its variety, able craftsmanship, and for the sense of rhythm it conveys. The French critics emphasized its inherently poetic qualities.

In 1930 Cavacos returned to the United States for the first time in eighteen years. His work was exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art in March of that year. His work was also shown in New York, and later in the year at Homeland. A group of 17 of his sculptures were also placed on display in the National Sculpture Society Exhibition in San Francisco. In May, 1930, he and his wife returned to Paris.

Information about Cavacos post 1930 is difficult to obtain. Hopefully someone can shed more light on his life, in particular the period from 1931 – 1976.

We do know that when members of his family died, Cavacos undertook to create a beautiful monument, and to send it to be erected in the Greek section of a Cemetery in Baltimore, where it still stands today.

It seems that his interest in sculpture continued until well into his old age. When granddaughters of Charles Fitzpatrick (his Baltimore friend) visited him in Paris in 1969, they were photographed with him in his art studio. Many sculptures are visible in the room.

Emmanuel Cavacos died in 1976, aged 91.

Background to the biographical sketch, above

Information about Emmanuel Cavacos is not very extensive. Thankfully, Emmanuel seems to have established a friendship with a Baltimore resident called Charles Fitzpatrick. After Cavacos moved permanently to France he continued to correspond with him. Mike Fitzpatrick (aka Piedmont Fossil), Charles Fitzpatrick’s grandson takes up the story. “Cavacos sent photographs of his studio and his sculptures and even an invitation to his wedding in October 1915. Considering that the wedding took place across the Atlantic and the great time and expense it would require to go there -- not to mention that fact that by then France was deep into World War I -- my grandfather was unable to attend. In 1930 Cavacos made a return visit to the United States for a couple of exhibitions, one in his old hometown of Baltimore and one in New York. I don’t know how successful his exhibitions were considering they took place during the first year of the Great Depression, but today his sculptures, if they can be found at all, seem to sell for between several hundred and several thousand dollars each. In the late 1960s my two sisters traveled to Europe and, at the request of my grandfather, they stopped by to visit (the by that time elderly) Mr. Cavacos at his Paris home”.

Thankfully Mike Fitzpatrick has posted the Cavacos photographs from that time on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/piedmont_fossil/sets/72157594585161747/

“Most of the photos in this set were sent to my grandfather by Emmanuel Cavacos soon after he moved to Paris. Almost all of them are inscribed on the reverse in the artist’s own handwriting.”

Cindy Anderson, is a fiancee of Pete Capsanes, who is the grandson of Theodore Andrew Cavacos, brother to Emmanuel and Constantine. These are all Baltimore Cavacos Kytherians. Cindy wrote to KAW:
"We just had Pete's family here and were talking about Emmanual Andrew Cavacos which is Pete's Great Great Uncle and the sculptor who ended up migrating from Greece, to Maryland back to Paris where he died. We have many of his sculpted pieces in the family".
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Emmanuel Cavacos and his Paris friends. Cavacos is seated at center and holding a white hat Paris August 22 1912

Emmanuel Andrew Cavacos was born in Potamos, Kythera, on February 10th, 1885. He emigrated to the United States of America, when he was sixteen years old, and settled in Baltimore, in the suburb of Hampden, where his brother Constantine was living. Another brother Theodore also chose to live in Baltimore. (Theodore was married to fellow Kytherian Pothiti Chlentzos). In Baltimore he formed a close friendship with Charles Fitzpatrick, with whom he communicated for many years. Photographs and Arts Programs which Cavacos sent to Fitzpatrick form the basis for this (preliminary) biographical sketch.

Having displayed a decided artistic aptitude, he was sent to the Maryland Institute to study painting. He devoted four years to this pursuit, whilst at the same time experimenting with sculptural modeling. Ephraim Keyser, the veteran Baltimore sculptor, who for many years was Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute, was so impressed with the quality of his clay sketches that he advised him to give up painting and devote himself exclusively to sculpture.

Cavacos took this advise, and he made such rapid progress as a student of Ephraim Keyser, that in 1911 he was awarded the Rinehart Scholarship, which enabled him to go to the Beaux Arts School in Paris. In Paris he was known as Emmanuel Andre, Andre being the French version of his middle name, Andrew.

In 1913, one of his works, Aspiration received an Honorable Mention at the Salon des Artistes Francais. The next year his Thinker attracted great attention at the Paris Salon. The first of this “Thinkers” is housed at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the second at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.

In Paris, On October 2nd, 1915, Cavacos married Pauline Pradelle.
Pauline was a professional pianist. She practiced her art in the studio where Emmanuel executed his sculptures.

His work made him a well known figure in the art colony of Paris, and he was commissioned to do the portraits of a number of notable citizens, including Mlle. Mistinguett, a prominent actress; Bucot, and Marcelle Ragnon. In 1925 he received a silver medal for a fountain at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. As a tribute to his ability, in 1927, the French Government bestowed upon him the decoration, Officier de l’Acadamie.
In subsequent years he exhibited annually in the Salon, and also at the Salon des Humoristes de Paris, where his dancing figures were highly praised.
His work is in a number of important collections, including that of Queen Marie of Rumania, who purchased one of his marble figures, Grief.

Cavacos’ sculpture has been praised for its variety, able craftsmanship, and for the sense of rhythm it conveys. The French critics emphasized its inherently poetic qualities.

In 1930 Cavacos returned to the United States for the first time in eighteen years. His work was exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art in March of that year. His work was also shown in New York, and later in the year at Homeland. A group of 17 of his sculptures were also placed on display in the National Sculpture Society Exhibition in San Francisco. In May, 1930, he and his wife returned to Paris.

Information about Cavacos post 1930 is difficult to obtain. Hopefully someone can shed more light on his life, in particular the period from 1931 – 1976.

We do know that when members of his family died, Cavacos undertook to create a beautiful monument, and to send it to be erected in the Greek section of a Cemetery in Baltimore, where it still stands today.

It seems that his interest in sculpture continued until well into his old age. When granddaughters of Charles Fitzpatrick (his Baltimore friend) visited him in Paris in 1969, they were photographed with him in his art studio. Many sculptures are visible in the room.

Emmanuel Cavacos died in 1976, aged 91.

Background to the biographical sketch, above

Information about Emmanuel Cavacos is not very extensive. Thankfully, Emmanuel seems to have established a friendship with a Baltimore resident called Charles Fitzpatrick. After Cavacos moved permanently to France he continued to correspond with him. Mike Fitzpatrick (aka Piedmont Fossil), Charles Fitzpatrick’s grandson takes up the story. “Cavacos sent photographs of his studio and his sculptures and even an invitation to his wedding in October 1915. Considering that the wedding took place across the Atlantic and the great time and expense it would require to go there -- not to mention that fact that by then France was deep into World War I -- my grandfather was unable to attend. In 1930 Cavacos made a return visit to the United States for a couple of exhibitions, one in his old hometown of Baltimore and one in New York. I don’t know how successful his exhibitions were considering they took place during the first year of the Great Depression, but today his sculptures, if they can be found at all, seem to sell for between several hundred and several thousand dollars each. In the late 1960s my two sisters traveled to Europe and, at the request of my grandfather, they stopped by to visit (the by that time elderly) Mr. Cavacos at his Paris home”.

Thankfully Mike Fitzpatrick has posted the Cavacos photographs from that time on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/piedmont_fossil/sets/72157594585161747/

“Most of the photos in this set were sent to my grandfather by Emmanuel Cavacos soon after he moved to Paris. Almost all of them are inscribed on the reverse in the artist’s own handwriting.”

Cindy Anderson, is a fiancee of Pete Capsanes, who is the grandson of Theodore Andrew Cavacos, brother to Emmanuel and Constantine. These are all Baltimore Cavacos Kytherians. Cindy wrote to KAW:
"We just had Pete's family here and were talking about Emmanual Andrew Cavacos which is Pete's Great Great Uncle and the sculptor who ended up migrating from Greece, to Maryland back to Paris where he died. We have many of his sculpted pieces in the family".
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Emmanuel Cavacos in 1969, with grandaughters of Baltimore friend Charles Fitzpatrick

Emmanuel Andrew Cavacos was born in Potamos, Kythera, on February 10th, 1885. He emigrated to the United States of America, when he was sixteen years old, and settled in Baltimore, in the suburb of Hampden, where his brother Constantine was living. Another brother Theodore also chose to live in Baltimore. (Theodore was married to fellow Kytherian Pothiti Chlentzos). In Baltimore he formed a close friendship with Charles Fitzpatrick, with whom he communicated for many years. Photographs and Arts Programs which Cavacos sent to Fitzpatrick form the basis for this (preliminary) biographical sketch.

Having displayed a decided artistic aptitude, he was sent to the Maryland Institute to study painting. He devoted four years to this pursuit, whilst at the same time experimenting with sculptural modeling. Ephraim Keyser, the veteran Baltimore sculptor, who for many years was Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute, was so impressed with the quality of his clay sketches that he advised him to give up painting and devote himself exclusively to sculpture.

Cavacos took this advise, and he made such rapid progress as a student of Ephraim Keyser, that in 1911 he was awarded the Rinehart Scholarship, which enabled him to go to the Beaux Arts School in Paris. In Paris he was known as Emmanuel Andre, Andre being the French version of his middle name, Andrew. In 1913, one of his works, Aspiration received an Honorable Mention at the Salon des Artistes Francais. The next year his Thinker attracted great attention at the Paris Salon. The first of this “Thinkers” is housed at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the second at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.

In Paris, On October 2nd, 1915, Cavacos married Pauline Pradelle.
Pauline was a professional pianist. She practiced her art in the studio where Emmanuel executed his sculptures.

His work made him a well known figure in the art colony of Paris, and he was commissioned to do the portraits of a number of notable citizens, including Mlle. Mistinguett, a prominent actress; Bucot, and Marcelle Ragnon. In 1925 he received a silver medal for a fountain at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. As a tribute to his ability, in 1927, the French Government bestowed upon him the decoration, Officier de l’Acadamie.
In subsequent years he exhibited annually in the Salon, and also at the Salon des Humoristes de Paris, where his dancing figures were highly praised. His work is in a number of important collections, including that of Queen Marie of Rumania, who purchased one of his marble figures, Grief.

Cavacos’ sculpture has been praised for its variety, able craftsmanship, and for the sense of rhythm it conveys. The French critics emphasized its inherently poetic qualities.

In 1930 Cavacos returned to the United States for the first time in eighteen years. His work was exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art in March of that year. His work was also shown in New York, and later in the year at Homeland. A group of 17 of his sculptures were also placed on display in the National Sculpture Society Exhibition in San Francisco. In May, 1930, he and his wife returned to Paris.

Information about Cavacos post 1930 is difficult to obtain. Hopefully someone can shed more light on his life, in particular the period from 1931 – 1976.

We do know that when members of his family died, Cavacos undertook to create a beautiful monument, and to send it to be erected in the Greek section of a Cemetery in Baltimore, where it still stands today.

It seems that his interest in sculpture continued until well into his old age. When granddaughters of Charles Fitzpatrick (his Baltimore friend) visited him in Paris in 1969, they were photographed with him in his art studio. Many sculptures are visible in the room.

Emmanuel Cavacos died in 1976, aged 91.

Background to the biographical sketch, above

Information about Emmanuel Cavacos is not very extensive. Thankfully, Emmanuel seems to have established a friendship with a Baltimore resident called Charles Fitzpatrick. After Cavacos moved permanently to France he continued to correspond with him. Mike Fitzpatrick (aka Piedmont Fossil), Charles Fitzpatrick’s grandson takes up the story. “Cavacos sent photographs of his studio and his sculptures and even an invitation to his wedding in October 1915. Considering that the wedding took place across the Atlantic and the great time and expense it would require to go there -- not to mention that fact that by then France was deep into World War I -- my grandfather was unable to attend. In 1930 Cavacos made a return visit to the United States for a couple of exhibitions, one in his old hometown of Baltimore and one in New York. I don’t know how successful his exhibitions were considering they took place during the first year of the Great Depression, but today his sculptures, if they can be found at all, seem to sell for between several hundred and several thousand dollars each. In the late 1960s my two sisters traveled to Europe and, at the request of my grandfather, they stopped by to visit (the by that time elderly) Mr. Cavacos at his Paris home”.

Thankfully Mike Fitzpatrick has posted the Cavacos photographs from that time on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/piedmont_fossil/sets/72157594585161747/

“Most of the photos in this set were sent to my grandfather by Emmanuel Cavacos soon after he moved to Paris. Almost all of them are inscribed on the reverse in the artist’s own handwriting.”

Cindy Anderson, is a fiancee of Pete Capsanes, who is the grandson of Theodore Andrew Cavacos, brother to Emmanuel and Constantine. These are all Baltimore Cavacos Kytherians. Cindy wrote to KAW:
"We just had Pete's family here and were talking about Emmanual Andrew Cavacos which is Pete's Great Great Uncle and the sculptor who ended up migrating from Greece, to Maryland back to Paris where he died. We have many of his sculpted pieces in the family".
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Cavacos monument created by Emmanuel Cavaco, in the Greek section of Woodlawn Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland

When members of his family died, Emmanuel Cavacos, undertook to create a beautiful monument, and to send it to be erected in the Greek section of this Cemetery in Baltimore. This is a recent photo of that magnifcent monument.

Woodlawn Cemetery
2130 Woodlawn Drive
Baltimore, Maryland, 21207

Greek-Americans and Kytherian-Americans interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery have been chronicled by Parish Historian, Nicholas M Prevos, in the book, Gone But Not Forgotten. A Definitive History of the Greek Section of Woodlawn Cemetery.

The Cavacos monument features in this book.

Nicholas M Prevos is the Parish Historian of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation, the publishers of the book.

Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation,
24 West Preston Street,
Baltimore, Maryland, 21201.

Emmanuel Andrew Cavacos was born in Potamos, Kythera, on February 10th, 1885. He emigrated to the United States of America, when he was sixteen years old, and settled in Baltimore, in the suburb of Hampden, where his brother Constantine was living. Another brother Theodore also chose to live in Baltimore. (Theodore was married to fellow Kytherian Pothiti Chlentzos). In Baltimore he formed a close friendship with Charles Fitzpatrick, with whom he communicated for many years. Photographs and Arts Programs which Cavacos sent to Fitzpatrick form the basis for this (preliminary) biographical sketch.

Having displayed a decided artistic aptitude, he was sent to the Maryland Institute to study painting. He devoted four years to this pursuit, whilst at the same time experimenting with sculptural modeling. Ephraim Keyser, the veteran Baltimore sculptor, who for many years was Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute, was so impressed with the quality of his clay sketches that he advised him to give up painting and devote himself exclusively to sculpture.

Cavacos took this advise, and he made such rapid progress as a student of Ephraim Keyser, that in 1911 he was awarded the Rinehart Scholarship, which enabled him to go to the Beaux Arts School in Paris. In Paris he was known as Emmanuel Andre, Andre being the French version of his middle name, Andrew.

In 1913, one of his works, Aspiration received an Honorable Mention at the Salon des Artistes Francais. The next year his Thinker attracted great attention at the Paris Salon. The first of this “Thinkers” is housed at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the second at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.

In Paris, On October 2nd, 1915, Cavacos married Pauline Pradelle. Pauline was a professional pianist. She practiced her art in the studio where Emmanuel executed his sculptures.

His work made him a well known figure in the art colony of Paris, and he was commissioned to do the portraits of a number of notable citizens, including Mlle. Mistinguett, a prominent actress; Bucot, and Marcelle Ragnon. In 1925 he received a silver medal for a fountain at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. As a tribute to his ability, in 1927, the French Government bestowed upon him the decoration, Officier de l’Acadamie.
In subsequent years he exhibited annually in the Salon, and also at the Salon des Humoristes de Paris, where his dancing figures were highly praised. His work is in a number of important collections, including that of Queen Marie of Rumania, who purchased one of his marble figures, Grief.

Cavacos’ sculpture has been praised for its variety, able craftsmanship, and for the sense of rhythm it conveys. The French critics emphasized its inherently poetic qualities.

In 1930 Cavacos returned to the United States for the first time in eighteen years. His work was exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art in March of that year. His work was also shown in New York, and later in the year at Homeland. A group of 17 of his sculptures were also placed on display in the National Sculpture Society Exhibition in San Francisco. In May, 1930, he and his wife returned to Paris.

Information about Cavacos post 1930 is difficult to obtain. Hopefully someone can shed more light on his life, in particular the period from 1931 – 1976.

We do know that when members of his family died, Cavacos undertook to create a beautiful monument, and to send it to be erected in the Greek section of a Cemetery in Baltimore, where it still stands today.

It seems that his interest in sculpture continued until well into his old age. When granddaughters of Charles Fitzpatrick (his Baltimore friend) visited him in Paris in 1969, they were photographed with him in his art studio. Many sculptures are visible in the room.

Emmanuel Cavacos died in 1976, aged 91.

Background to the biographical sketch, above

Information about Emmanuel Cavacos is not very extensive. Thankfully, Emmanuel seems to have established a friendship with a Baltimore resident called Charles Fitzpatrick. After Cavacos moved permanently to France he continued to correspond with him. Mike Fitzpatrick (aka Piedmont Fossil), Charles Fitzpatrick’s grandson takes up the story. “Cavacos sent photographs of his studio and his sculptures and even an invitation to his wedding in October 1915. Considering that the wedding took place across the Atlantic and the great time and expense it would require to go there -- not to mention that fact that by then France was deep into World War I -- my grandfather was unable to attend. In 1930 Cavacos made a return visit to the United States for a couple of exhibitions, one in his old hometown of Baltimore and one in New York. I don’t know how successful his exhibitions were considering they took place during the first year of the Great Depression, but today his sculptures, if they can be found at all, seem to sell for between several hundred and several thousand dollars each. In the late 1960s my two sisters traveled to Europe and, at the request of my grandfather, they stopped by to visit (the by that time elderly) Mr. Cavacos at his Paris home”.

Thankfully Mike Fitzpatrick has posted the Cavacos photographs from that time on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/piedmont_fossil/sets/72157594585161747/

“Most of the photos in this set were sent to my grandfather by Emmanuel Cavacos soon after he moved to Paris. Almost all of them are inscribed on the reverse in the artist’s own handwriting.”

Cindy Anderson, is a fiancee of Pete Capsanes, who is the grandson of Theodore Andrew Cavacos, brother to Emmanuel and Constantine. These are all Baltimore Cavacos Kytherians. Cindy wrote to KAW:
"We just had Pete's family here and were talking about Emmanual Andrew Cavacos which is Pete's Great Great Uncle and the sculptor who ended up migrating from Greece, to Maryland back to Paris where he died. We have many of his sculpted pieces in the family".
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Emmanuel Andrew Cavacos in his Paris Studio

Emmanuel Andrew Cavacos was born in Potamos, Kythera, on February 10th, 1885. He emigrated to the United States of America, when he was sixteen years old, and settled in Baltimore, in the suburb of Hampden, where his brother Constantine was living. Another brother Theodore also chose to live in Baltimore. (Theodore was married to fellow Kytherian Pothiti Chlentzos). In Baltimore he formed a close friendship with Charles Fitzpatrick, with whom he communicated for many years. Photographs and Arts Programs which Cavacos sent to Fitzpatrick form the basis for this (preliminary) biographical sketch.

Having displayed a decided artistic aptitude, he was sent to the Maryland Institute to study painting. He devoted four years to this pursuit, whilst at the same time experimenting with sculptural modeling. Ephraim Keyser, the veteran Baltimore sculptor, who for many years was Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute, was so impressed with the quality of his clay sketches that he advised him to give up painting and devote himself exclusively to sculpture.

Cavacos took this advise, and he made such rapid progress as a student of Ephraim Keyser, that in 1911 he was awarded the Rinehart Scholarship, which enabled him to go to the Beaux Arts School in Paris. In Paris he was known as Emmanuel Andre, Andre being the French version of his middle name, Andrew. In 1913, one of his works, Aspiration received an Honorable Mention at the Salon des Artistes Francais. The next year his Thinker attracted great attention at the Paris Salon. The first of this “Thinkers” is housed at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the second at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.

In Paris, On October 2nd, 1915, Cavacos married Pauline Pradelle. Pauline was a professional pianist. She practiced her art in the studio where Emmanuel executed his sculptures.

His work made him a well known figure in the art colony of Paris, and he was commissioned to do the portraits of a number of notable citizens, including Mlle. Mistinguett, a prominent actress; Bucot, and Marcelle Ragnon. In 1925 he received a silver medal for a fountain at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. As a tribute to his ability, in 1927, the French Government bestowed upon him the decoration, Officier de l’Acadamie.
In subsequent years he exhibited annually in the Salon, and also at the Salon des Humoristes de Paris, where his dancing figures were highly praised.
His work is in a number of important collections, including that of Queen Marie of Rumania, who purchased one of his marble figures, Grief.

Cavacos’ sculpture has been praised for its variety, able craftsmanship, and for the sense of rhythm it conveys. The French critics emphasized its inherently poetic qualities.

In 1930 Cavacos returned to the United States for the first time in eighteen years. His work was exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art in March of that year. His work was also shown in New York, and later in the year at Homeland. A group of 17 of his sculptures were also placed on display in the National Sculpture Society Exhibition in San Francisco. In May, 1930, he and his wife returned to Paris.

Information about Cavacos post 1930 is difficult to obtain. Hopefully someone can shed more light on his life, in particular the period from 1931 – 1976.

We do know that when members of his family died, Cavacos undertook to create a beautiful monument, and to send it to be erected in the Greek section of a Cemetery in Baltimore, where it still stands today.

It seems that his interest in sculpture continued until well into his old age. When granddaughters of Charles Fitzpatrick (his Baltimore friend) visited him in Paris in 1969, they were photographed with him in his art studio. Many sculptures are visible in the room.

Emmanuel Cavacos died in 1976, aged 91.

Background to the biographical sketch, above

Information about Emmanuel Cavacos is not very extensive. Thankfully, Emmanuel seems to have established a friendship with a Baltimore resident called Charles Fitzpatrick. After Cavacos moved permanently to France he continued to correspond with him. Mike Fitzpatrick (aka Piedmont Fossil), Charles Fitzpatrick’s grandson takes up the story. “Cavacos sent photographs of his studio and his sculptures and even an invitation to his wedding in October 1915. Considering that the wedding took place across the Atlantic and the great time and expense it would require to go there -- not to mention that fact that by then France was deep into World War I -- my grandfather was unable to attend. In 1930 Cavacos made a return visit to the United States for a couple of exhibitions, one in his old hometown of Baltimore and one in New York. I don’t know how successful his exhibitions were considering they took place during the first year of the Great Depression, but today his sculptures, if they can be found at all, seem to sell for between several hundred and several thousand dollars each. In the late 1960s my two sisters traveled to Europe and, at the request of my grandfather, they stopped by to visit (the by that time elderly) Mr. Cavacos at his Paris home”.

Thankfully Mike Fitzpatrick has posted the Cavacos photographs from that time on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/piedmont_fossil/sets/72157594585161747/

“Most of the photos in this set were sent to my grandfather by Emmanuel Cavacos soon after he moved to Paris. Almost all of them are inscribed on the reverse in the artist’s own handwriting.”

Cindy Anderson, is a fiancee of Pete Capsanes, who is the grandson of Theodore Andrew Cavacos, brother to Emmanuel and Constantine. These are all Baltimore Cavacos Kytherians. Cindy wrote to KAW:
"We just had Pete's family here and were talking about Emmanual Andrew Cavacos which is Pete's Great Great Uncle and the sculptor who ended up migrating from Greece, to Maryland back to Paris where he died. We have many of his sculpted pieces in the family".
Open full entry
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Notable Kytherians

Emmanuel Andrew Cavacos

[[picture:"Cavacos in his Paris Studio.jpg" ID:19430]]

Emmanuel Andrew Cavacos was born in Potamos, Kythera, on February 10th, 1885. He emigrated to the United States of America, when he was sixteen years old, and settled in Baltimore, in the suburb of Hampden, where his brother Constantine was living. Another brother Theodore also chose to live in Baltimore. (Theodore was married to fellow Kytherian Pothiti Chlentzos). In Baltimore he formed a close friendship with Charles Fitzpatrick, with whom he communicated for many years. Photographs and Arts Programs which Cavacos sent to Fitzpatrick form the basis for this (preliminary) biographical sketch.

Having displayed a decided artistic aptitude, he was sent to the Maryland Institute to study painting. He devoted four years to this pursuit, whilst at the same time experimenting with sculptural modeling. Ephraim Keyser, the veteran Baltimore sculptor, who for many years was Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute, was so impressed with the quality of his clay sketches that he advised him to give up painting and devote himself exclusively to sculpture.

Cavacos took this advise, and he made such rapid progress as a student of Ephraim Keyser, that in 1911 he was awarded the Rinehart Scholarship, which enabled him to go to the Beaux Arts School in Paris.

[[picture:"Emmanuel Cavacos and his Paris friends. Cavacos is seated at center and holding a white hat Paris August 22 1912.jpg" ID:19438]]

Emmanuel Cavacos and his Paris friends. Cavacos is seated at center and holding a white hat Paris August 22 1912

In Paris he was known as Emmanuel Andre, Andre being the French version of his middle name, Andrew.

[[picture:"Postcard of Aspiration This sculpture, entitled Aspiration, won honorable mention at the Solon des Artistes Francais in 1913.jpg" ID:19431]]

Postcard of Aspiration This sculpture, entitled Aspiration, won honorable mention at the Solon des Artistes Francais in 1913

In 1913, one of his works, Aspiration received an Honorable Mention at the Salon des Artistes Francais.

[[picture:"Thinker Salon des Artistes Francais 1914.jpg" ID:19432]]

Thinker Salon des Artistes Francais 1914

The next year his Thinker attracted great attention at the Paris Salon. The first of this “Thinkers” is housed at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the second at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.

In Paris, On October 2nd, 1915, Cavacos married Pauline Pradelle.

[[picture:"The bride (Pauline Pradelle) and groom (Emmanuel Cavacos) are seated second and third from left Oct 2 1915 Paris.jpg" ID:19433]]

The bride (Pauline Pradelle) and groom (Emmanuel Cavacos) are seated second and third from left Oct 2 1915 Paris

Second photograph of the wedding party

The Wedding Invitation

[[picture:"Pauline at her piano Pauline Pradelle after she married the artist Emmanuel Cavacos. Pauline was a professional pianist. She practiced her art in the studio where Emmanuel executed his scultures.jpg" ID:19434]]

Pauline Pradelle at her piano after she married the artist Emmanuel Cavacos

Pauline was a professional pianist. She practiced her art in the studio where Emmanuel executed his sculptures.

His work made him a well known figure in the art colony of Paris, and he was commissioned to do the portraits of a number of notable citizens, including Mlle. Mistinguett, a prominent actress; Bucot, and Marcelle Ragnon. In 1925 he received a silver medal for a fountain at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. As a tribute to his ability, in 1927, the French Government bestowed upon him the decoration, Officier de l’Acadamie.
In subsequent years he exhibited annually in the Salon, and also at the Salon des Humoristes de Paris, where his dancing figures were highly praised.

[[picture:"Danseuse (Ballerina) 1915.jpg" ID:19435]]

Danseuse (Ballerina) 1915

His work is in a number of important collections, including that of Queen Marie of Rumania, who purchased one of his marble figures, Grief.

Cavacos’ sculpture has been praised for its variety, able craftsmanship, and for the sense of rhythm it conveys. The French critics emphasized its inherently poetic qualities.

In 1930 Cavacos returned to the United States for the first time in eighteen years. His work was exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art in March of that year. His work was also shown in New York, at the Mitch Galleries,108 West 57th Street, and later in the year at Homeland. A group of 17 of his sculptures were also placed on display in the National Sculpture Society Exhibition in San Francisco. In May, 1930, he and his wife returned to Paris.

Catalogue of the Baltimore Exhibition

Catalogue of the New York Exhibition

List of exhibits at the Exhibitions

Biographical sketch in the Exhibition Programme

Three sculptures by Emmanuel Cavacos

Information about Cavacos post 1930 is difficult to obtain. Hopefully someone can shed more light on his life, in particular the period from 1931 – 1976.

[[picture:"DSC02151.JPG" ID:19436]]

Cavacos monument. Cemetery, Baltimore, USA

Cavacos monument viewed from behind

We do know that when members of his family died, Cavacos undertook to create a beautiful monument, and to send it to be erected in the Greek section of a Cemetery in Baltimore, where it still stands today.

It seems that his interest in sculpture continued until well into his old age. When granddaughters of Charles Fitzpatrick (his Baltimore friend) visited him in Paris in 1969, they were photographed with him in his art studio. Many sculptures are visible in the room.

[[picture:"Cavacos and His Guests.jpg" ID:19437]]

Emmanuel Cavacos with grandaughters of his Baltimore friend Charles Fitzpatrick

Cavacos, during the same visit, standing in front of a recumbent Aphrodite

Emmanuel Cavacos died in 1976, aged 91.

Background to the biographical sketch, above

Information about Emmanuel Cavacos is not very extensive. Thankfully, Emmanuel seems to have established a friendship with a Baltimore resident called Charles Fitzpatrick. After Cavacos moved permanently to France he continued to correspond with him. Mike Fitzpatrick (aka Piedmont Fossil), Charles Fitzpatrick’s grandson takes up the story. “Cavacos sent photographs of his studio and his sculptures and even an invitation to his wedding in October 1915. Considering that the wedding took place across the Atlantic and the great time and expense it would require to go there -- not to mention that fact that by then France was deep into World War I -- my grandfather was unable to attend. In 1930 Cavacos made a return visit to the United States for a couple of exhibitions, one in his old hometown of Baltimore and one in New York. I don’t know how successful his exhibitions were considering they took place during the first year of the Great Depression, but today his sculptures, if they can be found at all, seem to sell for between several hundred and several thousand dollars each. In the late 1960s my two sisters traveled to Europe and, at the request of my grandfather, they stopped by to visit (the by that time elderly) Mr. Cavacos at his Paris home”.

Thankfully Mike Fitzpatrick has posted the Cavacos photographs from that time on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/piedmont_fossil/sets/72157594585161747/

“Most of the photos in this set were sent to my grandfather by Emmanuel Cavacos soon after he moved to Paris. Almost all of them are inscribed on the reverse in the artist’s own handwriting.”

Cindy Anderson, is a fiancee of Pete Capsanes, who is the grandson of Theodore Andrew Cavacos, brother to Emmanuel and Constantine. These are all Baltimore Cavacos Kytherians. Cindy wrote to KAW:
"We just had Pete's family here and were talking about Emmanual Andrew Cavacos which is Pete's Great Great Uncle and the sculptor who ended up migrating from Greece, to Maryland back to Paris where he died. We have many of his sculpted pieces in the family".
Open full entry
People, Notable Kytherians
General History

Gengos Trefilly Wedding 1916

Gengos Trefilly Wedding 1916
Inverell Times, Tuesday 13 June 1916
Greek Wedding
The local Greek community (Inverell) had a gala day on Wednesday (7 June) of last week when a large number of friends and relatives from various centres assembled at the Otho Street premises of S.Peters & Co. to witness the marriage ceremony between Mr A. Gengos and Miss E. Trefilly.
The function was a particularly pleasing one, the young couple being very popular amongst their own people. The bride who is the daughter of Mr. Nicholaos Trefilly of Inverell, only recently returned from Greece. She was attired in a beautiful white silk dress, richly embroidered, and also wore the usual wreath and veil.
The Rev. Marinakis, of the Greek Orthodox Church , Sydney, was specially commissioned to tie the nuptial knot.
The bridesmaid was Miss Trefilly, a sister of bride, while Mr. M. Levunes was best man.
After the interesting ceremony, which took place at 10 o’clock a sumptuous repast was partaken of in the upstairs portion of the establishment, where the bride and bridegroom received the hearty congratulations and good wishes of their numerous friends. The banquet was served in high, class style and at the conclusion a number of toasts, suitable to the occasion, duly honoured.
Mr. and Mrs. Gengos were the recipients of many useful and costly presents as the appended list will show.
The brides gift to the bridegroom was a cluster diamond ring, set with rubies, while the bridegroom gave his bride a pair of costly diamond ear rings, a gold broach set with three diamonds, and a diamond ring.
The other presents included:- M. Levuna, opal pendant and diamond ring; Mrs V. Gengos, cluister diamond ring; V. Gengos, pearl tie pin and diamond ring set with rubies; L. Gengos, wristlet watch; Andronico Bros., large case of cutlery; N. Aroney, singer sewing machine; Peter Aroney, silver manicure set; S. Stratigos, jam dish; K. Bavea, Nellie Stewart bangle; John Psaltis, rose bowl; Theo Megaloconomos, brush and comb; Mr. and Mrs. T. Crithary, silver teapot; Mr. and Mrs. J. Trefilly, silver tea and coffee service; Mr. W. Kautz, ornamental clock; S. Peters & Co., combination fruit and flower stand; Con. Sakellaroulos, cruet; Geo. Tsicalas, silver coffee pot; Peter Crithary, hot water jug and clock; Mr. Mrs Lewis, set of carvers; Sam Coroneo, egg cruet; E. L. Hart, jardinière; Pana. Aroney, cake dish; Geo. Panaretto, marble clock; S. Hoffnung & Co., salad dish and spoons; Mr. and Mrs. Comino, case of fruit knives and forks; A. Zandos, salad dish and spoons; Mr. and Mrs. Souris jam dish, M. Pitsilades, silver cigarette case and holder; J. Samuels, brush and comb; Mr.and Mrs. Lewis (Inverell), silver serviette rings; Andronicos and Poteris, pair of blankets and quilt.
The newly married couple’s future home will be in Moree.
Authors notes.
The Greek wedding held at Inverell during 1916 is a significant landmark of Greek immigration to Australia and the integration of Greeks into the broader Australian community whilst maintaining their cultural identity. This marks the first record of Greek Orthodox celebrations at Inverell and held at a time of uncertainty for Greeks in Australia.
The King of Greece and the Greek government during 1916 were engaged in a conflicting situation with respect to the relationship of the King of Greece with the German Kaiser. This situation jeopardized the neutrality of Greece and consequently the status of Greeks in Australia. The Australian government, through Military Intelligence and State police conducted a ‘secret census’ of Greeks, Greek business and organizations in readiness to intern immigrant Greeks in much the same manner as were German nationals during WW1. Civil unrest occurred at major centres in Australia with Greek business premises being severely damaged. Immigration and naturalization of Greeks was suspended by the Australian government during this period.
The wedding ceremony conducted by the Reverend Dimitrios Marinakis, Holy Synod Priest of the Greek Orthodox Community of Sydney indicates the strength of Greek immigrants in maintaining their cultural identity in a new homeland. During this period the Greek Orthodox Church in Australia was represented by two clergy, one in Sydney and another in Melbourne, to serve the pastoral needs of Greeks spread across Australia. This wedding ceremony held at great distance from Sydney indicates the responsibility of the Greek Orthodox Church to maintain its pastoral care with Greeks in country Australia. Oral history suggests baptisms were conducted by the Rev. Marinakis during his visit to Inverell.
An analysis of the guests at the wedding is fascinating. Guests attended from most of the neighbouring centres surrounding Inverell and were joined by representatives of the business community of Inverell. Kyriakos Baveas, from Narrabri; Theo Megaloconomos of WeeWaa, Leonidas Gengos and Michael Pitsilades of Moree; John Psaltis of Boggabri; George Andronikos and George Potiris of Walcha; Mr. and Mrs Peter Sourry Walcha; Peter Krithary, Mr. and Mrs. Theo Crithary of Glen Innes, Mr. and Mrs. George Comino of Warialda, George Panaretto of Cowra, Sam Coroneo of Scone and Con Sekallaroplous of Tingha were among the many Greek relatives and friends of the married couple attending the celebration. Ald. William Kautz with Mr. and Mrs. Lewis were part of the Inverell community present at the function. Loyalty by the Greek businesses to the wholesale suppliers, Andronico Bros, and Hoffnung & Co. is included in the list of presents for the newlyweds.
The report of the wedding in the Inverell Times indicates the trust and respect of the Inverell community to the local Greek community.
Author
Peter ‘Skoulandris’ McCarthy
10 June 2011
© S. Peter & Co 10 June 2011
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History, General History
Australian Armed Forces

Flying Officer William Gengos - Royal Australian Air Force

Son of Vasillios and Calliope Gengos Moree NSW. Flying Officer William Gengos attached to an RAF Wellington Bomber was lost on a bombing run over Tobruk 12 August 1942. Bomber and crew have not been recovered.
Memorials - Column 264 El Alamein Memorial, Moree War Memorial, Grave of Vasillios Gengos Moree Cemetery.

Researched
Peter Makarthis
Inverell 2011
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Gravestones, Australian Armed Forces
FB Old photographs

Anastasios Megaloeconomos family in 1900

My father's (Ioannis) family in Potamos about 1900. Ioannis (upper left), Theodoros (upper right), Nicholaos (lower left), Giagia Clenzos (sp), Mother Chrysanthy, and Marouli. Father Anastasios was probably at sea or visiting the United States. Youngest son Kosta was not yet born. Giagia Clenzos reported lived until her 113th year.
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History, FB Old photographs
Vintage Portraits/ People

Tambakis Family Portrait 1906

Pictured circa 1900 are Kyriakos Panayotti Tamvakis (seated left) and his wife Gregoria Koukoulis Tamvaki (seated on the right.) Gregoria's mother is in the center and her father is standing left. Rubina, the first born infant, is held by the nanny.

The family fled Smyrna returned to Logothetianika/Katsoulianaka but their hardships continued there. Rubina and Panayoti, the first two of their children died in home accidents in their youth. Eleni born third in 1906 married Kytherian Haralambos Theodoros Sofios in 1929 and moved to the United States. The fourth chilkd, Kosmas moved to Athens. Emmanuel born in 1911 and his sister Marika migrated to Australia.

Kyriakos P. Tamvakis died at age 64 in 1932. Grigoria K. Tamvaki died at age 56 in 1944. Their grave marker is located in the Logothetianika cemetery.

Posted with thanks to Mrs. M. Tamvakis, Sydney.
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Photos, Vintage Portraits/ People
Working Life

''KYTHERA OF OLD''

even in the eighties donkeys were the only means of transport for the locals of the island, also the humble donkey doubled as the work ''horse'' the donkey could virtualy go anywhere to get to far away '' horafia''
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Photos, Working Life
Modern Landscapes

''POTAMOS''

the hub of the island , the commeical centre of kythera, their is a buzz about potamos from 8am to late at nignt , sit down at one of the many cafes in the platia and watch the world go by.....
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Photos, Modern Landscapes

Feast Your Eyes. The Eye Health Cookbook.

Author: compiled by Minas and Hellene Coroneo

When Published: 2010

Publisher: Genetic Eye Foundation Limited

Available:

Genetic Eye Foundation Limited
2 St Pauls Street,
Randwick NSW 2031

Phone: +61 2 9382 2493

Fax: +61 2 9382 2488

Email: Orders, Feast Your Eyes

Web: www.gef.org.au

Description: Paperback. Superbly designed.

Download Order Form for book:

Feast_Your_Eyes_A.pdf

[[picture:"Feast_Your_Eyes_2.bmp" ID:18130]]

Feast Your Eyes, produced in conjunction with, and featuring the recipes of eminent Australian Chefs (and 3 non-Aussies as well), is not an ordinary cookbook.

The contributing chefs are:

Alfonso Ales, Peter Howard, Neil Perry, Sergi Arola, Matt Jefferson, Mark Pilgrim, Maggie Beer, Mark Jensen, Mark Poulter, Maria Bernadis, Selvam Kandasamy, Dominique Rizzo, Shaun Bowles, Matthew Kemp, Luciana Sampogna, Stephane Bremont, Owen Lacey, Gert Schwarz, Logan Campbell, Anthony Sui Pui Liu, James Stapely, Javier Codina, Megan McCulloch, Mirco Speri, Dallas Cuddy, Jim Mailes, Garry Sullivan, Ragini Dey, Tess Mallos, Hadleigh Troy, Timothy Down, Luke Mangan, David Tsirekas, Ian Hemphill, Justin Miles, Daniel Watson, Kate Hemphill, Joe Pavlovich, Bryant Wells, Iain Hewitson, Carole Peck

As distinct from most other publications in this genre, Feast Your Eyes offers sound advice on eating for health as well as pleasure. The recipes featured in this book stimulate interest in the benefit of eating fresh, wholesome food at all times.

Included are informative chapters on eye health, written in language anyone can understand, by Professor Minas T. Coroneo, Head of Department of Ophthalmology, University of NSW at the Prince of Wales Hospital.

As many people know, Professor Coroneo’s primary concern is ophthalmologic advancement in the provision of eye care for his patients, public and private. Couple that with his natural curiosity in all things medical, a long held interest in the importance of nutrition and the compilation of this book became a, pardon the pun, consuming passion.

Feast Your Eyes is guaranteed to interest a wide variety of people for many reasons. Part cookbook, part instruction manual, this book makes a valuable contribution to the knowledge of how best to achieve maximum nutrition from the foods we eat. It is also
the heart-warming story of the boy growing up with his family in Scone NSW.

The reader will, we hope, following the considered advice offered, learn how to improve the quality of their general health, at the same time ensuring optimum nourishment for the eyes.

We live at a frenetic pace in an age when everyone is time poor and fast food franchises abound. Takeaway is the norm in some households and meals lacking nutritious value are often eaten on the run. If the media is to be believed, family gatherings around the table at mealtimes are a thing of the past, so it is timely to be reminded of the advantages of making the effort to change our diet for a favourable outcome.

After many years of deliberation, months of research, lots of reading and phone calls, it is with considerable excitement that we announce this project has come to fruition. The beneficiary of all moneys raised by the sale of this book will be the Genetic Eye Foundation, researching the newest developments in maintenance of care, solutions to currently untreatable eye problems, and helping to fund research for the bionic eye.

Please support us in this venture.

Feast Your Eyes would make an excellent Christmas present; a valuable addition to the cookbook collection in any household.

How many copies would you like to buy?

About the health cookbook, Feast Your Eyes
compiled by Minas and Hellene Coroneo

Mostly we take our eyes for granted. But their function is crucial to our lives. So how do we protect them? Diet modification protects not just our general health but also our eye health. Here is a delicious way to do it.

Legendary chefs have been asked to contribute a recipe using ingredients selected by the Genetic Eye Foundation as beneficial for eye health. Internationally renowned, up and coming chefs and cooking teachers have also contributed recipes. The recipes are intrinsic to the well-known Mediterranean diet.

The Genetic Eye Foundation (GEF) is a non-profit, charitable organisation which assists and educates the visually impaired, especially those with hereditary eye diseases, helps to maintain vision by public and professional teaching and continues with research related to the eye, particularly bionic eye research.

Proceeds from copies of this book will assist the Genetic Eye Foundation’s important research into eye diseases and the bionic eye.

Professor Minas Coroneo traces the history and evidence for the benefits of traditional diets such as the Mediterranean diet in relation to a number of common eye conditions including macular degeneration, dry eye, cataract and glaucoma.

Joint compiler of the recipes, Hellene Coroneo has been the practice manager of her husband’s busy ophthalmic practice in Randwick, NSW since 1991.
Diaspora Working Life

Feast Your Eyes. The eye health cookbook

Author: compiled by Minas and Hellene Coroneo

When Published: 2010

Publisher: Genetic Eye Foundation Limited

Available:

Genetic Eye Foundation Limited
2 St Pauls Street,
Randwick NSW 2031

Phone: +61 2 9382 2493

Fax: +61 2 9382 2488

Email: Orders, Feast Your Eyes

Web: www.gef.org.au

Description: Paperback. Superbly designed.

Download Order Form for book:

Feast_Your_Eyes_A.pdf

Feast Your Eyes, produced in conjunction with, and featuring the recipes of eminent Australian Chefs (and 3 non-Aussies as well), is not an ordinary cookbook.

The contributing chefs are:

Alfonso Ales, Peter Howard, Neil Perry, Sergi Arola, Matt Jefferson, Mark Pilgrim, Maggie Beer, Mark Jensen, Mark Poulter, Maria Bernadis, Selvam Kandasamy, Dominique Rizzo, Shaun Bowles, Matthew Kemp, Luciana Sampogna, Stephane Bremont, Owen Lacey, Gert Schwarz, Logan Campbell, Anthony Sui Pui Liu, James Stapely, Javier Codina, Megan McCulloch, Mirco Speri, Dallas Cuddy, Jim Mailes, Garry Sullivan, Ragini Dey, Tess Mallos, Hadleigh Troy, Timothy Down, Luke Mangan, David Tsirekas, Ian Hemphill, Justin Miles, Daniel Watson, Kate Hemphill, Joe Pavlovich, Bryant Wells, Iain Hewitson, Carole Peck

As distinct from most other publications in this genre, Feast Your Eyes offers sound advice on eating for health as well as pleasure. The recipes featured in this book stimulate interest in the benefit of eating fresh, wholesome food at all times.

Included are informative chapters on eye health, written in language anyone can understand, by Professor Minas T. Coroneo, Head of Department of Ophthalmology, University of NSW at the Prince of Wales Hospital.

As many people know, Professor Coroneo’s primary concern is ophthalmologic advancement in the provision of eye care for his patients, public and private. Couple that with his natural curiosity in all things medical, a long held interest in the importance of nutrition and the compilation of this book became a, pardon the pun, consuming passion.

Feast Your Eyes is guaranteed to interest a wide variety of people for many reasons. Part cookbook, part instruction manual, this book makes a valuable contribution to the knowledge of how best to achieve maximum nutrition from the foods we eat. It is also
the heart-warming story of the boy growing up with his family in Scone NSW.

The reader will, we hope, following the considered advice offered, learn how to improve the quality of their general health, at the same time ensuring optimum nourishment for the eyes.

We live at a frenetic pace in an age when everyone is time poor and fast food franchises abound. Takeaway is the norm in some households and meals lacking nutritious value are often eaten on the run. If the media is to be believed, family gatherings around the table at mealtimes are a thing of the past, so it is timely to be reminded of the advantages of making the effort to change our diet for a favourable outcome.

After many years of deliberation, months of research, lots of reading and phone calls, it is with considerable excitement that we announce this project has come to fruition. The beneficiary of all moneys raised by the sale of this book will be the Genetic Eye Foundation, researching the newest developments in maintenance of care, solutions to currently untreatable eye problems, and helping to fund research for the bionic eye.

Please support us in this venture.

Feast Your Eyes would make an excellent Christmas present; a valuable addition to the cookbook collection in any household.

How many copies would you like to buy?

About the eye health cookbook, Feast Your Eyes
compiled by Minas and Hellene Coroneo

Mostly we take our eyes for granted. But their function is crucial to our lives. So how do we protect them? Diet modification protects not just our general health but also our eye health. Here is a delicious way to do it.

Legendary chefs have been asked to contribute a recipe using ingredients selected by the Genetic Eye Foundation as beneficial for eye health. Internationally renowned, up and coming chefs and cooking teachers have also contributed recipes. The recipes are intrinsic to the well-known Mediterranean diet.

The Genetic Eye Foundation (GEF) is a non-profit, charitable organisation which assists and educates the visually impaired, especially those with hereditary eye diseases, helps to maintain vision by public and professional teaching and continues with research related to the eye, particularly bionic eye research.

Proceeds from copies of this book will assist the Genetic Eye Foundation’s important research into eye diseases and the bionic eye.

Professor Minas Coroneo traces the history and evidence for the benefits of traditional diets such as the Mediterranean diet in relation to a number of common eye conditions including macular degeneration, dry eye, cataract and glaucoma.

Joint compiler of the recipes, Hellene Coroneo has been the practice manager of her husband’s busy ophthalmic practice in Randwick, NSW since 1991.
Open full entry
Photos, Diaspora Working Life
Bibliography

Feast Your Eyes. The Eye Health Cookbook

Author: compiled by Minas and Hellene Coroneo

When Published: 2010

Publisher: Genetic Eye Foundation Limited

Available:

Genetic Eye Foundation Limited
2 St Pauls Street,
Randwick NSW 2031

Phone: +61 2 9382 2493

Fax: +61 2 9382 2488

Email: Orders, Feast Your Eyes

Web: www.gef.org.au

Description: Paperback. Superbly designed.

Download Order Form for book:

Feast_Your_Eyes_A.pdf

[[picture:"Feast_Your_Eyes_2.bmp" ID:18130]]

Feast Your Eyes, produced in conjunction with, and featuring the recipes of eminent Australian Chefs (and 3 non-Aussies as well), is not an ordinary cookbook.

The contributing chefs are:

Alfonso Ales, Peter Howard, Neil Perry, Sergi Arola, Matt Jefferson, Mark Pilgrim, Maggie Beer, Mark Jensen, Mark Poulter, Maria Bernadis, Selvam Kandasamy, Dominique Rizzo, Shaun Bowles, Matthew Kemp, Luciana Sampogna, Stephane Bremont, Owen Lacey, Gert Schwarz, Logan Campbell, Anthony Sui Pui Liu, James Stapely, Javier Codina, Megan McCulloch, Mirco Speri, Dallas Cuddy, Jim Mailes, Garry Sullivan, Ragini Dey, Tess Mallos, Hadleigh Troy, Timothy Down, Luke Mangan, David Tsirekas, Ian Hemphill, Justin Miles, Daniel Watson, Kate Hemphill, Joe Pavlovich, Bryant Wells, Iain Hewitson, Carole Peck

As distinct from most other publications in this genre, Feast Your Eyes offers sound advice on eating for health as well as pleasure. The recipes featured in this book stimulate interest in the benefit of eating fresh, wholesome food at all times.

Included are informative chapters on eye health, written in language anyone can understand, by Professor Minas T. Coroneo, Head of Department of Ophthalmology, University of NSW at the Prince of Wales Hospital.

As many people know, Professor Coroneo’s primary concern is ophthalmologic advancement in the provision of eye care for his patients, public and private. Couple that with his natural curiosity in all things medical, a long held interest in the importance of nutrition and the compilation of this book became a, pardon the pun, consuming passion.

Feast Your Eyes is guaranteed to interest a wide variety of people for many reasons. Part cookbook, part instruction manual, this book makes a valuable contribution to the knowledge of how best to achieve maximum nutrition from the foods we eat. It is also
the heart-warming story of the boy growing up with his family in Scone NSW.

The reader will, we hope, following the considered advice offered, learn how to improve the quality of their general health, at the same time ensuring optimum nourishment for the eyes.

We live at a frenetic pace in an age when everyone is time poor and fast food franchises abound. Takeaway is the norm in some households and meals lacking nutritious value are often eaten on the run. If the media is to be believed, family gatherings around the table at mealtimes are a thing of the past, so it is timely to be reminded of the advantages of making the effort to change our diet for a favourable outcome.

After many years of deliberation, months of research, lots of reading and phone calls, it is with considerable excitement that we announce this project has come to fruition. The beneficiary of all moneys raised by the sale of this book will be the Genetic Eye Foundation, researching the newest developments in maintenance of care, solutions to currently untreatable eye problems, and helping to fund research for the bionic eye.

Please support us in this venture.

Feast Your Eyes would make an excellent Christmas present; a valuable addition to the cookbook collection in any household.

How many copies would you like to buy?

About the health cookbook, Feast Your Eyes
compiled by Minas and Hellene Coroneo

Mostly we take our eyes for granted. But their function is crucial to our lives. So how do we protect them? Diet modification protects not just our general health but also our eye health. Here is a delicious way to do it.

Legendary chefs have been asked to contribute a recipe using ingredients selected by the Genetic Eye Foundation as beneficial for eye health. Internationally renowned, up and coming chefs and cooking teachers have also contributed recipes. The recipes are intrinsic to the well-known Mediterranean diet.

The Genetic Eye Foundation (GEF) is a non-profit, charitable organisation which assists and educates the visually impaired, especially those with hereditary eye diseases, helps to maintain vision by public and professional teaching and continues with research related to the eye, particularly bionic eye research.

Proceeds from copies of this book will assist the Genetic Eye Foundation’s important research into eye diseases and the bionic eye.

Professor Minas Coroneo traces the history and evidence for the benefits of traditional diets such as the Mediterranean diet in relation to a number of common eye conditions including macular degeneration, dry eye, cataract and glaucoma.

Joint compiler of the recipes, Hellene Coroneo has been the practice manager of her husband’s busy ophthalmic practice in Randwick, NSW since 1991.
Open full entry
Culture, Bibliography
Bibliography

Ποταμος. Εικονες & Ιστορια. Potamos. Images & History.

Author: Kosmas Megalokonomos

When Published: 2009

ISBN: 978-960-302-257-2 (Greece / Europe)

Available: Limited quantity. Available from the author.

Email Kosmas Megalokonomos

Language: Greek

Description: Large format paperback.

***NOTE: An English version of this book will be published by the Kytherian World Heritage Fund in 2012, and will be available for sale from July, 2012.

View / download a sample of the first 14 pages of the Text here:

Potamos_Sample_Pages_1-14_GREEK.doc


About Kosmas Megalokonomos & Potamos

Kosmas Megalokonomos is a surgeon. After thirty years of working in Athens hospitals he is now based at the Trifillio Hospital in Kythera, demonstrating in practice an interest in his island. He has written widely in his field, and also writes articles on social, folklore and historical aspects of Kythera. He has published a collection of poetry entitled Mikres Alitheies (Small Truths), and has rendered the Iliad and the Odyssey into “rhyming summaries”.

In Potamos: History and Images he searches through sources, sheds light on themes, and finds roots. An example others should follow, demonstrating an interest in the history of their place and writing the history of their village, now as the world changes. For memories to be preserved, before forgetfulness sets in.

The history of Potamos is bound up in the general history of Kythera; the threads of the stories of both are thus unravelled in this way. Threads that the author has worked on for many years, he is now able to leave in the hands of the reader, with fewer knots and tangles.
Open full entry
Culture, Bibliography
Modern Landscapes

'' only in kythera''

this helihopter landed next to the BP service station outside potamo,to refuel ,they were flying over certain greek islands to find the best beaches to sail tourists to these beaches, but as you do , you eventually need fuel, so why not just land next to the first servo you can find and re fuel!!! and also go over to gikas supermarket and do some shopping!!!!
Open full entry
Photos, Modern Landscapes
Signs & Statues

Road-side memorial, Potamos

Place of Tears

A roadside memorial
near Potamos
along the Agia Pelagia road,
became our destination one sunny
but windy April afternoon.

Known as the “place of tears,”
this 1908 memorial
marks the point of departure
where families from a bygone era
farewelled loved ones,
about to leave the Island.

On the cold, unadorned
concrete seats that mark the site,
we reflect back to the year 1897
when our own grandfather,
at the tender age of fifteen
assembled,
bound for Sydney, Australia.

We try to imagine the tears
that flowed, the warm
embraces exchanged.
Neither he nor his brother,
who followed a few years later,
returned to the Island
nor saw their parents again.

In memory of Theo George Andronicos (1881 – 1948)
Emmanuel George Andronicos (1876 - 1910)
Open full entry
Photos, Signs & Statues
Island Churches & Icons

Agios Anargrios, Potamos

Me with Eleni Comino at the front entrance of Agios Anargrios in May 2010. The new bell tower above the entrance replaced the old one damaged by a recent earthquake. This is the church where my grandfather, Theo Andronicos was christened in 1881by the priest Panayotis Panaretos, (son of Stavrianos, son of Minas, who were also priests).
Open full entry
Photos, Island Churches & Icons

HOUSE FOR SALE POTAMOS

[[picture:"5205.jpg" ID:17759]]
Newly renovated two storey house 5 minutes walk from the main village of potamos. 4.6 Strema's of land surrounded on three sides by road, Distant view to the sea.
[[picture:"5216.jpg" ID:17756]]
House is 163 sqm also 2 outer buildings that need to be restored one is 18 sqm and the other is 19. Also 2 water wells on the land. Central heating Alarm System and air conditioning.

[[picture:"51D4.jpg" ID:17757]]

[[picture:"51F4.jpg" ID:17758]]

Contact Claire at clairecremin17@hotmail.com
Life Stories

Life Story of Stavroula Theodorakakis (Cordato)

Stavroula (Violet) was born on January 13, 1928, in Potamos, Kythera. My father's name was Dionysius Theodorakakis and my mother's name was Marigo Mazaraki. I was the youngest of five, with four older brothers, Kiriakos (Kerry), Ioannis (John), Gerasimos and Manuel. Manual died as an infant at 6 months and Gerasimos at 20 years.

My father (also known as Denny) spent many years in Australia, working with his nephews in cafes throughout country NSW. In Australia, they took on their family nickname as their surname, Cordato, and the Cordato Brothers had cafes in many towns including Dubbo, Casino, Glen Innes, Armidale and Hillston. My father returned to Greece to retire by 1927.

My brothers were sent to Australia to join the family business: John in 1936 and Kerry in 1938. I remained in Kythera with my parents, virtually an only child. As the war was finishing in 1945 my parents fell ill. My father passed away on February 8, 1945 and my mother on October 6, 1945.

Orphaned at 17, I locked the house, packing all its contents into one room, and travelled to Pireus to live with my mother's first cousin and her family. My father had accumulated reasonable wealth after years of hard work in Australia, and I was a good prospect for marriage in Greece considering my sizeable dowry. However, my dream was to join my brothers in Australia and so my brothers began organising the paperwork for my passage. In May 1946 I returned to Kythera for six months, arranging our family home to be rented. I returned to Pireus that October, whereupon all my paperwork came through approved for my trip to Australia.

In February 1947 I sailed to Egypt, staying in Port Said for 17 days. I then embarked on my forty-day journey to Australia on the SS MISR. Other Kytherian families opted to remain in Port Said to wait for another boat, but I was keen to join my brothers. There were 18 Kytherians on the MISR, including my cousin Irene Steliou.

As the MISR left the Suez Canal the refrigeration broke down and all the fresh produce was thrown overboard. We lived on a minimal diet of pasta, rice, grapefruit and rotten eggs.

The MISR being a military boat, we were confined to sleeping in the galleys below. Bunk stacked on top of bunk in dormitory style. My cousin Irene slept on the bunk above me. When the heat became unbearable we slept on deck, not far from the Egyptian shipworkers. A close family friend, "uncle" Kiriakos Trifilis would often stay close by on these occasions, keeping a watchful eye. One girlfriend refused to sleep downstairs at first because of the stench, and slept on the deckchairs above. She quickly changed her mind one evening when she was nearly swept overboard during a storm.

Many days were spent lying on our canvas beds downstairs as the ship battled monster swells. It was impossible to venture upstairs to the dining area, and one could hear crockery and furniture being tossed from one side of the ship to the other.

We showered with cold seawater, and were soon lice-infected. Even our "clean" sheets had lice on them. There were some memorable moments on our adventure. In Mombasa we saw monkeys hanging from the trees as we walked from the port to the town. In Durban, we ate at a "posh" restaurant, confused by the different cutlery to be used to eat each course.

Upon reaching Fremantle, Irene and I came up on dock to see the harbour, but we did not venture out as we had no friends or family to meet. Some of our travelling companions returned with servings of food and shared these with us.

When we reached Melbourne we were met by my brother John and cousin Archie. There were no trains due to a strike, and transport by private bus was arranged to Sydney, after a few days stay at cousin Archie's house at Enfield (Archie was married to Irene's sister, Poppy). I continued my journey with John to Hillston, where I would be living with Kerry and John for the next 18 months, working at our family cafe (Called the Real Cafe). I was to learn English then in 6 months, visiting the local convents to have English tutoring by the Catholic Nuns. My brother and I moved to Campsie, Sydney to open a new cafe, and I worked there for the next 7 years, until meeting my husband, Harry Dimitratos and opening our fish and chip shops on Victoria Rd, West Ryde. We remained there for 14 years until our retirement and raised our three daughters there - Katherine, Maria and Anna.

On arrival in Australia the whole family legally adopted the surname Cordato, which had been the family nickname, as it was much easier to use in a new country. In Greece the surname remains as Theodorakakis and this is what I was registered as when I travelled.

Submitted by Stavroula Theodorakakis (now Violet Dimitatos) [[picture:"Violet with 6 grandchildren.jpg" ID:17338]] [[picture:"Violet (RHS) with brothers John and Kerry.jpg" ID:17339]]
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People, Life Stories
Notable Kytherians

John Damianos Andronicus

[[picture:"John Andronicus.jpg" ID:19489]]

(1894-1973), coffee merchant, was born on 23 October 1894 at Mylopatamo (Potamós), Kythera, Greece, youngest of eleven children of Damianos Nicholas Andronicus, fisherman, and his wife Vassiliki, née Karidis.

The pressure of population on limited resources encouraged migration, as it had done in Greece for centuries. John followed five of his brothers to Australia, reaching Sydney in the Bremen on 10 November 1908. He went to school, initially with no knowledge of English, at West Maitland and Tamworth before joining his brothers' business in 1910.

The most prominent of them, Emanuel, had opened a chocolate shop—with coffee as a sideline—in George Street near Circular Quay in 1904. The Andronicus brothers also conducted an enterprising wholesale business with Greek shopkeepers in several country towns.

Emanuel prospered. He was Greek consul in Sydney in 1924-30 and helped many Greeks to establish themselves in what he always thought was a land of opportunity. A warm supporter of the Labor Party, he encouraged Greek Australians to vote in State and Federal elections.

Meanwhile John was learning the business: he became skilled in tea and coffee blending, and in assisting with sales, especially on the north coast. He, too, prospered, and was naturalized in 1924. On 29 December 1928 he married Kathleen Ellen Gordon at St Sophia's, the Greek Orthodox cathedral in Sydney. They were to have two sons, Charles and George.

In 1936 John bought the firm and next year established Andronicus Bros. He and the indefatigable Kathleen ran the business between them. From Arabia, Africa, India, Brazil and New Guinea, they imported coffee beans which they roasted and ground for both the retail and wholesale trades; in addition, they sold continental foods such as olives, sesame seeds, cheeses and halva, as well as hand-made chocolates. John worked fourteen hours a day, seven days a week; it would be years before he could spend much time on his extensive coin collection, his passion for woodworking, his love of boating, or his penchant for driving fast cars.

The influx of European migrants after 1945 helped to acquaint Australians with foreign tastes and increased the popularity of European foods. The advent of Nescafé instant coffee in 1947 appears to have stimulated demand for real coffee. Soon the Andronicus family was selling their coffee in bulk to grocers' shops and cafés. In the early 1960s Charles and George established their own wholesale company, Andronicus Coffee Pty Ltd.

John and Kathleen continued at the George Street shop until 1973 when it was closed to make way for 'development' (the Regent hotel now stands on the site). Three months later, on 15 July 1973, Andronicus died at his Gordon home and was cremated with Anglican rites; his wife and sons survived him.

John had long aspired to build a business that could be taken over and enjoyed by his sons. In this ambition he eminently succeeded. He left a well-established company with an excellent reputation for stability and probity. His sons found no difficulty in obtaining credit to expand until, in 1983, they sold out, like so many successful Australian family businesses in recent decades, to a multi-national corporation, in this case the Swiss-owned Nestlé Australia Ltd.

Select Bibliography

R. Ostrow, The New Boy Network (Melb, 1987);

K. Dunstan, The Perfect Cup (Syd, 1989);

Sydney Morning Herald, 14 Aug 1954, 9 Feb 1960, 11 Feb 1974;

naturalisation file, A1/1 24/26002 (National Archives of Australia); private information.

Author: D. W. A. Baker
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People, Notable Kytherians
Obituaries

John Cordato - Eulogy - Born 13-5-23; Died 25-6-09

Ο Γιάννης Κορδάτος γεννήθηκε στο χωριό Ποταμός, στα Κύθηρα, στις 13 Μαίου 1923. Σε ηλικία 13 χρονών οι γονείς του, Διονύσης και Μαρία, τον έστειλαν στην Αυστραλία για μια καλυτερη ζωή. Δυστυχώς, δεν είχε την ευκαιρία να τους ξαναδεί. Έμαθε μόνος του να γράφει και να διαβάζει Αγγλικά παρόλο που δεν είχε τελειώσει το σχολείο.

Όταν έφτασε στην Αυστραλία, ο Γιάννης δούλεψε με τον αδελφό του Κυριάκο σε και η οικογένεια ξανάσμιψε πάλι όταν ήρθε και η μικρή τους αδελφή Σταυρούλα να μείνει μαζί τους. Οι γονείς του Γιάννη και ο τέταρτος αδελφός του, ο Γεράσιμος, πέθαναν όταν βρισκόταν ακόμη ο Γιάννης σε εφηβική ηλικία.

Το 1963 ο Γιάννης παντρεύτηκε την αγαπημένη του Χρυσή Μαρέντη. Είχαν αποκτήσει τρία παιδιά, το Διονύση, το Νικόλα και τη Μαρία. Ο Γιάννης είχε την τύχη να δει τα παιδιά του να μεγαλώσουν, να παντρευτούν και να αποκτήσουν δική τους οικογένεια ακολουθώντας τα χρηστά ήθη τα οποία τους είχαν διδάξει ο Γιάννης και η Χρυσή. Γνώρισε τις δύο νύφες του Λίτσα και Νταιάν και το γαμπρό του Βασίλη, καθώς επίσης και τα 7 εγγόνια του - Γιάννη, Θεόδωρο, Αντιγώνη, Σωκράτη, Χρυσή, Χρυσή και Σπύρο.

Το πιο θαυμαστό χαρακτηριστικό του ήταν η εξαιρετική προσωπικότητα και γενναιοδωρία του που τον έκαναν αγαπητό σε όλους. Για τη σύζυγό του Χρυσή και τα παιδιά του ήταν ο τέλειος σύζυγος και πατέρας. Για την υπόλοιπη οικογένεια και φίλους του ήταν ένας καλός φίλος αν όχι ο .

Τα ακόλουθα παράδείγματα αποδεικνύουν το πώς θα τον θυμούνται τα άτομα που βρίσκονταν στο στενό του κύκλο.

1. Ο Γιάννης αγαπούσε τους συνανθρώπους του. Πάντοτε τους χαιρετούσε ασχέτως εάν ήταν οικογένεια, φίλοι ή απλώς ξένοι. Χαιρετούσε όσους συναντούσε στο δρόμο με ένα γνήσιο . Πάντα αυτός ξεκινούσε την κουβέντα.
2. Αγαπούσε πολύ το ψάρεμα και είχε δημιουργήσει πολλές φιλίες διαμέσου αυτής της απασχολίας.
3. Ο Γιάννης ήταν πολύ πρόθυμος άνθρωπος να βοηθήσει τους πάντες. Εάν του τηλεφωνούσε κανείς και του ζητούσε να τον πάρει κάπου ή να τον βοηθήσει με κάποια δουλειά, θα βρισκόταν ήδη στο αυτοκίνητό του προτού ακόμη κλείσει το τηλέφωνο.
4. Ο Γιάννης αγαπούσε τη μαγειρική και το σπίτι του ήτανε πάντα ανοιχτό για οποιονδήποτε επισκέπτη. Όσοι είχαν την ευκαιρία να γευστούν τα φαγητά του θα είναι σύμφωνοι ότι ήταν πραγματικά ένας τεχνίτης της μαγειρικής. Η σπανακόπιτά του και η κρεατόπιτά του θα μέινουν αλησμόνητες ως γεύσεις στη μνήμη των συνδαιτημόνων του.
5. Ο Γιάννης ήταν καλόκαρδος και πρόσχαρος. Μέχρι την ημέρα του θανάτου του δεν παραπονέθηκε καθόλου και παρέμεινε ένας αφοσιωμένος σύζυγος, πατέρας, παππούς, αδελφός, θείος, νονός και φίλος.
6. Ο Γιάννης ήταν πολύ υπομονετικός .
7. Ο Γιάννης είχε ανεξίκακο χαρακτήρα και ουδέποτε κρατούσε κακία ενάντια άλλων.

Στα τελευτάια τρία χρόνια της ζωής του υπέφερε από σχεδόν ολοκληρωτική παράλυση λόγω εγκεφαλικού. Παρά τη χρόνια ασθένειά του, διατηρούσε υψηλό φρόνιμα και φιλική διάθεση προς όλους. Όταν δεχόταν επισκέψεις, οι πρώτες λέξεις που πιθανόν θα άκουγε κανείς ήταν .

(Greek version kindly translated by Gus Avgoustou)

John Cordato was born in Potamos, on the Greek island of Kythera on the 13th of May 1923. At age 13 years, his parents Dionysios and Maria sent him to Australia to find a better life. He was to never see them again. Despite not having any further schooling he taught himself how to read and write English.

John joined his eldest brother Kery in a milk-bar business and shortly afterwards the two brothers were reunited with their younger sister Stavroula. Both John’s parents and a fourth sibling Gerasimo died whilst John was still in his teens.

In 1963, John married the love of his life, Chrissy Marendy. They had three children Dennis, Nicholas and Maria. John was able to witness his children grow up, marry and raise their own children with the same high moral standards he and Chrissy had set. He got to meet and know his three son and daughter-in-laws Litsa, Bill and Diane as well as all 7of his grandchildren – Jonathon, Ross, Andie, Curtis, Christyn, Chrissie and Ryan.

John’s most admiring quality was his loving and giving nature. To Chrissy and his children, he was the perfect husband and father. To family and friends, he was a good friend, if not a ‘best friend’.

The following five anecdotes draw your attention to how he will be remembered by those who were close to him.

1. John loved people. He would always greet people, be they family, friends or a stranger in the street with a friendly and genuine ‘hello’. He was always the first to start a conversation.
2. John loved fishing and made many long term friends through this past-time.
3. John was selfless. If you telephoned John and asked him to drive you somewhere or help with an errand, he’d be in his car and on his way to your front door before you could hang up.
4. John loved cooking and opened his home for a meal to anyone who visited. To the many who had the pleasure of sampling his food, you’d agree he was an excellent chef. His family will remember with great fondness the best spinach or meat pie you could eat anywhere in town.
5. John was gentle and kind natured. To his dying day he made no complaints and remained devoted to his lifetime work of being a good husband and father, grandfather, brother, uncle, godfather and friend.

He suffered from the complications of a debilitating stroke in the last 3 years of his life. Despite chronic illness, he maintained his high spirits and friendly nature. If you visited him in this last period of his life, his first words to you would most probably have been “Hello, please have a chocolate”.

John leaves behind a legacy of love and respect. He was upstanding, virtuous, and humble. He was a friend to everyone that had the fortune of meeting him and he will be sadly missed.
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People, Obituaries
Life Stories

Lest We Forget - Pte Steleanos Gengos 2nd AIF

'Stan' Steleanos Gengos, son of Evangelos and Evangelia Gengos, born Aug 1919 in Sydney enlisted in the Australian Army May 1940.
Private Steleanos Gengos 2/15 Australian Infantry Battalion was killed during the siege of Tobruk Libya 1 September 1942.
Pte Steleanos Gengos is buried in the El Alamein War Cemetery.
Steleanos Memorials are on the Commemorative Area of the Australian War Memorial Canberra ACT and Brisbane War Memorial.

Rest in Peace

Researched
Peter McCarthy
Inverell
Anzac Day 2009
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Life Stories

Lest We Forget - Flying Officer William Gengos RAAF.

William Gengos, born Inverell October 1916 the son of Vassilios and Calliope, Gengos died in the Tobruk area on 12 August 1942.

Flying Officer William Gengos was the co-pilot of a Wellington Bomber - AD629 - set out from Kabrit Airfield Egypt on a bombing mission over Tobruk Libya. The aircraft was lost on the mission. The aircraft and crew were never found.

William Gengos Memorials are located on his fathers headstone in Moree Cemetery (see under Gravestones) and the Moree War Memorial.

Flying Officer William Gengos is commemorated at the Alamein Memorial and in the Commemorative Area of the Australian War Canberra ACT

Rest in Peace

researched
Peter McCarthy
Inverell
Anzac Day 2009
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Life Stories

Kytherian bionic eye researcher, Minas Coroneo gains 2020 summit grant -

one of only 9 applications from 962 submiiteed, gain funding.

Leigh Dayton
The Australian, April 23, 2009, page 6

article 1

Researchers race to develop bionic eye

The scientific race is on for all or part of the $50.7 million allotted for research to develop a bionic eye.

The goal of the research -- funded over four years as part of the Rudd Government's response to last year's 2020 Summit -- is to commercialise a bionic eye able to restore lost vision or improve dwindling eyesight.

In its summit response, the Government said development of a bionic eye would provide a "critical advancement for millions of vision-impaired Australians".

Two approaches to bionic eye research are being pursued by Australian-led teams, both building on the idea of stimulating the optic nerve with electrical signals created from images collected by an externally worn camera.

The approach of University of NSW biomedical engineers Nigel Lovell and Gregg Suaning, and their Melbourne colleagues, is to implant the vision-stimulating device behind the retina. "The advantage is that the device is closer to the nerve cells so you get greater acuity than when it's implanted outside the eye," Associate Professor Suaning said.

But an international collaboration headed by eye specialist Minas Coroneo, director of the Australian Bionic Eye Foundation's consortium, has developed a bionic eye device that sits outside the eyeball. According to Dr Coroneo, it's safer and cheaper than a retinal implant.

Overseas work has found that retinal implants can increase the risk of infection, and even reduce remaining vision.

Both teams have conducted preliminary studies with animals, and Dr Coroneo's group has carried out proof-of-concept trials with 10 people and is now ready to implant a prototype device.

If planned animal trials were as successful as expected, Professor Suaning said, his consortium would be ready to begin human trials within a year.

Dr Coroneo said his team was ready to implant a prototype device and had a volunteer.

Although both groups had previously applied for federal funding, a spokeswoman for the Australian Research Council -- which will administer the $50.7 million -- said the council was seeking new applications.

"We are looking at all feasible proposals as part of a competitive grants process," she said.

According to a joint statement by federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon and Science Minister Kim Carr, bionic eye research will benefit work on medical devices and the mechanical and software systems needed to control them.


Article 2

Rudd focuses on dad's army and channel for kids

Print Patricia Karvelas | April 23, 2009

Article from: The Australian Page 6

A new dedicated ABC children's channel and $50 million to develop the bionic eye are two of only nine big plans adopted by the Rudd Government after last year's 2020 summit came up with a staggering 962 ideas.

Kevin Rudd has also agreed to other suggestions including a dad's army -- deploying civilians to respond to regional emergencies -- an indigenous cultural and education knowledge centre and a scholarship scheme for Asian and Australian students to promote cultural understanding.

But the Government has shied away from bold and controversial steps, including moving Australia towards becoming a republic and including indigenous people in the preamble of the constitution.

A spokeswoman for the Prime Minister said some of the proposals involved no funding at this stage, although more announcements could follow in next month's budget.

The Government has also agreed to a national "Golden Gurus" mentoring program under which retired mentors would support small business and community needs.

"To help meet the challenges of our ageing population and pass on valuable experience from retirees to new generations, the Government is committed to developing a national Golden Gurus mentoring scheme," the Government said in its summit response. "The scheme will be developed during 2009."

The response comes after more than 1000 people took part in the two-day summit in federal Parliament in April last year to discuss ideas in areas including the arts, education, governance and productivity.

Mr Rudd has also agreed to establish a business and school connections roundtable to enhance opportunities for business and schools to work together.

It will develop a skills for the carbon challenge initiative to equip workers and businesses with skills for sustainability and build a single, post-secondary, high-speed broadband network connecting the Australian vocational training system to a similar network that currently serves universities.

The new ABC children's channel will be the only dedicated children's channel available free to Australian homes and will operate in addition to, rather than replace, the ABC's existing children's programming on ABC1 and ABC2. The Government said the channel would be delivered digitally, providing Australian families with more new television content and a further reason to switch to digital.

The $50 million towards the development of a bionic eye will be available through a competitive grants process. "The Government is committed to supporting research where Australia is on the leading edge of innovation as a crucial investment in our nation's future," it said.

"One such area is research into the bionic eye, which is a critical advancement for millions of vision-impaired Australians and promises the development of technologies to translate into other areas of need."

In a statement, Mr Rudd insisted the other 900-odd ideas had not gone to waste. He said the Government had already acted on "many of these", singling out four for special mention -- the review of the tax system, the white paper on homelesness, the emissions trading scheme and reform of commonwealth co-operation with the states and territories.

Mr Rudd later told a community cabinet meeting in Perth that if his Government was re-elected it would be a good idea to hold another 2020 summit to deal with the critical, long-term challenges of the future. "I think this is a good thing to do for governments every several years or so," he said.

One of the summit co-chairs, World Vision chief Tim Costello, said the Government's response was a victim of the global financial crisis: "It's a much shortened list, the grim reaper of the global financial crisis has taken the hatchet -- it's disappointing but not surprising."

Opposition spokesman for industry, science and research Eric Abetz said the summit cost taxpayers $2 million and 12 months later only nine out of more than 900 ideas had seen action: "I think every participant would have every right to feel let down and deeply disappointed with the outcome".
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People, Life Stories

Land at Potamos.

[[picture:"Cassimatis Land Potamos 1.jpg" ID:16569]]

Magnificent block of land, 1 kilometre from the thriving northern hub, Potamos.

On the road towards Karavas.

This 15.38 strema block is FOR SALE.

Contact John by email

Or phone Australia: 0410314056

There are more than 200 impeccably maintained olive trees on the block of land.

Ocean views.

The Land is registered.

Undisputed, long-standing ownership.

First to see will buy.

Price 70,000 euro's.
Nature

Land at Potamos.

Magnificent block of land, 1 kilometre from the thriving northern hub, Potamos.

On the road towards Karavas.

This 15.38 strema block is FOR SALE.

Contact John by email

Or phone Australia: 0410314056

There are more than 200 impeccably maintained olive trees on the block of land.

Ocean views.

The Land is registered.

Undisputed, long-standing ownership.

First to see will buy.

Price 70,000 euro's.
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Photos, Nature
Miscellaneous

Another view of that magnificent block of land at Potamos.

Magnificent block of land, 1 kilometre from the thriving northern hub, Potamos.

On the road towards Karavas.

This 15.38 strema block is FOR SALE.

Contact John by email

Or phone Australia: 0410314056

There are more than 200 impeccably maintained olive trees on the block of land.

Ocean views.

The Land is registered.

Undisputed, long-standing ownership.

First to see will buy.

Price 70,000 euro's.
Open full entry
Photos, Miscellaneous
Miscellaneous

Land at Potamos.

Magnificent block of land, 1 kilometre from the thriving northern hub, Potamos.

On the road towards Karavas.

This 15.38 strema block is FOR SALE.

Contact John by email

Or phone Australia: 0410314056

There are more than 200 impeccably maintained olive trees on the block of land.

Ocean views.

The Land is registered.

Undisputed, long-standing ownership.

First to see will buy.

Price 70,000 euro's.
Open full entry
Photos, Miscellaneous
Bibliography

Moving Images and the Theatre

Author: Heather Ashford & Mary Woodlands
When Published: 1997
Publisher: Scone and Upper Hunter Historical Society
Available: (?!?)
Description: Paperback

Speech delivered by Professor Minas Coroneo, at the book launch, of Moving Images and the Theatre, Scone, NSW, 17th August, 1997.

It is a pleasure and indeed an honour to be here today, and my family and I are grateful to the Scone and Upper Hunter Historical Society for asking me to launch Heather Ashcroft’s wonderful book “Moving Images And The Theatre: The Shiralee..filming in The Upper Hunter... Scone’s Civic Theatre”.

Publication of the book marks 2 anniversaries - 16 August was the 40th anniversary of the Australasian premiere of “The Shiralee” and the 50th anniversary of my father’s taking over the licence of the Civic from Alec Coroneo, members of whose family are also here today. It has finally brought home to me an understanding of an image of my parents, my father in black tie, my mother in a sequined dress wearing long gloves photographed with a little girl who is not my sister. The little girl is carrying a posy of flowers which had been presented by Beverly Boniface. This photo occupied a prominent position in the manager’s office at the Civic Theatre and I really had not understood why. What did this have to do with the “The Shiralee” a word first recorded in the English language in 1892 and used for the third time in the title of D’Arcy Niland’s book published in 1955? I could see no swag or burden anywhere in the picture.

Growing up in Scone as the son of the cinema proprietors could not have been all that bad - indeed as it turns out I believe that I have had, thus far, a very fortunate life. From an early age until I left Scone at 16, I saw a lot of movies. This, before videos and some before television - most before the age of the gratuitous violence and debauchery that Hollywood now relies on to sell its product (however in the movie this morning, Peter Finch was handy with his fists and had an eye for the girls). I cannot be certain quite what this did to my psyche or to those of my brother and sister. However it is perhaps no accident that we all finished up in eye care - in optometry and ophthalmology. I had developed a fascination with light and lenses and ultimately sight and the eye - an organ considered to be at the pinnacle of evolution of sense organs.


In the last few weeks I have been trying to recollect my earliest memories of the Civic Theatre. Somehow I missed the premier of the Shiralee - I was after all, almost 4 years old - it denied me an early start to a career as a net worker. Where was I mum? It couldn’t have been much fun for the baby sitter either, given the accounts of what happened that night.

It turns out that I remember the cleaning up sessions in the mornings - and my introduction to rock and roll played on the theatres sound system - I think it was Bert Day or perhaps Brian Collison dancing with brooms to the tune of “rock around the clock.” As a boy growing up in Scone, my father saw to it that I was not idle and as a result I filled three positions designed to teach me the benefits of work. The best part of working in the Civic involved learning something about being a projectionist. My teachers were Stuart Burridge, Brian Collison and Bert Day - patient men who I imagine had to put up with the boss’s son. I entered the magical world of the projection box - film and sprockets and carbon arcs, changeovers, rewinding, joining film and looking out the window of the projection box onto Kelly Street at the hotted up cars of the local lairs. I learnt to make the Metro Goldwyn Mayer lion really roar by turning up the volume and frightening the living daylights out of the audience (although I missed my chance this morning). If things went wrong, the ultimate embarrassment of a black out occurred - and the derisive cry of “stick a penny in it” still rings in my ears when things go wrong. I have to admit that on occasion used this expression myself, much to the embarrassment of my wife. Yesterday, while going through some old film with Stuart, I felt like the boy in the movie “Cinema Paradiso”.

The book goes into the problems of an emergency power supply - I remember construction of the shed and delivery of a large diesel motor that must have replaced the tractor, which the book records as being used as an emergency generator.

Over the last few weeks I have realised that I know little about the early history of the Coroneo family in this district. Years ago on my first visit to the island of Kythera on which the family originated - I realised how being on the island felt like being in Australia - one road was lined with gum trees and oleanders. It must have felt like home. Certainly a lot of effort was put into our garden with olive and almond trees and other vegetation appropriate to a Mediterranean island in the Hunter Valley. Later on as an adult, I met Peter Hoban - Margaret Morris recalls that he grew flowers for the theatre, which I did not know - we visited his garden where he grew the most beautiful poppies.


My father I believe arrived here in 1922 and he appears in a photo in the 4th class of that year. I have searched in this photo for one Alex Ashford and am indebted to Heather for reminding me that it was Alex who taught my father to swear in “Australian”. I remember my father telling me that his older brother Con gave him a good hiding for this innovation. I have to say that my own education in Australian swearing was significantly advanced when I began training as an Eye Dr with Fred Hollows.

Over the years, I have come to realise that the Coroneos made brief appearances in a number of local publications. The earliest I could find was in Edith Potter’s “The Scone I Remember” (1981). She records “When the Coroneo Brothers, Con and Sam, opened their shop in Kelly Street many, many years ago, they burst upon a quiet and well-conducted scene with the sudden brilliance of an unexpected fireworks display at a very tame small-town Sunday School Picnic. The brothers fitted their shop with powerful lights that shone and sparkled everywhere, especially on the highly-coloured, glossy pictures of their native Mediterranean Coast decorating the walls and on the polished glass showcases displaying within exotic boxes of Turkish Delight, fancy sweets, chocolates wrapped in shining metal papers in gold, silver, red and emerald green patterned with roses, dots and stars in contrasting colours; packets of dried figs on which were pictures of sultans with luxuriant, curling, jet-black moustaches, thick shining hair crowned with splendid, bejewelled turbans; and on the counter, great glass jars, round-shaped with a large opening for the hands, holding sugar-coated almonds, assorted caramels, candies and liquorice allsorts charmingly displayed.

To my knowledge, in Scone, the Coroneos were the first of the shop-keepers of Mediterranean or Central European origin. They made a mighty impact on the town when they built their highly decorated shop and refreshment room in Kelly Street. It was a new type of shop selling a new type of goods. Who had ever been served with chipped potatoes accompanying their steak before? Where else could one buy very well-cooked fried fish in batter? Or ice-cream sodas, or Sundaes?”

Another event that may not be well known is that on the 22 May 1935 one of the first and largest meetings of an organisation known as AHEPA (Australian Hellenic Educational Progressive Association) occurred in Scone. The originators of AHEPA in Australia were Greek shopkeepers in NSW country towns. Its primary objective was “to revive and marshal
into active service for Australia the noblest attributes of Hellenism”. There is a photo taken at this meeting and I believe my father was there and took some notice of this aim.

Later (1986), in Leslie Poidevin’s book “Goodbye Doctor” describing life in Scone in the late 1940’s records...

“Scone, at this time and for many years later, had few outside entertainments. The ‘Civic’ picture theatre would have to be classed as number one. Films were shown six nights a week with two changes of programmes.......There is no doubt the ‘pictures’ gained our regular custom. Saturday night was pretty regular, Wednesday, if a specially good film was ‘on’. We often ridiculed our addiction, making disinterested noises, but ending up by going. The ‘doctors’ had reserved seats in the third row of the dress circle on the centre aisle. The floor in front of the first seat had a hole about one inch in diameter with a glass insert. Below this was an electric light globe, which, when switched on, would make a flash and so attract the one seated there. The doctors’ movements were always known. We were never off the phone. One flash of the light meant Walter (Pye) was needed down on the office phone, two flashes was my call. Sometimes the flash would only mean some phone advice, other times it meant a call away. Theo, the manager, would always know where the doctor had gone so the empty seat could be accounted for as the rest of the party left.

This call system was quite a modern innovation by Theo even though we hated to see the flash. It saved him walking up stairs and disturbing those around by talking (I looked for this hole yesterday but it appears to have been filled in). There were, of course, no carpets in picture theatres in those days, even in the dress circle. Neither was there any heating which meant that in winter, with Scone’s freezing temperatures, we went heavily clothed taking a rug and a hot water bag each.” So much for the efficiency of the heating and ventilating which the book records as having been installed by “Unit Air conditioners of Sydney”.

The trade magazine “Australasian Exhibitor” of 5/8/48 (page 4) features Scone’s Civic Theatre. Len Wade records... “The Civic Theatre is an all-round credit to its management; thoroughly renovated 10 months ago, its exterior and interior boast a new face, it is air-conditioned and floral decorations include 18 vases tastefully placed at vantage points. Usherettes are smartly uniformed, well groomed and the essence of good service to the patrons. Theo’s belief in advertising is reflected in the many avenues he utilises to marked advantage: eight display boards in front of the theatre feature exchange and domestic posters with strong representations also in picked positions throughout the town. Fifteen hundred dodgers are distributed in theatre and around town; local “Scone Advertiser” carries the theatre advertisements. Theo also advertisers special programmes over Radio 2HK, Scone. Revivals are shown on the special Bargain Nights. Theo pays a monthly visit to Sydney to arrange programmes for his show, looks after the box-office when at Scone. Theo is a returned soldier with 31/2 years’ service.”

I was quite touched by some of the recollections in the memories section of the book. I knew Ray Clay as my teacher in 3A in 1962. I had no idea of his involvement with the theatre but years later he gave advice on which subjects I chose in high school. By finding out that I did not need to study Latin to gain entrance into Medical school, he saved me from boarding school and delayed the family’s departure from Scone. I did not know of Fred Winter’s early career as a “lolly boy” or his later career as an actor.

I remember my father as an optimist - unfortunately I did not inherit this quality. On 22 (Wednesday) September 1954 (just before my first birthday) there was a fire at the Civic.
The show went on within 2-3 days. There are photos of this event, with Scone firemen in brass helmets scaling the walls - I remember the stage end of the theatre was damaged and years later when I discovered how to get in behind the screen found beams of charred timber still there. A photo of my father standing in the ruins shows no evidence of defeat.

He had spent time in the ambulance corps in the Northern Territory during WWII. The best bedtime stories were of this time in his life. There was the cook nicknamed “Tiny” who weighed 20 stone - for years whenever we acquired large man-eating dogs, they were all called “Tiny”. During this time he developed a healthy scepticism about the medical profession... particularly the surgeons who he saw in action. He did not want his children to become doctors, he thought that civil engineering would be better.. perhaps based on his experiences during the war and the construction of Glenbawn Dam. He tried subtle and perhaps not so subtle dissuasion - I spent a vacation working at the Aberdeen abattoirs. I enjoyed it and finished up as a surgeon.

In the last few weeks I have made attempts to obtain a big screen 35mm copy of the Shiralee - ever one for rituals, I felt some obligation that the movie should be rescreened in the Civic. There is now no copy in Australia - I believe that this demonstrates a significant inadequacy of the National Film and Sound Archives. The newsreel made at the time of the premier of “The Shiralee” (which was blacked out when first shown, by a power failure, relieved by the emergency generator) I thought had vanished but a short section has been saved by Stuart Burrage and a few frames were shown this morning. Tony Kato of Reel Movies, kindly made available the 16mm copy we were able to show today and I am grateful to him for his efforts. Sue Andrews made the Civic available at very short notice for this morning’s screening.

After all this time Ealing and Metro Goldwyn Mayer have ceased to exist, Peter Finch and D’Arcy Niland have passed on and even Dana Wilson seems to have vanished from the scene. Almost against the odds the Civic, one of the last Crick and Furse cinemas still in active service, survives. I am indebted to Kevin Cork for information on the Civic and art deco theatres.

Heather’s book provides valuable documentation of movie making in this area and it will be interesting to see how many of these movies are still available. I am glad that the Civic’s history has been recorded for posterity.

A few years ago I came across a book (“Screening History”, Andre Deutsch 1992) by the famous American man of letters Gore Vidal who, as it turns out, was involved in the movie business in the early days of Hollywood. I was taken by his opening lines that read. “As I now move, graciously, I hope, toward the door marked Exit (he is now quite elderly), it occurs to me that the only thing I ever really liked to do was to go to the movies. Naturally Sex and Art always took precedence over the cinema. Unfortunately, neither ever proved to be as dependable as the filtering of present light through that moving strip of celluloid which projects past images and voices onto a screen. Thus in a seemingly simple process, screening history.”

Well, today we have been involved in screening a small piece of Australia’s history and with the publication of Heather Ashford’s book, there has been a recording of a piece of Scone’s history. I believe that my family have been fortunate in playing a part in this story through our involvement with the Civic Theatre. We were lucky to have settled here and well before the days of political correctness and the fashionable notion of multiculturalism know we were amongst friends.

I wish Heather every success with the book and The Scone and Upper Hunter Historical Society continued success in their endeavours. Again on behalf of my family, I thank you for inviting us here today to share in this event with you.
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Culture, Bibliography
Guestbook

Stella Nenes - Brisbane, Australia

Giasas! ti kanete;

My father Giorgos Nenes and my mother Panayotitsa Cominos were born in Potamos Kythera, but moved to and married in Australia. The Nenes family of nine immigrated to Australia and the USA.

My two sons Vasili, Minas and my husband Bill love travelling, having visited Greece many times and always stay in the great old Potamos house. We are planning another trip to the USA this year (2009). Who knows, this time may even get to meet a Nenes New Yorker :) Pios Xseri

Naste Kala,

Vouli xo
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Guestbook
Island Churches & Icons

Frescoes on the roof of the Church of the Virgin Mary of Ilariotissa.

They are magnificent but there is a major problem.

Water is seaping through from the roof, when it rains, and damaging these priceless works of art. Water is not only destroying the frescoes, but lighting and other accoutrements on, and around, the ceiling, as well.

Aid with roof repairs, and damp proofing of the roof to the church oft the Panagia, Virgin Mary, of Ilariotissa in Potamos

The Ilariotissa Church in Potamos is kept in immaculate condition by the resident priest, Father Petros Mariatos, and an indefatigable Church Committee.

Father Petros Mariatos

Doctor Priest

With the Archbishop of Kythera, 2005 (far right)

Many Australian patrons also contribute to the needs of the Church . One such Australian Kytherian, is Mr John Mallos, Monterey, NSW, 2217. John accompanied George Poulos of kythera-family, Father Petros, and members of the Church Committee to inspect damage to the interior of the roof of the church.

The damaged roof is much more noticeable and distracting in view of the impeccable condition of the rest of the church. It is a tragedy that one of the largest and most beautiful churches on Kythera is being damaged in this way.

The waterproofing faults that allow this to occur must be rectified. It will be expensive to repair. The Committee is taking a very proactive stance, and has already accumulated funds in order to affect the necessary repairs.

Fr Petros and his Committee are seeking assistance to ensure that they act as quickly as possible to rectify the problem, so that the damage is kept to a minimum.

If you can assist please contact Father Petros

His contact details are:

Father Mariatos
Church of the Virgin Mary of Ilariotissa
Potamos.
Kythera. 80100
GREECE

++30 2736033339 (only after 21:30 hours)
++30 2736033330 (usually between 20:00-21:00)

and mobile: ++306977595869


History of the Church

The Building of the Church of The Virgin Mary of Ilariotissa of Potamos, Kythera. A History of Service

"The Church of the Virgin Mary of llariotissa in Potamos, one of the largest in Kythera, was constructed in 1905, and was inaugurated in 1908, when the decorative works were completed. The history of the construction is of interest because it is connected with the history of the island, and of Potamos, and the tempestuous era in Greek history at the beginning of the 20th century. Bishop Efthimios Kavvathas and Mayor Michael(Mihali) Megalokonomos played important roles. The Bishop inspired, and the May¬or organised the construction of this church. But the participation of the public counted above all. The men worked at the quarries, the Iime kilns, the scaffolds and the women at woodcutting, water transportation, weaving and embroidering. The children with their teacher were transporting the materials that ships and boats would unload, from the coast of St Pelagia to Potamos. But the penny of the poor also counted as gold, as well as donations from wealthy people from Alexandria and Smyrna. This is how the church was completed in seven months!"

- Kosmas Megalokonomos

The Church dominates the village of Potamos. As a Kytherian you only appreciate the beauty of the Church when you watch other European Christians enter the church for the first time. Its beauty is breathtaking.
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Photos, Island Churches & Icons
Modern Portraits

Kosmas Megalokonomos

Dynamic head surgeon of the Hospital at Potamos.

Kosmas has recently completed the manuscript of his book - a comprehensive history of the town of Potamos.

Printing and distribution of this book will almost certainly occur in 2009.

Look out for it!
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Photos, Modern Portraits
Life Stories

The Cassim Story

as written by Katie Cassim - April 2002

CHARLES CASSIM - He was the eighth child and third son of a Minister in the Greek Orthodox Church. His Grandfather and his maternal Grandfather were also in the Church on the island of Kythera. His Father was also an Iconographer, a graduate of an Art School in Crete.

In Kythera, the family owned property on which they grew vines, grapes and pears. They also had in the family two Chapels.
Charles went to school in Potamos, Kythera and at the age of fifteen, he came to Australia to his brother Harry and
also to his cousin Harry, also Cassim. He worked with friends and relatives in a network system at whatever he could.

As he became established, he took an interest in the Stock Exchange, also in Property. Charles knew from the time
he was very young that he had to help provide dowries for his three sisters - one was already married - this he did.

Charles decided to return to Greece (maybe 1925) but unfortunately he heard that his Mother had died. His Father and oldest sister had died in the great influenza epidemic.

He decided to stay and married his best friend's sister Maria and they settled in Sydney. The Great Depression came along and Charles was devastated and he had to begin all over again only now he had a wife and a little girl Katherine, known as Katie.

Meanwhile his brother John had found a Restaurant in Swan Hill and named it The Paragon, and he invited his brother to join him; and so they came.

Two more girls were born to them, Helen and Elizabeth. A fourth child was born - a son who died in childbirth.

John left Swan Hill and Charles took over and later added the Crystal Cafe in Swan Hill.

Charles was a strong family man, a devout Christian. He was a highly intelligent gentleman and he remained close to his family in Greece. Charles bought several properties in Swan Hill.

He, together with his family, left Swan Hill in 1946 and went to Sydney. Charles continued his work in stocks and shares and also buying property.

Charles died in 1981 and his wife Maria died in 1987.

Mallee Roots, November 2002, Page 7

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ausshghs/mr_images/72/mallee_roots_72-7.pdf
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People, Life Stories
Internet & Wireless

Wireless internet hot spot at Astikon Cafée in Potamos

On my search for an suitable intenet connection on kithira, I've found an wireless internet hot spot at the Astikon Caffée in Potamos. The caffée is situated just opposite the main church on the left side, only a few steps away from the main place. If You don't have Your own computer, they've a public computer with internet access in the caffée too, which is free to use.
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Tourist Information, Internet & Wireless
Modern Portraits

Maria Kontoleon, co-owner of Astikon....

accessing the internet on the free computer service in the lounge.

Astikon, the most popular coffee shop on the island was established in 1908. At Astikon you will enjoy a cup of coffee, a soda, or a cocktail.

You will taste a variety of appetisers, accompanied by ouzo, or tsipouro (a type of local alcoholic beverage), sweets, and a variety of ice cream flavours.

Have your breakfast at Astikon. Breakfast is served from 7:00 am. We are also open until late at night!

Have an iced beverage, or a beer while listening to selected music.

Sit indoors, in the large lounge area, or outside, if you a romantic type, who enjoys taking in the view, and the "happenings" in the delightful village of Potamos.

At Astikon you will be able to play board games, backgammon and chess, as well as access the computer, and the world wide web.

A "hot spot" wireless internet connection is available here.

Divest yourself of all anxiety.

Pleasant surprises await those with an open mind.

Events include poetry readings, movie screenings, and art exhibits.

You are in the central meeting point of the island.

The traditional kafenion.

Opposite the Church,
Potamos
Kythera

Tel: 27360 33141

Email, Astikon
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Photos, Modern Portraits
Modern Portraits

Dimitris Kontoleon, co-owner with sister Maria, of Astikon

The most popular coffee shop on the island was established in 1908. At Astikon you will enjoy a cup of coffee, a soda, or a cocktail.

You will taste a variety of appetisers, accompanied by ouzo, or tsipouro (a type of local alcoholic beverage), sweets, and a variety of ice cream flavours.

Have your breakfast at Astikon. Breakfast is served from 7:00 am. We are also open until late at night!

Have an iced beverage, or a beer while listening to selected music.

Sit indoors, in the large lounge area, or outside, if you a romantic type, who enjoys taking in the view, and the "happenings" in the delightful village of Potamos.

At Astikon you will be able to play board games, backgammon and chess, as well as access the computer, and the world wide web.

A "hot spot" wireless internet connection is available here.

Divest yourself of all anxiety.

Pleasant surprises await those with an open mind.

Events include poetry readings, movie screenings, and art exhibits.

You are in the central meeting point of the island.

The traditional kafenion.

Opposite the Church,
Potamos
Kythera

Tel: 27360 33141

Email, Astikon
Open full entry
Photos, Modern Portraits
Working Life

Astikon. The main lounge room.

The most popular coffee shop on the island was established in 1908. At Astikon you will enjoy a cup of coffee, a soda, or a cocktail.

You will taste a variety of appetisers, accompanied by ouzo, or tsipouro (a type of local alcoholic beverage), sweets, and a variety of ice cream flavours.

Have your breakfast at Astikon. Breakfast is served from 7:00 am. We are also open until late at night!

Have an iced beverage, or a beer while listening to selected music.

Sit indoors, in the large lounge area, or outside, if you a romantic type, who enjoys taking in the view, and the "happenings" in the delightful village of Potamos.

At Astikon you will be able to play board games, backgammon and chess, as well as access the computer, and the world wide web.

A "hot spot" wireless internet connection is available here.

Divest yourself of all anxiety.

Pleasant surprises await those with an open mind.

Events include poetry readings, movie screenings, and art exhibits.

You are in the central meeting point of the island.

The traditional kafenion.

Opposite the Church,
Potamos
Kythera

Tel: 27360 33141

Email, Astikon
Open full entry
Photos, Working Life
Architecture

Astikon

The most popular coffee shop on the island was established in 1908. At Astikon you will enjoy a cup of coffee, a soda, or a cocktail.

You will taste a variety of appetisers, accompanied by ouzo, or tsipouro (a type of local alcoholic beverage), sweets, and a variety of ice cream flavours.

Have your breakfast at Astikon. Breakfast is served from 7:00 am. We are also open until late at night!

Have an iced beverage, or a beer while listening to selected music.

Sit indoors, in the large lounge area, or outside, if you a romantic type, who enjoys taking in the view, and the "happenings" in the delightful village of Potamos.

At Astikon you will be able to play board games, backgammon and chess, as well as access the computer, and the world wide web.

A "hot spot" wireless internet connection is available here.

Divest yourself of all anxiety.

Pleasant surprises await those with an open mind.

Events include poetry readings, movie screenings, and art exhibits.

You are in the central meeting point of the island.

The traditional kafenion.

Opposite the Church,
Potamos
Kythera

Tel: 27360 33141

Email, Astikon
Open full entry
Photos, Architecture
Kyth. Business Guide

Astikon

[[picture:"101_3429.JPG" ID:15838]]

The most popular coffee shop on the island was established in 1908. At Astikon you will enjoy a cup of coffee, a soda, or a cocktail.

You will taste a variety of appetisers, accompanied by ouzo, or tsipouro (a type of local alcoholic beverage), sweets, and a variety of ice cream flavours.

Have your breakfast at Astikon. Breakfast is served from 7:00 am. We are also open until late at night!

Have an iced beverage, or a beer while listening to selected music.

Sit indoors, in the large lounge area, or outside, if you a romantic type, who enjoys taking in the view, and the "happenings" in the delightful village of Potamos.

At Astikon you will be able to play board games, backgammon and chess, as well as access the computer, and the world wide web.

A "hot spot" wireless internet connection is available here.

Divest yourself of all anxiety.

Pleasant surprises await those with an open mind.

Events include poetry readings, movie screenings, and art exhibits.

You are in the central meeting point of the island.

The traditional kafenion.

Opposite the Church,
Potamos
Kythera

Tel: 27360 33141

Email, Astikon
Open full entry
Culture, Kyth. Business Guide
Diaspora Working Life

Volunteer Steve Horan, who will receive a bionic eye this year.

Bionic breakthrough in sight with a (Kytherian)-Australian first.

Kytherian-Australian opthamologist Minas Coroneo.

Sun Herald, Sydney, Australia, August 10, 2008.

Louise Hall Health Reporter.

AUSTRALIA'S first bionic eye will be implanted by two Sydney researchers.

Using the same cochlear technology that allows the deaf to hear, the device aims to restore basic vision in patients with degenerative eye diseases, allowing them to walk without a cane or guide dog and differentiate between night and day.

Minas Coroneo and Vivek Chowdhury, from Sydney's Prince of Wales Hospital, say the visual prosthesis could be the first - and cheapest - to hit the world market.

Rather than "reinventing the wheel", they have adjusted the cochlear implant to allow patients to perceive light, rather than sound.

"We're using a bionic ear to make a bionic eye," Professor Coroneo said.

It should not cost much more than a cochlear device - $20,000. Instead of a microphone, it will use a camera and more electrodes.

There are 23 groups around the world racing to invent the first functional bionic eye. The ultimate goal is a permanent implant with enough resolution to enable patients to recognise faces and read large print.

But while others - including two rival Australian groups - are working on a prosthesis to be implanted inside the eye on the retina (intraocular), Professor Coroneo's and Dr Chowdhury's device puts electrodes on the outer wall of the eye (extraocular).

The two ophthalmologists, who formed the Australian Bionic Eye Foundation, say their approach is safer, reversible and won't threaten what little vision some people have.

Four overseas groups have implanted prototypes in humans but have failed to prove benefit, or have had serious complications. In 2006, Professor Coroneo and Dr Chowdhury conducted a clinical trial of 20 patients to determine which types of blindness would respond to stimulation. In many conditions causing blindness, the retina is damaged but the nerves connecting to the brain remain largely intact and can be activated by electrical stimulation. It won't work for people born blind.

So far the research has cost just $100,000 and they have asked Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon for $10 million to begin clinical trials.

Following successful animal studies this year, the researchers have drafted three surgeons to soon implant the device in a cadaver.

By the end of the year, two or three volunteer patients, including Marrickville man Steve Horan, 30, will have a temporary device implanted.

Mr Horan was born with retinitis pigmentosa, for which there is no treatment or cure. As a child he could read a phone book and attend school. Now legally blind, he relies on his guide dog, Casey.

This prototype won't give him any more vision than he now has, but as he ages and his limited sight deteriorates to nil, the device could help. "For people who have no vision to be able to at least navigate and identify basic things would be amazing," he said.

Mr Horan will wear a pair of glasses mounted with a tiny camera that sends images to a small wearable pocket computer, which translates them to a line of 22 electrodes draped over the eye. These electrodes evoke small spots of light in the patient's visual field called phosphenes that trace the outline of solid objects. How the brain interprets the phosphenes remains unknown.

Other researchers are focusing on experiments with more sophisticated, intraocular devices that may help sight-impaired people read.

Professor Coroneo said: "We have been criticised because it was considered such a crude approach it couldn't possibly work but a device that's so sophisticated it would enable reading, we think, is not doable any time soon so we think this is a great starting point."

A functional bionic eye was identified as a key health goal at the 2020 summit in April.

"We believe, in Australia at least, that we're the closest group to getting this done in a patient," Professor Coroneo said.
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Photos, Diaspora Working Life
Life Stories

Professor Minas Coroneo. Opthamologist and Researcher, Bionic breakthrough in sight with a (Kytherian)-Australian first

Sun Herald, Sydney, Australia, August 10, 2008.

Louise Hall Health Reporter.

AUSTRALIA'S first bionic eye will be implanted by two Sydney researchers.

Using the same cochlear technology that allows the deaf to hear, the device aims to restore basic vision in patients with degenerative eye diseases, allowing them to walk without a cane or guide dog and differentiate between night and day.

Minas Coroneo and Vivek Chowdhury, from Sydney's Prince of Wales Hospital, say the visual prosthesis could be the first - and cheapest - to hit the world market.

Rather than "reinventing the wheel", they have adjusted the cochlear implant to allow patients to perceive light, rather than sound.

"We're using a bionic ear to make a bionic eye," Professor Coroneo said.

It should not cost much more than a cochlear device - $20,000. Instead of a microphone, it will use a camera and more electrodes.

There are 23 groups around the world racing to invent the first functional bionic eye. The ultimate goal is a permanent implant with enough resolution to enable patients to recognise faces and read large print.

But while others - including two rival Australian groups - are working on a prosthesis to be implanted inside the eye on the retina (intraocular), Professor Coroneo's and Dr Chowdhury's device puts electrodes on the outer wall of the eye (extraocular).

The two ophthalmologists, who formed the Australian Bionic Eye Foundation, say their approach is safer, reversible and won't threaten what little vision some people have.

[[picture:"Coroneo Minas Volunteer Steve Horan will receive a bionic eye this year Photo Jacky Ghossein.jpg" ID:15672]]

Volunteer … Steve Horan will receive a bionic eye this year.
Photo: Jacky Ghossein

Four overseas groups have implanted prototypes in humans but have failed to prove benefit, or have had serious complications. In 2006, Professor Coroneo and Dr Chowdhury conducted a clinical trial of 20 patients to determine which types of blindness would respond to stimulation. In many conditions causing blindness, the retina is damaged but the nerves connecting to the brain remain largely intact and can be activated by electrical stimulation. It won't work for people born blind.

So far the research has cost just $100,000 and they have asked Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon for $10 million to begin clinical trials.

Following successful animal studies this year, the researchers have drafted three surgeons to soon implant the device in a cadaver.

By the end of the year, two or three volunteer patients, including Marrickville man Steve Horan, 30, will have a temporary device implanted.

Mr Horan was born with retinitis pigmentosa, for which there is no treatment or cure. As a child he could read a phone book and attend school. Now legally blind, he relies on his guide dog, Casey.

This prototype won't give him any more vision than he now has, but as he ages and his limited sight deteriorates to nil, the device could help. "For people who have no vision to be able to at least navigate and identify basic things would be amazing," he said.

Mr Horan will wear a pair of glasses mounted with a tiny camera that sends images to a small wearable pocket computer, which translates them to a line of 22 electrodes draped over the eye. These electrodes evoke small spots of light in the patient's visual field called phosphenes that trace the outline of solid objects. How the brain interprets the phosphenes remains unknown.

Other researchers are focusing on experiments with more sophisticated, intraocular devices that may help sight-impaired people read.

Professor Coroneo said: "We have been criticised because it was considered such a crude approach it couldn't possibly work but a device that's so sophisticated it would enable reading, we think, is not doable any time soon so we think this is a great starting point."

A functional bionic eye was identified as a key health goal at the 2020 summit in April.

"We believe, in Australia at least, that we're the closest group to getting this done in a patient," Professor Coroneo said.
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People, Life Stories
Cafes, Shops & Cinemas

Roxy Theatre Glen Innes to be demolished

This iconic theatre at Glen Innes has been destined for demolition by Glen Innes Council. The Roxy was operated by Kytherians 1930's.


Maccas, Roxy D-day
NAOMI DAVIDSON
22/07/2008 8:46:00 AM
After months of delay and heated community debate the fate of the former Roxy Theatre and a planned McDonalds restaurant to replace it, will be decided this Thursday.
At its July meeting, Glen Innes Severn Council will consider four development applications pertaining to the development - firstly one to demolish the Roxy building, then if approved, subsequent consolidation and subdivision of lots on the site,thirdly, approval to construct a McDonalds family restaurant, and fourth, a Woolworths Fuel Plus service station on adjoining land on the corner of Meade and Church Streets.

A detailed report prepared by independent assessor GeoLINK contains, for a third time, the recommendation that council not approve the demolition of the Roxy on heritage grounds, both in terms of the building itself and the precinct. This echoes the recommendation made last September by acting town planner Keiley Hunter. GeoLINK’s recommendation is based on the grounds that the building is a heritage listed item as well as the statement of heritage impact prepared by Hill Lockart Architects and Glen Innes Severn Council’s heritage advisor Graham Wilson, and supported by the NSW Heritage Office.

However the report does contain conditions of approval if council resolves to ignore the recommendation and consent demolition of the building. Conditions include manually and photographically recording the building by a specialist consultant employed by the applicant, Hill Lockart Architects, for council records, and the construction of a monument to be sited in the restaurant’s forecourt facing Meade St, which will depict, in etched holograph form, the facade of the Roxy building and and a written history about it.

The decision will likely bring to a close community debate in which council received more than 51 public submissions, 44 objecting to the demolition of the Roxy Theatre and seven supported the proposal. In addition to the submissions a petition of 377 signatures supporting the proposal were received by council in September.

The majority of submissions received expressed support for a McDonalds family restaurant but did not support the demolition of the Roxy Theatre. Key to concerns were the possibility of re-using the building for the restaurant- something the developer claims is not possible due to the need for a drive-thru facility along the current western boundary. The development applications will be considered in the order of the proposal to demolish the Roxy Theatre Building, the consolidation and subdivision of each of the lots on the site, application to build a McDonalds Family Restaurant and proposal to build a Woolworths/Caltex service station on the vacant lot, with the consideration of each, dependant on the outcome of the one before it.


From the Glen Innes Examiner


Peter M
Inverell
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Photos, Cafes, Shops & Cinemas
Internet & Wireless

The big Café in Potamos

For the last couple of years I've been going to Kythera I've been plugging in my laptop to the DSL system at the big (lower) café in Potamos. They have a computer connected to it, so if you don't have a laptop you can use it, if it's free, which it often isn't. If you have a laptop take an ethernet cable with you so you can plug straight into their router and not have to wait for the computer to be free.
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Tourist Information, Internet & Wireless
Documents

GREETINGS FROM THE RETURNING IMMIGRANTS-Greek Newspaper article

Seated from left to right: Ioannis Alfieris with his honorable wife Maria Chlentzos, Mr. Theodore Ath. Firos, and Mr. Panagiotis Koroneos “Lerios” standing is Mr. Semitekolos

John and Maria Chlentzos Alfieris made their first trip back to Kythera in 1951, after having immigrated to America in 1906. They took a train from California to New York, then embarked on a ship headed for Pireaus, Greece.
While in New York, they stopped at the SHIP-AHOY where they delighted in the hospitality of their compatriot, Mixalis Semitekolos. A news article was printed in a Greek Newspaper, possibly the San Francisco Greek-American Newspaper -The Promithiean. It appears the article was written by John Alfieris, but one can not be certain.

GREETINGS FROM THE RETURNING IMMIGRANTS

Years ago we left our homeland in search for a better life in a foreign country, America. But the desire to return to our poor island dominated our souls. We wanted to revive the carefree life of our childhood under Kythera’s emerald blue skies.
As years went by, our desire to return to our homeland increased. As immigrants in America, we kept our homeland in our hearts. We prospered in America. We benefited from its opportunities and civilization. We now love it as our own country. We are proud of our American citizenship just as we are of being born Greek.
We thank God for enabling us to fulfill our desire, for realizing our goal after so many years of keeping it strong in our hearts. Today we are happy in our homeland. Our love of Greece is equaled by our love of America.
With full hearts we send greetings to all our fellow Greek Americans, but especially to those in California where we have spent most of our immigrant years.
We send heartfelt, special greetings to our compatriot in New York, Mr. Mixalis Semitekolos. As we passed through New York, we met him at his famous restaurant, SHIP-A-Hoy, where Greece and America merge. He extended unbelievable hospitality to us. We thank him for everything and hope to see him in Greece very soon.

Athens, July 1951

Translatied from Greek to English by Peter Panaretos, then edited by Katherine Stathis.


See also:

Mike’s Ship-A-Hoy website.
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History, Documents
Old Letters

Nikos Trifillis Letter

This is a letter from Nikos Trifillis, who was Mayor of Potamos for a time, to my grandfather's cousin Peter Gianakis.

Kythera
April 22, 1973

My dear Panagiotis and Maria (Peter and Mary Gianakis) Arestides ? (Larry?), Georgia, greetings.

I received your letter and I was very happy to hear first about your good health, and second about the wedding of Arestides.

If you decide to come you should write to me. Give regards to all our cousins. Also to Aristides and his wife, and to Georgia to whom I wish good progress.

I greet you with much love,
Your uncle

Nikos Trifyllis
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History, Old Letters
Modern Portraits

'Unique Kytherian Family''

Possibly the only Greek Australian/Afro Americian family, here Kay Levonis/Dickerson, family from Potamos and now living in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia. Photographed here with her 3 children at a recent Kytherian function in Brisbane. Kay's last visit to Kythera was 1990.
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Photos, Modern Portraits
Miscellaneous

Carnival - 1971 - Potamos

The four of us kids, myself 8/9 (Viking), Benjamin 7 (Gangster), Raphael 5 (Devil), Rebecca 3 (Gipsy) - wearing our masks in preparation for carnival.

Later that night, I was awoken by crowds of people wearing scary costumes running thru the house - I was terrified, but quickly got over it...
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Photos, Miscellaneous
Architecture

ruined building

The remains of an "underground" structure.

Photo taken in spring/summer 1971.

This was just outside of Potamos, near the road heading to Hora and Kapsali and the south of the island. There was a next to a commonly used "walking" track across vacant untended land, used by us, and many of the locals as a short cut from Logothetianika to Potamos. We used it to get between the house we were living in in Katsoulanika, to Potamos (not many shops in Logothetianika and none in Katsoulanika).
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Photos, Architecture
Island Social Life

Letter of thanks and appreciation from the Aged Persons Home,

Potamos, Kythera, to, George and Lorraine Poulos, Dover Heights, Australia.

Similar letters were also sent to Ms Linda Brennan, Matina & Manuel Samios, Dr Mitchell Notaras, Peter & Helen Mageros & family, The Nicholas Anthony Aroney Trust, and the Protopsaltis brothers, Makras, George, Michael & John.

The letters were sent in response to receiving a container load of Hospital Equipment from Australia.

Do not ask what Kythera can do for you,
Or even, what Kythera can do for itself...
Ask instead,
What you can do for Kythera...

In the week beginning Monday the 17th September a large 20 foot (7 metre) container (the standard shipping variety) was unloaded on Kythera.

Inside was about $A80,000 (at new prices) of hospital equipment destined for use at the Aged Persons Home, Potamos. The equipment included a number of sophisticated "multi-part-moving" beds, of a variety rarely (if ever) seen on Kythera.

The Project to despatch the equipment had been a joint venture between a number of diaspora Kytherians, and a committed "Aussie" philo-Kytherian:

...George & Lorraine Poulos. (Lorraine was then Director of Aged Services at St. Lukes Hospital, Potts Point. She is now Chief Operations Officer, the Aged Care Television Channel, Australia-wide.)

...Ms Linda Brennan, St. Luke's Care, who co-ordinated the logistics, and arranged to have the equipment delivered to the Frutex factory.

...Matina & Manuel Samios, Bronte & Mitata, true Kytherians & philo-Kytherians.

...Dr Mitchell Notaras, London, who came to Australia, examined the equipment, and determined what type was most needed, and most useful for Kythera.

...Peter & Helen Mageros, & family, benefactors-extrordinaire for Kythera, who picked up the equipment from various locations, stored the goods & packed the container. The family also funded the US$6,500 to ship the container to Athens.

The Nicholas Anthony Aroney Trust, who donated $A2,880, for Customs Duty & Port Charges (Athens), and

...the Protopsaltis family, George, Michael & John; Makras, Kythera, who funded the 1000 euro cost to ship the container from Athens to Kythera.

It is hoped that this visionary initiative might serve as a template for similar projects. Books, (first and second hand), musical instruments, & fire fighting equipment for example, could easily be despatched from Australia or America in the same way.

In the meantime is is hoped that the Hospital equipment that has arrived will provide a tangible benefit for the persons in the Aged Persons Home, for years, perhaps decades, to come?

The group involved in despatching the container also hope that it will provide a "psychological" uplift to the Board, Administrators, Nurses, carers, volunteers, and "friends" of the Aged Persons Home, Potamos, Kythera.

To view/download Congratulations Letter from the Oikos Eiyirias Kythiron, "Kasimateion", (Gerokomeion) - Aged Persons Home, Potamos, as a .pdf:

KasimateionCongratLetter.pdf
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Photos, Island Social Life
Current Affairs

Letter of thanks and appreciation from the Aged Persons Home

[[picture:"Old Peoples Home Letter 2007 SMALL.jpg" ID:14763]]

Potamos, Kythera, to, George and Lorraine Poulos, Dover Heights, Australia.

Similar letters were also sent to Ms Linda Brennan, Matina & Manuel Samios, Dr Mitchell Notaras, Peter & Helen Mageros & family, The Nicholas Anthony Aroney Trust, and the Protopsaltis brothers, Makras, George, Michael & John.

The letters were sent in response to receiving a container load of Hospital Equipment from Australia.

Do not ask what Kythera can do for you,
Or even, what Kythera can do for itself...
Ask instead,
What you can do for Kythera...

In the week beginning Monday the 17th September a large 20 foot (7 metre) container (the standard shipping variety) was unloaded on Kythera.

Inside was about $A80,000 (at new prices) of hospital equipment destined for use at the Aged Persons Home, Potamos. The equipment included a number of sophisticated "multi-part-moving" beds, of a variety rarely (if ever) seen on Kythera.

The Project to despatch the equipment had been a joint venture between a number of diaspora Kytherians, and a committed "Aussie" philo-Kytherian:

...George & Lorraine Poulos. (Lorraine was then Director of Aged Services at St. Lukes Hospital, Potts Point. She is now Chief Operations Officer, the Aged Care Television Channel, Australia-wide.)

...Ms Linda Brennan, St. Luke's Care, who co-ordinated the logistics, and arranged to have the equipment delivered to the Frutex factory.

...Matina & Manuel Samios, Bronte & Mitata, true Kytherians & philo-Kytherians.

...Dr Mitchell Notaras, London, who came to Australia, examined the equipment, and determined what type was most needed, and most useful for Kythera.

...Peter & Helen Mageros, & family, benefactors-extrordinaire for Kythera, who picked up the equipment from various locations, stored the goods & packed the container. The family also funded the US$6,500 to ship the container to Athens.

The Nicholas Anthony Aroney Trust, who donated $A2,880, for Customs Duty & Port Charges (Athens), and

...the Protopsaltis family, George, Michael & John; Makras, Kythera, who funded the 1000 euro cost to ship the container from Athens to Kythera.

It is hoped that this visionary initiative might serve as a template for similar projects. Books, (first and second hand), musical instruments, & fire fighting equipment for example, could easily be despatched from Australia or America in the same way.

In the meantime is is hoped that the Hospital equipment that has arrived will provide a tangible benefit for the persons in the Aged Persons Home, for years, perhaps decades, to come?

The group involved in despatching the container also hope that it will provide a "psychological" uplift to the Board, Administrators, Nurses, carers, volunteers, and "friends" of the Aged Persons Home, Potamos, Kythera.

To view/download Congratulations Letter from the Oikos Eiyirias Kythiron, "Kasimateion", (Gerokomeion) - Aged Persons Home, Potamos, as a .pdf:

KasimateionCongratLetter.pdf
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Culture, Current Affairs
Oral History

Jim Panos (Zacharias Panaretos)

While I was living in Melbourne during the 1980s I enrolled in a Greek language course with the CAE. Our teacher was Nina Black a well known personality in the Greek community as well as in the wider community. It was through her that I learned her brother-in-law, Jim Panos was Kytherian and that he lived in Hobart. When I explained that I also had Panaretos forebears she immediately claimed me as a relative! My sister and her husband lived in Hobart too. So when I flew over to Tasmania to spend Christmas with them it seemed like a good idea to call on Jim and his family. Accompanied by my sister and mother we visited Jim and his wife on two occasions December 1987, then in January 1988. I wrote down notes while we talked.

The first member of Jim's family to migrate to Australia was his father, Andy (Anargrios) Panaretos. The exact date of his arrival is not known, but he came in the late 1800s before the turn of the century. He owned a cafe in partnership with his brother at Gunedah in New South Wales. In 1905 after more than five years of residence he was naturalized. Not long after his naturalization Andy, who by this time was over thirty years of age, decided to return to Greece. He married a girl from the Zantiotos family. They had six children Jim being the eldest. Jim was born in 1908, followed by Ralia in 1911, Panagiotis (Peter), Athena, Athamantia and the last born Stavros died in infancy. Andy lived to the age of eighty and died around 1961/62.

Jim attended the primary school at Potamos, and at the age of fourteen commenced high school in the township of Hora at the southern end of Kythera. His first year of high school was the first year of the schools' establishment. During the following six years of schooling he studied French, Latin, the Greek Classics, Higher Mathematics, History, Georgraphy and Physics. While Jim was still at school a very unhappy event occurred in his life. When he was seventeen his mother became ill. She was diagnosed with leukemia. She received a blood transfusion from one of her sons, but sadly did not survive.

At the age of twenty-six Jim attended officer's school in Athens followed by two years of service in the Greek army. he found his new responsibilities and work rewarding. After discharge from the army Jim remained in Athens where he found employment as a waiter and studied bookkeeping part time. In 1937 he left Athens for Australia and did not return to Greece until 1979, forty two years later. He was proud of the fact that some of the best houses on Kythera were built by Panaretos families with money sent from Australia. Two of Jim's sisters still live in the family home at Potamos. One is a widow and the other is unmarried.

Jim enjoyed reminiscing about his Panaretos forebears. He spoke about his grandfather, Zacharias Panaretos who was a seafarer. His grandfather carried merchandise and passengers between islands as far as the coast of Asia, to Cypress, the northern part of the Aegean Sea and the Ionian Islands. He commented that the Greeks have always been great travelers and seafarers. The Greeks who lived in Smyrna, (Izmir) Turkey excelled in the arts, trades and had many opportunities for education not available to mainland Greeks. When about one million Greeks left Turkey in the 1920s, those with relatives or connections on Kythera settled on the Island. The children born to Jim's grandfather, Zacharias Panaretos, were Vretos, Anargrios (Andy), Garyfolia and Stavroula. Stavroula married into the Fardoulys family and had nine children. All but one of these children migrated to Australia.

When he was growing up Jim remembers that there were four large families of Panaretos living in Potamos. To distinguish each family from the other, they had nicknames. Jim's family was known as "notas" meaning south, another was "justice," an English word. There was "xelynos" or wooden and the fourth family was "karepis." The "justice" Panaretos was also a seafaring family. Some of the Panaretos names he remembered from his youth were Victor Panaretos, John Panaretos and Spiro Panaretos. The family of Spiro Panaretos lived next door to Jim's family. They were second cousins, but more like brothers.

When Jim was growing up, ninety percent of the population of Kythera lived off the land. They were self sufficient and the whole family worked to provide for the home with the growing and production of wheat and wool. The animals they raised provided milk and cheese. There is a legend that long ago a Panaretos excelled at throwing the shot-put, which evolved into the saying that "he throws it like a Panaretos." The Greek dictionary meaning of "Panaretos" is "all virtuous" that is "full of virtue." Other Kytherians who live in Tasmania are members of the Cassimatis family. Jim spoke about Gregory Cassismatis who migrated to Australia long before the turn of the nineteenth century and how he began work as a fishmonger, dealing in crayfish and scallops (also known as doughboys).

Before his retirement Jim worked with the Commonwealth Bank as an interpreter. During the course of his work he noticed that the name Panaretos also occurred on other Ionian Islands, particularly Ithaca and Corfu. He married into the Black (Mavrokefalos) family who originated from the Island of Ithaca. He made his home at Hobart, in Tasmania where he raised his family and where we first met up with him in 1987.
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History, Oral History

DOLMADES FOR LUNCH 11

Nimble Fingers

As a child I was intrigued by the intricate work... her crochet hook worked quickly, and seemingly with a rhythm of it's own. She seemed to barely look at her hands, all the while holding a conversation with one of her family or a friend who may be visiting. She used no patterns, and yet each piece seemed to be quite different from the last. While she was this engrossed, she always seemed so content, as if the repetition had a pulse of it's own, that calmed her.. gave her an escape from her daily chores.

To a small child, watching my Nona crochet was something magical. I longed to be able to create as she did, but I was told I was too little. I watched carefully as a ball of cotton thread became a doiley or perhaps a cloth for the tea tray. It was by her mother's side, as a child on Kythera, that my Nona leaned to crochet. Like so many Greek women, it was considered essential that she pass on the knowledge to her daughters so that they, too, could carry on the tradition of crocheting, and embroidering for their prika, which broadly speaking, means dowry or trousseau. I was too young to ask my grandmother what she had brought from Greece. I just knew that she had quite a collection of cloths and doileys, tablecloths and a few quilts, or paploma.

The women of the villages would often gather to exchange ideas and compare their handiwork, but mostly simply to enjoy each other's company as they worked. Some of the early quilts were filled with raw cotton. I don't know if my grandmother actually made her quilts, though she was adept at sewing and skilled at transforming old clothes into something usable. Often, quilts in Greece would be made by the village quilt maker, usually a male, who would be called to the house to assemble and quilt a bedcover for a newly engaged young girl. Though these quilts were always filled with cotton, I do recall one of my Nona's quilts being filled with feathers... it was so cosy and my brother and I loved to snuggle under it. Even more fun was to shake it to resettle the feathers... it made a lovely soft, whooshing sound as it fell back on the bed

My grandmother was proud of the weaving that she had done as a young girl and it is only recently that I have been given a cotton rug that she had made. The colours are vibrant still and make me wonder how old she was... how long it took her to make.

I have a few other pieces of her work... such fine embroidery, intricate lace... was it from her I inherited my love of embroidery and the skills that led me to becoming an embroidery teacher for some years? As most Greek women didn't work outside the home, they took great pride in creating beautiful pieces for their home... practical, yes, but always created with such care. I love the traditional patterns used for generations, like the Greek key design. I'm fascinated by the depiction of ancient mythology on woven cotton bags, mostly in the beautiful blue and white that signifies Greek tradition. Many of the figures or emblems used in the embroidery can also be seen on urns or ceramics.

As I grew older, an Aunt taught me to crochet a little, though I never did achieve the elegant intricacies of my grandmother's work. She tatted, embroidered, wove, crocheted.. all with such finesse and all with such nimble fingers.

Crissouli (c) 2007

DOLMADES FOR LUNCH 10

Childhood Dreams

Recently I was tidying up some old cupboards and came across a very tattered, thinly covered pink rabbit. Tears overwhelmed me, and I sat there, cuddling that rabbit from long ago, while memories flooded back.

That well worn rabbit was my companion for so many years… she knew all my childhood secrets, heard all my frustrations, consoled me when I was sad, rejoiced with me when I was happy. I don’t know who gave me my dear friend, I just know that as a little girl, I loved her so.

This made me wonder about the toys, if any, that my Kytherian grandparents had. Did they do as my parents mostly did, making their own, with whatever was available? Life was so different then, and both were from larger families - was there little time for play, so little need for toys? I recall my aunt saying that she never had a doll, but she did have a wooden dolly peg, wrapped in cloth, that she carried around in her pocket. No hula hoops and spinning tops for them. No china dolls, nor fancy trikes.

I decided to research the toys that may have been available to my grandparents, other than the sticks or pebbles that all children have imagined into leagues of soldiers or tiny dolls.

Dolls have been discovered in the ruins of Ancient Greece that were made of clay and some of wax… bows and arrows and yo-yos have survived for centuries. According to stories, the time of abandoning one's toys was around fourteen years old, the then coming of age. Often on the eve of their wedding, girls would present their toys as a temple offering, a symbol of leaving behind their childhood.

Perhaps the forerunner of the Rubix Cube was around as early as the third century BC, when the first mechanical puzzle appeared in Greece. This game consisted of 14 parts that formed a square and could be reassembled into different shapes. And what inspired Heron from Alexandria to come up with the first steam engine? It was in the first century BC that he invented the “aeolipile”, meaning “wind ball”. This was actually a toy he designed. “The steam was supplied by a sealed pot filled with water and placed over a fire. Two tubes came up from the pot, letting the steam flow into a spherical ball of metal. The metallic sphere had two curved outlet tubes, which vented steam. As the steam went through the series of tubes, the metal sphere rotated. The aeolipile is the first known device to transform steam power into rotary motion. The Greeks never used this remarkable device for anything but a novelty.” Once again the Greeks led the way. It helped no doubt that Heron was a geometer and engineer.

As with everything else, as civilisation changed, so did toys and the materials they were made of. I remember my mother talking about a little rag doll, the only doll she ever had. My father recalls playing with jacks made of knuckle bones, also marbles - no manufactured toys. He and his brothers did make billy carts, with whatever scraps they could find, complete with old wheels scrounged from the local tip, or dump. It was his father who taught him to polish the knuckles to make them easier to flip, just as he had done as a boy on Kythera.

As I see the enormous number of toys that my grandchildren have - and yes, I did give them many of them - I cannot help but wonder how they would feel about no electronic toys and no, or very few, soft toys.

Children don’t really change. If their imagination was fostered and nurtured as ours certainly was, I’m sure they would have been very happy playing with my dress-up box, which I kept under the tank-stand. Scraps of fabric, old clothes, feathers taken from uncomplaining hens, broken beads - anything and everything that took my eye became the adornment of princesses. Or creating fairy wings or the clothes of a pirate on the high seas… all of these wonderful items, stirred in with a good dollop of imagination and a small girl could be transported wherever she dreamed.

For my grandchildren, it is my large collection of buttons, all sizes, colours, shapes, made of everything imaginable, that has kept them occupied for years, along with their craft box. This I’ve filled with the usual pencils, paints, crayons, glue, scissors and so on, but also with scraps of fabric, waste paper, old cards and lots of different textured items. Like children gone before, foster the imagination and develop the child.
Crissouli ©2007 (crissouli@kythera-family.net)
Diaspora Social Life

Cousins getogether 2006

Picture taken last year at Luncheon get together.L to R; Nancy Panaretos,Judy Panaretos,Rosemary Pappas Collias,Irene Panaretos,friend Nancy Moore,John Peter Panaretos,Paul T. Panaretos,Ted Minas Panaretos.
I was taking the picture Jim Gavriles
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Photos, Diaspora Social Life
Modern Portraits

Kalipso X. Michalakaki

Kalipso is currently completing her Ph.D on the Kytherian Societies of Alexandria & Smyrna, with references to all other Kytherian societies around the world

She is a resident of Pireaus, and her patriko is in Potamos.

Kytherians around the world, particularly descendants of those Kytherians who emigrated to Alexandria & Smyrna, eagerly await the completion and publication of her Ph.D thesis.

You can contact Kalipso

here
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Photos, Modern Portraits
Modern Portraits

Kalipso X. Michalakaki

Kalipso is currently completing her Ph.D on the Kytherian Societies of Alexandria & Smyrna, with references to all other Kytherian societies around the world

She is a resident of Pireaus, and her patriko is in Potamos.

Kytherians around the world, particularly descendants of those Kytherians who emigrated to Alexandria & Smyrna, eagerly await the completion and publication of her Ph.D thesis.

You can contact Kalipso

here
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Photos, Modern Portraits
USA

Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland, CA, USA

Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California
Greek Orthodox Church of the Ascension

Left:
"I am the resurrection and the life"

Right:
He who believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he lilve." (John 11:25)

Center:
"Brethren, we would not have you ignorant concerning those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him whose who have fallen asleep.

(I Thessalonians 4;13,14)
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Gravestones, USA
USA

James and Evangeline Vrettos - 2002- Oakland, California, USA

This is the grave stone of my parents Jim & Angie Vrettos.....

James K. Vrettos
b. July 13, 1914, in Athens, Greece
d. July 29, 2002 in Oakland, CA

Evangeline Vrettos (nee Alfieris)
b. April 4, 1915 in Oakland, CA
d. Nov. 2, 2002 in Oakland, CA

Buried in the Greek Orthodox section of Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland California

Evangelne (Angie) was the daughter of Yiannis Alfieris (Potamos) and Maria Chlentzos (Christoforianika) who immigrated to the USA in 1906 and 1907.
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Gravestones, USA
Associations

Association of Teachers of Kythera.

Director : Cosma Chrissanthi
Agia Pelagia
80200 Kythera
Tel : 001130 27360 34206
Mob : 6973798133

Current Project:

Establishment of a Library at Pnevmattico Kendro, Potamos.

Persons wishing to donate funds or books for this purpose, please contact Cosma Chrissanthi.
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Culture, Associations
Documents

1844 Census listing Venardos ( Katsavias ) from Potamos

These are the 1844 census records listing the children and grandchildren of Nicolas Drakos Venardos from Potamos. It shows their "parachuklie" as Katsavias"

Nicolas Venardos was my great great great grandfather.

*****************

Anastasios Venarados of Nicolas; 28; Farmer; absent

Maria his wife; 25; present

Nicolakis their son; 12; Sailor; absent

Panayiotis thei son; 6; present

Polychronis their son; 1


Manolis Venardos of Nicolas; Katsavias; 27; Sailor; absent (my great great grandfather)

Maria his wife; 23; present

Nicolas their son; 2; present

Efrosyni their daughter; 1; present (my great grandmother)


Dimitrios Venardos of Nicolas; Katsavias; 36; Farmer; absent

Potheti his wife; 30; present

Nicolakis their son; 8; present

Efrosyni thier daughter; 6; present

Maria their daughter; 2; present

Stamatico their daughter; 2 present

Jannis their son; 1; present

************************

Many thanks to Telemachos Combis for obtaining this information for us.
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History, Documents
Documents

Modeart Beauty Parlor ad in 1940 USA Greek Newspaper

Evangeline Alfieris, daughter of Yiannis and Maria Chlentzos Alfieris, owned and operated a beauty parlor in San Francisco in the early 1940's.
This ad was placed in the "PROMETHEUS", Hellenic National Journal, Oct. 3, 1940

The ad reads:

GREEK WOMEN

"Before you get ready for any social gathering, visit first the beauty salon of Miss Evangelia I. Alfieri. Try a modern ... styling (Finger wave) and beautifying of the face (facial) and you will showcase the beauty of your inheritance from your illustrious origins. Of course, you will become more beautiful women."


Yiannis Alfieris (1883 - 1966 ) and Maria Chlentzos (1883 - 1968) immigrated to the USA in 1906 via Alexandria, Egypt.
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History, Documents
Potamos

Kapsanis family grave, Potamos (4 of 5)

A bit weathered, but still somewhat readable:

Here lies wife and mother K. Kapsani d. 27 September 1917 age 68

Her children
Nikolaos age 27
Dionysios age illegible
Kalliope age illegible
Konstantinos age 21
Panagiotis no age

Kosmas N. Kapsanis

Efrosyni Kapsani
Theodoros Kapsanis
Anna Kapsani Venardou

Aristeidis Kapsanis 1904-1988
Manos Venardos 1908-1995
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Gravestones, Potamos
Potamos

Kalogridis and Alfieris Family Plot - Potamos Cemetery (1 of 2)

Theodoros Kalogridis
age 59, d. 1923

Marigo D. Kalogridi
age 59, d. 15 October, 1958

Emmanouel G. Alfieris
age 59, d. 20 October, 1956

Loukia Emm. Alfieri
age 80, d. 4 February, 1991

Emmanouel G. Alfieris was my great uncle. His brother, Yiannis Alfieris, was my papou.

See also:

Spirithoula Argyri Alfieris (1855-1927) with sons Emmanuel and Vrettos

Wedding of Vrettos Alfieris and Marigo Cordato (Theodorakaki)

Loukia Alfieri
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Gravestones, Potamos
Potamos

Fyropoulos-Cominos Grave, Potamos

The cross at the top of the grave reads:
In rememberance of my adored parents and siblings, from Tasia Panaretou.

The inscribed names on the tomb are:
Panagiotis Fyropoulos, age 76 d. 16 Feb. 1933
Grigoria Fyropoulou, age 90 d. 26 Jan. 1958
Nikolaos Cominos, age 68 d. 16 April 1938
Vasiliki Cominou, age 52 d. 20 Oc.t 1943
Anargyros Fyropoulos, age 76 d. 31 Dec. 1978
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Gravestones, Potamos
Potamos

Chrysafi Tsiggouni grave marker, Potamos (1 of 2)

This broken marker belongs to a woman named Chrysafi Tsigouni. She died on 6 Jan 1995 age 91.

Chrysafi Tsigouni was in the Potamos old peoples home (before 1990 she lived in Lahi near Neapoli). Her sons Jim and Stelios Tsigounis lived in Brisbane but passed away a few years ago. Her son Nicholas may still be alive in Sydney.

 

If you have more information, please add your comments!

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Gravestones, Potamos
Potamos

Overview of Potamos Cemetery (plus partial list)

Hi, here are some transcriptions of people buried in the Potamos cemetery. I wrote down names of families possibly related to me in the summer of 2005 (when I was 15). Any comments, etc. or additional information on the following people would be great.

Peter Trearchis

POTAMOS CEMETERY
(only some people, not all)

Konstan. Benardos
Konstantine Trifillis b. 1910 d. 1993 age 83

Tasia Panaretos

Ioannis D. Panaretos

Elleni Panaretos d. 9 Jan 1908 age 23
Ioannis D. Panaretos d. 1 Jul 1928
Efrosini I. Panaretos 1889-1967
Demetrios I. Panaretos 1907-1970

Panag. Panaretos
Maria Panaretos
Demetrios Panaretos
Anna Panaretos
Spyridon P. 1875-1964
Eleni S. 1889-1981
Panagiotis S. 1916-1945
Georgios S. 1918-1974

Anargyros Zach. Panaretos
Eustratia A. Panaretos
Panagiotis A. Panaretos
Athena A. Panaretos

Brettoy Zach. Panaretos
Eleni B. Panaretos
Antonios P. Blantis

Ioannis N. Koronaios
14 Sep 1900- 4 Aug 1971
Eleni N. Koronaios
d. 6 Feb 1927 age 52

Chrysanthe A. Gavrile d. 1920 age 84 (b. abt 1836)
Th. A. Gavriles

Konstantine M. Koronaios d. 7 Feb 1907 age 82 (b. about 1825)

Minas K. Koronaios b. 2 Nov 1865 d. 17 Apr 1942

Eleni M. Koronaios b. 1 Feb 1868 d. 22 Dec 1953
Panagiotis Th. Koronaios d. 23 Aug 1920 age 43
Panagiotitsa P. Koronaios d. 27 Nov 1918 (b. abt 1824) age 94
Expense of Michael Protopsalti and Emm. Megaloikonomou

Nikolaos Andrew Koronaios d. 3 Mar 1966 age 90
Andreas Nikolaos Koronaios d. 18 Aug 1936 age 20
Dimitrios Theodore Koronaios d. 5 Jul 1963 3 months
Anastasia Nick. Koronaios d. 12 Oct 1972 age 72

Theodore G. Koronaios age 56 d. 17 May 1984

Pothiti Th. Koronaios age 56 d. 5 Jul 1950
Theodoros A. Koronaios age 78 d. 23 May 1952

Alexander A. Koronaios age 72 d. Australia 20 Nov 1970 eternal be memory
Buried here wife and son
Andreas N. Koronaios d. 30 Jul 1913 age 75 (b. about 1838)
Elleni A. Koronaios d. 1 Feb 1930 age 75 (b. about 1855)

Theophlos G. Panaretos d. 24 Oct 1929 age 90 (b. about 1839)

Spiros K. Koronaios d. 6 Jan 1941
Stavroula I. Koronaios d. 8 Dec 1918

This stone covers good soul and of high-minded KOSMAS PANARETOS covers and fought for liberation of the seven islands and for work he has done helping mighty Britain; fell fighting

Haralambos P. Panaretos age 58 d. 25 Mar 1964
Dimitrios P. Panaretos age 14 d. 4 Jul 1923
Panagiotis N. Panaretos age 76 d. 25 Feb 1942
Panagiotitsa P. Panaretos age 76 d. 5 Mar 1951

Konstan. N. Koronaios d. 13 Oct 1957
Eleni Constan. Koronaios d. 25 Jun 1953
Ioannis Kon. Koronaios d. 3 Jun 1981

Anastasios G. Koronaios d. 1929
Georgitsa A. Koronaios d. 1957
George A. Koronaios d. 1978
George Koronaios d. 1975

Pang. K. Koronaios d. 30 Jul 1967
Kyriakos P. Koronaios age 80
Erifyli Koronaios age 65
Panagiotis Koronaios age 68
Niko Koronaios Psonas 1932-2001
George A. Koronaios 1882-1935
Maroula G. Koronaios 1896-1966
Konstan. G. Koronaios 192301931
Dimitrios P. Marcellos b. 20 Jan 1875 d. 1 Jun 1902
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Gravestones, Potamos
Modern Landscapes

2006 Christmas Card

This card was created from photos taken on our summer 2006 trip to Kythera to send out to all of our friends and family.

Top left to right:
Kastro at Milopotamos,
The Church of the Virgin Mary of llariotissa in Potamos,
Odos Koulentianos in Christoforianika
(the street my Yiayia Maria Chlentzos lived on)

Middle Row:
Avlemonas,
Icon on the ceiling of Agia Elesa,
Porch of cousin Spiridoula Georgopoulos's home in Potamos the morning we arrived.

Bottom Row:
Potamos Market-Sempriviva flowers,
the house in Potamos that my Papou Yiannis Alfieris grew up in.
View of Kapsali from the Kastro.
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Photos, Modern Landscapes
Life Stories

Theodoros George Andronicos 1881-1948

Theodoros George Andronicos
Tested To The Very Extreme


One hundred and ten years ago my grandfather, Theo Andronicos, left his home in the town of Potamos, to make the long voyage to Australia on an Orient Line steamship, the “Oruba”, disembarking at Circular Quay Sydney in July 1897. He was sixteen years old when he reached Australia.

[[picture:"k2b.jpg" ID:15016]]

Grandfather neither returned to the island he called Cerigo, nor saw his parents again. His father, George Emmanuel Andronicos who worked away from the island, had a small tobacconist shop at Port Piraeus. His mother, Panagiotitsa, was a Panaretto before her marriage.

[[picture:"k2b.jpg" ID:12660]]

The details on Theo's naturalization certificate dated 26th June 1906, though brief, provide some insight into his early years in New South Wales. He spent four years in Sydney, beginning in the employ of John Cominos of Oxford Street, followed by two years in Narrabri with shorter periods in Boggabri and Uralla. His older brother Emmanuel, owned a fruit and confection business at Coonamble. Theo was a resident there when his brother died in 1910. When he returned to Sydney sometime in 1913, he met his future wife, Maude Mary Whyte.

[[picture:"k2b.jpg" ID:15017]]

They were married in Brisbane in 1914. Theo had a good ear for music and as a young single man, played the violin at Greek community dances, accompanied by a bouzouki and mandolin player.

Most of what I know about my grandfather was told to me by my mother.

[[picture:"k2b.jpg" ID:15018]]

She was the only daughter and youngest child, and therefore held a special place in her father's affections. By nature my mother is friendly and outgoing, and has been blessed with a happy disposition.

[[picture:"k2b.jpg" ID:15019]]

She was born in 1919 with the assistance of a midwife, at the residence behind their fish and chip and small goods shop at Given Terrace Paddington in Brisbane - the only one of Theo's children born at home. Her given name was Irene, but she has always been known as Rene. Two brothers preceded her. George who was the eldest, was born in 1915. He took his name from his paternal grandfather. Second son Emmanuel, was born in 1917. As a youngster his father called him Manolis, but I only ever knew him as Mal, Uncle Mal.

By the mid 1920's Theo had sold their Paddington shop and established himself in a cafe in Edward Street, Brisbane. With the help of his wife Maude their business began to prosper. She waited on the tables while Theo did the cooking. All three children attended good schools nearby. George and Emmanuel went to St. James Boys School in The Valley, while my mother began her schooling at St. Stephens Preschool, just around the corner from their cafe. Musical education was encouraged and both George and my mother had violin lessons.


My mother has fond memories of family outings during this period. On Sundays, they attended church in the morning, followed by an outing in the afternoon. Favourite destinations were the art gallery or museum at Gregory Terrace, or a stroll around the Botanic Gardens. It was considered a special treat to visit Christy Freeleagus's Astoria Cafe in Edward Street for ice cream served in silver dishes. They were a well dressed, handsome family and when they stepped out, heads always turned. Up to the age of nine, my mother recalls that their life was normal and happy, but this all changed when a series of tragic events occurred; first the death of a child, the breakdown of their mother's health, then the loss of their business.

A third son, James, was born in 1927. When he was only 10 months old, he died of double pneumonia during an influenza epidemic. The doctor who came to their house said that if he had been called sooner he might have been able to save him. Recollections of this part of my mother's life still evokes tears. Within the same year grandmother's health broke down. One morning, as she came down the internal stairs of their terrace home, she experienced her first epileptic seizure. Her children, who witnessed her fall, were horrified. There were no grandparents or other relatives they could turn to for support. With all of the worry and extra responsibilities of caring for a sick wife, dealing with an illness that was little understood and the upkeep of home and family, their business suffered and was eventually lost. During the next few years tough times lay ahead, and the Andronicos family was tested to the very extreme.

At the age of nine my mother was kept home from school to care for her mother while her father went to work. Her school threatened to prosecute him, unless her attendance improved. She was a bright student and loved school so it was a great hardship for her to miss even a half a day of classes. Many tears were shed as a result. With debts and medical expenses to pay Theo took whatever work he could find. At first he washed dishes and did kitchen work. As the economic downturn set in that brought hardship to so many families around Australia, the era known as the Great Depression, jobs became even scarcer. He accepted work that nobody else wanted. Theo commenced employment as a cook at a leper colony on Peel Island, an isolated lonely place in the middle of Moreton Bay east of Brisbane. A housekeeper was employed to help care for the family in his absence, but this proved to be an unsatisfactory arrangement. When his wife's health worsened she needed more specialised care and had to be hospitalised. Theo took on another job, again as a cook, this time at the Goodna Mental Asylum. The two younger children, my mother and her brother Emmanuel were placed in care at the Wilston Children's Home while George boarded with a family.

Separation from their parents was a sad time in their lives. Theo made them a promise. When their mother was well enough to leave hospital, he would come for them in a Hansom cab. He was true to his word! The Hansom cab that he hired was permanently stationed in front of Brisbane’s Supreme Court in George Street. The horse drawn cab was beautifully fitted out with polished leather seats and quality fabric lining, and with whip in hand, a top hat completed the cab driver's uniform. On the appointed day when Theo went to meet his children, he had the front door key of their new home, which was located on a very steep hill in the inner city suburb of Red Hill. When the children opened the front door they excitedly ran through the house to the back, exploring each room on the way. Not one of them slept that night as they were eaten alive by bed bugs. The next day armed with needles, they set about collecting the bugs from the cracks between the vertical wall boards. The landlady had assured Theo that the house was clean – that there were no bed bugs!

At the age of fourteen when my mother had completed primary school, she was expected to assist with the care of her mother. There were days during the height of summer when their Queenslander, with its iron roof, became unbearably hot. Windows and doors had to be kept locked to discourage grandmother from wandering. It was not much of a life for a teenage girl. To relieve the boredom my mother either read books or made herself clothes. By the time she had turned nineteen, their mother's health had improved. With her father's permission she was encouraged to look for employment. Theo had found a very good doctor for his wife, Dr. Winston Noble, who had practiced medicine in London, England, and was knowledgeable about the latest treatment for epilepsy.

A chance to work on a government funded road project at Mt Cootha, brought some financial relief. It was hard, physical pick and shovel work. Theo found himself working alongside men from all walks of life, bankmanagers, teachers and businessmen who like himself were unemployed. Mt. Cootha is Brisbane's iconic “hill”, today a popular tourist destination, which affords a panoramic view across the city and its surroundings. Theo supplemented his earnings by growing flowers and vegetables, and sold the flowers to his friends the Mavromatis brothers who owned a fruit shop opposite Roma Street Railway station. His gardening expertise eventually gained him a part-time job close to home maintaining the garden at the local police station. During those years with money always in short supply most of Theo's personal valuables, his gold watch and chain, gold sovereign case and diamond ring were sold, including his violin.

Towards the end of the 1930's sons George and Emmanuel, who were now in employment, bought the house they lived in at No.10 Craig Street, Red Hill. Emmanuel became a qualified pastry cook having served his apprenticeship at the Kookaburra Cake shop opposite McWhirters in The Valley. During World War II, both brothers served in the Australian Army as part of the allied forces “mopping up” exercise in New Guinea and New Britain. On their release from the army they set themselves up in business as taxi proprietors with Black and White cabs. One night my mother overheard a conversation between brother Emmanuel and her father, through the thin V.J. wall of her bedroom, “Rene must never marry.” It was then that she made the decision to leave home, a decision that did not prove very popular. However she was determined, believing she deserved a chance to lead a normal life. In 1941 she married my father, Arthur Reeve. They had already known one another for several years. Together they established the Boulevard Motel at Indooroopilly in Brisbane's western suburbs, a popular restaurant, nightspot and venue for the judging of the Miss Australia and Sun Girl quests during the 1950's. Emmanuel eventually bought out George's share of the Craig Street house, and lived there until his death on Christmas Eve 1999. George passed away in January 1994.

Throughout his life Theo had faced many trials, the death of loved ones, loss of his business and his wife's illness. He was devout in his Orthodox faith and attended church once a month. He never missed the daily ritual of prayer, which he always said in Greek. Family and the Kytherian friends he met with at the Greek Club formed the nucleus of his social life and his main interests were gardening and discussing politics. One of his best friends was Con Andonara who owned a fresh fish shop in Albert Street, Brisbane.

His family remember their father as a very kind, warm, generous hearted man. He was a qualified cook, the only cook in the household and the meals he prepared have become in a sense legendary, the subject of many family anecdotes. Theo found enjoyment listening to music from his record collection, which he played on a wind-up gramophone. Among his favourites were Dame Nellie Melba and the Greek tenors. Throughout his married life Theo never wavered in his devotion and care for his wife. Grandfather, who had suffered from chronic bronchitis for many years, was aged sixty-eight when he passed away in 1948 due to lung cancer. Because he was unwilling to go to hospital, my mother went to nurse him in his last week of life. He shares a grave with his wife Maude and infant son James on a hillside at Brisbane’s Toowong Cemetery.

Four generations of children have been born since grandfather first stepped onto Australian soil in 1897. Our family's Kytherian heritage is embodied in a tradition of oral history kept alive through the retelling of anecdotes and stories. Whether my mother, now in her eighty-eighth year, is cooking, gardening, socialising with her family, or feeding the butcher birds that flock to her tree filled garden -- there is usually a related story to tell.
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People, Life Stories
Modern Landscapes

Unknown Exoklisi - Help Identify Please

Andrew G. Saffas took this photo on Kythera, spring of 1991. We think it is in Potamos, but can't be certain. Andy and I, along with my brother, Nikos A. Andronikos, and his daughter, Vickie, met with Yiannis Simos and photographed the old family records.

We would be very grateful if someone who knows the exact location of the Exoklisi, and the name of it, would share that information with us.
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Photos, Modern Landscapes
Island Churches & Icons

Unknown Exoklisi - Help Identify Please

Andrew G. Saffas took this photo on Kythera, spring of 1991. We think it is in Potamos, but can't be certain. Andy and I, along with my brother, Nikos
A. Andronikos, and his daughter, Vickie, met with Yiannis Simos and photographed the old family records.

We would be very grateful if someone who knows the exact location of the Exoklisi, and the name of it, would share that information with us.
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Photos, Island Churches & Icons
Vintage Films

Kythera 1951

In 1951, Yiannis and Maria Alfieris made their first trip back to Kythera after immigrating to the United States in 1906. This short film clip is from the original footage that they took on that trip. You will see the Alfieris family home in Potamos, Yiannis and Maria, Maria’s sister-in-law Yanoula Coulentianos Chlentzos ( in a yellow dress), and Maria’s neice Grigoria Katsoulis Chlentzos, holding a baby. Watch closely and you will see Yiayia Maria pulling the rope of the bell in the bell tower. The end of the clip is back on the mainland. Walking among the ruins with Maria Alfieris is Pitza Lykoyiannis, the sister of Maria’s son-in-law James Vrettos.

See also:

Kythera Connections

Kythera 1951
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Audio/Video, Vintage Films
Current Affairs

MAESTRO THEODORAKAKIS’ 80TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATED IN STYLE

On the evening of 24 March, the Kythera Cultural Association organised an 80th birthday celebration in honour of Stratis Theodorakakis (“Tsabiras”), the originator, leader and chief inspiration for many
years of the Potamos Philharmonic as well as one of the island’s best-loved and most respected cultural leaders. The event included the opening of an exhibition of photographs of maestro Theodorakakis and of the Philharmonic taken at various times over the last five decades in the Potamos Cultural Centre, followed by a formal celebration upstairs. Chaired by the KCA’s artistic director John Stathatos, this consisted of tributes from speakers including the Mayor of Kythera, Theodore Koukoulis, Eleni Charou-Koronaiou, Manos Tryfilis, professor George Kassimatis, Yiorgos Baveas and Evita Provatari; musical interludes by the band and choir, organised by composer Panayotis Leftheris; and visuals courtesy of video artist Maria Schina, who showed part of an ongoing documentary about Stratis and the Philharmonic, and surgeon Kosmas Megalokonomos, with an illustrated talk about Stratis’ life.

The formal part of the evening was succeeded by a party which went on till well past midnight, fuelled by local wine, champagne and an abundance of mezedes of both local and Australian inspiration. Led by maestro Stratis and with Panayotis Leftheris on the piano, the choir, seconded by a large number of volunteers, sang its way happily through its entire repertory as well as every song anyone could remember even a few bars of. By some miracle of planning and good luck, the whole event had been kept a secret from Stratis until the moment he walked into the exhibition. [[picture:"Stratis 80th birthday.jpg" ID:12271]]
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Culture, Current Affairs
Cafes, Shops & Cinemas

Agisilaos Faros in his Milk Bar

Agisilaos Faros married Potheti Stellios, daughter of Stavros Stellios, in his Milk Bar at Enfield, Sydney, NSW.

The photograph was taken in the late forties when Milk Bars coexisted with Cafes. The latter sold milk shakes made of predictably, milk, flavouring, ice cream and sometimes malt which was whirled to a frothy consistency with a small appliance. (Something like a low powered blender.) The drink was a celebrated institution for young and old. Milk bar proprietors also sold chocolates; confectionary including penny lines for children; cigarettes, tobacco, ice creams, sodas, bottled soft drinks, non carbonated soft drinks for consumption in the shop; teas, coffees, toasts, sandwiches etc. In many cases the line between milk bar and cafe was blurred with an emphasis in one direction or the other. In the late forties and fifties there was a booming picture theatre trade with benefits to the sweets and soft drink trade. Sydney's Greek proprietors tended to cater along milk bar lines, rather than full on meals. With the advent of television and and supermarkets, milk bars eventually disappeared.

Thanks to Mary Conomos (nee Zantis) from Sydney, for providing this information in regards to this photo.

From the archives of Spiridoula Alfieris Georgopoulos
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Photos, Cafes, Shops & Cinemas
Vintage Portraits/ People

Erini Christophoratos (nee Stellios) 2-7-49

This postcard photo, dated 2-7-49, was sent to the family of Vrettos (1890-1974) & Marigo Alfieris (nee Theodorakakis)(1895-1961).

Erini Christophoratos was a bridesmaid in the wedding of Jack Zantis and Anna Flaskas. The man with his back to Erini is the gooms brother, Jim Zantis

On the back of the photo it reads, " "To our dear cousins I send this photo as a souvenir of memory, I remain ever yours with love I kiss you, your cousin Irene Stellios".
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Photos, Vintage Portraits/ People
Vintage Portraits/ People

"FELIAS" Shop in Potamos

Vrettos Alfieris (1890-1974) and his son-in-law Nikos (Felias) Georgopolos at "FELIAS", their shop in Potamos.
Probably 1950's.
The shop originally sold produce, then it evolved into an automtoive supply shop, which appears to be reflected in the photo above. Today it is a fishing supply and tackle shop.
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Photos, Vintage Portraits/ People
Vintage Portraits/ People

Emmanuel & Panayiota Alfieris Engagement

The engagement party of Emmanuel (1925 - 2004 ) and Botitsa Alfieris

Back Row left to right:

Stelios Megaloconomos (brother of Manolis Megaloconomo), Katina Kanelli (wife of Yiannis Kanellis), Manolis Megaloconomos, Maria, Haris, & Yiannis Efragidis , Vasili Mavroyenes, and Yiannis Kanellis.

Front Row left to right:

Katina Xalari (sister of Manolis Megaloconomos), Victoria Megaloconomou (wife of Manolis Megaloconomos), Vrettos Alfieris (father of Emmanuel Alfieris), Panayiota Alfieris, Emmanuel Alfieris, Kirani Kalligerou (mother-in-law of Emmanuel Alfieris), Katina Mavromati (sister of Panayiota Alfieris), and Nikos Xalaris (Husband of Katina Xalari)

Children in front:

Antonis and Maria Mavromatis
Niece and nephew of Emmanuel and Panatiota Alfieris

See also:
Wedding of Vrettos Alfieris and Marigo Theodorakaki

Kythera Connections
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Photos, Vintage Portraits/ People
Life Stories

Emmanuel George Andronicos - Found after ninety-four years

We always knew that our grandfather had an older brother, Emmanuel who had lived and worked somewhere in New South Wales early last century. Because grandfather died in 1948, many years before my interest in family history began, all of this vital information literally went with him to the grave.

My mother Rene (formerly Andronicos) remembered place names in association with her uncle, Casino, Kyogle and Coonamble, but nothing came of our enquiries with the respective local councils of these towns. A search of the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages followed but revealed nothing. There seemed to be so many dead ends. Nevertheless we followed every clue.

Etched clearly in my mother's memory was the day she met her uncle, and even to this day she can describe his appearance, the clothes he wore down to the detail of the bow-tie at his neck. Her memory is usually very reliable. His visit occurred, she said sometime in the early 1930s when she was a young teenager.

Almost thirty years have elapsed since our search began and what seemed like a impossible task ended in success when his details were eventually found in the Pioneers Index. The Pioneers Index provided a registration number which then enabled me to send away for his death certificate. Australian death certificates provide a lot of information.

From the certificate we learned that our Uncle Emmanuel Andronicos had lived and worked in Coonamble, a country town in New South Wales, and that he was in business as a fruiterer and confectioner. His death occured on the 5th August 1910 and not in the 1930s as we had thought. He was still young, only thirty-three years old and unmarried. He died of a pulmonary tuberculosis haemorage in the Coonamble District Hospital. All other details matched those of my grandfather; born on the island of Cerigo, parents George Andronicos, tobacconist and Panagiotitsa Panaretto. Grandfather, who also resided in Coonamble was the informant on the certificate.

A search of the New South Wales Post Office directories listed his business for the years 1907 to 1912 under the name of E. Andronicos.

So many things went through my mind as I studied the death certificate. It is hard to explain the depth of sadness I felt as I took in this information. The uncle I had never met had died in the prime of his life and had lain in the Church of England Cemetery at Coonamble for almost one-hundred years - temporarilly lost but certainly not forgotten.

There is still one thing that puzzles me though. Who was the Uncle Emmanuel who visited the Andronicos family at Number 10 Craig Street, Red Hill in Brisbane in the 1930's?
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People, Life Stories
Life Stories

Jim Panos - (Zacharias Panarettos)

The first member of Jim’s family, who ventured to a new life in Australia, was his father Andy (Anargrios) Panarettos. The exact date of his arrival is not known, but he came in the late 1800’s, before the turn of the century. He owned a cafe in partnership with his brother at Gunedah in New South Wales and after more than five years of residence, was naturalized in 1905.

Not long after his naturalization, Andy who by this time was over thirty years of age, returned to Greece and married a girl from the Zantiotis family. They had six children of whom Jim was the eldest born in 1908, followed by Ralia in 1911, Panagiotis (Peter), Athena, Athamantia and the last born Stavros died in infancy. Andy lived to the age of eighty and died around 1961/62.

Jim went to primary school at Potamos, and then at fourteen started high school in the township of Hora at the southern end of Kythera. His first year of high school was the first year of the schools’ establishment. During the following six years of schooling, he studied French, Latin, the Greek Classics, Higher Mathematics, History, Georgraphy and Physics.

A very unhappy event occurred when he was seventeen and still at school. His mother became ill with leukemia. She received a blood transfusion from her son, but sadly did not survive. At twenty-six Jim left Kythera for Athens where he attended officers school followed by two years of service in the Greek Army. He enjoyed the work and his new responsibilities. On his release from the Army, Jim remained in Athens. He worked as a waiter and studied bookkeeping part-time. In 1937 he left Athens for Australia and did not return again until 1979, forty-two years later. He was proud of the fact that some of the best houses on Kythera were built by Panaretos families with money sent from Australia. Two of Jim’s sisters still live in the family home at Potamos. One is a widow and the other is unmarried.

In Australia Jim worked as an interpreter for the Commonwealth Bank. During the course of his work he made the observation that the name Panaretos also occurred on other Ionian Islands, particularly Ithaca and Corfu. Jim married. His wife comes from the Black (Mavrokefalos) family. She is a younger sister to Nina Black, a well-known educator and dance instructor from Melbourne. The Mavrokefalos family originated from Ithaca.

Jim took obvious pleasure in reminiscing about the Panarettos family. He spoke about his grandfather, Zacharias Panarettos who was a seafarer. His grandfather carried merchandise and passengers between islands, as far as the coast of Asia, to Cypress, the northern Aegean Sea and the Ionian Islands. He said the Greeks have always been great travelers and seafarers. The Greeks who lived in Smyrna, Turkey excelled in the arts, trades and had many opportunities for education not available to mainland Greeks. When about one million Greeks left Turkey in the 1920s many who had relations or connections on Kythera, settled there.

Children born to his grandfather Zacharias Panarettos, were Vretos, Anargrios (Andy), Garyfolia, and Stavroula. Stavroula married into the Fardoulys family, and had nine children. All but one of these children migrated to Australia.

While he was growing up Jim remembers that there were four large families of Panaretos living in Potamos. To distinguish each family from the other, they had nicknames. Jim’s family was known, as “notas” meaning south, another was “justice”, an English word. There was “xelynos” or wooden and the fourth family was “karepis”. The “justice” Panaretos family were also seafarers. Some of the Panaretos names he remembers from those years, are Victor Panaretos, John Panaretos and Spiro Panaretos. The family of Spiro Panaretos lived next door to Jim’s family. They were second cousins, but more like brothers.

Ninety percent of the population on Kythera were farmers. They were self sufficient and the whole family worked to provide for the home with the growing and production of wheat and wool. The animals they raised provided milk and cheese.

There is a legend that a Panaretos excelled at throwing the shot put, which evolved into the saying that “he throws it like a Panaretos.” The Greek dictionary meaning of “panaretos” is “all virtuous” that is full of virtue.

Jim made his home in Hobart, Tasmania where he raised his family. Some other Kytherians he knew who resided in Tasmania, was the Cassimatis family. Gregory Cassimatis came to Australia long before the turn of the nineteenth century and began work as a fishmonger, dealing in crayfish and scallops, also known as doughboys.

I visited Jim at his home in Hobart on two occasions, at the end of December 1987, and early January 1988. I am a little confused about the correct spelling of Panaretos and especially for Jim’s family, hense the variation. All the documents I have in my possession for my grandfather, Theo Andronicos and his brother Emmanuel (also from Potamos), consistently used the version –Panaretto, their mother being Panagiotitsa Panaretto.
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People, Life Stories
Modern Portraits

Rebecca on a donkey and Valerios - January 1983

After our grandfather, Theo Andronicos from Potamos, died in 1948, all contact with the Kytherian side of our family was lost. In 1982 when the opportunity came to take a trip to Europe, I jumped at the chance to include Kythera in our itinerary. We stayed in Livardi and Valerios was our taxi driver during our five day stay. On one of our excursions he stopped his taxi and suggested we take a photograph of our three year old daughter sitting on a donkey that was tethered by the roadside.
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Theo George Andronicos and friends,Sydney April 1901

Like many other young men of that era my grandfather, Theo George Andronicos served his apprenticeship with John Comino of Oxford Street, Sydney.

In this photograph dated, April 1901, Theo is the young man, aged 20, seated at the front. We believe the paper in front of him is the certificate he received at the end of the apprenticeship. Theo arrived in Sydney in 1897 on board the ship SS Oruba.

We do not know the identity of the other two men, but my mother thinks they were fellow musicians, one a bouzouki player and the other a mandolin player who accompanied my grandfather who played the violin at Greek community dances.
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Vrettos Alfieris at Agios Theodoros

Vrettos Alfieris (1890-1974) was the son of Giorgos (1860- ? ) and Spiridoula Argiri Alfieris (1855-1927) from Potamos. Vrettos married Marigo Theodorakaki (1895-1961) in 1922 in Dubbo, Australia. They had four children; Giorgos, Emmanuel, Spiridoula, and Demetrios.

See also:

Vrettos and Marigo’s Wedding Photo

The name of the person on the right is unknown. Help with identification would be appreciated.
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Anna and Theo Coroneo with young Dana Wilson, co-star of The Shiralee.

The Shiralee was an Australian film starring Peter Finch, 1957). The photograph was taken at the Pre­mier of the film, held at the Civic Theatre, Scone. The Civic Theatrewas, and still is, owned by the Coroneo family.

The Coroneo family in Scone

The Coroneo's were the first of the shop-keepers of Mediterranean or Central European origin. They made a mighty impact on the town when they built their highly decorated shop and refreshment room in Kelly Street. It was a new type of shop selling a new type of goods. Who had ever been served with chipped potatoes accompanying their steak before? Where else could one buy very well-cooked fried fish in batter? Or ice-cream so­das, or Sundaes?”

Growing up in Scone as the son of the cinema proprietors could not have been all that bad - indeed as it turns out I believe that I have had, thus far, a very fortunate life. From an early age until I left Scone at 16, I saw a lot of movies. This, before videos and some before television - most before the age of the gratuitous violence and debauchery that Hollywood now relies on to sell its product (however in the movie this morning, Peter Finch was handy with his fists and had an eye for the girls). I cannot be certain quite what this did to my psyche or to those of my brother and sister. However it is perhaps no accident that we all finished up in eye care - in optometry and ophthalmology. I had developed a fascination with light and lenses and ultimately sight and the eye - an organ considered to be at the pinna­cle of evolution of sense organs.

Andrew Coroneo, whose family sold the Civic Theatre to my parents re­counts a childhood encounter with Scone’s Pittman gang from which, on one occasion, he escaped by climbing a pepper tree. A gang member, Skinny Crackett said “Let’s get Andy, he’s a dago”. Bruce Pittman, gang leader replied “He’s not a dago, his father owns the picture show”. At least the Pittmans had some sense of priorities.

Another event that may not be well known is that on the 22 May 1935 one of the first and largest meetings of an organisation known as AHEPA (Aus­tralian Hellenic Educational Progressive Association) occurred in Scone. The originators of AHEPA in Australia were Greek shopkeepers in NSW country towns. Its primary objective was “to revive and marshal into active service for Australia the noblest attributes of Hellenism”. There is a photo taken at this meeting and I believe my father was there and took some no­tice of this aim.


Professor Minas Coroneo and the bionic eye.

Epsilon Magazine. Vol 1. Issue 14.

October 2006.

pp. 1, 22-29.

Professor Minas Coroneo talks about the bionic eye, the latest breakthrough in the field of ophthalmology, the pros and cons of medical research in Australia, and growing up Greek in a Kytherian household in the Hunter Valley region in the early sixties.

Words and Portrait, Savvas Limnatitis

"Let’s get one thing straight: what we are offering is not a miracle cure for blindness, but a great step forward”. The softly spoken, bespectacled, fifty-something man, sitting opposite me in what used to be the late, great, Fred Hollows office at Randwick’s Prince of Wales Hospital is talking about the latest developments in the field of ophthalmology and is picking his words very carefully.

And for good reason. After all, modern medicine and its offering of solutions -often of the quick-fix type - to an unprecedented number of diseases to anything remotely fitting the description between cancer and obesity, drug dependency and the centuries old problem of ageing, has made it increasingly easy to be designated a quack, instantly converting years of dedication and research into laughable and best-to-be-avoided obsessions of absent minded professors in long white coats.

Thank God then that modesty has never been a prominent feature in scientific research. For judging by the inches of columns in journals both medical and mainstream (even the media from Greece got in on the act) dedicated to the findings of Professor Minas Coroneo and his dedicated team of researchers there are not exactly small, steps forward but giant leaps, that can revolutionise the way blindness is treated. Professor Coroneo and his team have been working on the project for over five years now. While their first efforts on designing a device that would help patients with genetic eye diseases that have lost their sight received the thumbs up from the rest of the medical world, it was the team’s recent human trials that have made the rest of the world sit up and take notice.

Hailed as a medical breakthrough, the bionic eye does not offer full sight - at least not for the time being. It will eventually however provide blind people with enough “functional vision” to negotiate their way across a room without bumping into objects.

During one of his numerous visits to Kythera, Dr Coroneo was struck by the lack of properr opthalmological facilities on the island. Realising that the only options available to the ageing population of his parent’s birthplace was a visit to Athens with all the problems and hardships such a scenario involves, Dr Coroneo quickly set out to rectify the problem. Calling on the help of his associates both in Greece and Australia as well as the rest of the world, Dr Coroneo’s original idea was soon transformed into the establishment of an eye clinic. Situated at Potamos’ hospital the new eye clinic serving the Kytherian community is equipped with all the necessary equippement and apart from the services of a regular ophthalmologist it also offers those of an optometrist. Not surprisingly, your reporter has gained this information not from Dr Coroneo himself, who carfefully avoided mentioning this little known fact about his life outside of his office, but through a mutual friend who, in his turn, could not speak highly enough of this introvert scientist. How much does this say about his character? You be the judge of that.

THE BIONIC EYE

What exactly is the bionic eye and how did you come to be involved?

About ten years ago my colleague, Dr. Halliday, who has spend his life looking after people that were blinded by hereditary conditions that result in disease of the retina, decided to retire. The general group of these conditions is called retinal dystrophy, and retinitis pigmentosa is the most common of them. It affects one in five thousand people and it’s the commonest cause of blindness in young people. He was interested in the genetics of this and had built a big database. When he retired, the hospital didn’t replace him and on top of my all my other work, I ended up having to do his clinics. So I am sitting here in Randwick having to look after all these youngish people that are blind. I do not like this type of practice because in modern ophthalmology we help people. You come in; have an operation, go home and the next day you can see. So that was outside the normal activities I had been used to. Around 2000 there was a programme on TV about an engineer in New York called William Dobelle who had spent his life trying to develop bionic eyes. He had implanted electrodes into the visual part of the brain of a blind person. When he had started the computers that were required to run this filled a rather large room. By 2000 the computer was a laptop and the person was shown walking around with this device. I thought this was fantastic, but the technology was really crude. People can loose their sight at any time and depending on how it is lost, will determine what sort of “bionic eye” that needs to be developed. Dobelle had a system where he placed electrodes in the brain and his early patients had them running out of their skulls, which is very dangerous because you could get infections. It struck me then that the leading company for stimulating any sensory system is Cochlear, an Australian company based in Sydney. They have the best technology in bionic ears. We rang up Cochlear and told them we had all these blind patients and asked if we could work with them to develop a bionic eye. They have been very helpful in giving us access to their technology.

How long did the original process take?

We spent about five years working with animals. We took off-the-shelf components and that was a big advantage for us because we are competing with overseas groups that are better funded than us, and employ similar technology. But we didn’t have to reinvent the wheel. We had a leading company with the right technology, which we borrowed. The reason for the recent publicity is that earlier this year we started doing some work with patients. This is the first study in humans that we are aware of in Australia.

How long before the bionic eye becomes available to the public?

I am hoping that there will be something available in the next five years. It might not be us. Now that might sound like a long time but given that we have been working on this for only five years, we feel like we are half way through this cycle. Just to make it very plain - and we have been very careful with any publicity because we don’t want people to think that we are about to have a product- what we have achieved is an important step forward. We took a slightly different approach to the one of some of our colleagues in the US. Normally, most of the groups that are working on the retina have put electrodes on it. The retina is like a film in a camera. It has a layer of cells that detect light and turn light into electrical signals. Those signals go to nerves that join up and form the optic nerve. Because the retina is very delicate and also because you have to open the eye, that approach involves some risk. Just imagine what might happen to someone with pieces of metal attached to their retina if they jump on a trampoline. The approach we took was to put electrodes on the outer wall of the eye and increase the current, so it still stimulates the retina. Because of this, we do not have to open the eye. We think that might be a more stable and safer system long term. So earlier this year, we put some electrodes on the outer wall of the eye of a patient, we stimulated those electrodes and the patient was able to see flashes of light.

Is the bionic eye the ultimate solution for people without eyesight?

The type of vision we think will happen initially won’t be anything like yours or my eyesight. It’s not going to be normal vision. The current Cochlear devices have about 30 electrodes. Imagine having 30 electrodes on the outer wall of the eye, which in theory means that if you turn them on at the same time, you will get 30 flashes of light. The idea is that you will have a series of flashes outlining objects. What we are trying to do here is to give people navigating vision.

How did the rest of the medical world respond to your findings?

We have published quite a lot of papers that have been well accepted. We were at a meeting in Detroit early this year when we presented this work and so far the response has been very positive. There is nothing really controversial about what we are doing. It’s just a slightly different approach. One of our big strengths is the link with Cochlear. They know how to built devices and get them to market. We think that puts us in a good position to actually develop something.

MONEY MAKES THE WORLD GO AROUND

You have applied to the US Patent Office for a patent. How important is it to get the rights to the patent? Is it to ensure that no one benefits financially from it? I get the feeling that money is not on the top of your list of priorities?

I am not driven by money. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been here. We have a company that was formed to get this product to the market. When you go down this path, there are certain commercial realities. One of these realities is to protect the intellectual property that has been generated by what we do. Because overseas there are a lot of people with more money than us, if we pass on ideas we can be left behind. What we are doing here is simply being careful. Once you get the patent, you can go to companies and say: “we have my commercial property, what is it worth and can we work with you to get it developed”. It puts us in a better position when we try to develop it.

Has the American dollar tried to lure you away from Australia?

Ha-ha. I have been tempted to apply for positions in the United States. It’s not that I find money attractive. But it’s a fact that a lot of people have been driven away from Australia because of the lack of investment. It’s not so much the money but more that our public institutions, our hospitals and our universities are not traveling well at the moment. Across the country, the public hospital system that’s supposed to be looking after Australians often has its problems. Academic work in hospitals under these conditions is very tough, at least for some of us. In Australia public funds go to patient care first, but research is also a priority. However, I know that some colleagues who work in similar institutions in the USA are much better supported than we are. On the other hand, the lack of resources makes you cunning. You have to make do and one of the great things about Australian investors and scientists is that to survive in a very competitive market, they have to be smarter and be able to out perform the competition. I have a great team of people that I work with and I am not sure I would be able to find them elsewhere. At the moment, I am happy trying to do what I am doing from here.

What about the Australian government? What has been its response?

We have had some funds from the Australian government. We have had an National Health and Medical Research Council grant a couple of years ago, that paid for a research assistant for a couple of years. It helped to get the basic work completed. Putting in grant applications is a lot of work and the amount of money that you get makes you ask if that is a good way to spend your time. We have tried very hard to get more. The German government is funding one of its projects to the tune of 50 million dollars a year. We currently have no government funding for this project. Many people that are in this situation apply every couple of years for small amounts that keep them going. It means that you spend a lot of energy staying afloat. It’s like treading water rather than swimming forward. Because of the recent testing, we are in a better position to go back to the government and say, “this is important in terms of having been developed in Australia, we would appreciate some support”. If you imagine being the Minister of Health, every time he turns around there is someone that has developed a cure for cancer or some other thing, he can’t possibly fund every project. I happen to think this is a very important one because one of the key determinants of quality in life is the ability to see. Particularly young people that have been affected by these diseases, they may have many many years of blindness and we are hoping to develop something that will enable them to walk around. We jokingly say that what we are trying to do is turn guide dogs into pets. Giving people that level of independence is a big deal.

THE ROOT OF ALL... GOODNESS

What drives you and your team to fight bureaucracy? Wouldn’t it have been easier to give up?

It’s always easy to give up. I’ve been doing this for a while now and one of the things about being an academic is that most Australian ophthalmologists are very well trained and provide a very high level of service, and they are sitting in dark rooms across Australia diagnosing diseases, they are operating in theatres making people see better. The thing that partly drives me is that we sit there and we look at people with problems we can’t fix. Because I had intense training in science, as well as studying medicine, I tried to reconcile the interface between basic science and clinical medicine. On one hand I look after my patients, which I enjoy doing, but at the same time I am thinking about how I can treat this condition that otherwise can’t be treated. So I see myself partly as an inventor. If you have one or few inventions you treat people across the planet. That’s not an ego trip. It’s part of what is intellectually stimulating about this work. Clinical medicine can almost be like process work. You have to be very good at doing the same thing over and over again. Beyond that is this almost arrogant ambition to do something more than that.

A lot of people have taken the Hippocratic Oath, but not everyone follows it to the last detail. What makes you different?

It’s partly what you are suited to and partly what opportunities are there. I was extremely fortunate that extraordinary people trained me. I trained at the University of Sydney with John Young, the Head of Physiology. He was a very clever and very driven scientist. I had that background, and then I went to Germany where I trained with a guy who was a scientist as well as an ophthalmologist. When I returned to Australia I had Fred Hollows as a teacher for four years - as a matter of fact this used to be his office. I have had the appropriate training to do what I do. I remember I went to a lecture during my first week at the University of Sydney - this was in 1972- and I was inspired to go and work with John Young who was the speaker that day. You can be the benificiary of serindipitous circumstances. You find yourself in different situations in life where you have the opportunity to do things. On the other hand, my parents didn’t have a very good formal education, so when they came to Australia they were very determined that their children would be educated. I had the best education they could afford to give me at the time, and I have gone through life trying to achieve things.

While I admire your modesty, I can’t help but notice you have served in outback Bourke. What influenced the decision to go all the way there? Were you trying to pinpoint the exact location of “woop woop” on the map?

That was purely Fred Hollows. I arrived at this hospital in 1982. Prior to that in the 70's, Hollows had been all over outback Australia looking after indigenous and white people and anyone with eye disease. By the time I arrived that program had ended and the last outpost for NSW was Bourke. In my training - and I am pleased to see in the training of the people that are currently involved in this project - we provide a service to Bourke Hospital. It’s funny because I talk to people about Bourke and my instructions on how to get there is to find the last traffic lights in Sydney and then drive northwest for ten hours. You can’t miss it.

Other people would have taken the easy option and settled in a nice office in Sydney and try to make as much money as possible.

It’s possible that I have a very short attention span. Like a lot of people I need stimulation. Fred Hollows once said to me: “If you go into a practice and that is all you do, you will be brain dead by fifty”. I am pleased to report that I am 52 and I am not brain dead. It’s a great privilege to be able to sit here and do as much as I can. It hasn’t been easy; we have had a lot of difficult times in the last ten years. Sitting in this hospital-university situation when both institutions are not well supported in my view - and that’s a political statement, but I think a lot of other people share the same view- can be tough. Maybe the easiest thing to have done is to get up and go overseas. It’s just that I am rather happy to be surrounded by this group of great people trying to do something good.

THE KYTHERIAN CONNECTION

How did your parents take your decision to plunge into the uncertain field of medical research?

Town of origin - Potamos

Parachoukli - Belos

My father died when I was in the second year of medical school. As a matter of fact, he didn’t want me to be a doctor; he wanted me to be an engineer. For two reasons: he came to Australia from Kythera in 1920 and served in the Second World War. He was in the Ambulance Corps in Darwin when it was bombed and he saw surgeons operating and didn’t really like it. He thought doctors were fairly uncivilized. Back in Scone where he lived, he was there when they were building the Glenbawn Dam. There were a lot of Greeks that had come to Australia during that era. One of his best friends was the engineer that was responsible for building that dam. My father saw engineering as clean and helpful to the community, building bridges and stuff, and he wanted me to be an engineer. To that extent I disappointed him. On the other hand, in that era most people that did well at school were expected to study medicine. In Scone, the small town where I grew up the person that made the difference between life and death was the local doctor. He was an inspirational character.

What about your mother?

My mother passed away last year, but she lived long enough to see what I have become. I think I had disappointed her as well. Her idea was that when I finished medicine I would open a general practice somewhere locally. All these years that I have been going overseas she had a great difficulty understanding what I was trying to do.

Was it hard to retain your Greekness, growing up in the middle of The Hunter Valley with not many Greeks around?

There is schizophrenia about Australians’ attitude to migrants. On the hand most people were very supportive, my father had many friends and his was in business in Scone for about fifty years. There were a few xenophobes. I had an unusual name by Australian standards then. You can imagine what it was like having a name like that in Australia in the 1950s. Sometimes at school it was tough. I have a younger brother, who was big, and his attitude was that he would hit anyone that insulted him. So he became one of the boys. He was also much better in adjusting than me. My approach was to do it academically. In a way that attitude was because my parents rewarded academic success. My father would say that knowledge is power and I tried to know more than other people.

What about Greek traditions?

As for traditions, we only spoke Greek at home and so when at the age of five I went to infants school I couldn’t speak a word of English. My mother had a sort of reverse racism. She saw Australians as being a little bit uncivilized. She would see people crawling out of pubs drunk at five or six in the evening and think “God, what country did I come to”. In the end she had a lot of Australian friends. She arrived in Australia two years before I was born and she was a little concerned about how things would turn out. We didn’t have Greek school in the country so my formal Greek isn’t great, but for my kids we had a Greek teacher who came to our home. They both know how to read and write in Greek. They have been to Greece a couple of times and are very proud of their heritage. We still have property in Kythera and we have made sure our kids have gone to the island and know what is there. There was a church in Newcastle where we would go. I was christened here in Sydney at Hagia Triada. I am not a very religious person but I very much respect the traditions of our church, and as I have grown older I have come to appreciate them more.

Your name recently featured quite prominently in newspapers in Greece. Were you surprised by the attention you have received from the Greek media?

I was pleasantly surprised. The reason for this publicity is that recently we had a fundraising dinner. George Souris hosted it at the Parliament House and we had over 200 people attending. Leading up the dinner, the organisers thought that it would be good to get some publicity and I also did an extensive interview for ABC earlier this year. All that created a lot of interest. In fact one of the people who is very supportive of what we do is the Greek Consulate General, Mr. Raptakis and he got a lot of calls from Greece. He put them in touch with me and this resulted in several phone interviews. I have had some contact with the University of Athens. I went there a couple of years ago and met my counterpart. I was interested in building relations with Greece but when I came here I got swamped with a lot of other issues, and I haven’t done as much as I would have liked in that respect. I am very, very proud of my heritage, both Greek and Australian. I did a lot of my post graduate studies in Germany and I can remember coming back after being away for three years, thinking “I don’t really feel Australian now, but I don’t feel European either”. You get to the point where you think, “who the hell are you, anyway”. But I have snapped out of it now, I know exactly who I am.

How do you see the Greek community in Australia? Are we on the right path?

In many ways we are in a very privileged position. The Kytherians are a fairly tight knit group, they have their Association, and they have their dinners and everything else. Growing up in the country, one of the problems was that I had very few links with any of the Greek community when we moved to Sydney. In my high school, it was like the United Nations. I had Jewish friends and Italian friends, people from all over the world, all at the one place. Coming from the country to Sydney, it was like visiting Disneyland. I gradually have become more involved in the Greek community. I have been asked to address some functions and I find that the Greek community has in general been very supportive of what I do. John Howard made a comment recently that “Greeks are model citizens”. I have a paper clipping from one of AHEPA’s first meeting, held in Scone in the 1930s stating that what AHEPA was trying to do was to bring the best aspects of Greek culture into Australia. It’s very hard to find a better statement of intent on how to behave when you come to someone else’s country.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Finally Professor, is there a way that people can help this worthwhile cause?

We have two foundations supporting this project. The Genetic Eye Foundation, which looks after people with these blinding conditions. People can donate money to that or they can donate money directly to The Australian Bionic Eye Foundation. Donations to both charities are tax deductible. Obviously, every bit helps but we are not relying on that. We are trying to get this commercialised as soon as possible so we can really move on with it. But if someone is looking for a good cause... Medical charities are numerous and there is a lot of “competition” out there. This one is a little bit different and at the moment we do need some support. At this present time we have four part time people working on this project but we don’t really have a lot of infrastructure to make things move forward.

MAKE A DONATION

The Genetic Eye Foundation,
Ms R. Sturt,
C/- Department of Ophthalmology,
The Prince of Wales Hospital,
High Street,
Randwick, NSW, 2031.
Telephone:
Ms R. Sturt (02) 9382 2493

Email, The Genetic Eye Foundation

Australian Bionic Eye Foundation,
Ms R. Serna,
C/- Department of Ophthalmology,
The Prince of Wales Hospital,
High Street,
Randwick, NSW, 2031.
Telephone:
Ms R. Serna (02) 9382 2307

Email, Australian Bionic Eye Foundation
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Professor Minas Coroneo.

Professor Minas Coroneo talks about the bionic eye, the latest breakthrough in the field of ophthalmology, the pros and cons of medical research in Australia, and growing up Greek in a Kytherian household in the Hunter Valley region in the early sixties.

Words and Portrait, Savvas Limnatitis

"Let’s get one thing straight: what we are offering is not a miracle cure for blindness, but a great step forward”. The softly spoken, bespectacled, fifty-something man, sitting opposite me in what used to be the late, great, Fred Hollows office at Randwick’s Prince of Wales Hospital is talking about the latest developments in the field of ophthalmology and is picking his words very carefully.

And for good reason. After all, modern medicine and its offering of solutions -often of the quick-fix type - to an unprecedented number of diseases to anything remotely fitting the description between cancer and obesity, drug dependency and the centuries old problem of ageing, has made it increasingly easy to be designated a quack, instantly converting years of dedication and research into laughable and best-to-be-avoided obsessions of absent minded professors in long white coats.

Thank God then that modesty has never been a prominent feature in scientific research. For judging by the inches of columns in journals both medical and mainstream (even the media from Greece got in on the act) dedicated to the findings of Professor Minas Coroneo and his dedicated team of researchers there are not exactly small, steps forward but giant leaps, that can revolutionise the way blindness is treated. Professor Coroneo and his team have been working on the project for over five years now. While their first efforts on designing a device that would help patients with genetic eye diseases that have lost their sight received the thumbs up from the rest of the medical world, it was the team’s recent human trials that have made the rest of the world sit up and take notice.

Hailed as a medical breakthrough, the bionic eye does not offer full sight - at least not for the time being. It will eventually however provide blind people with enough “functional vision” to negotiate their way across a room without bumping into objects.

During one of his numerous visits to Kythera, Dr Coroneo was struck by the lack of properr opthalmological facilities on the island. Realising that the only options available to the ageing population of his parent’s birthplace was a visit to Athens with all the problems and hardships such a scenario involves, Dr Coroneo quickly set out to rectify the problem. Calling on the help of his associates both in Greece and Australia as well as the rest of the world, Dr Coroneo’s original idea was soon transformed into the establishment of an eye clinic. Situated at Potamos’ hospital the new eye clinic serving the Kytherian community is equipped with all the necessary equippement and apart from the services of a regular ophthalmologist it also offers those of an optometrist. Not surprisingly, your reporter has gained this information not from Dr Coroneo himself, who carfefully avoided mentioning this little known fact about his life outside of his office, but through a mutual friend who, in his turn, could not speak highly enough of this introvert scientist. How much does this say about his character? You be the judge of that.

THE BIONIC EYE

What exactly is the bionic eye and how did you come to be involved?

About ten years ago my colleague, Dr. Halliday, who has spend his life looking after people that were blinded by hereditary conditions that result in disease of the retina, decided to retire. The general group of these conditions is called retinal dystrophy, and retinitis pigmentosa is the most common of them. It affects one in five thousand people and it’s the commonest cause of blindness in young people. He was interested in the genetics of this and had built a big database. When he retired, the hospital didn’t replace him and on top of my all my other work, I ended up having to do his clinics. So I am sitting here in Randwick having to look after all these youngish people that are blind. I do not like this type of practice because in modern ophthalmology we help people. You come in; have an operation, go home and the next day you can see. So that was outside the normal activities I had been used to. Around 2000 there was a programme on TV about an engineer in New York called William Dobelle who had spent his life trying to develop bionic eyes. He had implanted electrodes into the visual part of the brain of a blind person. When he had started the computers that were required to run this filled a rather large room. By 2000 the computer was a laptop and the person was shown walking around with this device. I thought this was fantastic, but the technology was really crude. People can loose their sight at any time and depending on how it is lost, will determine what sort of “bionic eye” that needs to be developed. Dobelle had a system where he placed electrodes in the brain and his early patients had them running out of their skulls, which is very dangerous because you could get infections. It struck me then that the leading company for stimulating any sensory system is Cochlear, an Australian company based in Sydney. They have the best technology in bionic ears. We rang up Cochlear and told them we had all these blind patients and asked if we could work with them to develop a bionic eye. They have been very helpful in giving us access to their technology.

How long did the original process take?

We spent about five years working with animals. We took off-the-shelf components and that was a big advantage for us because we are competing with overseas groups that are better funded than us, and employ similar technology. But we didn’t have to reinvent the wheel. We had a leading company with the right technology, which we borrowed. The reason for the recent publicity is that earlier this year we started doing some work with patients. This is the first study in humans that we are aware of in Australia.

How long before the bionic eye becomes available to the public?

I am hoping that there will be something available in the next five years. It might not be us. Now that might sound like a long time but given that we have been working on this for only five years, we feel like we are half way through this cycle. Just to make it very plain - and we have been very careful with any publicity because we don’t want people to think that we are about to have a product- what we have achieved is an important step forward. We took a slightly different approach to the one of some of our colleagues in the US. Normally, most of the groups that are working on the retina have put electrodes on it. The retina is like a film in a camera. It has a layer of cells that detect light and turn light into electrical signals. Those signals go to nerves that join up and form the optic nerve. Because the retina is very delicate and also because you have to open the eye, that approach involves some risk. Just imagine what might happen to someone with pieces of metal attached to their retina if they jump on a trampoline. The approach we took was to put electrodes on the outer wall of the eye and increase the current, so it still stimulates the retina. Because of this, we do not have to open the eye. We think that might be a more stable and safer system long term. So earlier this year, we put some electrodes on the outer wall of the eye of a patient, we stimulated those electrodes and the patient was able to see flashes of light.

Is the bionic eye the ultimate solution for people without eyesight?

The type of vision we think will happen initially won’t be anything like yours or my eyesight. It’s not going to be normal vision. The current Cochlear devices have about 30 electrodes. Imagine having 30 electrodes on the outer wall of the eye, which in theory means that if you turn them on at the same time, you will get 30 flashes of light. The idea is that you will have a series of flashes outlining objects. What we are trying to do here is to give people navigating vision.

How did the rest of the medical world respond to your findings?

We have published quite a lot of papers that have been well accepted. We were at a meeting in Detroit early this year when we presented this work and so far the response has been very positive. There is nothing really controversial about what we are doing. It’s just a slightly different approach. One of our big strengths is the link with Cochlear. They know how to built devices and get them to market. We think that puts us in a good position to actually develop something.

MONEY MAKES THE WORLD GO AROUND

You have applied to the US Patent Office for a patent. How important is it to get the rights to the patent? Is it to ensure that no one benefits financially from it? I get the feeling that money is not on the top of your list of priorities?

I am not driven by money. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been here. We have a company that was formed to get this product to the market. When you go down this path, there are certain commercial realities. One of these realities is to protect the intellectual property that has been generated by what we do. Because overseas there are a lot of people with more money than us, if we pass on ideas we can be left behind. What we are doing here is simply being careful. Once you get the patent, you can go to companies and say: “we have my commercial property, what is it worth and can we work with you to get it developed”. It puts us in a better position when we try to develop it.

Has the American dollar tried to lure you away from Australia?

Ha-ha. I have been tempted to apply for positions in the United States. It’s not that I find money attractive. But it’s a fact that a lot of people have been driven away from Australia because of the lack of investment. It’s not so much the money but more that our public institutions, our hospitals and our universities are not traveling well at the moment. Across the country, the public hospital system that’s supposed to be looking after Australians often has its problems. Academic work in hospitals under these conditions is very tough, at least for some of us. In Australia public funds go to patient care first, but research is also a priority. However, I know that some colleagues who work in similar institutions in the USA are much better supported than we are. On the other hand, the lack of resources makes you cunning. You have to make do and one of the great things about Australian investors and scientists is that to survive in a very competitive market, they have to be smarter and be able to out perform the competition. I have a great team of people that I work with and I am not sure I would be able to find them elsewhere. At the moment, I am happy trying to do what I am doing from here.

What about the Australian government? What has been its response?

We have had some funds from the Australian government. We have had an National Health and Medical Research Council grant a couple of years ago, that paid for a research assistant for a couple of years. It helped to get the basic work completed. Putting in grant applications is a lot of work and the amount of money that you get makes you ask if that is a good way to spend your time. We have tried very hard to get more. The German government is funding one of its projects to the tune of 50 million dollars a year. We currently have no government funding for this project. Many people that are in this situation apply every couple of years for small amounts that keep them going. It means that you spend a lot of energy staying afloat. It’s like treading water rather than swimming forward. Because of the recent testing, we are in a better position to go back to the government and say, “this is important in terms of having been developed in Australia, we would appreciate some support”. If you imagine being the Minister of Health, every time he turns around there is someone that has developed a cure for cancer or some other thing, he can’t possibly fund every project. I happen to think this is a very important one because one of the key determinants of quality in life is the ability to see. Particularly young people that have been affected by these diseases, they may have many many years of blindness and we are hoping to develop something that will enable them to walk around. We jokingly say that what we are trying to do is turn guide dogs into pets. Giving people that level of independence is a big deal.

THE ROOT OF ALL... GOODNESS

What drives you and your team to fight bureaucracy? Wouldn’t it have been easier to give up?

It’s always easy to give up. I’ve been doing this for a while now and one of the things about being an academic is that most Australian ophthalmologists are very well trained and provide a very high level of service, and they are sitting in dark rooms across Australia diagnosing diseases, they are operating in theatres making people see better. The thing that partly drives me is that we sit there and we look at people with problems we can’t fix. Because I had intense training in science, as well as studying medicine, I tried to reconcile the interface between basic science and clinical medicine. On one hand I look after my patients, which I enjoy doing, but at the same time I am thinking about how I can treat this condition that otherwise can’t be treated. So I see myself partly as an inventor. If you have one or few inventions you treat people across the planet. That’s not an ego trip. It’s part of what is intellectually stimulating about this work. Clinical medicine can almost be like process work. You have to be very good at doing the same thing over and over again. Beyond that is this almost arrogant ambition to do something more than that.

A lot of people have taken the Hippocratic Oath, but not everyone follows it to the last detail. What makes you different?

It’s partly what you are suited to and partly what opportunities are there. I was extremely fortunate that extraordinary people trained me. I trained at the University of Sydney with John Young, the Head of Physiology. He was a very clever and very driven scientist. I had that background, and then I went to Germany where I trained with a guy who was a scientist as well as an ophthalmologist. When I returned to Australia I had Fred Hollows as a teacher for four years - as a matter of fact this used to be his office. I have had the appropriate training to do what I do. I remember I went to a lecture during my first week at the University of Sydney - this was in 1972- and I was inspired to go and work with John Young who was the speaker that day. You can be the benificiary of serindipitous circumstances. You find yourself in different situations in life where you have the opportunity to do things. On the other hand, my parents didn’t have a very good formal education, so when they came to Australia they were very determined that their children would be educated. I had the best education they could afford to give me at the time, and I have gone through life trying to achieve things.

While I admire your modesty, I can’t help but notice you have served in outback Bourke. What influenced the decision to go all the way there? Were you trying to pinpoint the exact location of “woop woop” on the map?

That was purely Fred Hollows. I arrived at this hospital in 1982. Prior to that in the 70's, Hollows had been all over outback Australia looking after indigenous and white people and anyone with eye disease. By the time I arrived that program had ended and the last outpost for NSW was Bourke. In my training - and I am pleased to see in the training of the people that are currently involved in this project - we provide a service to Bourke Hospital. It’s funny because I talk to people about Bourke and my instructions on how to get there is to find the last traffic lights in Sydney and then drive northwest for ten hours. You can’t miss it.

Other people would have taken the easy option and settled in a nice office in Sydney and try to make as much money as possible.

It’s possible that I have a very short attention span. Like a lot of people I need stimulation. Fred Hollows once said to me: “If you go into a practice and that is all you do, you will be brain dead by fifty”. I am pleased to report that I am 52 and I am not brain dead. It’s a great privilege to be able to sit here and do as much as I can. It hasn’t been easy; we have had a lot of difficult times in the last ten years. Sitting in this hospital-university situation when both institutions are not well supported in my view - and that’s a political statement, but I think a lot of other people share the same view- can be tough. Maybe the easiest thing to have done is to get up and go overseas. It’s just that I am rather happy to be surrounded by this group of great people trying to do something good.

THE KYTHERIAN CONNECTION

How did your parents take your decision to plunge into the uncertain field of medical research?

Town of origin - Potamos

Parachoukli - Belos

My father died when I was in the second year of medical school. As a matter of fact, he didn’t want me to be a doctor; he wanted me to be an engineer. For two reasons: he came to Australia from Kythera in 1920 and served in the Second World War. He was in the Ambulance Corps in Darwin when it was bombed and he saw surgeons operating and didn’t really like it. He thought doctors were fairly uncivilized. Back in Scone where he lived, he was there when they were building the Glenbawn Dam. There were a lot of Greeks that had come to Australia during that era. One of his best friends was the engineer that was responsible for building that dam. My father saw engineering as clean and helpful to the community, building bridges and stuff, and he wanted me to be an engineer. To that extent I disappointed him. On the other hand, in that era most people that did well at school were expected to study medicine. In Scone, the small town where I grew up the person that made the difference between life and death was the local doctor. He was an inspirational character.

What about your mother?

My mother passed away last year, but she lived long enough to see what I have become. I think I had disappointed her as well. Her idea was that when I finished medicine I would open a general practice somewhere locally. All these years that I have been going overseas she had a great difficulty understanding what I was trying to do.

Was it hard to retain your Greekness, growing up in the middle of The Hunter Valley with not many Greeks around?

There is schizophrenia about Australians’ attitude to migrants. On the hand most people were very supportive, my father had many friends and his was in business in Scone for about fifty years. There were a few xenophobes. I had an unusual name by Australian standards then. You can imagine what it was like having a name like that in Australia in the 1950s. Sometimes at school it was tough. I have a younger brother, who was big, and his attitude was that he would hit anyone that insulted him. So he became one of the boys. He was also much better in adjusting than me. My approach was to do it academically. In a way that attitude was because my parents rewarded academic success. My father would say that knowledge is power and I tried to know more than other people.

What about Greek traditions?

As for traditions, we only spoke Greek at home and so when at the age of five I went to infants school I couldn’t speak a word of English. My mother had a sort of reverse racism. She saw Australians as being a little bit uncivilized. She would see people crawling out of pubs drunk at five or six in the evening and think “God, what country did I come to”. In the end she had a lot of Australian friends. She arrived in Australia two years before I was born and she was a little concerned about how things would turn out. We didn’t have Greek school in the country so my formal Greek isn’t great, but for my kids we had a Greek teacher who came to our home. They both know how to read and write in Greek. They have been to Greece a couple of times and are very proud of their heritage. We still have property in Kythera and we have made sure our kids have gone to the island and know what is there. There was a church in Newcastle where we would go. I was christened here in Sydney at Hagia Triada. I am not a very religious person but I very much respect the traditions of our church, and as I have grown older I have come to appreciate them more.

Your name recently featured quite prominently in newspapers in Greece. Were you surprised by the attention you have received from the Greek media?

I was pleasantly surprised. The reason for this publicity is that recently we had a fundraising dinner. George Souris hosted it at the Parliament House and we had over 200 people attending. Leading up the dinner, the organisers thought that it would be good to get some publicity and I also did an extensive interview for ABC earlier this year. All that created a lot of interest. In fact one of the people who is very supportive of what we do is the Greek Consulate General, Mr. Raptakis and he got a lot of calls from Greece. He put them in touch with me and this resulted in several phone interviews. I have had some contact with the University of Athens. I went there a couple of years ago and met my counterpart. I was interested in building relations with Greece but when I came here I got swamped with a lot of other issues, and I haven’t done as much as I would have liked in that respect. I am very, very proud of my heritage, both Greek and Australian. I did a lot of my post graduate studies in Germany and I can remember coming back after being away for three years, thinking “I don’t really feel Australian now, but I don’t feel European either”. You get to the point where you think, “who the hell are you, anyway”. But I have snapped out of it now, I know exactly who I am.

How do you see the Greek community in Australia? Are we on the right path?

In many ways we are in a very privileged position. The Kytherians are a fairly tight knit group, they have their Association, and they have their dinners and everything else. Growing up in the country, one of the problems was that I had very few links with any of the Greek community when we moved to Sydney. In my high school, it was like the United Nations. I had Jewish friends and Italian friends, people from all over the world, all at the one place. Coming from the country to Sydney, it was like visiting Disneyland. I gradually have become more involved in the Greek community. I have been asked to address some functions and I find that the Greek community has in general been very supportive of what I do. John Howard made a comment recently that “Greeks are model citizens”. I have a paper clipping from one of AHEPA’s first meeting, held in Scone in the 1930s stating that what AHEPA was trying to do was to bring the best aspects of Greek culture into Australia. It’s very hard to find a better statement of intent on how to behave when you come to someone else’s country.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Finally Professor, is there a way that people can help this worthwhile cause?

We have two foundations supporting this project. The Genetic Eye Foundation, which looks after people with these blinding conditions. People can donate money to that or they can donate money directly to The Australian Bionic Eye Foundation. Donations to both charities are tax deductible. Obviously, every bit helps but we are not relying on that. We are trying to get this commercialised as soon as possible so we can really move on with it. But if someone is looking for a good cause... Medical charities are numerous and there is a lot of “competition” out there. This one is a little bit different and at the moment we do need some support. At this present time we have four part time people working on this project but we don’t really have a lot of infrastructure to make things move forward.

MAKE A DONATION

The Genetic Eye Foundation,
Ms R. Sturt,
C/- Department of Ophthalmology,
The Prince of Wales Hospital,
High Street,
Randwick, NSW, 2031.
Telephone:
Ms R. Sturt (02) 9382 2493

Email, The Genetic Eye Foundation

Australian Bionic Eye Foundation,
Ms R. Serna,
C/- Department of Ophthalmology,
The Prince of Wales Hospital,
High Street,
Randwick, NSW, 2031.
Telephone:
Ms R. Serna (02) 9382 2307

Email, Australian Bionic Eye Foundation
Open full entry
Photos, Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People
Diaspora Working Life

Professor Minas Coroneo in his Randwick office, at the Prince of Wales Hospital.

Professor Minas Coroneo talks about the bionic eye, the latest breakthrough in the field of ophthalmology, the pros and cons of medical research in Australia, and growing up Greek in a Kytherian household in the Hunter Valley region in the early sixties.

Words and Portrait, Savvas Limnatitis

"Let’s get one thing straight: what we are offering is not a miracle cure for blindness, but a great step forward”. The softly spoken, bespectacled, fifty-something man, sitting opposite me in what used to be the late, great, Fred Hollows office at Randwick’s Prince of Wales Hospital is talking about the latest developments in the field of ophthalmology and is picking his words very carefully.

And for good reason. After all, modern medicine and its offering of solutions -often of the quick-fix type - to an unprecedented number of diseases to anything remotely fitting the description between cancer and obesity, drug dependency and the centuries old problem of ageing, has made it increasingly easy to be designated a quack, instantly converting years of dedication and research into laughable and best-to-be-avoided obsessions of absent minded professors in long white coats.

Thank God then that modesty has never been a prominent feature in scientific research. For judging by the inches of columns in journals both medical and mainstream (even the media from Greece got in on the act) dedicated to the findings of Professor Minas Coroneo and his dedicated team of researchers there are not exactly small, steps forward but giant leaps, that can revolutionise the way blindness is treated. Professor Coroneo and his team have been working on the project for over five years now. While their first efforts on designing a device that would help patients with genetic eye diseases that have lost their sight received the thumbs up from the rest of the medical world, it was the team’s recent human trials that have made the rest of the world sit up and take notice.

Hailed as a medical breakthrough, the bionic eye does not offer full sight - at least not for the time being. It will eventually however provide blind people with enough “functional vision” to negotiate their way across a room without bumping into objects.

During one of his numerous visits to Kythera, Dr Coroneo was struck by the lack of properr opthalmological facilities on the island. Realising that the only options available to the ageing population of his parent’s birthplace was a visit to Athens with all the problems and hardships such a scenario involves, Dr Coroneo quickly set out to rectify the problem. Calling on the help of his associates both in Greece and Australia as well as the rest of the world, Dr Coroneo’s original idea was soon transformed into the establishment of an eye clinic. Situated at Potamos’ hospital the new eye clinic serving the Kytherian community is equipped with all the necessary equippement and apart from the services of a regular ophthalmologist it also offers those of an optometrist. Not surprisingly, your reporter has gained this information not from Dr Coroneo himself, who carfefully avoided mentioning this little known fact about his life outside of his office, but through a mutual friend who, in his turn, could not speak highly enough of this introvert scientist. How much does this say about his character? You be the judge of that.

THE BIONIC EYE

What exactly is the bionic eye and how did you come to be involved?

About ten years ago my colleague, Dr. Halliday, who has spend his life looking after people that were blinded by hereditary conditions that result in disease of the retina, decided to retire. The general group of these conditions is called retinal dystrophy, and retinitis pigmentosa is the most common of them. It affects one in five thousand people and it’s the commonest cause of blindness in young people. He was interested in the genetics of this and had built a big database. When he retired, the hospital didn’t replace him and on top of my all my other work, I ended up having to do his clinics. So I am sitting here in Randwick having to look after all these youngish people that are blind. I do not like this type of practice because in modern ophthalmology we help people. You come in; have an operation, go home and the next day you can see. So that was outside the normal activities I had been used to. Around 2000 there was a programme on TV about an engineer in New York called William Dobelle who had spent his life trying to develop bionic eyes. He had implanted electrodes into the visual part of the brain of a blind person. When he had started the computers that were required to run this filled a rather large room. By 2000 the computer was a laptop and the person was shown walking around with this device. I thought this was fantastic, but the technology was really crude. People can loose their sight at any time and depending on how it is lost, will determine what sort of “bionic eye” that needs to be developed. Dobelle had a system where he placed electrodes in the brain and his early patients had them running out of their skulls, which is very dangerous because you could get infections. It struck me then that the leading company for stimulating any sensory system is Cochlear, an Australian company based in Sydney. They have the best technology in bionic ears. We rang up Cochlear and told them we had all these blind patients and asked if we could work with them to develop a bionic eye. They have been very helpful in giving us access to their technology.

How long did the original process take?

We spent about five years working with animals. We took off-the-shelf components and that was a big advantage for us because we are competing with overseas groups that are better funded than us, and employ similar technology. But we didn’t have to reinvent the wheel. We had a leading company with the right technology, which we borrowed. The reason for the recent publicity is that earlier this year we started doing some work with patients. This is the first study in humans that we are aware of in Australia.

How long before the bionic eye becomes available to the public?

I am hoping that there will be something available in the next five years. It might not be us. Now that might sound like a long time but given that we have been working on this for only five years, we feel like we are half way through this cycle. Just to make it very plain - and we have been very careful with any publicity because we don’t want people to think that we are about to have a product- what we have achieved is an important step forward. We took a slightly different approach to the one of some of our colleagues in the US. Normally, most of the groups that are working on the retina have put electrodes on it. The retina is like a film in a camera. It has a layer of cells that detect light and turn light into electrical signals. Those signals go to nerves that join up and form the optic nerve. Because the retina is very delicate and also because you have to open the eye, that approach involves some risk. Just imagine what might happen to someone with pieces of metal attached to their retina if they jump on a trampoline. The approach we took was to put electrodes on the outer wall of the eye and increase the current, so it still stimulates the retina. Because of this, we do not have to open the eye. We think that might be a more stable and safer system long term. So earlier this year, we put some electrodes on the outer wall of the eye of a patient, we stimulated those electrodes and the patient was able to see flashes of light.

Is the bionic eye the ultimate solution for people without eyesight?

The type of vision we think will happen initially won’t be anything like yours or my eyesight. It’s not going to be normal vision. The current Cochlear devices have about 30 electrodes. Imagine having 30 electrodes on the outer wall of the eye, which in theory means that if you turn them on at the same time, you will get 30 flashes of light. The idea is that you will have a series of flashes outlining objects. What we are trying to do here is to give people navigating vision.

How did the rest of the medical world respond to your findings?

We have published quite a lot of papers that have been well accepted. We were at a meeting in Detroit early this year when we presented this work and so far the response has been very positive. There is nothing really controversial about what we are doing. It’s just a slightly different approach. One of our big strengths is the link with Cochlear. They know how to built devices and get them to market. We think that puts us in a good position to actually develop something.

MONEY MAKES THE WORLD GO AROUND

You have applied to the US Patent Office for a patent. How important is it to get the rights to the patent? Is it to ensure that no one benefits financially from it? I get the feeling that money is not on the top of your list of priorities?

I am not driven by money. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been here. We have a company that was formed to get this product to the market. When you go down this path, there are certain commercial realities. One of these realities is to protect the intellectual property that has been generated by what we do. Because overseas there are a lot of people with more money than us, if we pass on ideas we can be left behind. What we are doing here is simply being careful. Once you get the patent, you can go to companies and say: “we have my commercial property, what is it worth and can we work with you to get it developed”. It puts us in a better position when we try to develop it.

Has the American dollar tried to lure you away from Australia?

Ha-ha. I have been tempted to apply for positions in the United States. It’s not that I find money attractive. But it’s a fact that a lot of people have been driven away from Australia because of the lack of investment. It’s not so much the money but more that our public institutions, our hospitals and our universities are not traveling well at the moment. Across the country, the public hospital system that’s supposed to be looking after Australians often has its problems. Academic work in hospitals under these conditions is very tough, at least for some of us. In Australia public funds go to patient care first, but research is also a priority. However, I know that some colleagues who work in similar institutions in the USA are much better supported than we are. On the other hand, the lack of resources makes you cunning. You have to make do and one of the great things about Australian investors and scientists is that to survive in a very competitive market, they have to be smarter and be able to out perform the competition. I have a great team of people that I work with and I am not sure I would be able to find them elsewhere. At the moment, I am happy trying to do what I am doing from here.

What about the Australian government? What has been its response?

We have had some funds from the Australian government. We have had an National Health and Medical Research Council grant a couple of years ago, that paid for a research assistant for a couple of years. It helped to get the basic work completed. Putting in grant applications is a lot of work and the amount of money that you get makes you ask if that is a good way to spend your time. We have tried very hard to get more. The German government is funding one of its projects to the tune of 50 million dollars a year. We currently have no government funding for this project. Many people that are in this situation apply every couple of years for small amounts that keep them going. It means that you spend a lot of energy staying afloat. It’s like treading water rather than swimming forward. Because of the recent testing, we are in a better position to go back to the government and say, “this is important in terms of having been developed in Australia, we would appreciate some support”. If you imagine being the Minister of Health, every time he turns around there is someone that has developed a cure for cancer or some other thing, he can’t possibly fund every project. I happen to think this is a very important one because one of the key determinants of quality in life is the ability to see. Particularly young people that have been affected by these diseases, they may have many many years of blindness and we are hoping to develop something that will enable them to walk around. We jokingly say that what we are trying to do is turn guide dogs into pets. Giving people that level of independence is a big deal.

THE ROOT OF ALL... GOODNESS

What drives you and your team to fight bureaucracy? Wouldn’t it have been easier to give up?

It’s always easy to give up. I’ve been doing this for a while now and one of the things about being an academic is that most Australian ophthalmologists are very well trained and provide a very high level of service, and they are sitting in dark rooms across Australia diagnosing diseases, they are operating in theatres making people see better. The thing that partly drives me is that we sit there and we look at people with problems we can’t fix. Because I had intense training in science, as well as studying medicine, I tried to reconcile the interface between basic science and clinical medicine. On one hand I look after my patients, which I enjoy doing, but at the same time I am thinking about how I can treat this condition that otherwise can’t be treated. So I see myself partly as an inventor. If you have one or few inventions you treat people across the planet. That’s not an ego trip. It’s part of what is intellectually stimulating about this work. Clinical medicine can almost be like process work. You have to be very good at doing the same thing over and over again. Beyond that is this almost arrogant ambition to do something more than that.

A lot of people have taken the Hippocratic Oath, but not everyone follows it to the last detail. What makes you different?

It’s partly what you are suited to and partly what opportunities are there. I was extremely fortunate that extraordinary people trained me. I trained at the University of Sydney with John Young, the Head of Physiology. He was a very clever and very driven scientist. I had that background, and then I went to Germany where I trained with a guy who was a scientist as well as an ophthalmologist. When I returned to Australia I had Fred Hollows as a teacher for four years - as a matter of fact this used to be his office. I have had the appropriate training to do what I do. I remember I went to a lecture during my first week at the University of Sydney - this was in 1972- and I was inspired to go and work with John Young who was the speaker that day. You can be the benificiary of serindipitous circumstances. You find yourself in different situations in life where you have the opportunity to do things. On the other hand, my parents didn’t have a very good formal education, so when they came to Australia they were very determined that their children would be educated. I had the best education they could afford to give me at the time, and I have gone through life trying to achieve things.

While I admire your modesty, I can’t help but notice you have served in outback Bourke. What influenced the decision to go all the way there? Were you trying to pinpoint the exact location of “woop woop” on the map?

That was purely Fred Hollows. I arrived at this hospital in 1982. Prior to that in the 70's, Hollows had been all over outback Australia looking after indigenous and white people and anyone with eye disease. By the time I arrived that program had ended and the last outpost for NSW was Bourke. In my training - and I am pleased to see in the training of the people that are currently involved in this project - we provide a service to Bourke Hospital. It’s funny because I talk to people about Bourke and my instructions on how to get there is to find the last traffic lights in Sydney and then drive northwest for ten hours. You can’t miss it.

Other people would have taken the easy option and settled in a nice office in Sydney and try to make as much money as possible.

It’s possible that I have a very short attention span. Like a lot of people I need stimulation. Fred Hollows once said to me: “If you go into a practice and that is all you do, you will be brain dead by fifty”. I am pleased to report that I am 52 and I am not brain dead. It’s a great privilege to be able to sit here and do as much as I can. It hasn’t been easy; we have had a lot of difficult times in the last ten years. Sitting in this hospital-university situation when both institutions are not well supported in my view - and that’s a political statement, but I think a lot of other people share the same view- can be tough. Maybe the easiest thing to have done is to get up and go overseas. It’s just that I am rather happy to be surrounded by this group of great people trying to do something good.

THE KYTHERIAN CONNECTION

How did your parents take your decision to plunge into the uncertain field of medical research?

Town of origin - Potamos

Parachoukli - Belos

My father died when I was in the second year of medical school. As a matter of fact, he didn’t want me to be a doctor; he wanted me to be an engineer. For two reasons: he came to Australia from Kythera in 1920 and served in the Second World War. He was in the Ambulance Corps in Darwin when it was bombed and he saw surgeons operating and didn’t really like it. He thought doctors were fairly uncivilized. Back in Scone where he lived, he was there when they were building the Glenbawn Dam. There were a lot of Greeks that had come to Australia during that era. One of his best friends was the engineer that was responsible for building that dam. My father saw engineering as clean and helpful to the community, building bridges and stuff, and he wanted me to be an engineer. To that extent I disappointed him. On the other hand, in that era most people that did well at school were expected to study medicine. In Scone, the small town where I grew up the person that made the difference between life and death was the local doctor. He was an inspirational character.

What about your mother?

My mother passed away last year, but she lived long enough to see what I have become. I think I had disappointed her as well. Her idea was that when I finished medicine I would open a general practice somewhere locally. All these years that I have been going overseas she had a great difficulty understanding what I was trying to do.

Was it hard to retain your Greekness, growing up in the middle of The Hunter Valley with not many Greeks around?

There is schizophrenia about Australians’ attitude to migrants. On the hand most people were very supportive, my father had many friends and his was in business in Scone for about fifty years. There were a few xenophobes. I had an unusual name by Australian standards then. You can imagine what it was like having a name like that in Australia in the 1950s. Sometimes at school it was tough. I have a younger brother, who was big, and his attitude was that he would hit anyone that insulted him. So he became one of the boys. He was also much better in adjusting than me. My approach was to do it academically. In a way that attitude was because my parents rewarded academic success. My father would say that knowledge is power and I tried to know more than other people.

What about Greek traditions?

As for traditions, we only spoke Greek at home and so when at the age of five I went to infants school I couldn’t speak a word of English. My mother had a sort of reverse racism. She saw Australians as being a little bit uncivilized. She would see people crawling out of pubs drunk at five or six in the evening and think “God, what country did I come to”. In the end she had a lot of Australian friends. She arrived in Australia two years before I was born and she was a little concerned about how things would turn out. We didn’t have Greek school in the country so my formal Greek isn’t great, but for my kids we had a Greek teacher who came to our home. They both know how to read and write in Greek. They have been to Greece a couple of times and are very proud of their heritage. We still have property in Kythera and we have made sure our kids have gone to the island and know what is there. There was a church in Newcastle where we would go. I was christened here in Sydney at Hagia Triada. I am not a very religious person but I very much respect the traditions of our church, and as I have grown older I have come to appreciate them more.

Your name recently featured quite prominently in newspapers in Greece. Were you surprised by the attention you have received from the Greek media?

I was pleasantly surprised. The reason for this publicity is that recently we had a fundraising dinner. George Souris hosted it at the Parliament House and we had over 200 people attending. Leading up the dinner, the organisers thought that it would be good to get some publicity and I also did an extensive interview for ABC earlier this year. All that created a lot of interest. In fact one of the people who is very supportive of what we do is the Greek Consulate General, Mr. Raptakis and he got a lot of calls from Greece. He put them in touch with me and this resulted in several phone interviews. I have had some contact with the University of Athens. I went there a couple of years ago and met my counterpart. I was interested in building relations with Greece but when I came here I got swamped with a lot of other issues, and I haven’t done as much as I would have liked in that respect. I am very, very proud of my heritage, both Greek and Australian. I did a lot of my post graduate studies in Germany and I can remember coming back after being away for three years, thinking “I don’t really feel Australian now, but I don’t feel European either”. You get to the point where you think, “who the hell are you, anyway”. But I have snapped out of it now, I know exactly who I am.

How do you see the Greek community in Australia? Are we on the right path?

In many ways we are in a very privileged position. The Kytherians are a fairly tight knit group, they have their Association, and they have their dinners and everything else. Growing up in the country, one of the problems was that I had very few links with any of the Greek community when we moved to Sydney. In my high school, it was like the United Nations. I had Jewish friends and Italian friends, people from all over the world, all at the one place. Coming from the country to Sydney, it was like visiting Disneyland. I gradually have become more involved in the Greek community. I have been asked to address some functions and I find that the Greek community has in general been very supportive of what I do. John Howard made a comment recently that “Greeks are model citizens”. I have a paper clipping from one of AHEPA’s first meeting, held in Scone in the 1930s stating that what AHEPA was trying to do was to bring the best aspects of Greek culture into Australia. It’s very hard to find a better statement of intent on how to behave when you come to someone else’s country.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Finally Professor, is there a way that people can help this worthwhile cause?

We have two foundations supporting this project. The Genetic Eye Foundation, which looks after people with these blinding conditions. People can donate money to that or they can donate money directly to The Australian Bionic Eye Foundation. Donations to both charities are tax deductible. Obviously, every bit helps but we are not relying on that. We are trying to get this commercialised as soon as possible so we can really move on with it. But if someone is looking for a good cause... Medical charities are numerous and there is a lot of “competition” out there. This one is a little bit different and at the moment we do need some support. At this present time we have four part time people working on this project but we don’t really have a lot of infrastructure to make things move forward.

MAKE A DONATION

The Genetic Eye Foundation,
Ms R. Sturt,
C/- Department of Ophthalmology,
The Prince of Wales Hospital,
High Street,
Randwick, NSW, 2031.
Telephone:
Ms R. Sturt (02) 9382 2493

Email, The Genetic Eye Foundation

Australian Bionic Eye Foundation,
Ms R. Serna,
C/- Department of Ophthalmology,
The Prince of Wales Hospital,
High Street,
Randwick, NSW, 2031.
Telephone:
Ms R. Serna (02) 9382 2307

Email, Australian Bionic Eye Foundation
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Photos, Diaspora Working Life
Diaspora Working Life

Professor Minas Coroneo holds a model of the human eye.

Professor Minas Coroneo talks about the bionic eye, the latest breakthrough in the field of ophthalmology, the pros and cons of medical research in Australia, and growing up Greek in a Kytherian household in the Hunter Valley region in the early sixties.

Words and Portrait, Savvas Limnatitis

"Let’s get one thing straight: what we are offering is not a miracle cure for blindness, but a great step forward”. The softly spoken, bespectacled, fifty-something man, sitting opposite me in what used to be the late, great, Fred Hollows office at Randwick’s Prince of Wales Hospital is talking about the latest developments in the field of ophthalmology and is picking his words very carefully.

And for good reason. After all, modern medicine and its offering of solutions -often of the quick-fix type - to an unprecedented number of diseases to anything remotely fitting the description between cancer and obesity, drug dependency and the centuries old problem of ageing, has made it increasingly easy to be designated a quack, instantly converting years of dedication and research into laughable and best-to-be-avoided obsessions of absent minded professors in long white coats.

Thank God then that modesty has never been a prominent feature in scientific research. For judging by the inches of columns in journals both medical and mainstream (even the media from Greece got in on the act) dedicated to the findings of Professor Minas Coroneo and his dedicated team of researchers there are not exactly small, steps forward but giant leaps, that can revolutionise the way blindness is treated. Professor Coroneo and his team have been working on the project for over five years now. While their first efforts on designing a device that would help patients with genetic eye diseases that have lost their sight received the thumbs up from the rest of the medical world, it was the team’s recent human trials that have made the rest of the world sit up and take notice.

Hailed as a medical breakthrough, the bionic eye does not offer full sight - at least not for the time being. It will eventually however provide blind people with enough “functional vision” to negotiate their way across a room without bumping into objects.

During one of his numerous visits to Kythera, Dr Coroneo was struck by the lack of properr opthalmological facilities on the island. Realising that the only options available to the ageing population of his parent’s birthplace was a visit to Athens with all the problems and hardships such a scenario involves, Dr Coroneo quickly set out to rectify the problem. Calling on the help of his associates both in Greece and Australia as well as the rest of the world, Dr Coroneo’s original idea was soon transformed into the establishment of an eye clinic. Situated at Potamos’ hospital the new eye clinic serving the Kytherian community is equipped with all the necessary equippement and apart from the services of a regular ophthalmologist it also offers those of an optometrist. Not surprisingly, your reporter has gained this information not from Dr Coroneo himself, who carfefully avoided mentioning this little known fact about his life outside of his office, but through a mutual friend who, in his turn, could not speak highly enough of this introvert scientist. How much does this say about his character? You be the judge of that.

THE BIONIC EYE

What exactly is the bionic eye and how did you come to be involved?

About ten years ago my colleague, Dr. Halliday, who has spend his life looking after people that were blinded by hereditary conditions that result in disease of the retina, decided to retire. The general group of these conditions is called retinal dystrophy, and retinitis pigmentosa is the most common of them. It affects one in five thousand people and it’s the commonest cause of blindness in young people. He was interested in the genetics of this and had built a big database. When he retired, the hospital didn’t replace him and on top of my all my other work, I ended up having to do his clinics. So I am sitting here in Randwick having to look after all these youngish people that are blind. I do not like this type of practice because in modern ophthalmology we help people. You come in; have an operation, go home and the next day you can see. So that was outside the normal activities I had been used to. Around 2000 there was a programme on TV about an engineer in New York called William Dobelle who had spent his life trying to develop bionic eyes. He had implanted electrodes into the visual part of the brain of a blind person. When he had started the computers that were required to run this filled a rather large room. By 2000 the computer was a laptop and the person was shown walking around with this device. I thought this was fantastic, but the technology was really crude. People can loose their sight at any time and depending on how it is lost, will determine what sort of “bionic eye” that needs to be developed. Dobelle had a system where he placed electrodes in the brain and his early patients had them running out of their skulls, which is very dangerous because you could get infections. It struck me then that the leading company for stimulating any sensory system is Cochlear, an Australian company based in Sydney. They have the best technology in bionic ears. We rang up Cochlear and told them we had all these blind patients and asked if we could work with them to develop a bionic eye. They have been very helpful in giving us access to their technology.

How long did the original process take?

We spent about five years working with animals. We took off-the-shelf components and that was a big advantage for us because we are competing with overseas groups that are better funded than us, and employ similar technology. But we didn’t have to reinvent the wheel. We had a leading company with the right technology, which we borrowed. The reason for the recent publicity is that earlier this year we started doing some work with patients. This is the first study in humans that we are aware of in Australia.

How long before the bionic eye becomes available to the public?

I am hoping that there will be something available in the next five years. It might not be us. Now that might sound like a long time but given that we have been working on this for only five years, we feel like we are half way through this cycle. Just to make it very plain - and we have been very careful with any publicity because we don’t want people to think that we are about to have a product- what we have achieved is an important step forward. We took a slightly different approach to the one of some of our colleagues in the US. Normally, most of the groups that are working on the retina have put electrodes on it. The retina is like a film in a camera. It has a layer of cells that detect light and turn light into electrical signals. Those signals go to nerves that join up and form the optic nerve. Because the retina is very delicate and also because you have to open the eye, that approach involves some risk. Just imagine what might happen to someone with pieces of metal attached to their retina if they jump on a trampoline. The approach we took was to put electrodes on the outer wall of the eye and increase the current, so it still stimulates the retina. Because of this, we do not have to open the eye. We think that might be a more stable and safer system long term. So earlier this year, we put some electrodes on the outer wall of the eye of a patient, we stimulated those electrodes and the patient was able to see flashes of light.

Is the bionic eye the ultimate solution for people without eyesight?

The type of vision we think will happen initially won’t be anything like yours or my eyesight. It’s not going to be normal vision. The current Cochlear devices have about 30 electrodes. Imagine having 30 electrodes on the outer wall of the eye, which in theory means that if you turn them on at the same time, you will get 30 flashes of light. The idea is that you will have a series of flashes outlining objects. What we are trying to do here is to give people navigating vision.

How did the rest of the medical world respond to your findings?

We have published quite a lot of papers that have been well accepted. We were at a meeting in Detroit early this year when we presented this work and so far the response has been very positive. There is nothing really controversial about what we are doing. It’s just a slightly different approach. One of our big strengths is the link with Cochlear. They know how to built devices and get them to market. We think that puts us in a good position to actually develop something.

MONEY MAKES THE WORLD GO AROUND

You have applied to the US Patent Office for a patent. How important is it to get the rights to the patent? Is it to ensure that no one benefits financially from it? I get the feeling that money is not on the top of your list of priorities?

I am not driven by money. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been here. We have a company that was formed to get this product to the market. When you go down this path, there are certain commercial realities. One of these realities is to protect the intellectual property that has been generated by what we do. Because overseas there are a lot of people with more money than us, if we pass on ideas we can be left behind. What we are doing here is simply being careful. Once you get the patent, you can go to companies and say: “we have my commercial property, what is it worth and can we work with you to get it developed”. It puts us in a better position when we try to develop it.

Has the American dollar tried to lure you away from Australia?

Ha-ha. I have been tempted to apply for positions in the United States. It’s not that I find money attractive. But it’s a fact that a lot of people have been driven away from Australia because of the lack of investment. It’s not so much the money but more that our public institutions, our hospitals and our universities are not traveling well at the moment. Across the country, the public hospital system that’s supposed to be looking after Australians often has its problems. Academic work in hospitals under these conditions is very tough, at least for some of us. In Australia public funds go to patient care first, but research is also a priority. However, I know that some colleagues who work in similar institutions in the USA are much better supported than we are. On the other hand, the lack of resources makes you cunning. You have to make do and one of the great things about Australian investors and scientists is that to survive in a very competitive market, they have to be smarter and be able to out perform the competition. I have a great team of people that I work with and I am not sure I would be able to find them elsewhere. At the moment, I am happy trying to do what I am doing from here.

What about the Australian government? What has been its response?

We have had some funds from the Australian government. We have had an National Health and Medical Research Council grant a couple of years ago, that paid for a research assistant for a couple of years. It helped to get the basic work completed. Putting in grant applications is a lot of work and the amount of money that you get makes you ask if that is a good way to spend your time. We have tried very hard to get more. The German government is funding one of its projects to the tune of 50 million dollars a year. We currently have no government funding for this project. Many people that are in this situation apply every couple of years for small amounts that keep them going. It means that you spend a lot of energy staying afloat. It’s like treading water rather than swimming forward. Because of the recent testing, we are in a better position to go back to the government and say, “this is important in terms of having been developed in Australia, we would appreciate some support”. If you imagine being the Minister of Health, every time he turns around there is someone that has developed a cure for cancer or some other thing, he can’t possibly fund every project. I happen to think this is a very important one because one of the key determinants of quality in life is the ability to see. Particularly young people that have been affected by these diseases, they may have many many years of blindness and we are hoping to develop something that will enable them to walk around. We jokingly say that what we are trying to do is turn guide dogs into pets. Giving people that level of independence is a big deal.

THE ROOT OF ALL... GOODNESS

What drives you and your team to fight bureaucracy? Wouldn’t it have been easier to give up?

It’s always easy to give up. I’ve been doing this for a while now and one of the things about being an academic is that most Australian ophthalmologists are very well trained and provide a very high level of service, and they are sitting in dark rooms across Australia diagnosing diseases, they are operating in theatres making people see better. The thing that partly drives me is that we sit there and we look at people with problems we can’t fix. Because I had intense training in science, as well as studying medicine, I tried to reconcile the interface between basic science and clinical medicine. On one hand I look after my patients, which I enjoy doing, but at the same time I am thinking about how I can treat this condition that otherwise can’t be treated. So I see myself partly as an inventor. If you have one or few inventions you treat people across the planet. That’s not an ego trip. It’s part of what is intellectually stimulating about this work. Clinical medicine can almost be like process work. You have to be very good at doing the same thing over and over again. Beyond that is this almost arrogant ambition to do something more than that.

A lot of people have taken the Hippocratic Oath, but not everyone follows it to the last detail. What makes you different?

It’s partly what you are suited to and partly what opportunities are there. I was extremely fortunate that extraordinary people trained me. I trained at the University of Sydney with John Young, the Head of Physiology. He was a very clever and very driven scientist. I had that background, and then I went to Germany where I trained with a guy who was a scientist as well as an ophthalmologist. When I returned to Australia I had Fred Hollows as a teacher for four years - as a matter of fact this used to be his office. I have had the appropriate training to do what I do. I remember I went to a lecture during my first week at the University of Sydney - this was in 1972- and I was inspired to go and work with John Young who was the speaker that day. You can be the benificiary of serindipitous circumstances. You find yourself in different situations in life where you have the opportunity to do things. On the other hand, my parents didn’t have a very good formal education, so when they came to Australia they were very determined that their children would be educated. I had the best education they could afford to give me at the time, and I have gone through life trying to achieve things.

While I admire your modesty, I can’t help but notice you have served in outback Bourke. What influenced the decision to go all the way there? Were you trying to pinpoint the exact location of “woop woop” on the map?

That was purely Fred Hollows. I arrived at this hospital in 1982. Prior to that in the 70's, Hollows had been all over outback Australia looking after indigenous and white people and anyone with eye disease. By the time I arrived that program had ended and the last outpost for NSW was Bourke. In my training - and I am pleased to see in the training of the people that are currently involved in this project - we provide a service to Bourke Hospital. It’s funny because I talk to people about Bourke and my instructions on how to get there is to find the last traffic lights in Sydney and then drive northwest for ten hours. You can’t miss it.

Other people would have taken the easy option and settled in a nice office in Sydney and try to make as much money as possible.

It’s possible that I have a very short attention span. Like a lot of people I need stimulation. Fred Hollows once said to me: “If you go into a practice and that is all you do, you will be brain dead by fifty”. I am pleased to report that I am 52 and I am not brain dead. It’s a great privilege to be able to sit here and do as much as I can. It hasn’t been easy; we have had a lot of difficult times in the last ten years. Sitting in this hospital-university situation when both institutions are not well supported in my view - and that’s a political statement, but I think a lot of other people share the same view- can be tough. Maybe the easiest thing to have done is to get up and go overseas. It’s just that I am rather happy to be surrounded by this group of great people trying to do something good.

THE KYTHERIAN CONNECTION

How did your parents take your decision to plunge into the uncertain field of medical research?

Town of origin - Potamos

Parachoukli - Belos

My father died when I was in the second year of medical school. As a matter of fact, he didn’t want me to be a doctor; he wanted me to be an engineer. For two reasons: he came to Australia from Kythera in 1920 and served in the Second World War. He was in the Ambulance Corps in Darwin when it was bombed and he saw surgeons operating and didn’t really like it. He thought doctors were fairly uncivilized. Back in Scone where he lived, he was there when they were building the Glenbawn Dam. There were a lot of Greeks that had come to Australia during that era. One of his best friends was the engineer that was responsible for building that dam. My father saw engineering as clean and helpful to the community, building bridges and stuff, and he wanted me to be an engineer. To that extent I disappointed him. On the other hand, in that era most people that did well at school were expected to study medicine. In Scone, the small town where I grew up the person that made the difference between life and death was the local doctor. He was an inspirational character.

What about your mother?

My mother passed away last year, but she lived long enough to see what I have become. I think I had disappointed her as well. Her idea was that when I finished medicine I would open a general practice somewhere locally. All these years that I have been going overseas she had a great difficulty understanding what I was trying to do.

Was it hard to retain your Greekness, growing up in the middle of The Hunter Valley with not many Greeks around?

There is schizophrenia about Australians’ attitude to migrants. On the hand most people were very supportive, my father had many friends and his was in business in Scone for about fifty years. There were a few xenophobes. I had an unusual name by Australian standards then. You can imagine what it was like having a name like that in Australia in the 1950s. Sometimes at school it was tough. I have a younger brother, who was big, and his attitude was that he would hit anyone that insulted him. So he became one of the boys. He was also much better in adjusting than me. My approach was to do it academically. In a way that attitude was because my parents rewarded academic success. My father would say that knowledge is power and I tried to know more than other people.

What about Greek traditions?

As for traditions, we only spoke Greek at home and so when at the age of five I went to infants school I couldn’t speak a word of English. My mother had a sort of reverse racism. She saw Australians as being a little bit uncivilized. She would see people crawling out of pubs drunk at five or six in the evening and think “God, what country did I come to”. In the end she had a lot of Australian friends. She arrived in Australia two years before I was born and she was a little concerned about how things would turn out. We didn’t have Greek school in the country so my formal Greek isn’t great, but for my kids we had a Greek teacher who came to our home. They both know how to read and write in Greek. They have been to Greece a couple of times and are very proud of their heritage. We still have property in Kythera and we have made sure our kids have gone to the island and know what is there. There was a church in Newcastle where we would go. I was christened here in Sydney at Hagia Triada. I am not a very religious person but I very much respect the traditions of our church, and as I have grown older I have come to appreciate them more.

Your name recently featured quite prominently in newspapers in Greece. Were you surprised by the attention you have received from the Greek media?

I was pleasantly surprised. The reason for this publicity is that recently we had a fundraising dinner. George Souris hosted it at the Parliament House and we had over 200 people attending. Leading up the dinner, the organisers thought that it would be good to get some publicity and I also did an extensive interview for ABC earlier this year. All that created a lot of interest. In fact one of the people who is very supportive of what we do is the Greek Consulate General, Mr. Raptakis and he got a lot of calls from Greece. He put them in touch with me and this resulted in several phone interviews. I have had some contact with the University of Athens. I went there a couple of years ago and met my counterpart. I was interested in building relations with Greece but when I came here I got swamped with a lot of other issues, and I haven’t done as much as I would have liked in that respect. I am very, very proud of my heritage, both Greek and Australian. I did a lot of my post graduate studies in Germany and I can remember coming back after being away for three years, thinking “I don’t really feel Australian now, but I don’t feel European either”. You get to the point where you think, “who the hell are you, anyway”. But I have snapped out of it now, I know exactly who I am.

How do you see the Greek community in Australia? Are we on the right path?

In many ways we are in a very privileged position. The Kytherians are a fairly tight knit group, they have their Association, and they have their dinners and everything else. Growing up in the country, one of the problems was that I had very few links with any of the Greek community when we moved to Sydney. In my high school, it was like the United Nations. I had Jewish friends and Italian friends, people from all over the world, all at the one place. Coming from the country to Sydney, it was like visiting Disneyland. I gradually have become more involved in the Greek community. I have been asked to address some functions and I find that the Greek community has in general been very supportive of what I do. John Howard made a comment recently that “Greeks are model citizens”. I have a paper clipping from one of AHEPA’s first meeting, held in Scone in the 1930s stating that what AHEPA was trying to do was to bring the best aspects of Greek culture into Australia. It’s very hard to find a better statement of intent on how to behave when you come to someone else’s country.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Finally Professor, is there a way that people can help this worthwhile cause?

We have two foundations supporting this project. The Genetic Eye Foundation, which looks after people with these blinding conditions. People can donate money to that or they can donate money directly to The Australian Bionic Eye Foundation. Donations to both charities are tax deductible. Obviously, every bit helps but we are not relying on that. We are trying to get this commercialised as soon as possible so we can really move on with it. But if someone is looking for a good cause... Medical charities are numerous and there is a lot of “competition” out there. This one is a little bit different and at the moment we do need some support. At this present time we have four part time people working on this project but we don’t really have a lot of infrastructure to make things move forward.

MAKE A DONATION

The Genetic Eye Foundation,
Ms R. Sturt,
C/- Department of Ophthalmology,
The Prince of Wales Hospital,
High Street,
Randwick, NSW, 2031.
Telephone:
Ms R. Sturt (02) 9382 2493

Email, The Genetic Eye Foundation

Australian Bionic Eye Foundation,
Ms R. Serna,
C/- Department of Ophthalmology,
The Prince of Wales Hospital,
High Street,
Randwick, NSW, 2031.
Telephone:
Ms R. Serna (02) 9382 2307

Email, Australian Bionic Eye Foundation
Open full entry
Photos, Diaspora Working Life
Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People

Professor Minas Coroneo. Outside his offices in Randwick's Prince of Wales Hospital.

Professor Minas Coroneo talks about the bionic eye, the latest breakthrough in the field of ophthalmology, the pros and cons of medical research in Australia, and growing up Greek in a Kytherian household in the Hunter Valley region in the early sixties.

Words and Portrait, Savvas Limnatitis

"Let’s get one thing straight: what we are offering is not a miracle cure for blindness, but a great step forward”. The softly spoken, bespectacled, fifty-something man, sitting opposite me in what used to be the late, great, Fred Hollows office at Randwick’s Prince of Wales Hospital is talking about the latest developments in the field of ophthalmology and is picking his words very carefully.

And for good reason. After all, modern medicine and its offering of solutions -often of the quick-fix type - to an unprecedented number of diseases to anything remotely fitting the description between cancer and obesity, drug dependency and the centuries old problem of ageing, has made it increasingly easy to be designated a quack, instantly converting years of dedication and research into laughable and best-to-be-avoided obsessions of absent minded professors in long white coats.

Thank God then that modesty has never been a prominent feature in scientific research. For judging by the inches of columns in journals both medical and mainstream (even the media from Greece got in on the act) dedicated to the findings of Professor Minas Coroneo and his dedicated team of researchers there are not exactly small, steps forward but giant leaps, that can revolutionise the way blindness is treated. Professor Coroneo and his team have been working on the project for over five years now. While their first efforts on designing a device that would help patients with genetic eye diseases that have lost their sight received the thumbs up from the rest of the medical world, it was the team’s recent human trials that have made the rest of the world sit up and take notice.

Hailed as a medical breakthrough, the bionic eye does not offer full sight - at least not for the time being. It will eventually however provide blind people with enough “functional vision” to negotiate their way across a room without bumping into objects.

During one of his numerous visits to Kythera, Dr Coroneo was struck by the lack of properr opthalmological facilities on the island. Realising that the only options available to the ageing population of his parent’s birthplace was a visit to Athens with all the problems and hardships such a scenario involves, Dr Coroneo quickly set out to rectify the problem. Calling on the help of his associates both in Greece and Australia as well as the rest of the world, Dr Coroneo’s original idea was soon transformed into the establishment of an eye clinic. Situated at Potamos’ hospital the new eye clinic serving the Kytherian community is equipped with all the necessary equippement and apart from the services of a regular ophthalmologist it also offers those of an optometrist. Not surprisingly, your reporter has gained this information not from Dr Coroneo himself, who carfefully avoided mentioning this little known fact about his life outside of his office, but through a mutual friend who, in his turn, could not speak highly enough of this introvert scientist. How much does this say about his character? You be the judge of that.

THE BIONIC EYE

What exactly is the bionic eye and how did you come to be involved?

About ten years ago my colleague, Dr. Halliday, who has spend his life looking after people that were blinded by hereditary conditions that result in disease of the retina, decided to retire. The general group of these conditions is called retinal dystrophy, and retinitis pigmentosa is the most common of them. It affects one in five thousand people and it’s the commonest cause of blindness in young people. He was interested in the genetics of this and had built a big database. When he retired, the hospital didn’t replace him and on top of my all my other work, I ended up having to do his clinics. So I am sitting here in Randwick having to look after all these youngish people that are blind. I do not like this type of practice because in modern ophthalmology we help people. You come in; have an operation, go home and the next day you can see. So that was outside the normal activities I had been used to. Around 2000 there was a programme on TV about an engineer in New York called William Dobelle who had spent his life trying to develop bionic eyes. He had implanted electrodes into the visual part of the brain of a blind person. When he had started the computers that were required to run this filled a rather large room. By 2000 the computer was a laptop and the person was shown walking around with this device. I thought this was fantastic, but the technology was really crude. People can loose their sight at any time and depending on how it is lost, will determine what sort of “bionic eye” that needs to be developed. Dobelle had a system where he placed electrodes in the brain and his early patients had them running out of their skulls, which is very dangerous because you could get infections. It struck me then that the leading company for stimulating any sensory system is Cochlear, an Australian company based in Sydney. They have the best technology in bionic ears. We rang up Cochlear and told them we had all these blind patients and asked if we could work with them to develop a bionic eye. They have been very helpful in giving us access to their technology.

How long did the original process take?

We spent about five years working with animals. We took off-the-shelf components and that was a big advantage for us because we are competing with overseas groups that are better funded than us, and employ similar technology. But we didn’t have to reinvent the wheel. We had a leading company with the right technology, which we borrowed. The reason for the recent publicity is that earlier this year we started doing some work with patients. This is the first study in humans that we are aware of in Australia.

How long before the bionic eye becomes available to the public?

I am hoping that there will be something available in the next five years. It might not be us. Now that might sound like a long time but given that we have been working on this for only five years, we feel like we are half way through this cycle. Just to make it very plain - and we have been very careful with any publicity because we don’t want people to think that we are about to have a product- what we have achieved is an important step forward. We took a slightly different approach to the one of some of our colleagues in the US. Normally, most of the groups that are working on the retina have put electrodes on it. The retina is like a film in a camera. It has a layer of cells that detect light and turn light into electrical signals. Those signals go to nerves that join up and form the optic nerve. Because the retina is very delicate and also because you have to open the eye, that approach involves some risk. Just imagine what might happen to someone with pieces of metal attached to their retina if they jump on a trampoline. The approach we took was to put electrodes on the outer wall of the eye and increase the current, so it still stimulates the retina. Because of this, we do not have to open the eye. We think that might be a more stable and safer system long term. So earlier this year, we put some electrodes on the outer wall of the eye of a patient, we stimulated those electrodes and the patient was able to see flashes of light.

Is the bionic eye the ultimate solution for people without eyesight?

The type of vision we think will happen initially won’t be anything like yours or my eyesight. It’s not going to be normal vision. The current Cochlear devices have about 30 electrodes. Imagine having 30 electrodes on the outer wall of the eye, which in theory means that if you turn them on at the same time, you will get 30 flashes of light. The idea is that you will have a series of flashes outlining objects. What we are trying to do here is to give people navigating vision.

How did the rest of the medical world respond to your findings?

We have published quite a lot of papers that have been well accepted. We were at a meeting in Detroit early this year when we presented this work and so far the response has been very positive. There is nothing really controversial about what we are doing. It’s just a slightly different approach. One of our big strengths is the link with Cochlear. They know how to built devices and get them to market. We think that puts us in a good position to actually develop something.

MONEY MAKES THE WORLD GO AROUND

You have applied to the US Patent Office for a patent. How important is it to get the rights to the patent? Is it to ensure that no one benefits financially from it? I get the feeling that money is not on the top of your list of priorities?

I am not driven by money. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been here. We have a company that was formed to get this product to the market. When you go down this path, there are certain commercial realities. One of these realities is to protect the intellectual property that has been generated by what we do. Because overseas there are a lot of people with more money than us, if we pass on ideas we can be left behind. What we are doing here is simply being careful. Once you get the patent, you can go to companies and say: “we have my commercial property, what is it worth and can we work with you to get it developed”. It puts us in a better position when we try to develop it.

Has the American dollar tried to lure you away from Australia?

Ha-ha. I have been tempted to apply for positions in the United States. It’s not that I find money attractive. But it’s a fact that a lot of people have been driven away from Australia because of the lack of investment. It’s not so much the money but more that our public institutions, our hospitals and our universities are not traveling well at the moment. Across the country, the public hospital system that’s supposed to be looking after Australians often has its problems. Academic work in hospitals under these conditions is very tough, at least for some of us. In Australia public funds go to patient care first, but research is also a priority. However, I know that some colleagues who work in similar institutions in the USA are much better supported than we are. On the other hand, the lack of resources makes you cunning. You have to make do and one of the great things about Australian investors and scientists is that to survive in a very competitive market, they have to be smarter and be able to out perform the competition. I have a great team of people that I work with and I am not sure I would be able to find them elsewhere. At the moment, I am happy trying to do what I am doing from here.

What about the Australian government? What has been its response?

We have had some funds from the Australian government. We have had an National Health and Medical Research Council grant a couple of years ago, that paid for a research assistant for a couple of years. It helped to get the basic work completed. Putting in grant applications is a lot of work and the amount of money that you get makes you ask if that is a good way to spend your time. We have tried very hard to get more. The German government is funding one of its projects to the tune of 50 million dollars a year. We currently have no government funding for this project. Many people that are in this situation apply every couple of years for small amounts that keep them going. It means that you spend a lot of energy staying afloat. It’s like treading water rather than swimming forward. Because of the recent testing, we are in a better position to go back to the government and say, “this is important in terms of having been developed in Australia, we would appreciate some support”. If you imagine being the Minister of Health, every time he turns around there is someone that has developed a cure for cancer or some other thing, he can’t possibly fund every project. I happen to think this is a very important one because one of the key determinants of quality in life is the ability to see. Particularly young people that have been affected by these diseases, they may have many many years of blindness and we are hoping to develop something that will enable them to walk around. We jokingly say that what we are trying to do is turn guide dogs into pets. Giving people that level of independence is a big deal.

THE ROOT OF ALL... GOODNESS

What drives you and your team to fight bureaucracy? Wouldn’t it have been easier to give up?

It’s always easy to give up. I’ve been doing this for a while now and one of the things about being an academic is that most Australian ophthalmologists are very well trained and provide a very high level of service, and they are sitting in dark rooms across Australia diagnosing diseases, they are operating in theatres making people see better. The thing that partly drives me is that we sit there and we look at people with problems we can’t fix. Because I had intense training in science, as well as studying medicine, I tried to reconcile the interface between basic science and clinical medicine. On one hand I look after my patients, which I enjoy doing, but at the same time I am thinking about how I can treat this condition that otherwise can’t be treated. So I see myself partly as an inventor. If you have one or few inventions you treat people across the planet. That’s not an ego trip. It’s part of what is intellectually stimulating about this work. Clinical medicine can almost be like process work. You have to be very good at doing the same thing over and over again. Beyond that is this almost arrogant ambition to do something more than that.

A lot of people have taken the Hippocratic Oath, but not everyone follows it to the last detail. What makes you different?

It’s partly what you are suited to and partly what opportunities are there. I was extremely fortunate that extraordinary people trained me. I trained at the University of Sydney with John Young, the Head of Physiology. He was a very clever and very driven scientist. I had that background, and then I went to Germany where I trained with a guy who was a scientist as well as an ophthalmologist. When I returned to Australia I had Fred Hollows as a teacher for four years - as a matter of fact this used to be his office. I have had the appropriate training to do what I do. I remember I went to a lecture during my first week at the University of Sydney - this was in 1972- and I was inspired to go and work with John Young who was the speaker that day. You can be the benificiary of serindipitous circumstances. You find yourself in different situations in life where you have the opportunity to do things. On the other hand, my parents didn’t have a very good formal education, so when they came to Australia they were very determined that their children would be educated. I had the best education they could afford to give me at the time, and I have gone through life trying to achieve things.

While I admire your modesty, I can’t help but notice you have served in outback Bourke. What influenced the decision to go all the way there? Were you trying to pinpoint the exact location of “woop woop” on the map?

That was purely Fred Hollows. I arrived at this hospital in 1982. Prior to that in the 70's, Hollows had been all over outback Australia looking after indigenous and white people and anyone with eye disease. By the time I arrived that program had ended and the last outpost for NSW was Bourke. In my training - and I am pleased to see in the training of the people that are currently involved in this project - we provide a service to Bourke Hospital. It’s funny because I talk to people about Bourke and my instructions on how to get there is to find the last traffic lights in Sydney and then drive northwest for ten hours. You can’t miss it.

Other people would have taken the easy option and settled in a nice office in Sydney and try to make as much money as possible.

It’s possible that I have a very short attention span. Like a lot of people I need stimulation. Fred Hollows once said to me: “If you go into a practice and that is all you do, you will be brain dead by fifty”. I am pleased to report that I am 52 and I am not brain dead. It’s a great privilege to be able to sit here and do as much as I can. It hasn’t been easy; we have had a lot of difficult times in the last ten years. Sitting in this hospital-university situation when both institutions are not well supported in my view - and that’s a political statement, but I think a lot of other people share the same view- can be tough. Maybe the easiest thing to have done is to get up and go overseas. It’s just that I am rather happy to be surrounded by this group of great people trying to do something good.

THE KYTHERIAN CONNECTION

How did your parents take your decision to plunge into the uncertain field of medical research?

Town of origin - Potamos

Parachoukli - Belos

My father died when I was in the second year of medical school. As a matter of fact, he didn’t want me to be a doctor; he wanted me to be an engineer. For two reasons: he came to Australia from Kythera in 1920 and served in the Second World War. He was in the Ambulance Corps in Darwin when it was bombed and he saw surgeons operating and didn’t really like it. He thought doctors were fairly uncivilized. Back in Scone where he lived, he was there when they were building the Glenbawn Dam. There were a lot of Greeks that had come to Australia during that era. One of his best friends was the engineer that was responsible for building that dam. My father saw engineering as clean and helpful to the community, building bridges and stuff, and he wanted me to be an engineer. To that extent I disappointed him. On the other hand, in that era most people that did well at school were expected to study medicine. In Scone, the small town where I grew up the person that made the difference between life and death was the local doctor. He was an inspirational character.

What about your mother?

My mother passed away last year, but she lived long enough to see what I have become. I think I had disappointed her as well. Her idea was that when I finished medicine I would open a general practice somewhere locally. All these years that I have been going overseas she had a great difficulty understanding what I was trying to do.

Was it hard to retain your Greekness, growing up in the middle of The Hunter Valley with not many Greeks around?

There is schizophrenia about Australians’ attitude to migrants. On the hand most people were very supportive, my father had many friends and his was in business in Scone for about fifty years. There were a few xenophobes. I had an unusual name by Australian standards then. You can imagine what it was like having a name like that in Australia in the 1950s. Sometimes at school it was tough. I have a younger brother, who was big, and his attitude was that he would hit anyone that insulted him. So he became one of the boys. He was also much better in adjusting than me. My approach was to do it academically. In a way that attitude was because my parents rewarded academic success. My father would say that knowledge is power and I tried to know more than other people.

What about Greek traditions?

As for traditions, we only spoke Greek at home and so when at the age of five I went to infants school I couldn’t speak a word of English. My mother had a sort of reverse racism. She saw Australians as being a little bit uncivilized. She would see people crawling out of pubs drunk at five or six in the evening and think “God, what country did I come to”. In the end she had a lot of Australian friends. She arrived in Australia two years before I was born and she was a little concerned about how things would turn out. We didn’t have Greek school in the country so my formal Greek isn’t great, but for my kids we had a Greek teacher who came to our home. They both know how to read and write in Greek. They have been to Greece a couple of times and are very proud of their heritage. We still have property in Kythera and we have made sure our kids have gone to the island and know what is there. There was a church in Newcastle where we would go. I was christened here in Sydney at Hagia Triada. I am not a very religious person but I very much respect the traditions of our church, and as I have grown older I have come to appreciate them more.

Your name recently featured quite prominently in newspapers in Greece. Were you surprised by the attention you have received from the Greek media?

I was pleasantly surprised. The reason for this publicity is that recently we had a fundraising dinner. George Souris hosted it at the Parliament House and we had over 200 people attending. Leading up the dinner, the organisers thought that it would be good to get some publicity and I also did an extensive interview for ABC earlier this year. All that created a lot of interest. In fact one of the people who is very supportive of what we do is the Greek Consulate General, Mr. Raptakis and he got a lot of calls from Greece. He put them in touch with me and this resulted in several phone interviews. I have had some contact with the University of Athens. I went there a couple of years ago and met my counterpart. I was interested in building relations with Greece but when I came here I got swamped with a lot of other issues, and I haven’t done as much as I would have liked in that respect. I am very, very proud of my heritage, both Greek and Australian. I did a lot of my post graduate studies in Germany and I can remember coming back after being away for three years, thinking “I don’t really feel Australian now, but I don’t feel European either”. You get to the point where you think, “who the hell are you, anyway”. But I have snapped out of it now, I know exactly who I am.

How do you see the Greek community in Australia? Are we on the right path?

In many ways we are in a very privileged position. The Kytherians are a fairly tight knit group, they have their Association, and they have their dinners and everything else. Growing up in the country, one of the problems was that I had very few links with any of the Greek community when we moved to Sydney. In my high school, it was like the United Nations. I had Jewish friends and Italian friends, people from all over the world, all at the one place. Coming from the country to Sydney, it was like visiting Disneyland. I gradually have become more involved in the Greek community. I have been asked to address some functions and I find that the Greek community has in general been very supportive of what I do. John Howard made a comment recently that “Greeks are model citizens”. I have a paper clipping from one of AHEPA’s first meeting, held in Scone in the 1930s stating that what AHEPA was trying to do was to bring the best aspects of Greek culture into Australia. It’s very hard to find a better statement of intent on how to behave when you come to someone else’s country.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Finally Professor, is there a way that people can help this worthwhile cause?

We have two foundations supporting this project. The Genetic Eye Foundation, which looks after people with these blinding conditions. People can donate money to that or they can donate money directly to The Australian Bionic Eye Foundation. Donations to both charities are tax deductible. Obviously, every bit helps but we are not relying on that. We are trying to get this commercialised as soon as possible so we can really move on with it. But if someone is looking for a good cause... Medical charities are numerous and there is a lot of “competition” out there. This one is a little bit different and at the moment we do need some support. At this present time we have four part time people working on this project but we don’t really have a lot of infrastructure to make things move forward.

MAKE A DONATION

The Genetic Eye Foundation,
Ms R. Sturt,
C/- Department of Ophthalmology,
The Prince of Wales Hospital,
High Street,
Randwick, NSW, 2031.
Telephone:
Ms R. Sturt (02) 9382 2493

Email, The Genetic Eye Foundation

Australian Bionic Eye Foundation,
Ms R. Serna,
C/- Department of Ophthalmology,
The Prince of Wales Hospital,
High Street,
Randwick, NSW, 2031.
Telephone:
Ms R. Serna (02) 9382 2307

Email, Australian Bionic Eye Foundation
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Professor Minas Coroneo holding a model of the human eye.

Professor Minas Coroneo talks about the bionic eye, the latest breakthrough in the field of ophthalmology, the pros and cons of medical research in Australia, and growing up Greek in a Kytherian household in the Hunter Valley region in the early sixties.

Words and Portrait, Savvas Limnatitis

"Let’s get one thing straight: what we are offering is not a miracle cure for blindness, but a great step forward”. The softly spoken, bespectacled, fifty-something man, sitting opposite me in what used to be the late, great, Fred Hollows office at Randwick’s Prince of Wales Hospital is talking about the latest developments in the field of ophthalmology and is picking his words very carefully.

And for good reason. After all, modern medicine and its offering of solutions -often of the quick-fix type - to an unprecedented number of diseases to anything remotely fitting the description between cancer and obesity, drug dependency and the centuries old problem of ageing, has made it increasingly easy to be designated a quack, instantly converting years of dedication and research into laughable and best-to-be-avoided obsessions of absent minded professors in long white coats.

Thank God then that modesty has never been a prominent feature in scientific research. For judging by the inches of columns in journals both medical and mainstream (even the media from Greece got in on the act) dedicated to the findings of Professor Minas Coroneo and his dedicated team of researchers there are not exactly small, steps forward but giant leaps, that can revolutionise the way blindness is treated. Professor Coroneo and his team have been working on the project for over five years now. While their first efforts on designing a device that would help patients with genetic eye diseases that have lost their sight received the thumbs up from the rest of the medical world, it was the team’s recent human trials that have made the rest of the world sit up and take notice.

Hailed as a medical breakthrough, the bionic eye does not offer full sight - at least not for the time being. It will eventually however provide blind people with enough “functional vision” to negotiate their way across a room without bumping into objects.

During one of his numerous visits to Kythera, Dr Coroneo was struck by the lack of properr opthalmological facilities on the island. Realising that the only options available to the ageing population of his parent’s birthplace was a visit to Athens with all the problems and hardships such a scenario involves, Dr Coroneo quickly set out to rectify the problem. Calling on the help of his associates both in Greece and Australia as well as the rest of the world, Dr Coroneo’s original idea was soon transformed into the establishment of an eye clinic. Situated at Potamos’ hospital the new eye clinic serving the Kytherian community is equipped with all the necessary equippement and apart from the services of a regular ophthalmologist it also offers those of an optometrist. Not surprisingly, your reporter has gained this information not from Dr Coroneo himself, who carfefully avoided mentioning this little known fact about his life outside of his office, but through a mutual friend who, in his turn, could not speak highly enough of this introvert scientist. How much does this say about his character? You be the judge of that.

THE BIONIC EYE

What exactly is the bionic eye and how did you come to be involved?

About ten years ago my colleague, Dr. Halliday, who has spend his life looking after people that were blinded by hereditary conditions that result in disease of the retina, decided to retire. The general group of these conditions is called retinal dystrophy, and retinitis pigmentosa is the most common of them. It affects one in five thousand people and it’s the commonest cause of blindness in young people. He was interested in the genetics of this and had built a big database. When he retired, the hospital didn’t replace him and on top of my all my other work, I ended up having to do his clinics. So I am sitting here in Randwick having to look after all these youngish people that are blind. I do not like this type of practice because in modern ophthalmology we help people. You come in; have an operation, go home and the next day you can see. So that was outside the normal activities I had been used to. Around 2000 there was a programme on TV about an engineer in New York called William Dobelle who had spent his life trying to develop bionic eyes. He had implanted electrodes into the visual part of the brain of a blind person. When he had started the computers that were required to run this filled a rather large room. By 2000 the computer was a laptop and the person was shown walking around with this device. I thought this was fantastic, but the technology was really crude. People can loose their sight at any time and depending on how it is lost, will determine what sort of “bionic eye” that needs to be developed. Dobelle had a system where he placed electrodes in the brain and his early patients had them running out of their skulls, which is very dangerous because you could get infections. It struck me then that the leading company for stimulating any sensory system is Cochlear, an Australian company based in Sydney. They have the best technology in bionic ears. We rang up Cochlear and told them we had all these blind patients and asked if we could work with them to develop a bionic eye. They have been very helpful in giving us access to their technology.

How long did the original process take?

We spent about five years working with animals. We took off-the-shelf components and that was a big advantage for us because we are competing with overseas groups that are better funded than us, and employ similar technology. But we didn’t have to reinvent the wheel. We had a leading company with the right technology, which we borrowed. The reason for the recent publicity is that earlier this year we started doing some work with patients. This is the first study in humans that we are aware of in Australia.

How long before the bionic eye becomes available to the public?

I am hoping that there will be something available in the next five years. It might not be us. Now that might sound like a long time but given that we have been working on this for only five years, we feel like we are half way through this cycle. Just to make it very plain - and we have been very careful with any publicity because we don’t want people to think that we are about to have a product- what we have achieved is an important step forward. We took a slightly different approach to the one of some of our colleagues in the US. Normally, most of the groups that are working on the retina have put electrodes on it. The retina is like a film in a camera. It has a layer of cells that detect light and turn light into electrical signals. Those signals go to nerves that join up and form the optic nerve. Because the retina is very delicate and also because you have to open the eye, that approach involves some risk. Just imagine what might happen to someone with pieces of metal attached to their retina if they jump on a trampoline. The approach we took was to put electrodes on the outer wall of the eye and increase the current, so it still stimulates the retina. Because of this, we do not have to open the eye. We think that might be a more stable and safer system long term. So earlier this year, we put some electrodes on the outer wall of the eye of a patient, we stimulated those electrodes and the patient was able to see flashes of light.

Is the bionic eye the ultimate solution for people without eyesight?

The type of vision we think will happen initially won’t be anything like yours or my eyesight. It’s not going to be normal vision. The current Cochlear devices have about 30 electrodes. Imagine having 30 electrodes on the outer wall of the eye, which in theory means that if you turn them on at the same time, you will get 30 flashes of light. The idea is that you will have a series of flashes outlining objects. What we are trying to do here is to give people navigating vision.

How did the rest of the medical world respond to your findings?

We have published quite a lot of papers that have been well accepted. We were at a meeting in Detroit early this year when we presented this work and so far the response has been very positive. There is nothing really controversial about what we are doing. It’s just a slightly different approach. One of our big strengths is the link with Cochlear. They know how to built devices and get them to market. We think that puts us in a good position to actually develop something.

MONEY MAKES THE WORLD GO AROUND

You have applied to the US Patent Office for a patent. How important is it to get the rights to the patent? Is it to ensure that no one benefits financially from it? I get the feeling that money is not on the top of your list of priorities?

I am not driven by money. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been here. We have a company that was formed to get this product to the market. When you go down this path, there are certain commercial realities. One of these realities is to protect the intellectual property that has been generated by what we do. Because overseas there are a lot of people with more money than us, if we pass on ideas we can be left behind. What we are doing here is simply being careful. Once you get the patent, you can go to companies and say: “we have my commercial property, what is it worth and can we work with you to get it developed”. It puts us in a better position when we try to develop it.

Has the American dollar tried to lure you away from Australia?

Ha-ha. I have been tempted to apply for positions in the United States. It’s not that I find money attractive. But it’s a fact that a lot of people have been driven away from Australia because of the lack of investment. It’s not so much the money but more that our public institutions, our hospitals and our universities are not traveling well at the moment. Across the country, the public hospital system that’s supposed to be looking after Australians often has its problems. Academic work in hospitals under these conditions is very tough, at least for some of us. In Australia public funds go to patient care first, but research is also a priority. However, I know that some colleagues who work in similar institutions in the USA are much better supported than we are. On the other hand, the lack of resources makes you cunning. You have to make do and one of the great things about Australian investors and scientists is that to survive in a very competitive market, they have to be smarter and be able to out perform the competition. I have a great team of people that I work with and I am not sure I would be able to find them elsewhere. At the moment, I am happy trying to do what I am doing from here.

What about the Australian government? What has been its response?

We have had some funds from the Australian government. We have had an National Health and Medical Research Council grant a couple of years ago, that paid for a research assistant for a couple of years. It helped to get the basic work completed. Putting in grant applications is a lot of work and the amount of money that you get makes you ask if that is a good way to spend your time. We have tried very hard to get more. The German government is funding one of its projects to the tune of 50 million dollars a year. We currently have no government funding for this project. Many people that are in this situation apply every couple of years for small amounts that keep them going. It means that you spend a lot of energy staying afloat. It’s like treading water rather than swimming forward. Because of the recent testing, we are in a better position to go back to the government and say, “this is important in terms of having been developed in Australia, we would appreciate some support”. If you imagine being the Minister of Health, every time he turns around there is someone that has developed a cure for cancer or some other thing, he can’t possibly fund every project. I happen to think this is a very important one because one of the key determinants of quality in life is the ability to see. Particularly young people that have been affected by these diseases, they may have many many years of blindness and we are hoping to develop something that will enable them to walk around. We jokingly say that what we are trying to do is turn guide dogs into pets. Giving people that level of independence is a big deal.

THE ROOT OF ALL... GOODNESS

What drives you and your team to fight bureaucracy? Wouldn’t it have been easier to give up?

It’s always easy to give up. I’ve been doing this for a while now and one of the things about being an academic is that most Australian ophthalmologists are very well trained and provide a very high level of service, and they are sitting in dark rooms across Australia diagnosing diseases, they are operating in theatres making people see better. The thing that partly drives me is that we sit there and we look at people with problems we can’t fix. Because I had intense training in science, as well as studying medicine, I tried to reconcile the interface between basic science and clinical medicine. On one hand I look after my patients, which I enjoy doing, but at the same time I am thinking about how I can treat this condition that otherwise can’t be treated. So I see myself partly as an inventor. If you have one or few inventions you treat people across the planet. That’s not an ego trip. It’s part of what is intellectually stimulating about this work. Clinical medicine can almost be like process work. You have to be very good at doing the same thing over and over again. Beyond that is this almost arrogant ambition to do something more than that.

A lot of people have taken the Hippocratic Oath, but not everyone follows it to the last detail. What makes you different?

It’s partly what you are suited to and partly what opportunities are there. I was extremely fortunate that extraordinary people trained me. I trained at the University of Sydney with John Young, the Head of Physiology. He was a very clever and very driven scientist. I had that background, and then I went to Germany where I trained with a guy who was a scientist as well as an ophthalmologist. When I returned to Australia I had Fred Hollows as a teacher for four years - as a matter of fact this used to be his office. I have had the appropriate training to do what I do. I remember I went to a lecture during my first week at the University of Sydney - this was in 1972- and I was inspired to go and work with John Young who was the speaker that day. You can be the benificiary of serindipitous circumstances. You find yourself in different situations in life where you have the opportunity to do things. On the other hand, my parents didn’t have a very good formal education, so when they came to Australia they were very determined that their children would be educated. I had the best education they could afford to give me at the time, and I have gone through life trying to achieve things.

While I admire your modesty, I can’t help but notice you have served in outback Bourke. What influenced the decision to go all the way there? Were you trying to pinpoint the exact location of “woop woop” on the map?

That was purely Fred Hollows. I arrived at this hospital in 1982. Prior to that in the 70's, Hollows had been all over outback Australia looking after indigenous and white people and anyone with eye disease. By the time I arrived that program had ended and the last outpost for NSW was Bourke. In my training - and I am pleased to see in the training of the people that are currently involved in this project - we provide a service to Bourke Hospital. It’s funny because I talk to people about Bourke and my instructions on how to get there is to find the last traffic lights in Sydney and then drive northwest for ten hours. You can’t miss it.

Other people would have taken the easy option and settled in a nice office in Sydney and try to make as much money as possible.

It’s possible that I have a very short attention span. Like a lot of people I need stimulation. Fred Hollows once said to me: “If you go into a practice and that is all you do, you will be brain dead by fifty”. I am pleased to report that I am 52 and I am not brain dead. It’s a great privilege to be able to sit here and do as much as I can. It hasn’t been easy; we have had a lot of difficult times in the last ten years. Sitting in this hospital-university situation when both institutions are not well supported in my view - and that’s a political statement, but I think a lot of other people share the same view- can be tough. Maybe the easiest thing to have done is to get up and go overseas. It’s just that I am rather happy to be surrounded by this group of great people trying to do something good.

THE KYTHERIAN CONNECTION

How did your parents take your decision to plunge into the uncertain field of medical research?

Town of origin - Potamos

Parachoukli - Belos

My father died when I was in the second year of medical school. As a matter of fact, he didn’t want me to be a doctor; he wanted me to be an engineer. For two reasons: he came to Australia from Kythera in 1920 and served in the Second World War. He was in the Ambulance Corps in Darwin when it was bombed and he saw surgeons operating and didn’t really like it. He thought doctors were fairly uncivilized. Back in Scone where he lived, he was there when they were building the Glenbawn Dam. There were a lot of Greeks that had come to Australia during that era. One of his best friends was the engineer that was responsible for building that dam. My father saw engineering as clean and helpful to the community, building bridges and stuff, and he wanted me to be an engineer. To that extent I disappointed him. On the other hand, in that era most people that did well at school were expected to study medicine. In Scone, the small town where I grew up the person that made the difference between life and death was the local doctor. He was an inspirational character.

What about your mother?

My mother passed away last year, but she lived long enough to see what I have become. I think I had disappointed her as well. Her idea was that when I finished medicine I would open a general practice somewhere locally. All these years that I have been going overseas she had a great difficulty understanding what I was trying to do.

Was it hard to retain your Greekness, growing up in the middle of The Hunter Valley with not many Greeks around?

There is schizophrenia about Australians’ attitude to migrants. On the hand most people were very supportive, my father had many friends and his was in business in Scone for about fifty years. There were a few xenophobes. I had an unusual name by Australian standards then. You can imagine what it was like having a name like that in Australia in the 1950s. Sometimes at school it was tough. I have a younger brother, who was big, and his attitude was that he would hit anyone that insulted him. So he became one of the boys. He was also much better in adjusting than me. My approach was to do it academically. In a way that attitude was because my parents rewarded academic success. My father would say that knowledge is power and I tried to know more than other people.

What about Greek traditions?

As for traditions, we only spoke Greek at home and so when at the age of five I went to infants school I couldn’t speak a word of English. My mother had a sort of reverse racism. She saw Australians as being a little bit uncivilized. She would see people crawling out of pubs drunk at five or six in the evening and think “God, what country did I come to”. In the end she had a lot of Australian friends. She arrived in Australia two years before I was born and she was a little concerned about how things would turn out. We didn’t have Greek school in the country so my formal Greek isn’t great, but for my kids we had a Greek teacher who came to our home. They both know how to read and write in Greek. They have been to Greece a couple of times and are very proud of their heritage. We still have property in Kythera and we have made sure our kids have gone to the island and know what is there. There was a church in Newcastle where we would go. I was christened here in Sydney at Hagia Triada. I am not a very religious person but I very much respect the traditions of our church, and as I have grown older I have come to appreciate them more.

Your name recently featured quite prominently in newspapers in Greece. Were you surprised by the attention you have received from the Greek media?

I was pleasantly surprised. The reason for this publicity is that recently we had a fundraising dinner. George Souris hosted it at the Parliament House and we had over 200 people attending. Leading up the dinner, the organisers thought that it would be good to get some publicity and I also did an extensive interview for ABC earlier this year. All that created a lot of interest. In fact one of the people who is very supportive of what we do is the Greek Consulate General, Mr. Raptakis and he got a lot of calls from Greece. He put them in touch with me and this resulted in several phone interviews. I have had some contact with the University of Athens. I went there a couple of years ago and met my counterpart. I was interested in building relations with Greece but when I came here I got swamped with a lot of other issues, and I haven’t done as much as I would have liked in that respect. I am very, very proud of my heritage, both Greek and Australian. I did a lot of my post graduate studies in Germany and I can remember coming back after being away for three years, thinking “I don’t really feel Australian now, but I don’t feel European either”. You get to the point where you think, “who the hell are you, anyway”. But I have snapped out of it now, I know exactly who I am.

How do you see the Greek community in Australia? Are we on the right path?

In many ways we are in a very privileged position. The Kytherians are a fairly tight knit group, they have their Association, and they have their dinners and everything else. Growing up in the country, one of the problems was that I had very few links with any of the Greek community when we moved to Sydney. In my high school, it was like the United Nations. I had Jewish friends and Italian friends, people from all over the world, all at the one place. Coming from the country to Sydney, it was like visiting Disneyland. I gradually have become more involved in the Greek community. I have been asked to address some functions and I find that the Greek community has in general been very supportive of what I do. John Howard made a comment recently that “Greeks are model citizens”. I have a paper clipping from one of AHEPA’s first meeting, held in Scone in the 1930s stating that what AHEPA was trying to do was to bring the best aspects of Greek culture into Australia. It’s very hard to find a better statement of intent on how to behave when you come to someone else’s country.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Finally Professor, is there a way that people can help this worthwhile cause?

We have two foundations supporting this project. The Genetic Eye Foundation, which looks after people with these blinding conditions. People can donate money to that or they can donate money directly to The Australian Bionic Eye Foundation. Donations to both charities are tax deductible. Obviously, every bit helps but we are not relying on that. We are trying to get this commercialised as soon as possible so we can really move on with it. But if someone is looking for a good cause... Medical charities are numerous and there is a lot of “competition” out there. This one is a little bit different and at the moment we do need some support. At this present time we have four part time people working on this project but we don’t really have a lot of infrastructure to make things move forward.

MAKE A DONATION

The Genetic Eye Foundation,
Ms R. Sturt,
C/- Department of Ophthalmology,
The Prince of Wales Hospital,
High Street,
Randwick, NSW, 2031.
Telephone:
Ms R. Sturt (02) 9382 2493

Email, The Genetic Eye Foundation

Australian Bionic Eye Foundation,
Ms R. Serna,
C/- Department of Ophthalmology,
The Prince of Wales Hospital,
High Street,
Randwick, NSW, 2031.
Telephone:
Ms R. Serna (02) 9382 2307

Email, Australian Bionic Eye Foundation
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Professor Minas Coroneo.

Professor Minas Coroneo talks about the bionic eye, the latest breakthrough in the field of ophthalmology, the pros and cons of medical research in Australia, and growing up Greek in a Kytherian household in the Hunter Valley region in the early sixties.

Words and Portrait, Savvas Limnatitis

"Let’s get one thing straight: what we are offering is not a miracle cure for blindness, but a great step forward”. The softly spoken, bespectacled, fifty-something man, sitting opposite me in what used to be the late, great, Fred Hollows office at Randwick’s Prince of Wales Hospital is talking about the latest developments in the field of ophthalmology and is picking his words very carefully.

And for good reason. After all, modern medicine and its offering of solutions -often of the quick-fix type - to an unprecedented number of diseases to anything remotely fitting the description between cancer and obesity, drug dependency and the centuries old problem of ageing, has made it increasingly easy to be designated a quack, instantly converting years of dedication and research into laughable and best-to-be-avoided obsessions of absent minded professors in long white coats.

Thank God then that modesty has never been a prominent feature in scientific research. For judging by the inches of columns in journals both medical and mainstream (even the media from Greece got in on the act) dedicated to the findings of Professor Minas Coroneo and his dedicated team of researchers there are not exactly small, steps forward but giant leaps, that can revolutionise the way blindness is treated. Professor Coroneo and his team have been working on the project for over five years now. While their first efforts on designing a device that would help patients with genetic eye diseases that have lost their sight received the thumbs up from the rest of the medical world, it was the team’s recent human trials that have made the rest of the world sit up and take notice.

Hailed as a medical breakthrough, the bionic eye does not offer full sight - at least not for the time being. It will eventually however provide blind people with enough “functional vision” to negotiate their way across a room without bumping into objects.

During one of his numerous visits to Kythera, Dr Coroneo was struck by the lack of properr opthalmological facilities on the island. Realising that the only options available to the ageing population of his parent’s birthplace was a visit to Athens with all the problems and hardships such a scenario involves, Dr Coroneo quickly set out to rectify the problem. Calling on the help of his associates both in Greece and Australia as well as the rest of the world, Dr Coroneo’s original idea was soon transformed into the establishment of an eye clinic. Situated at Potamos’ hospital the new eye clinic serving the Kytherian community is equipped with all the necessary equippement and apart from the services of a regular ophthalmologist it also offers those of an optometrist. Not surprisingly, your reporter has gained this information not from Dr Coroneo himself, who carfefully avoided mentioning this little known fact about his life outside of his office, but through a mutual friend who, in his turn, could not speak highly enough of this introvert scientist. How much does this say about his character? You be the judge of that.

THE BIONIC EYE

What exactly is the bionic eye and how did you come to be involved?

About ten years ago my colleague, Dr. Halliday, who has spend his life looking after people that were blinded by hereditary conditions that result in disease of the retina, decided to retire. The general group of these conditions is called retinal dystrophy, and retinitis pigmentosa is the most common of them. It affects one in five thousand people and it’s the commonest cause of blindness in young people. He was interested in the genetics of this and had built a big database. When he retired, the hospital didn’t replace him and on top of my all my other work, I ended up having to do his clinics. So I am sitting here in Randwick having to look after all these youngish people that are blind. I do not like this type of practice because in modern ophthalmology we help people. You come in; have an operation, go home and the next day you can see. So that was outside the normal activities I had been used to. Around 2000 there was a programme on TV about an engineer in New York called William Dobelle who had spent his life trying to develop bionic eyes. He had implanted electrodes into the visual part of the brain of a blind person. When he had started the computers that were required to run this filled a rather large room. By 2000 the computer was a laptop and the person was shown walking around with this device. I thought this was fantastic, but the technology was really crude. People can loose their sight at any time and depending on how it is lost, will determine what sort of “bionic eye” that needs to be developed. Dobelle had a system where he placed electrodes in the brain and his early patients had them running out of their skulls, which is very dangerous because you could get infections. It struck me then that the leading company for stimulating any sensory system is Cochlear, an Australian company based in Sydney. They have the best technology in bionic ears. We rang up Cochlear and told them we had all these blind patients and asked if we could work with them to develop a bionic eye. They have been very helpful in giving us access to their technology.

How long did the original process take?

We spent about five years working with animals. We took off-the-shelf components and that was a big advantage for us because we are competing with overseas groups that are better funded than us, and employ similar technology. But we didn’t have to reinvent the wheel. We had a leading company with the right technology, which we borrowed. The reason for the recent publicity is that earlier this year we started doing some work with patients. This is the first study in humans that we are aware of in Australia.

How long before the bionic eye becomes available to the public?

I am hoping that there will be something available in the next five years. It might not be us. Now that might sound like a long time but given that we have been working on this for only five years, we feel like we are half way through this cycle. Just to make it very plain - and we have been very careful with any publicity because we don’t want people to think that we are about to have a product- what we have achieved is an important step forward. We took a slightly different approach to the one of some of our colleagues in the US. Normally, most of the groups that are working on the retina have put electrodes on it. The retina is like a film in a camera. It has a layer of cells that detect light and turn light into electrical signals. Those signals go to nerves that join up and form the optic nerve. Because the retina is very delicate and also because you have to open the eye, that approach involves some risk. Just imagine what might happen to someone with pieces of metal attached to their retina if they jump on a trampoline. The approach we took was to put electrodes on the outer wall of the eye and increase the current, so it still stimulates the retina. Because of this, we do not have to open the eye. We think that might be a more stable and safer system long term. So earlier this year, we put some electrodes on the outer wall of the eye of a patient, we stimulated those electrodes and the patient was able to see flashes of light.

Is the bionic eye the ultimate solution for people without eyesight?

The type of vision we think will happen initially won’t be anything like yours or my eyesight. It’s not going to be normal vision. The current Cochlear devices have about 30 electrodes. Imagine having 30 electrodes on the outer wall of the eye, which in theory means that if you turn them on at the same time, you will get 30 flashes of light. The idea is that you will have a series of flashes outlining objects. What we are trying to do here is to give people navigating vision.

How did the rest of the medical world respond to your findings?

We have published quite a lot of papers that have been well accepted. We were at a meeting in Detroit early this year when we presented this work and so far the response has been very positive. There is nothing really controversial about what we are doing. It’s just a slightly different approach. One of our big strengths is the link with Cochlear. They know how to built devices and get them to market. We think that puts us in a good position to actually develop something.

MONEY MAKES THE WORLD GO AROUND

You have applied to the US Patent Office for a patent. How important is it to get the rights to the patent? Is it to ensure that no one benefits financially from it? I get the feeling that money is not on the top of your list of priorities?

I am not driven by money. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been here. We have a company that was formed to get this product to the market. When you go down this path, there are certain commercial realities. One of these realities is to protect the intellectual property that has been generated by what we do. Because overseas there are a lot of people with more money than us, if we pass on ideas we can be left behind. What we are doing here is simply being careful. Once you get the patent, you can go to companies and say: “we have my commercial property, what is it worth and can we work with you to get it developed”. It puts us in a better position when we try to develop it.

Has the American dollar tried to lure you away from Australia?

Ha-ha. I have been tempted to apply for positions in the United States. It’s not that I find money attractive. But it’s a fact that a lot of people have been driven away from Australia because of the lack of investment. It’s not so much the money but more that our public institutions, our hospitals and our universities are not traveling well at the moment. Across the country, the public hospital system that’s supposed to be looking after Australians often has its problems. Academic work in hospitals under these conditions is very tough, at least for some of us. In Australia public funds go to patient care first, but research is also a priority. However, I know that some colleagues who work in similar institutions in the USA are much better supported than we are. On the other hand, the lack of resources makes you cunning. You have to make do and one of the great things about Australian investors and scientists is that to survive in a very competitive market, they have to be smarter and be able to out perform the competition. I have a great team of people that I work with and I am not sure I would be able to find them elsewhere. At the moment, I am happy trying to do what I am doing from here.

What about the Australian government? What has been its response?

We have had some funds from the Australian government. We have had an National Health and Medical Research Council grant a couple of years ago, that paid for a research assistant for a couple of years. It helped to get the basic work completed. Putting in grant applications is a lot of work and the amount of money that you get makes you ask if that is a good way to spend your time. We have tried very hard to get more. The German government is funding one of its projects to the tune of 50 million dollars a year. We currently have no government funding for this project. Many people that are in this situation apply every couple of years for small amounts that keep them going. It means that you spend a lot of energy staying afloat. It’s like treading water rather than swimming forward. Because of the recent testing, we are in a better position to go back to the government and say, “this is important in terms of having been developed in Australia, we would appreciate some support”. If you imagine being the Minister of Health, every time he turns around there is someone that has developed a cure for cancer or some other thing, he can’t possibly fund every project. I happen to think this is a very important one because one of the key determinants of quality in life is the ability to see. Particularly young people that have been affected by these diseases, they may have many many years of blindness and we are hoping to develop something that will enable them to walk around. We jokingly say that what we are trying to do is turn guide dogs into pets. Giving people that level of independence is a big deal.

THE ROOT OF ALL... GOODNESS

What drives you and your team to fight bureaucracy? Wouldn’t it have been easier to give up?

It’s always easy to give up. I’ve been doing this for a while now and one of the things about being an academic is that most Australian ophthalmologists are very well trained and provide a very high level of service, and they are sitting in dark rooms across Australia diagnosing diseases, they are operating in theatres making people see better. The thing that partly drives me is that we sit there and we look at people with problems we can’t fix. Because I had intense training in science, as well as studying medicine, I tried to reconcile the interface between basic science and clinical medicine. On one hand I look after my patients, which I enjoy doing, but at the same time I am thinking about how I can treat this condition that otherwise can’t be treated. So I see myself partly as an inventor. If you have one or few inventions you treat people across the planet. That’s not an ego trip. It’s part of what is intellectually stimulating about this work. Clinical medicine can almost be like process work. You have to be very good at doing the same thing over and over again. Beyond that is this almost arrogant ambition to do something more than that.

A lot of people have taken the Hippocratic Oath, but not everyone follows it to the last detail. What makes you different?

It’s partly what you are suited to and partly what opportunities are there. I was extremely fortunate that extraordinary people trained me. I trained at the University of Sydney with John Young, the Head of Physiology. He was a very clever and very driven scientist. I had that background, and then I went to Germany where I trained with a guy who was a scientist as well as an ophthalmologist. When I returned to Australia I had Fred Hollows as a teacher for four years - as a matter of fact this used to be his office. I have had the appropriate training to do what I do. I remember I went to a lecture during my first week at the University of Sydney - this was in 1972- and I was inspired to go and work with John Young who was the speaker that day. You can be the benificiary of serindipitous circumstances. You find yourself in different situations in life where you have the opportunity to do things. On the other hand, my parents didn’t have a very good formal education, so when they came to Australia they were very determined that their children would be educated. I had the best education they could afford to give me at the time, and I have gone through life trying to achieve things.

While I admire your modesty, I can’t help but notice you have served in outback Bourke. What influenced the decision to go all the way there? Were you trying to pinpoint the exact location of “woop woop” on the map?

That was purely Fred Hollows. I arrived at this hospital in 1982. Prior to that in the 70's, Hollows had been all over outback Australia looking after indigenous and white people and anyone with eye disease. By the time I arrived that program had ended and the last outpost for NSW was Bourke. In my training - and I am pleased to see in the training of the people that are currently involved in this project - we provide a service to Bourke Hospital. It’s funny because I talk to people about Bourke and my instructions on how to get there is to find the last traffic lights in Sydney and then drive northwest for ten hours. You can’t miss it.

Other people would have taken the easy option and settled in a nice office in Sydney and try to make as much money as possible.

It’s possible that I have a very short attention span. Like a lot of people I need stimulation. Fred Hollows once said to me: “If you go into a practice and that is all you do, you will be brain dead by fifty”. I am pleased to report that I am 52 and I am not brain dead. It’s a great privilege to be able to sit here and do as much as I can. It hasn’t been easy; we have had a lot of difficult times in the last ten years. Sitting in this hospital-university situation when both institutions are not well supported in my view - and that’s a political statement, but I think a lot of other people share the same view- can be tough. Maybe the easiest thing to have done is to get up and go overseas. It’s just that I am rather happy to be surrounded by this group of great people trying to do something good.

THE KYTHERIAN CONNECTION

How did your parents take your decision to plunge into the uncertain field of medical research?

Town of origin - Potamos

Parachoukli - Belos

My father died when I was in the second year of medical school. As a matter of fact, he didn’t want me to be a doctor; he wanted me to be an engineer. For two reasons: he came to Australia from Kythera in 1920 and served in the Second World War. He was in the Ambulance Corps in Darwin when it was bombed and he saw surgeons operating and didn’t really like it. He thought doctors were fairly uncivilized. Back in Scone where he lived, he was there when they were building the Glenbawn Dam. There were a lot of Greeks that had come to Australia during that era. One of his best friends was the engineer that was responsible for building that dam. My father saw engineering as clean and helpful to the community, building bridges and stuff, and he wanted me to be an engineer. To that extent I disappointed him. On the other hand, in that era most people that did well at school were expected to study medicine. In Scone, the small town where I grew up the person that made the difference between life and death was the local doctor. He was an inspirational character.

What about your mother?

My mother passed away last year, but she lived long enough to see what I have become. I think I had disappointed her as well. Her idea was that when I finished medicine I would open a general practice somewhere locally. All these years that I have been going overseas she had a great difficulty understanding what I was trying to do.

Was it hard to retain your Greekness, growing up in the middle of The Hunter Valley with not many Greeks around?

There is schizophrenia about Australians’ attitude to migrants. On the hand most people were very supportive, my father had many friends and his was in business in Scone for about fifty years. There were a few xenophobes. I had an unusual name by Australian standards then. You can imagine what it was like having a name like that in Australia in the 1950s. Sometimes at school it was tough. I have a younger brother, who was big, and his attitude was that he would hit anyone that insulted him. So he became one of the boys. He was also much better in adjusting than me. My approach was to do it academically. In a way that attitude was because my parents rewarded academic success. My father would say that knowledge is power and I tried to know more than other people.

What about Greek traditions?

As for traditions, we only spoke Greek at home and so when at the age of five I went to infants school I couldn’t speak a word of English. My mother had a sort of reverse racism. She saw Australians as being a little bit uncivilized. She would see people crawling out of pubs drunk at five or six in the evening and think “God, what country did I come to”. In the end she had a lot of Australian friends. She arrived in Australia two years before I was born and she was a little concerned about how things would turn out. We didn’t have Greek school in the country so my formal Greek isn’t great, but for my kids we had a Greek teacher who came to our home. They both know how to read and write in Greek. They have been to Greece a couple of times and are very proud of their heritage. We still have property in Kythera and we have made sure our kids have gone to the island and know what is there. There was a church in Newcastle where we would go. I was christened here in Sydney at Hagia Triada. I am not a very religious person but I very much respect the traditions of our church, and as I have grown older I have come to appreciate them more.

Your name recently featured quite prominently in newspapers in Greece. Were you surprised by the attention you have received from the Greek media?

I was pleasantly surprised. The reason for this publicity is that recently we had a fundraising dinner. George Souris hosted it at the Parliament House and we had over 200 people attending. Leading up the dinner, the organisers thought that it would be good to get some publicity and I also did an extensive interview for ABC earlier this year. All that created a lot of interest. In fact one of the people who is very supportive of what we do is the Greek Consulate General, Mr. Raptakis and he got a lot of calls from Greece. He put them in touch with me and this resulted in several phone interviews. I have had some contact with the University of Athens. I went there a couple of years ago and met my counterpart. I was interested in building relations with Greece but when I came here I got swamped with a lot of other issues, and I haven’t done as much as I would have liked in that respect. I am very, very proud of my heritage, both Greek and Australian. I did a lot of my post graduate studies in Germany and I can remember coming back after being away for three years, thinking “I don’t really feel Australian now, but I don’t feel European either”. You get to the point where you think, “who the hell are you, anyway”. But I have snapped out of it now, I know exactly who I am.

How do you see the Greek community in Australia? Are we on the right path?

In many ways we are in a very privileged position. The Kytherians are a fairly tight knit group, they have their Association, and they have their dinners and everything else. Growing up in the country, one of the problems was that I had very few links with any of the Greek community when we moved to Sydney. In my high school, it was like the United Nations. I had Jewish friends and Italian friends, people from all over the world, all at the one place. Coming from the country to Sydney, it was like visiting Disneyland. I gradually have become more involved in the Greek community. I have been asked to address some functions and I find that the Greek community has in general been very supportive of what I do. John Howard made a comment recently that “Greeks are model citizens”. I have a paper clipping from one of AHEPA’s first meeting, held in Scone in the 1930s stating that what AHEPA was trying to do was to bring the best aspects of Greek culture into Australia. It’s very hard to find a better statement of intent on how to behave when you come to someone else’s country.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Finally Professor, is there a way that people can help this worthwhile cause?

We have two foundations supporting this project. The Genetic Eye Foundation, which looks after people with these blinding conditions. People can donate money to that or they can donate money directly to The Australian Bionic Eye Foundation. Donations to both charities are tax deductible. Obviously, every bit helps but we are not relying on that. We are trying to get this commercialised as soon as possible so we can really move on with it. But if someone is looking for a good cause... Medical charities are numerous and there is a lot of “competition” out there. This one is a little bit different and at the moment we do need some support. At this present time we have four part time people working on this project but we don’t really have a lot of infrastructure to make things move forward.

MAKE A DONATION

The Genetic Eye Foundation,
Ms R. Sturt,
C/- Department of Ophthalmology,
The Prince of Wales Hospital,
High Street,
Randwick, NSW, 2031.
Telephone:
Ms R. Sturt (02) 9382 2493

Email, The Genetic Eye Foundation

Australian Bionic Eye Foundation,
Ms R. Serna,
C/- Department of Ophthalmology,
The Prince of Wales Hospital,
High Street,
Randwick, NSW, 2031.
Telephone:
Ms R. Serna (02) 9382 2307

Email, Australian Bionic Eye Foundation
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Professor Minas Coroneo. Outside his office at Randwick's Prince of Wales Hospital.

Professor Minas Coroneo talks about the bionic eye, the latest breakthrough in the field of ophthalmology, the pros and cons of medical research in Australia, and growing up Greek in a Kytherian household in the Hunter Valley region in the early sixties.

Words and Portrait, Savvas Limnatitis

"Let’s get one thing straight: what we are offering is not a miracle cure for blindness, but a great step forward”. The softly spoken, bespectacled, fifty-something man, sitting opposite me in what used to be the late, great, Fred Hollows office at Randwick’s Prince of Wales Hospital is talking about the latest developments in the field of ophthalmology and is picking his words very carefully.

And for good reason. After all, modern medicine and its offering of solutions -often of the quick-fix type - to an unprecedented number of diseases to anything remotely fitting the description between cancer and obesity, drug dependency and the centuries old problem of ageing, has made it increasingly easy to be designated a quack, instantly converting years of dedication and research into laughable and best-to-be-avoided obsessions of absent minded professors in long white coats.

Thank God then that modesty has never been a prominent feature in scientific research. For judging by the inches of columns in journals both medical and mainstream (even the media from Greece got in on the act) dedicated to the findings of Professor Minas Coroneo and his dedicated team of researchers there are not exactly small, steps forward but giant leaps, that can revolutionise the way blindness is treated. Professor Coroneo and his team have been working on the project for over five years now. While their first efforts on designing a device that would help patients with genetic eye diseases that have lost their sight received the thumbs up from the rest of the medical world, it was the team’s recent human trials that have made the rest of the world sit up and take notice.

Hailed as a medical breakthrough, the bionic eye does not offer full sight - at least not for the time being. It will eventually however provide blind people with enough “functional vision” to negotiate their way across a room without bumping into objects.

During one of his numerous visits to Kythera, Dr Coroneo was struck by the lack of properr opthalmological facilities on the island. Realising that the only options available to the ageing population of his parent’s birthplace was a visit to Athens with all the problems and hardships such a scenario involves, Dr Coroneo quickly set out to rectify the problem. Calling on the help of his associates both in Greece and Australia as well as the rest of the world, Dr Coroneo’s original idea was soon transformed into the establishment of an eye clinic. Situated at Potamos’ hospital the new eye clinic serving the Kytherian community is equipped with all the necessary equippement and apart from the services of a regular ophthalmologist it also offers those of an optometrist. Not surprisingly, your reporter has gained this information not from Dr Coroneo himself, who carfefully avoided mentioning this little known fact about his life outside of his office, but through a mutual friend who, in his turn, could not speak highly enough of this introvert scientist. How much does this say about his character? You be the judge of that.

THE BIONIC EYE

What exactly is the bionic eye and how did you come to be involved?

About ten years ago my colleague, Dr. Halliday, who has spend his life looking after people that were blinded by hereditary conditions that result in disease of the retina, decided to retire. The general group of these conditions is called retinal dystrophy, and retinitis pigmentosa is the most common of them. It affects one in five thousand people and it’s the commonest cause of blindness in young people. He was interested in the genetics of this and had built a big database. When he retired, the hospital didn’t replace him and on top of my all my other work, I ended up having to do his clinics. So I am sitting here in Randwick having to look after all these youngish people that are blind. I do not like this type of practice because in modern ophthalmology we help people. You come in; have an operation, go home and the next day you can see. So that was outside the normal activities I had been used to. Around 2000 there was a programme on TV about an engineer in New York called William Dobelle who had spent his life trying to develop bionic eyes. He had implanted electrodes into the visual part of the brain of a blind person. When he had started the computers that were required to run this filled a rather large room. By 2000 the computer was a laptop and the person was shown walking around with this device. I thought this was fantastic, but the technology was really crude. People can loose their sight at any time and depending on how it is lost, will determine what sort of “bionic eye” that needs to be developed. Dobelle had a system where he placed electrodes in the brain and his early patients had them running out of their skulls, which is very dangerous because you could get infections. It struck me then that the leading company for stimulating any sensory system is Cochlear, an Australian company based in Sydney. They have the best technology in bionic ears. We rang up Cochlear and told them we had all these blind patients and asked if we could work with them to develop a bionic eye. They have been very helpful in giving us access to their technology.

[[picture:"Bionic Eye Team.JPG" ID:11793]]

Left to Right:
Dr Vivek Chowdhury,
Professor Minas Coroneo,
Professor John Morley.

How long did the original process take?

We spent about five years working with animals. We took off-the-shelf components and that was a big advantage for us because we are competing with overseas groups that are better funded than us, and employ similar technology. But we didn’t have to reinvent the wheel. We had a leading company with the right technology, which we borrowed. The reason for the recent publicity is that earlier this year we started doing some work with patients. This is the first study in humans that we are aware of in Australia.

How long before the bionic eye becomes available to the public?

I am hoping that there will be something available in the next five years. It might not be us. Now that might sound like a long time but given that we have been working on this for only five years, we feel like we are half way through this cycle. Just to make it very plain - and we have been very careful with any publicity because we don’t want people to think that we are about to have a product- what we have achieved is an important step forward. We took a slightly different approach to the one of some of our colleagues in the US. Normally, most of the groups that are working on the retina have put electrodes on it. The retina is like a film in a camera. It has a layer of cells that detect light and turn light into electrical signals. Those signals go to nerves that join up and form the optic nerve. Because the retina is very delicate and also because you have to open the eye, that approach involves some risk. Just imagine what might happen to someone with pieces of metal attached to their retina if they jump on a trampoline. The approach we took was to put electrodes on the outer wall of the eye and increase the current, so it still stimulates the retina. Because of this, we do not have to open the eye. We think that might be a more stable and safer system long term. So earlier this year, we put some electrodes on the outer wall of the eye of a patient, we stimulated those electrodes and the patient was able to see flashes of light.

Is the bionic eye the ultimate solution for people without eyesight?

The type of vision we think will happen initially won’t be anything like yours or my eyesight. It’s not going to be normal vision. The current Cochlear devices have about 30 electrodes. Imagine having 30 electrodes on the outer wall of the eye, which in theory means that if you turn them on at the same time, you will get 30 flashes of light. The idea is that you will have a series of flashes outlining objects. What we are trying to do here is to give people navigating vision.

How did the rest of the medical world respond to your findings?

We have published quite a lot of papers that have been well accepted. We were at a meeting in Detroit early this year when we presented this work and so far the response has been very positive. There is nothing really controversial about what we are doing. It’s just a slightly different approach. One of our big strengths is the link with Cochlear. They know how to built devices and get them to market. We think that puts us in a good position to actually develop something.

MONEY MAKES THE WORLD GO AROUND

You have applied to the US Patent Office for a patent. How important is it to get the rights to the patent? Is it to ensure that no one benefits financially from it? I get the feeling that money is not on the top of your list of priorities?

I am not driven by money. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been here. We have a company that was formed to get this product to the market. When you go down this path, there are certain commercial realities. One of these realities is to protect the intellectual property that has been generated by what we do. Because overseas there are a lot of people with more money than us, if we pass on ideas we can be left behind. What we are doing here is simply being careful. Once you get the patent, you can go to companies and say: “we have my commercial property, what is it worth and can we work with you to get it developed”. It puts us in a better position when we try to develop it.

Has the American dollar tried to lure you away from Australia?

Ha-ha. I have been tempted to apply for positions in the United States. It’s not that I find money attractive. But it’s a fact that a lot of people have been driven away from Australia because of the lack of investment. It’s not so much the money but more that our public institutions, our hospitals and our universities are not traveling well at the moment. Across the country, the public hospital system that’s supposed to be looking after Australians often has its problems. Academic work in hospitals under these conditions is very tough, at least for some of us. In Australia public funds go to patient care first, but research is also a priority. However, I know that some colleagues who work in similar institutions in the USA are much better supported than we are. On the other hand, the lack of resources makes you cunning. You have to make do and one of the great things about Australian investors and scientists is that to survive in a very competitive market, they have to be smarter and be able to out perform the competition. I have a great team of people that I work with and I am not sure I would be able to find them elsewhere. At the moment, I am happy trying to do what I am doing from here.

What about the Australian government? What has been its response?

We have had some funds from the Australian government. We have had an National Health and Medical Research Council grant a couple of years ago, that paid for a research assistant for a couple of years. It helped to get the basic work completed. Putting in grant applications is a lot of work and the amount of money that you get makes you ask if that is a good way to spend your time. We have tried very hard to get more. The German government is funding one of its projects to the tune of 50 million dollars a year. We currently have no government funding for this project. Many people that are in this situation apply every couple of years for small amounts that keep them going. It means that you spend a lot of energy staying afloat. It’s like treading water rather than swimming forward. Because of the recent testing, we are in a better position to go back to the government and say, “this is important in terms of having been developed in Australia, we would appreciate some support”. If you imagine being the Minister of Health, every time he turns around there is someone that has developed a cure for cancer or some other thing, he can’t possibly fund every project. I happen to think this is a very important one because one of the key determinants of quality in life is the ability to see. Particularly young people that have been affected by these diseases, they may have many many years of blindness and we are hoping to develop something that will enable them to walk around. We jokingly say that what we are trying to do is turn guide dogs into pets. Giving people that level of independence is a big deal.

THE ROOT OF ALL... GOODNESS

What drives you and your team to fight bureaucracy? Wouldn’t it have been easier to give up?

It’s always easy to give up. I’ve been doing this for a while now and one of the things about being an academic is that most Australian ophthalmologists are very well trained and provide a very high level of service, and they are sitting in dark rooms across Australia diagnosing diseases, they are operating in theatres making people see better. The thing that partly drives me is that we sit there and we look at people with problems we can’t fix. Because I had intense training in science, as well as studying medicine, I tried to reconcile the interface between basic science and clinical medicine. On one hand I look after my patients, which I enjoy doing, but at the same time I am thinking about how I can treat this condition that otherwise can’t be treated. So I see myself partly as an inventor. If you have one or few inventions you treat people across the planet. That’s not an ego trip. It’s part of what is intellectually stimulating about this work. Clinical medicine can almost be like process work. You have to be very good at doing the same thing over and over again. Beyond that is this almost arrogant ambition to do something more than that.

A lot of people have taken the Hippocratic Oath, but not everyone follows it to the last detail. What makes you different?

It’s partly what you are suited to and partly what opportunities are there. I was extremely fortunate that extraordinary people trained me. I trained at the University of Sydney with John Young, the Head of Physiology. He was a very clever and very driven scientist. I had that background, and then I went to Germany where I trained with a guy who was a scientist as well as an ophthalmologist. When I returned to Australia I had Fred Hollows as a teacher for four years - as a matter of fact this used to be his office. I have had the appropriate training to do what I do. I remember I went to a lecture during my first week at the University of Sydney - this was in 1972- and I was inspired to go and work with John Young who was the speaker that day. You can be the benificiary of serindipitous circumstances. You find yourself in different situations in life where you have the opportunity to do things. On the other hand, my parents didn’t have a very good formal education, so when they came to Australia they were very determined that their children would be educated. I had the best education they could afford to give me at the time, and I have gone through life trying to achieve things.

While I admire your modesty, I can’t help but notice you have served in outback Bourke. What influenced the decision to go all the way there? Were you trying to pinpoint the exact location of “woop woop” on the map?

That was purely Fred Hollows. I arrived at this hospital in 1982. Prior to that in the 70's, Hollows had been all over outback Australia looking after indigenous and white people and anyone with eye disease. By the time I arrived that program had ended and the last outpost for NSW was Bourke. In my training - and I am pleased to see in the training of the people that are currently involved in this project - we provide a service to Bourke Hospital. It’s funny because I talk to people about Bourke and my instructions on how to get there is to find the last traffic lights in Sydney and then drive northwest for ten hours. You can’t miss it.

Other people would have taken the easy option and settled in a nice office in Sydney and try to make as much money as possible.

It’s possible that I have a very short attention span. Like a lot of people I need stimulation. Fred Hollows once said to me: “If you go into a practice and that is all you do, you will be brain dead by fifty”. I am pleased to report that I am 52 and I am not brain dead. It’s a great privilege to be able to sit here and do as much as I can. It hasn’t been easy; we have had a lot of difficult times in the last ten years. Sitting in this hospital-university situation when both institutions are not well supported in my view - and that’s a political statement, but I think a lot of other people share the same view- can be tough. Maybe the easiest thing to have done is to get up and go overseas. It’s just that I am rather happy to be surrounded by this group of great people trying to do something good.

THE KYTHERIAN CONNECTION

How did your parents take your decision to plunge into the uncertain field of medical research?

Town of origin - Potamos

Parachoukli - Belos

My father died when I was in the second year of medical school. As a matter of fact, he didn’t want me to be a doctor; he wanted me to be an engineer. For two reasons: he came to Australia from Kythera in 1920 and served in the Second World War. He was in the Ambulance Corps in Darwin when it was bombed and he saw surgeons operating and didn’t really like it. He thought doctors were fairly uncivilized. Back in Scone where he lived, he was there when they were building the Glenbawn Dam. There were a lot of Greeks that had come to Australia during that era. One of his best friends was the engineer that was responsible for building that dam. My father saw engineering as clean and helpful to the community, building bridges and stuff, and he wanted me to be an engineer. To that extent I disappointed him. On the other hand, in that era most people that did well at school were expected to study medicine. In Scone, the small town where I grew up the person that made the difference between life and death was the local doctor. He was an inspirational character.

What about your mother?

My mother passed away last year, but she lived long enough to see what I have become. I think I had disappointed her as well. Her idea was that when I finished medicine I would open a general practice somewhere locally. All these years that I have been going overseas she had a great difficulty understanding what I was trying to do.

Was it hard to retain your Greekness, growing up in the middle of The Hunter Valley with not many Greeks around?

There is schizophrenia about Australians’ attitude to migrants. On the hand most people were very supportive, my father had many friends and his was in business in Scone for about fifty years. There were a few xenophobes. I had an unusual name by Australian standards then. You can imagine what it was like having a name like that in Australia in the 1950s. Sometimes at school it was tough. I have a younger brother, who was big, and his attitude was that he would hit anyone that insulted him. So he became one of the boys. He was also much better in adjusting than me. My approach was to do it academically. In a way that attitude was because my parents rewarded academic success. My father would say that knowledge is power and I tried to know more than other people.

What about Greek traditions?

As for traditions, we only spoke Greek at home and so when at the age of five I went to infants school I couldn’t speak a word of English. My mother had a sort of reverse racism. She saw Australians as being a little bit uncivilized. She would see people crawling out of pubs drunk at five or six in the evening and think “God, what country did I come to”. In the end she had a lot of Australian friends. She arrived in Australia two years before I was born and she was a little concerned about how things would turn out. We didn’t have Greek school in the country so my formal Greek isn’t great, but for my kids we had a Greek teacher who came to our home. They both know how to read and write in Greek. They have been to Greece a couple of times and are very proud of their heritage. We still have property in Kythera and we have made sure our kids have gone to the island and know what is there. There was a church in Newcastle where we would go. I was christened here in Sydney at Hagia Triada. I am not a very religious person but I very much respect the traditions of our church, and as I have grown older I have come to appreciate them more.

Your name recently featured quite prominently in newspapers in Greece. Were you surprised by the attention you have received from the Greek media?

I was pleasantly surprised. The reason for this publicity is that recently we had a fundraising dinner. George Souris hosted it at the Parliament House and we had over 200 people attending. Leading up the dinner, the organisers thought that it would be good to get some publicity and I also did an extensive interview for ABC earlier this year. All that created a lot of interest. In fact one of the people who is very supportive of what we do is the Greek Consulate General, Mr. Raptakis and he got a lot of calls from Greece. He put them in touch with me and this resulted in several phone interviews. I have had some contact with the University of Athens. I went there a couple of years ago and met my counterpart. I was interested in building relations with Greece but when I came here I got swamped with a lot of other issues, and I haven’t done as much as I would have liked in that respect. I am very, very proud of my heritage, both Greek and Australian. I did a lot of my post graduate studies in Germany and I can remember coming back after being away for three years, thinking “I don’t really feel Australian now, but I don’t feel European either”. You get to the point where you think, “who the hell are you, anyway”. But I have snapped out of it now, I know exactly who I am.

How do you see the Greek community in Australia? Are we on the right path?

In many ways we are in a very privileged position. The Kytherians are a fairly tight knit group, they have their Association, and they have their dinners and everything else. Growing up in the country, one of the problems was that I had very few links with any of the Greek community when we moved to Sydney. In my high school, it was like the United Nations. I had Jewish friends and Italian friends, people from all over the world, all at the one place. Coming from the country to Sydney, it was like visiting Disneyland. I gradually have become more involved in the Greek community. I have been asked to address some functions and I find that the Greek community has in general been very supportive of what I do. John Howard made a comment recently that “Greeks are model citizens”. I have a paper clipping from one of AHEPA’s first meeting, held in Scone in the 1930s stating that what AHEPA was trying to do was to bring the best aspects of Greek culture into Australia. It’s very hard to find a better statement of intent on how to behave when you come to someone else’s country.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Finally Professor, is there a way that people can help this worthwhile cause?

We have two foundations supporting this project. The Genetic Eye Foundation, which looks after people with these blinding conditions. People can donate money to that or they can donate money directly to The Australian Bionic Eye Foundation. Donations to both charities are tax deductible. Obviously, every bit helps but we are not relying on that. We are trying to get this commercialised as soon as possible so we can really move on with it. But if someone is looking for a good cause... Medical charities are numerous and there is a lot of “competition” out there. This one is a little bit different and at the moment we do need some support. At this present time we have four part time people working on this project but we don’t really have a lot of infrastructure to make things move forward.

MAKE A DONATION

The Genetic Eye Foundation,
Ms R. Sturt,
C/- Department of Ophthalmology,
The Prince of Wales Hospital,
High Street,
Randwick, NSW, 2031.
Telephone:
Ms R. Sturt (02) 9382 2493

Email, The Genetic Eye Foundation

Australian Bionic Eye Foundation,
Ms R. Serna,
C/- Department of Ophthalmology,
The Prince of Wales Hospital,
High Street,
Randwick, NSW, 2031.
Telephone:
Ms R. Serna (02) 9382 2307

Email, Australian Bionic Eye Foundation
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The Bionic Eye Team.

Left to Right:
Dr Vivek Chowdhury,
Professor Minas Coroneo,
Professor John Morley.

Professor Minas Coroneo talks about the bionic eye, the latest breakthrough in the field of ophthalmology, the pros and cons of medical research in Australia, and growing up Greek in a Kytherian household in the Hunter Valley region in the early sixties.

Words and Portrait, Savvas Limnatitis

"Let’s get one thing straight: what we are offering is not a miracle cure for blindness, but a great step forward”. The softly spoken, bespectacled, fifty-something man, sitting opposite me in what used to be the late, great, Fred Hollows office at Randwick’s Prince of Wales Hospital is talking about the latest developments in the field of ophthalmology and is picking his words very carefully.

And for good reason. After all, modern medicine and its offering of solutions -often of the quick-fix type - to an unprecedented number of diseases to anything remotely fitting the description between cancer and obesity, drug dependency and the centuries old problem of ageing, has made it increasingly easy to be designated a quack, instantly converting years of dedication and research into laughable and best-to-be-avoided obsessions of absent minded professors in long white coats.

Thank God then that modesty has never been a prominent feature in scientific research. For judging by the inches of columns in journals both medical and mainstream (even the media from Greece got in on the act) dedicated to the findings of Professor Minas Coroneo and his dedicated team of researchers there are not exactly small, steps forward but giant leaps, that can revolutionise the way blindness is treated. Professor Coroneo and his team have been working on the project for over five years now. While their first efforts on designing a device that would help patients with genetic eye diseases that have lost their sight received the thumbs up from the rest of the medical world, it was the team’s recent human trials that have made the rest of the world sit up and take notice.

Hailed as a medical breakthrough, the bionic eye does not offer full sight - at least not for the time being. It will eventually however provide blind people with enough “functional vision” to negotiate their way across a room without bumping into objects.

During one of his numerous visits to Kythera, Dr Coroneo was struck by the lack of properr opthalmological facilities on the island. Realising that the only options available to the ageing population of his parent’s birthplace was a visit to Athens with all the problems and hardships such a scenario involves, Dr Coroneo quickly set out to rectify the problem. Calling on the help of his associates both in Greece and Australia as well as the rest of the world, Dr Coroneo’s original idea was soon transformed into the establishment of an eye clinic. Situated at Potamos’ hospital the new eye clinic serving the Kytherian community is equipped with all the necessary equippement and apart from the services of a regular ophthalmologist it also offers those of an optometrist. Not surprisingly, your reporter has gained this information not from Dr Coroneo himself, who carfefully avoided mentioning this little known fact about his life outside of his office, but through a mutual friend who, in his turn, could not speak highly enough of this introvert scientist. How much does this say about his character? You be the judge of that.

THE BIONIC EYE

What exactly is the bionic eye and how did you come to be involved?

About ten years ago my colleague, Dr. Halliday, who has spend his life looking after people that were blinded by hereditary conditions that result in disease of the retina, decided to retire. The general group of these conditions is called retinal dystrophy, and retinitis pigmentosa is the most common of them. It affects one in five thousand people and it’s the commonest cause of blindness in young people. He was interested in the genetics of this and had built a big database. When he retired, the hospital didn’t replace him and on top of my all my other work, I ended up having to do his clinics. So I am sitting here in Randwick having to look after all these youngish people that are blind. I do not like this type of practice because in modern ophthalmology we help people. You come in; have an operation, go home and the next day you can see. So that was outside the normal activities I had been used to. Around 2000 there was a programme on TV about an engineer in New York called William Dobelle who had spent his life trying to develop bionic eyes. He had implanted electrodes into the visual part of the brain of a blind person. When he had started the computers that were required to run this filled a rather large room. By 2000 the computer was a laptop and the person was shown walking around with this device. I thought this was fantastic, but the technology was really crude. People can loose their sight at any time and depending on how it is lost, will determine what sort of “bionic eye” that needs to be developed. Dobelle had a system where he placed electrodes in the brain and his early patients had them running out of their skulls, which is very dangerous because you could get infections. It struck me then that the leading company for stimulating any sensory system is Cochlear, an Australian company based in Sydney. They have the best technology in bionic ears. We rang up Cochlear and told them we had all these blind patients and asked if we could work with them to develop a bionic eye. They have been very helpful in giving us access to their technology.

How long did the original process take?

We spent about five years working with animals. We took off-the-shelf components and that was a big advantage for us because we are competing with overseas groups that are better funded than us, and employ similar technology. But we didn’t have to reinvent the wheel. We had a leading company with the right technology, which we borrowed. The reason for the recent publicity is that earlier this year we started doing some work with patients. This is the first study in humans that we are aware of in Australia.

How long before the bionic eye becomes available to the public?

I am hoping that there will be something available in the next five years. It might not be us. Now that might sound like a long time but given that we have been working on this for only five years, we feel like we are half way through this cycle. Just to make it very plain - and we have been very careful with any publicity because we don’t want people to think that we are about to have a product- what we have achieved is an important step forward. We took a slightly different approach to the one of some of our colleagues in the US. Normally, most of the groups that are working on the retina have put electrodes on it. The retina is like a film in a camera. It has a layer of cells that detect light and turn light into electrical signals. Those signals go to nerves that join up and form the optic nerve. Because the retina is very delicate and also because you have to open the eye, that approach involves some risk. Just imagine what might happen to someone with pieces of metal attached to their retina if they jump on a trampoline. The approach we took was to put electrodes on the outer wall of the eye and increase the current, so it still stimulates the retina. Because of this, we do not have to open the eye. We think that might be a more stable and safer system long term. So earlier this year, we put some electrodes on the outer wall of the eye of a patient, we stimulated those electrodes and the patient was able to see flashes of light.

Is the bionic eye the ultimate solution for people without eyesight?

The type of vision we think will happen initially won’t be anything like yours or my eyesight. It’s not going to be normal vision. The current Cochlear devices have about 30 electrodes. Imagine having 30 electrodes on the outer wall of the eye, which in theory means that if you turn them on at the same time, you will get 30 flashes of light. The idea is that you will have a series of flashes outlining objects. What we are trying to do here is to give people navigating vision.

How did the rest of the medical world respond to your findings?

We have published quite a lot of papers that have been well accepted. We were at a meeting in Detroit early this year when we presented this work and so far the response has been very positive. There is nothing really controversial about what we are doing. It’s just a slightly different approach. One of our big strengths is the link with Cochlear. They know how to built devices and get them to market. We think that puts us in a good position to actually develop something.

MONEY MAKES THE WORLD GO AROUND

You have applied to the US Patent Office for a patent. How important is it to get the rights to the patent? Is it to ensure that no one benefits financially from it? I get the feeling that money is not on the top of your list of priorities?

I am not driven by money. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been here. We have a company that was formed to get this product to the market. When you go down this path, there are certain commercial realities. One of these realities is to protect the intellectual property that has been generated by what we do. Because overseas there are a lot of people with more money than us, if we pass on ideas we can be left behind. What we are doing here is simply being careful. Once you get the patent, you can go to companies and say: “we have my commercial property, what is it worth and can we work with you to get it developed”. It puts us in a better position when we try to develop it.

Has the American dollar tried to lure you away from Australia?

Ha-ha. I have been tempted to apply for positions in the United States. It’s not that I find money attractive. But it’s a fact that a lot of people have been driven away from Australia because of the lack of investment. It’s not so much the money but more that our public institutions, our hospitals and our universities are not traveling well at the moment. Across the country, the public hospital system that’s supposed to be looking after Australians often has its problems. Academic work in hospitals under these conditions is very tough, at least for some of us. In Australia public funds go to patient care first, but research is also a priority. However, I know that some colleagues who work in similar institutions in the USA are much better supported than we are. On the other hand, the lack of resources makes you cunning. You have to make do and one of the great things about Australian investors and scientists is that to survive in a very competitive market, they have to be smarter and be able to out perform the competition. I have a great team of people that I work with and I am not sure I would be able to find them elsewhere. At the moment, I am happy trying to do what I am doing from here.

What about the Australian government? What has been its response?

We have had some funds from the Australian government. We have had an National Health and Medical Research Council grant a couple of years ago, that paid for a research assistant for a couple of years. It helped to get the basic work completed. Putting in grant applications is a lot of work and the amount of money that you get makes you ask if that is a good way to spend your time. We have tried very hard to get more. The German government is funding one of its projects to the tune of 50 million dollars a year. We currently have no government funding for this project. Many people that are in this situation apply every couple of years for small amounts that keep them going. It means that you spend a lot of energy staying afloat. It’s like treading water rather than swimming forward. Because of the recent testing, we are in a better position to go back to the government and say, “this is important in terms of having been developed in Australia, we would appreciate some support”. If you imagine being the Minister of Health, every time he turns around there is someone that has developed a cure for cancer or some other thing, he can’t possibly fund every project. I happen to think this is a very important one because one of the key determinants of quality in life is the ability to see. Particularly young people that have been affected by these diseases, they may have many many years of blindness and we are hoping to develop something that will enable them to walk around. We jokingly say that what we are trying to do is turn guide dogs into pets. Giving people that level of independence is a big deal.

THE ROOT OF ALL... GOODNESS

What drives you and your team to fight bureaucracy? Wouldn’t it have been easier to give up?

It’s always easy to give up. I’ve been doing this for a while now and one of the things about being an academic is that most Australian ophthalmologists are very well trained and provide a very high level of service, and they are sitting in dark rooms across Australia diagnosing diseases, they are operating in theatres making people see better. The thing that partly drives me is that we sit there and we look at people with problems we can’t fix. Because I had intense training in science, as well as studying medicine, I tried to reconcile the interface between basic science and clinical medicine. On one hand I look after my patients, which I enjoy doing, but at the same time I am thinking about how I can treat this condition that otherwise can’t be treated. So I see myself partly as an inventor. If you have one or few inventions you treat people across the planet. That’s not an ego trip. It’s part of what is intellectually stimulating about this work. Clinical medicine can almost be like process work. You have to be very good at doing the same thing over and over again. Beyond that is this almost arrogant ambition to do something more than that.

A lot of people have taken the Hippocratic Oath, but not everyone follows it to the last detail. What makes you different?

It’s partly what you are suited to and partly what opportunities are there. I was extremely fortunate that extraordinary people trained me. I trained at the University of Sydney with John Young, the Head of Physiology. He was a very clever and very driven scientist. I had that background, and then I went to Germany where I trained with a guy who was a scientist as well as an ophthalmologist. When I returned to Australia I had Fred Hollows as a teacher for four years - as a matter of fact this used to be his office. I have had the appropriate training to do what I do. I remember I went to a lecture during my first week at the University of Sydney - this was in 1972- and I was inspired to go and work with John Young who was the speaker that day. You can be the benificiary of serindipitous circumstances. You find yourself in different situations in life where you have the opportunity to do things. On the other hand, my parents didn’t have a very good formal education, so when they came to Australia they were very determined that their children would be educated. I had the best education they could afford to give me at the time, and I have gone through life trying to achieve things.

While I admire your modesty, I can’t help but notice you have served in outback Bourke. What influenced the decision to go all the way there? Were you trying to pinpoint the exact location of “woop woop” on the map?

That was purely Fred Hollows. I arrived at this hospital in 1982. Prior to that in the 70's, Hollows had been all over outback Australia looking after indigenous and white people and anyone with eye disease. By the time I arrived that program had ended and the last outpost for NSW was Bourke. In my training - and I am pleased to see in the training of the people that are currently involved in this project - we provide a service to Bourke Hospital. It’s funny because I talk to people about Bourke and my instructions on how to get there is to find the last traffic lights in Sydney and then drive northwest for ten hours. You can’t miss it.

Other people would have taken the easy option and settled in a nice office in Sydney and try to make as much money as possible.

It’s possible that I have a very short attention span. Like a lot of people I need stimulation. Fred Hollows once said to me: “If you go into a practice and that is all you do, you will be brain dead by fifty”. I am pleased to report that I am 52 and I am not brain dead. It’s a great privilege to be able to sit here and do as much as I can. It hasn’t been easy; we have had a lot of difficult times in the last ten years. Sitting in this hospital-university situation when both institutions are not well supported in my view - and that’s a political statement, but I think a lot of other people share the same view- can be tough. Maybe the easiest thing to have done is to get up and go overseas. It’s just that I am rather happy to be surrounded by this group of great people trying to do something good.

THE KYTHERIAN CONNECTION

How did your parents take your decision to plunge into the uncertain field of medical research?

Town of origin - Potamos

Parachoukli - Belos

My father died when I was in the second year of medical school. As a matter of fact, he didn’t want me to be a doctor; he wanted me to be an engineer. For two reasons: he came to Australia from Kythera in 1920 and served in the Second World War. He was in the Ambulance Corps in Darwin when it was bombed and he saw surgeons operating and didn’t really like it. He thought doctors were fairly uncivilized. Back in Scone where he lived, he was there when they were building the Glenbawn Dam. There were a lot of Greeks that had come to Australia during that era. One of his best friends was the engineer that was responsible for building that dam. My father saw engineering as clean and helpful to the community, building bridges and stuff, and he wanted me to be an engineer. To that extent I disappointed him. On the other hand, in that era most people that did well at school were expected to study medicine. In Scone, the small town where I grew up the person that made the difference between life and death was the local doctor. He was an inspirational character.

What about your mother?

My mother passed away last year, but she lived long enough to see what I have become. I think I had disappointed her as well. Her idea was that when I finished medicine I would open a general practice somewhere locally. All these years that I have been going overseas she had a great difficulty understanding what I was trying to do.

Was it hard to retain your Greekness, growing up in the middle of The Hunter Valley with not many Greeks around?

There is schizophrenia about Australians’ attitude to migrants. On the hand most people were very supportive, my father had many friends and his was in business in Scone for about fifty years. There were a few xenophobes. I had an unusual name by Australian standards then. You can imagine what it was like having a name like that in Australia in the 1950s. Sometimes at school it was tough. I have a younger brother, who was big, and his attitude was that he would hit anyone that insulted him. So he became one of the boys. He was also much better in adjusting than me. My approach was to do it academically. In a way that attitude was because my parents rewarded academic success. My father would say that knowledge is power and I tried to know more than other people.

What about Greek traditions?

As for traditions, we only spoke Greek at home and so when at the age of five I went to infants school I couldn’t speak a word of English. My mother had a sort of reverse racism. She saw Australians as being a little bit uncivilized. She would see people crawling out of pubs drunk at five or six in the evening and think “God, what country did I come to”. In the end she had a lot of Australian friends. She arrived in Australia two years before I was born and she was a little concerned about how things would turn out. We didn’t have Greek school in the country so my formal Greek isn’t great, but for my kids we had a Greek teacher who came to our home. They both know how to read and write in Greek. They have been to Greece a couple of times and are very proud of their heritage. We still have property in Kythera and we have made sure our kids have gone to the island and know what is there. There was a church in Newcastle where we would go. I was christened here in Sydney at Hagia Triada. I am not a very religious person but I very much respect the traditions of our church, and as I have grown older I have come to appreciate them more.

Your name recently featured quite prominently in newspapers in Greece. Were you surprised by the attention you have received from the Greek media?

I was pleasantly surprised. The reason for this publicity is that recently we had a fundraising dinner. George Souris hosted it at the Parliament House and we had over 200 people attending. Leading up the dinner, the organisers thought that it would be good to get some publicity and I also did an extensive interview for ABC earlier this year. All that created a lot of interest. In fact one of the people who is very supportive of what we do is the Greek Consulate General, Mr. Raptakis and he got a lot of calls from Greece. He put them in touch with me and this resulted in several phone interviews. I have had some contact with the University of Athens. I went there a couple of years ago and met my counterpart. I was interested in building relations with Greece but when I came here I got swamped with a lot of other issues, and I haven’t done as much as I would have liked in that respect. I am very, very proud of my heritage, both Greek and Australian. I did a lot of my post graduate studies in Germany and I can remember coming back after being away for three years, thinking “I don’t really feel Australian now, but I don’t feel European either”. You get to the point where you think, “who the hell are you, anyway”. But I have snapped out of it now, I know exactly who I am.

How do you see the Greek community in Australia? Are we on the right path?

In many ways we are in a very privileged position. The Kytherians are a fairly tight knit group, they have their Association, and they have their dinners and everything else. Growing up in the country, one of the problems was that I had very few links with any of the Greek community when we moved to Sydney. In my high school, it was like the United Nations. I had Jewish friends and Italian friends, people from all over the world, all at the one place. Coming from the country to Sydney, it was like visiting Disneyland. I gradually have become more involved in the Greek community. I have been asked to address some functions and I find that the Greek community has in general been very supportive of what I do. John Howard made a comment recently that “Greeks are model citizens”. I have a paper clipping from one of AHEPA’s first meeting, held in Scone in the 1930s stating that what AHEPA was trying to do was to bring the best aspects of Greek culture into Australia. It’s very hard to find a better statement of intent on how to behave when you come to someone else’s country.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Finally Professor, is there a way that people can help this worthwhile cause?

We have two foundations supporting this project. The Genetic Eye Foundation, which looks after people with these blinding conditions. People can donate money to that or they can donate money directly to The Australian Bionic Eye Foundation. Donations to both charities are tax deductible. Obviously, every bit helps but we are not relying on that. We are trying to get this commercialised as soon as possible so we can really move on with it. But if someone is looking for a good cause... Medical charities are numerous and there is a lot of “competition” out there. This one is a little bit different and at the moment we do need some support. At this present time we have four part time people working on this project but we don’t really have a lot of infrastructure to make things move forward.

MAKE A DONATION

The Genetic Eye Foundation,
Ms R. Sturt,
C/- Department of Ophthalmology,
The Prince of Wales Hospital,
High Street,
Randwick, NSW, 2031.
Telephone:
Ms R. Sturt (02) 9382 2493

Email, The Genetic Eye Foundation

Australian Bionic Eye Foundation,
Ms R. Serna,
C/- Department of Ophthalmology,
The Prince of Wales Hospital,
High Street,
Randwick, NSW, 2031.
Telephone:
Ms R. Serna (02) 9382 2307

Email, Australian Bionic Eye Foundation
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History, FB Old photographs
Old Letters

Postcard from George Peter Vamvakaris (1907-1942)

George was the son of Panayiotis and Maria Alfieris Vamvakaris (1887-1960).
This postcard was written to his mother's brother Vrettos Alfieris (1890-1974) and his wife Marigo (Theothorakaki)(1895-1961)

George was killed in World War II while serving in the Australian Army.

See also:

George’s WW II Certificate of Service

George Vamvakaris’ Naturalization application

Kythera Connections
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FB Old photographs

Professor Minas Coroneo

Professor Minas Coroneo talks about the bionic eye, the latest breakthrough in the field of ophthalmology, the pros and cons of medical research in Australia, and growing up Greek in a Kytherian household in the Hunter Valley region in the early sixties.

Words and Portrait, Savvas Limnatitis

"Let’s get one thing straight: what we are offering is not a miracle cure for blindness, but a great step forward”. The softly spoken, bespectacled, fifty-something man, sitting opposite me in what used to be the late, great, Fred Hollows office at Randwick’s Prince of Wales Hospital is talking about the latest developments in the field of ophthalmology and is picking his words very carefully.

And for good reason. After all, modern medicine and its offering of solutions -often of the quick-fix type - to an unprecedented number of diseases to anything remotely fitting the description between cancer and obesity, drug dependency and the centuries old problem of ageing, has made it increasingly easy to be designated a quack, instantly converting years of dedication and research into laughable and best-to-be-avoided obsessions of absent minded professors in long white coats.

Thank God then that modesty has never been a prominent feature in scientific research. For judging by the inches of columns in journals both medical and mainstream (even the media from Greece got in on the act) dedicated to the findings of Professor Minas Coroneo and his dedicated team of researchers there are not exactly small, steps forward but giant leaps, that can revolutionise the way blindness is treated. Professor Coroneo and his team have been working on the project for over five years now. While their first efforts on designing a device that would help patients with genetic eye diseases that have lost their sight received the thumbs up from the rest of the medical world, it was the team’s recent human trials that have made the rest of the world sit up and take notice.

Hailed as a medical breakthrough, the bionic eye does not offer full sight - at least not for the time being. It will eventually however provide blind people with enough “functional vision” to negotiate their way across a room without bumping into objects.

During one of his numerous visits to Kythera, Dr Coroneo was struck by the lack of properr opthalmological facilities on the island. Realising that the only options available to the ageing population of his parent’s birthplace was a visit to Athens with all the problems and hardships such a scenario involves, Dr Coroneo quickly set out to rectify the problem. Calling on the help of his associates both in Greece and Australia as well as the rest of the world, Dr Coroneo’s original idea was soon transformed into the establishment of an eye clinic. Situated at Potamos’ hospital the new eye clinic serving the Kytherian community is equipped with all the necessary equippement and apart from the services of a regular ophthalmologist it also offers those of an optometrist. Not surprisingly, your reporter has gained this information not from Dr Coroneo himself, who carfefully avoided mentioning this little known fact about his life outside of his office, but through a mutual friend who, in his turn, could not speak highly enough of this introvert scientist. How much does this say about his character? You be the judge of that.

THE BIONIC EYE

What exactly is the bionic eye and how did you come to be involved?

About ten years ago my colleague, Dr. Halliday, who has spend his life looking after people that were blinded by hereditary conditions that result in disease of the retina, decided to retire. The general group of these conditions is called retinal dystrophy, and retinitis pigmentosa is the most common of them. It affects one in five thousand people and it’s the commonest cause of blindness in young people. He was interested in the genetics of this and had built a big database. When he retired, the hospital didn’t replace him and on top of my all my other work, I ended up having to do his clinics. So I am sitting here in Randwick having to look after all these youngish people that are blind. I do not like this type of practice because in modern ophthalmology we help people. You come in; have an operation, go home and the next day you can see. So that was outside the normal activities I had been used to. Around 2000 there was a programme on TV about an engineer in New York called William Dobelle who had spent his life trying to develop bionic eyes. He had implanted electrodes into the visual part of the brain of a blind person. When he had started the computers that were required to run this filled a rather large room. By 2000 the computer was a laptop and the person was shown walking around with this device. I thought this was fantastic, but the technology was really crude. People can loose their sight at any time and depending on how it is lost, will determine what sort of “bionic eye” that needs to be developed. Dobelle had a system where he placed electrodes in the brain and his early patients had them running out of their skulls, which is very dangerous because you could get infections. It struck me then that the leading company for stimulating any sensory system is Cochlear, an Australian company based in Sydney. They have the best technology in bionic ears. We rang up Cochlear and told them we had all these blind patients and asked if we could work with them to develop a bionic eye. They have been very helpful in giving us access to their technology.

How long did the original process take?

We spent about five years working with animals. We took off-the-shelf components and that was a big advantage for us because we are competing with overseas groups that are better funded than us, and employ similar technology. But we didn’t have to reinvent the wheel. We had a leading company with the right technology, which we borrowed. The reason for the recent publicity is that earlier this year we started doing some work with patients. This is the first study in humans that we are aware of in Australia.

How long before the bionic eye becomes available to the public?

I am hoping that there will be something available in the next five years. It might not be us. Now that might sound like a long time but given that we have been working on this for only five years, we feel like we are half way through this cycle. Just to make it very plain - and we have been very careful with any publicity because we don’t want people to think that we are about to have a product- what we have achieved is an important step forward. We took a slightly different approach to the one of some of our colleagues in the US. Normally, most of the groups that are working on the retina have put electrodes on it. The retina is like a film in a camera. It has a layer of cells that detect light and turn light into electrical signals. Those signals go to nerves that join up and form the optic nerve. Because the retina is very delicate and also because you have to open the eye, that approach involves some risk. Just imagine what might happen to someone with pieces of metal attached to their retina if they jump on a trampoline. The approach we took was to put electrodes on the outer wall of the eye and increase the current, so it still stimulates the retina. Because of this, we do not have to open the eye. We think that might be a more stable and safer system long term. So earlier this year, we put some electrodes on the outer wall of the eye of a patient, we stimulated those electrodes and the patient was able to see flashes of light.

Is the bionic eye the ultimate solution for people without eyesight?

The type of vision we think will happen initially won’t be anything like yours or my eyesight. It’s not going to be normal vision. The current Cochlear devices have about 30 electrodes. Imagine having 30 electrodes on the outer wall of the eye, which in theory means that if you turn them on at the same time, you will get 30 flashes of light. The idea is that you will have a series of flashes outlining objects. What we are trying to do here is to give people navigating vision.

How did the rest of the medical world respond to your findings?

We have published quite a lot of papers that have been well accepted. We were at a meeting in Detroit early this year when we presented this work and so far the response has been very positive. There is nothing really controversial about what we are doing. It’s just a slightly different approach. One of our big strengths is the link with Cochlear. They know how to built devices and get them to market. We think that puts us in a good position to actually develop something.

MONEY MAKES THE WORLD GO AROUND

You have applied to the US Patent Office for a patent. How important is it to get the rights to the patent? Is it to ensure that no one benefits financially from it? I get the feeling that money is not on the top of your list of priorities?

I am not driven by money. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been here. We have a company that was formed to get this product to the market. When you go down this path, there are certain commercial realities. One of these realities is to protect the intellectual property that has been generated by what we do. Because overseas there are a lot of people with more money than us, if we pass on ideas we can be left behind. What we are doing here is simply being careful. Once you get the patent, you can go to companies and say: “we have my commercial property, what is it worth and can we work with you to get it developed”. It puts us in a better position when we try to develop it.

Has the American dollar tried to lure you away from Australia?

Ha-ha. I have been tempted to apply for positions in the United States. It’s not that I find money attractive. But it’s a fact that a lot of people have been driven away from Australia because of the lack of investment. It’s not so much the money but more that our public institutions, our hospitals and our universities are not traveling well at the moment. Across the country, the public hospital system that’s supposed to be looking after Australians often has its problems. Academic work in hospitals under these conditions is very tough, at least for some of us. In Australia public funds go to patient care first, but research is also a priority. However, I know that some colleagues who work in similar institutions in the USA are much better supported than we are. On the other hand, the lack of resources makes you cunning. You have to make do and one of the great things about Australian investors and scientists is that to survive in a very competitive market, they have to be smarter and be able to out perform the competition. I have a great team of people that I work with and I am not sure I would be able to find them elsewhere. At the moment, I am happy trying to do what I am doing from here.

What about the Australian government? What has been its response?

We have had some funds from the Australian government. We have had an National Health and Medical Research Council grant a couple of years ago, that paid for a research assistant for a couple of years. It helped to get the basic work completed. Putting in grant applications is a lot of work and the amount of money that you get makes you ask if that is a good way to spend your time. We have tried very hard to get more. The German government is funding one of its projects to the tune of 50 million dollars a year. We currently have no government funding for this project. Many people that are in this situation apply every couple of years for small amounts that keep them going. It means that you spend a lot of energy staying afloat. It’s like treading water rather than swimming forward. Because of the recent testing, we are in a better position to go back to the government and say, “this is important in terms of having been developed in Australia, we would appreciate some support”. If you imagine being the Minister of Health, every time he turns around there is someone that has developed a cure for cancer or some other thing, he can’t possibly fund every project. I happen to think this is a very important one because one of the key determinants of quality in life is the ability to see. Particularly young people that have been affected by these diseases, they may have many many years of blindness and we are hoping to develop something that will enable them to walk around. We jokingly say that what we are trying to do is turn guide dogs into pets. Giving people that level of independence is a big deal.

THE ROOT OF ALL... GOODNESS

What drives you and your team to fight bureaucracy? Wouldn’t it have been easier to give up?

It’s always easy to give up. I’ve been doing this for a while now and one of the things about being an academic is that most Australian ophthalmologists are very well trained and provide a very high level of service, and they are sitting in dark rooms across Australia diagnosing diseases, they are operating in theatres making people see better. The thing that partly drives me is that we sit there and we look at people with problems we can’t fix. Because I had intense training in science, as well as studying medicine, I tried to reconcile the interface between basic science and clinical medicine. On one hand I look after my patients, which I enjoy doing, but at the same time I am thinking about how I can treat this condition that otherwise can’t be treated. So I see myself partly as an inventor. If you have one or few inventions you treat people across the planet. That’s not an ego trip. It’s part of what is intellectually stimulating about this work. Clinical medicine can almost be like process work. You have to be very good at doing the same thing over and over again. Beyond that is this almost arrogant ambition to do something more than that.

A lot of people have taken the Hippocratic Oath, but not everyone follows it to the last detail. What makes you different?

It’s partly what you are suited to and partly what opportunities are there. I was extremely fortunate that extraordinary people trained me. I trained at the University of Sydney with John Young, the Head of Physiology. He was a very clever and very driven scientist. I had that background, and then I went to Germany where I trained with a guy who was a scientist as well as an ophthalmologist. When I returned to Australia I had Fred Hollows as a teacher for four years - as a matter of fact this used to be his office. I have had the appropriate training to do what I do. I remember I went to a lecture during my first week at the University of Sydney - this was in 1972- and I was inspired to go and work with John Young who was the speaker that day. You can be the benificiary of serindipitous circumstances. You find yourself in different situations in life where you have the opportunity to do things. On the other hand, my parents didn’t have a very good formal education, so when they came to Australia they were very determined that their children would be educated. I had the best education they could afford to give me at the time, and I have gone through life trying to achieve things.

While I admire your modesty, I can’t help but notice you have served in outback Bourke. What influenced the decision to go all the way there? Were you trying to pinpoint the exact location of “woop woop” on the map?

That was purely Fred Hollows. I arrived at this hospital in 1982. Prior to that in the 70's, Hollows had been all over outback Australia looking after indigenous and white people and anyone with eye disease. By the time I arrived that program had ended and the last outpost for NSW was Bourke. In my training - and I am pleased to see in the training of the people that are currently involved in this project - we provide a service to Bourke Hospital. It’s funny because I talk to people about Bourke and my instructions on how to get there is to find the last traffic lights in Sydney and then drive northwest for ten hours. You can’t miss it.

Other people would have taken the easy option and settled in a nice office in Sydney and try to make as much money as possible.

It’s possible that I have a very short attention span. Like a lot of people I need stimulation. Fred Hollows once said to me: “If you go into a practice and that is all you do, you will be brain dead by fifty”. I am pleased to report that I am 52 and I am not brain dead. It’s a great privilege to be able to sit here and do as much as I can. It hasn’t been easy; we have had a lot of difficult times in the last ten years. Sitting in this hospital-university situation when both institutions are not well supported in my view - and that’s a political statement, but I think a lot of other people share the same view- can be tough. Maybe the easiest thing to have done is to get up and go overseas. It’s just that I am rather happy to be surrounded by this group of great people trying to do something good.

THE KYTHERIAN CONNECTION

How did your parents take your decision to plunge into the uncertain field of medical research?

My father died when I was in the second year of medical school. As a matter of fact, he didn’t want me to be a doctor; he wanted me to be an engineer. For two reasons: he came to Australia from Kythera in 1920 and served in the Second World War. He was in the Ambulance Corps in Darwin when it was bombed and he saw surgeons operating and didn’t really like it. He thought doctors were fairly uncivilized. Back in Scone where he lived, he was there when they were building the Glenbawn Dam. There were a lot of Greeks that had come to Australia during that era. One of his best friends was the engineer that was responsible for building that dam. My father saw engineering as clean and helpful to the community, building bridges and stuff, and he wanted me to be an engineer. To that extent I disappointed him. On the other hand, in that era most people that did well at school were expected to study medicine. In Scone, the small town where I grew up the person that made the difference between life and death was the local doctor. He was an inspirational character.

What about your mother?

My mother passed away last year, but she lived long enough to see what I have become. I think I had disappointed her as well. Her idea was that when I finished medicine I would open a general practice somewhere locally. All these years that I have been going overseas she had a great difficulty understanding what I was trying to do.

Was it hard to retain your Greekness, growing up in the middle of The Hunter Valley with not many Greeks around?

There is schizophrenia about Australians’ attitude to migrants. On the hand most people were very supportive, my father had many friends and his was in business in Scone for about fifty years. There were a few xenophobes. I had an unusual name by Australian standards then. You can imagine what it was like having a name like that in Australia in the 1950s. Sometimes at school it was tough. I have a younger brother, who was big, and his attitude was that he would hit anyone that insulted him. So he became one of the boys. He was also much better in adjusting than me. My approach was to do it academically. In a way that attitude was because my parents rewarded academic success. My father would say that knowledge is power and I tried to know more than other people.

What about Greek traditions?

As for traditions, we only spoke Greek at home and so when at the age of five I went to infants school I couldn’t speak a word of English. My mother had a sort of reverse racism. She saw Australians as being a little bit uncivilized. She would see people crawling out of pubs drunk at five or six in the evening and think “God, what country did I come to”. In the end she had a lot of Australian friends. She arrived in Australia two years before I was born and she was a little concerned about how things would turn out. We didn’t have Greek school in the country so my formal Greek isn’t great, but for my kids we had a Greek teacher who came to our home. They both know how to read and write in Greek. They have been to Greece a couple of times and are very proud of their heritage. We still have property in Kythera and we have made sure our kids have gone to the island and know what is there. There was a church in Newcastle where we would go. I was christened here in Sydney at Hagia Triada. I am not a very religious person but I very much respect the traditions of our church, and as I have grown older I have come to appreciate them more.

Your name recently featured quite prominently in newspapers in Greece. Were you surprised by the attention you have received from the Greek media?

I was pleasantly surprised. The reason for this publicity is that recently we had a fundraising dinner. George Souris hosted it at the Parliament House and we had over 200 people attending. Leading up the dinner, the organisers thought that it would be good to get some publicity and I also did an extensive interview for ABC earlier this year. All that created a lot of interest. In fact one of the people who is very supportive of what we do is the Greek Consulate General, Mr. Raptakis and he got a lot of calls from Greece. He put them in touch with me and this resulted in several phone interviews. I have had some contact with the University of Athens. I went there a couple of years ago and met my counterpart. I was interested in building relations with Greece but when I came here I got swamped with a lot of other issues, and I haven’t done as much as I would have liked in that respect. I am very, very proud of my heritage, both Greek and Australian. I did a lot of my post graduate studies in Germany and I can remember coming back after being away for three years, thinking “I don’t really feel Australian now, but I don’t feel European either”. You get to the point where you think, “who the hell are you, anyway”. But I have snapped out of it now, I know exactly who I am.

How do you see the Greek community in Australia? Are we on the right path?

In many ways we are in a very privileged position. The Kytherians are a fairly tight knit group, they have their Association, and they have their dinners and everything else. Growing up in the country, one of the problems was that I had very few links with any of the Greek community when we moved to Sydney. In my high school, it was like the United Nations. I had Jewish friends and Italian friends, people from all over the world, all at the one place. Coming from the country to Sydney, it was like visiting Disneyland. I gradually have become more involved in the Greek community. I have been asked to address some functions and I find that the Greek community has in general been very supportive of what I do. John Howard made a comment recently that “Greeks are model citizens”. I have a paper clipping from one of AHEPA’s first meeting, held in Scone in the 1930s stating that what AHEPA was trying to do was to bring the best aspects of Greek culture into Australia. It’s very hard to find a better statement of intent on how to behave when you come to someone else’s country.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Finally Professor, is there a way that people can help this worthwhile cause?

We have two foundations supporting this project. The Genetic Eye Foundation, which looks after people with these blinding conditions. People can donate money to that or they can donate money directly to The Australian Bionic Eye Foundation. Donations to both charities are tax deductible. Obviously, every bit helps but we are not relying on that. We are trying to get this commercialised as soon as possible so we can really move on with it. But if someone is looking for a good cause... Medical charities are numerous and there is a lot of “competition” out there. This one is a little bit different and at the moment we do need some support. At this present time we have four part time people working on this project but we don’t really have a lot of infrastructure to make things move forward.

MAKE A DONATION

The Genetic Eye Foundation,
Ms R. Sturt,
C/- Department of Ophthalmology,
The Prince of Wales Hospital,
High Street,
Randwick, NSW, 2031.
Telephone:
Ms R. Sturt (02) 9382 2493

Email, The Genetic Eye Foundation

Australian Bionic Eye Foundation,
Ms R. Serna,
C/- Department of Ophthalmology,
The Prince of Wales Hospital,
High Street,
Randwick, NSW, 2031.
Telephone:
Ms R. Serna (02) 9382 2307

Email, Australian Bionic Eye Foundation
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Notable Kytherians

Professor Minas Coroneo

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Professor Minas Coroneo and the bionic eye.

Epsilon Magazine. Vol 1. Issue 14.

October 2006.

pp. 1, 22-29.

Professor Minas Coroneo talks about the bionic eye, the latest breakthrough in the field of ophthalmology, the pros and cons of medical research in Australia, and growing up Greek in a Kytherian household in the Hunter Valley region in the early sixties.

Words and Portrait, Savvas Limnatitis

"Let’s get one thing straight: what we are offering is not a miracle cure for blindness, but a great step forward”. The softly spoken, bespectacled, fifty-something man, sitting opposite me in what used to be the late, great, Fred Hollows office at Randwick’s Prince of Wales Hospital is talking about the latest developments in the field of ophthalmology and is picking his words very carefully.

And for good reason. After all, modern medicine and its offering of solutions -often of the quick-fix type - to an unprecedented number of diseases to anything remotely fitting the description between cancer and obesity, drug dependency and the centuries old problem of ageing, has made it increasingly easy to be designated a quack, instantly converting years of dedication and research into laughable and best-to-be-avoided obsessions of absent minded professors in long white coats.

Thank God then that modesty has never been a prominent feature in scientific research. For judging by the inches of columns in journals both medical and mainstream (even the media from Greece got in on the act) dedicated to the findings of Professor Minas Coroneo and his dedicated team of researchers there are not exactly small, steps forward but giant leaps, that can revolutionise the way blindness is treated. Professor Coroneo and his team have been working on the project for over five years now. While their first efforts on designing a device that would help patients with genetic eye diseases that have lost their sight received the thumbs up from the rest of the medical world, it was the team’s recent human trials that have made the rest of the world sit up and take notice.

Hailed as a medical breakthrough, the bionic eye does not offer full sight - at least not for the time being. It will eventually however provide blind people with enough “functional vision” to negotiate their way across a room without bumping into objects.

During one of his numerous visits to Kythera, Dr Coroneo was struck by the lack of properr opthalmological facilities on the island. Realising that the only options available to the ageing population of his parent’s birthplace was a visit to Athens with all the problems and hardships such a scenario involves, Dr Coroneo quickly set out to rectify the problem. Calling on the help of his associates both in Greece and Australia as well as the rest of the world, Dr Coroneo’s original idea was soon transformed into the establishment of an eye clinic. Situated at Potamos’ hospital the new eye clinic serving the Kytherian community is equipped with all the necessary equippement and apart from the services of a regular ophthalmologist it also offers those of an optometrist. Not surprisingly, your reporter has gained this information not from Dr Coroneo himself, who carfefully avoided mentioning this little known fact about his life outside of his office, but through a mutual friend who, in his turn, could not speak highly enough of this introvert scientist. How much does this say about his character? You be the judge of that.

THE BIONIC EYE

What exactly is the bionic eye and how did you come to be involved?

About ten years ago my colleague, Dr. Halliday, who has spend his life looking after people that were blinded by hereditary conditions that result in disease of the retina, decided to retire. The general group of these conditions is called retinal dystrophy, and retinitis pigmentosa is the most common of them. It affects one in five thousand people and it’s the commonest cause of blindness in young people. He was interested in the genetics of this and had built a big database. When he retired, the hospital didn’t replace him and on top of my all my other work, I ended up having to do his clinics. So I am sitting here in Randwick having to look after all these youngish people that are blind. I do not like this type of practice because in modern ophthalmology we help people. You come in; have an operation, go home and the next day you can see. So that was outside the normal activities I had been used to. Around 2000 there was a programme on TV about an engineer in New York called William Dobelle who had spent his life trying to develop bionic eyes. He had implanted electrodes into the visual part of the brain of a blind person. When he had started the computers that were required to run this filled a rather large room. By 2000 the computer was a laptop and the person was shown walking around with this device. I thought this was fantastic, but the technology was really crude. People can loose their sight at any time and depending on how it is lost, will determine what sort of “bionic eye” that needs to be developed. Dobelle had a system where he placed electrodes in the brain and his early patients had them running out of their skulls, which is very dangerous because you could get infections. It struck me then that the leading company for stimulating any sensory system is Cochlear, an Australian company based in Sydney. They have the best technology in bionic ears. We rang up Cochlear and told them we had all these blind patients and asked if we could work with them to develop a bionic eye. They have been very helpful in giving us access to their technology.

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The Bionic Eye Team. Left to Right:
Dr Vivek Chowdhury,
Professor Minas Coroneo,
Professor John Morley.

How long did the original process take?

We spent about five years working with animals. We took off-the-shelf components and that was a big advantage for us because we are competing with overseas groups that are better funded than us, and employ similar technology. But we didn’t have to reinvent the wheel. We had a leading company with the right technology, which we borrowed. The reason for the recent publicity is that earlier this year we started doing some work with patients. This is the first study in humans that we are aware of in Australia.

How long before the bionic eye becomes available to the public?

I am hoping that there will be something available in the next five years. It might not be us. Now that might sound like a long time but given that we have been working on this for only five years, we feel like we are half way through this cycle. Just to make it very plain - and we have been very careful with any publicity because we don’t want people to think that we are about to have a product- what we have achieved is an important step forward. We took a slightly different approach to the one of some of our colleagues in the US. Normally, most of the groups that are working on the retina have put electrodes on it. The retina is like a film in a camera. It has a layer of cells that detect light and turn light into electrical signals. Those signals go to nerves that join up and form the optic nerve. Because the retina is very delicate and also because you have to open the eye, that approach involves some risk. Just imagine what might happen to someone with pieces of metal attached to their retina if they jump on a trampoline. The approach we took was to put electrodes on the outer wall of the eye and increase the current, so it still stimulates the retina. Because of this, we do not have to open the eye. We think that might be a more stable and safer system long term. So earlier this year, we put some electrodes on the outer wall of the eye of a patient, we stimulated those electrodes and the patient was able to see flashes of light.

Is the bionic eye the ultimate solution for people without eyesight?

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Professor Minas Coroneos holds a model of the human eye

The type of vision we think will happen initially won’t be anything like yours or my eyesight. It’s not going to be normal vision. The current Cochlear devices have about 30 electrodes. Imagine having 30 electrodes on the outer wall of the eye, which in theory means that if you turn them on at the same time, you will get 30 flashes of light. The idea is that you will have a series of flashes outlining objects. What we are trying to do here is to give people navigating vision.

How did the rest of the medical world respond to your findings?

We have published quite a lot of papers that have been well accepted. We were at a meeting in Detroit early this year when we presented this work and so far the response has been very positive. There is nothing really controversial about what we are doing. It’s just a slightly different approach. One of our big strengths is the link with Cochlear. They know how to built devices and get them to market. We think that puts us in a good position to actually develop something.

MONEY MAKES THE WORLD GO AROUND

You have applied to the US Patent Office for a patent. How important is it to get the rights to the patent? Is it to ensure that no one benefits financially from it? I get the feeling that money is not on the top of your list of priorities?

I am not driven by money. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been here. We have a company that was formed to get this product to the market. When you go down this path, there are certain commercial realities. One of these realities is to protect the intellectual property that has been generated by what we do. Because overseas there are a lot of people with more money than us, if we pass on ideas we can be left behind. What we are doing here is simply being careful. Once you get the patent, you can go to companies and say: “we have my commercial property, what is it worth and can we work with you to get it developed”. It puts us in a better position when we try to develop it.

Has the American dollar tried to lure you away from Australia?

Ha-ha. I have been tempted to apply for positions in the United States. It’s not that I find money attractive. But it’s a fact that a lot of people have been driven away from Australia because of the lack of investment. It’s not so much the money but more that our public institutions, our hospitals and our universities are not traveling well at the moment. Across the country, the public hospital system that’s supposed to be looking after Australians often has its problems. Academic work in hospitals under these conditions is very tough, at least for some of us. In Australia public funds go to patient care first, but research is also a priority. However, I know that some colleagues who work in similar institutions in the USA are much better supported than we are. On the other hand, the lack of resources makes you cunning. You have to make do and one of the great things about Australian investors and scientists is that to survive in a very competitive market, they have to be smarter and be able to out perform the competition. I have a great team of people that I work with and I am not sure I would be able to find them elsewhere. At the moment, I am happy trying to do what I am doing from here.

What about the Australian government? What has been its response?

We have had some funds from the Australian government. We have had an National Health and Medical Research Council grant a couple of years ago, that paid for a research assistant for a couple of years. It helped to get the basic work completed. Putting in grant applications is a lot of work and the amount of money that you get makes you ask if that is a good way to spend your time. We have tried very hard to get more. The German government is funding one of its projects to the tune of 50 million dollars a year. We currently have no government funding for this project. Many people that are in this situation apply every couple of years for small amounts that keep them going. It means that you spend a lot of energy staying afloat. It’s like treading water rather than swimming forward. Because of the recent testing, we are in a better position to go back to the government and say, “this is important in terms of having been developed in Australia, we would appreciate some support”. If you imagine being the Minister of Health, every time he turns around there is someone that has developed a cure for cancer or some other thing, he can’t possibly fund every project. I happen to think this is a very important one because one of the key determinants of quality in life is the ability to see. Particularly young people that have been affected by these diseases, they may have many many years of blindness and we are hoping to develop something that will enable them to walk around. We jokingly say that what we are trying to do is turn guide dogs into pets. Giving people that level of independence is a big deal.

THE ROOT OF ALL... GOODNESS

What drives you and your team to fight bureaucracy? Wouldn’t it have been easier to give up?

It’s always easy to give up. I’ve been doing this for a while now and one of the things about being an academic is that most Australian ophthalmologists are very well trained and provide a very high level of service, and they are sitting in dark rooms across Australia diagnosing diseases, they are operating in theatres making people see better. The thing that partly drives me is that we sit there and we look at people with problems we can’t fix. Because I had intense training in science, as well as studying medicine, I tried to reconcile the interface between basic science and clinical medicine. On one hand I look after my patients, which I enjoy doing, but at the same time I am thinking about how I can treat this condition that otherwise can’t be treated. So I see myself partly as an inventor. If you have one or few inventions you treat people across the planet. That’s not an ego trip. It’s part of what is intellectually stimulating about this work. Clinical medicine can almost be like process work. You have to be very good at doing the same thing over and over again. Beyond that is this almost arrogant ambition to do something more than that.

A lot of people have taken the Hippocratic Oath, but not everyone follows it to the last detail. What makes you different?

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Professor Minas Coroneo outside his office in Randwick's Prince of Wales Hospital

It’s partly what you are suited to and partly what opportunities are there. I was extremely fortunate that extraordinary people trained me. I trained at the University of Sydney with John Young, the Head of Physiology. He was a very clever and very driven scientist. I had that background, and then I went to Germany where I trained with a guy who was a scientist as well as an ophthalmologist. When I returned to Australia I had Fred Hollows as a teacher for four years - as a matter of fact this used to be his office. I have had the appropriate training to do what I do. I remember I went to a lecture during my first week at the University of Sydney - this was in 1972- and I was inspired to go and work with John Young who was the speaker that day. You can be the benificiary of serindipitous circumstances. You find yourself in different situations in life where you have the opportunity to do things. On the other hand, my parents didn’t have a very good formal education, so when they came to Australia they were very determined that their children would be educated. I had the best education they could afford to give me at the time, and I have gone through life trying to achieve things.

While I admire your modesty, I can’t help but notice you have served in outback Bourke. What influenced the decision to go all the way there? Were you trying to pinpoint the exact location of “woop woop” on the map?

That was purely Fred Hollows. I arrived at this hospital in 1982. Prior to that in the 70's, Hollows had been all over outback Australia looking after indigenous and white people and anyone with eye disease. By the time I arrived that program had ended and the last outpost for NSW was Bourke. In my training - and I am pleased to see in the training of the people that are currently involved in this project - we provide a service to Bourke Hospital. It’s funny because I talk to people about Bourke and my instructions on how to get there is to find the last traffic lights in Sydney and then drive northwest for ten hours. You can’t miss it.

Other people would have taken the easy option and settled in a nice office in Sydney and try to make as much money as possible.

It’s possible that I have a very short attention span. Like a lot of people I need stimulation. Fred Hollows once said to me: “If you go into a practice and that is all you do, you will be brain dead by fifty”. I am pleased to report that I am 52 and I am not brain dead. It’s a great privilege to be able to sit here and do as much as I can. It hasn’t been easy; we have had a lot of difficult times in the last ten years. Sitting in this hospital-university situation when both institutions are not well supported in my view - and that’s a political statement, but I think a lot of other people share the same view- can be tough. Maybe the easiest thing to have done is to get up and go overseas. It’s just that I am rather happy to be surrounded by this group of great people trying to do something good.

THE KYTHERIAN CONNECTION

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How did your parents take your decision to plunge into the uncertain field of medical research?

Town of origin - Potamos

Parachoukli - Belos

My father died when I was in the second year of medical school. As a matter of fact, he didn’t want me to be a doctor; he wanted me to be an engineer. For two reasons: he came to Australia from Kythera in 1920 and served in the Second World War. He was in the Ambulance Corps in Darwin when it was bombed and he saw surgeons operating and didn’t really like it. He thought doctors were fairly uncivilized. Back in Scone where he lived, he was there when they were building the Glenbawn Dam. There were a lot of Greeks that had come to Australia during that era. One of his best friends was the engineer that was responsible for building that dam. My father saw engineering as clean and helpful to the community, building bridges and stuff, and he wanted me to be an engineer. To that extent I disappointed him. On the other hand, in that era most people that did well at school were expected to study medicine. In Scone, the small town where I grew up the person that made the difference between life and death was the local doctor. He was an inspirational character.

What about your mother?

My mother passed away last year, but she lived long enough to see what I have become. I think I had disappointed her as well. Her idea was that when I finished medicine I would open a general practice somewhere locally. All these years that I have been going overseas she had a great difficulty understanding what I was trying to do.

Was it hard to retain your Greekness, growing up in the middle of The Hunter Valley with not many Greeks around?

There is schizophrenia about Australians’ attitude to migrants. On the hand most people were very supportive, my father had many friends and his was in business in Scone for about fifty years. There were a few xenophobes. I had an unusual name by Australian standards then. You can imagine what it was like having a name like that in Australia in the 1950s. Sometimes at school it was tough. I have a younger brother, who was big, and his attitude was that he would hit anyone that insulted him. So he became one of the boys. He was also much better in adjusting than me. My approach was to do it academically. In a way that attitude was because my parents rewarded academic success. My father would say that knowledge is power and I tried to know more than other people.

What about Greek traditions?

As for traditions, we only spoke Greek at home and so when at the age of five I went to infants school I couldn’t speak a word of English. My mother had a sort of reverse racism. She saw Australians as being a little bit uncivilized. She would see people crawling out of pubs drunk at five or six in the evening and think “God, what country did I come to”. In the end she had a lot of Australian friends. She arrived in Australia two years before I was born and she was a little concerned about how things would turn out. We didn’t have Greek school in the country so my formal Greek isn’t great, but for my kids we had a Greek teacher who came to our home. They both know how to read and write in Greek. They have been to Greece a couple of times and are very proud of their heritage. We still have property in Kythera and we have made sure our kids have gone to the island and know what is there. There was a church in Newcastle where we would go. I was christened here in Sydney at Hagia Triada. I am not a very religious person but I very much respect the traditions of our church, and as I have grown older I have come to appreciate them more.

Your name recently featured quite prominently in newspapers in Greece. Were you surprised by the attention you have received from the Greek media?

I was pleasantly surprised. The reason for this publicity is that recently we had a fundraising dinner. George Souris hosted it at the Parliament House and we had over 200 people attending. Leading up the dinner, the organisers thought that it would be good to get some publicity and I also did an extensive interview for ABC earlier this year. All that created a lot of interest. In fact one of the people who is very supportive of what we do is the Greek Consulate General, Mr. Raptakis and he got a lot of calls from Greece. He put them in touch with me and this resulted in several phone interviews. I have had some contact with the University of Athens. I went there a couple of years ago and met my counterpart. I was interested in building relations with Greece but when I came here I got swamped with a lot of other issues, and I haven’t done as much as I would have liked in that respect. I am very, very proud of my heritage, both Greek and Australian. I did a lot of my post graduate studies in Germany and I can remember coming back after being away for three years, thinking “I don’t really feel Australian now, but I don’t feel European either”. You get to the point where you think, “who the hell are you, anyway”. But I have snapped out of it now, I know exactly who I am.

How do you see the Greek community in Australia? Are we on the right path?

In many ways we are in a very privileged position. The Kytherians are a fairly tight knit group, they have their Association, and they have their dinners and everything else. Growing up in the country, one of the problems was that I had very few links with any of the Greek community when we moved to Sydney. In my high school, it was like the United Nations. I had Jewish friends and Italian friends, people from all over the world, all at the one place. Coming from the country to Sydney, it was like visiting Disneyland. I gradually have become more involved in the Greek community. I have been asked to address some functions and I find that the Greek community has in general been very supportive of what I do. John Howard made a comment recently that “Greeks are model citizens”. I have a paper clipping from one of AHEPA’s first meeting, held in Scone in the 1930s stating that what AHEPA was trying to do was to bring the best aspects of Greek culture into Australia. It’s very hard to find a better statement of intent on how to behave when you come to someone else’s country.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Finally Professor, is there a way that people can help this worthwhile cause?

We have two foundations supporting this project. The Genetic Eye Foundation, which looks after people with these blinding conditions. People can donate money to that or they can donate money directly to The Australian Bionic Eye Foundation. Donations to both charities are tax deductible. Obviously, every bit helps but we are not relying on that. We are trying to get this commercialised as soon as possible so we can really move on with it. But if someone is looking for a good cause... Medical charities are numerous and there is a lot of “competition” out there. This one is a little bit different and at the moment we do need some support. At this present time we have four part time people working on this project but we don’t really have a lot of infrastructure to make things move forward.

MAKE A DONATION

The Genetic Eye Foundation,
Ms R. Sturt,
C/- Department of Ophthalmology,
The Prince of Wales Hospital,
High Street,
Randwick, NSW, 2031.
Telephone:
Ms R. Sturt (02) 9382 2493

Email, The Genetic Eye Foundation

Australian Bionic Eye Foundation,
Ms R. Serna,
C/- Department of Ophthalmology,
The Prince of Wales Hospital,
High Street,
Randwick, NSW, 2031.
Telephone:
Ms R. Serna (02) 9382 2307

Email, Australian Bionic Eye Foundation


The Coroneo family in Scone

The Coroneo's were the first of the shop-keepers of Mediterranean or Central European origin. They made a mighty impact on the town when they built their highly decorated shop and refreshment room in Kelly Street. It was a new type of shop selling a new type of goods. Who had ever been served with chipped potatoes accompanying their steak before? Where else could one buy very well-cooked fried fish in batter? Or ice-cream so­das, or Sundaes?”

Growing up in Scone as the son of the cinema proprietors could not have been all that bad - indeed as it turns out I believe that I have had, thus far, a very fortunate life. From an early age until I left Scone at 16, I saw a lot of movies. This, before videos and some before television - most before the age of the gratuitous violence and debauchery that Hollywood now relies on to sell its product (however in the movie this morning, Peter Finch was handy with his fists and had an eye for the girls). I cannot be certain quite what this did to my psyche or to those of my brother and sister. However it is perhaps no accident that we all finished up in eye care - in optometry and ophthalmology. I had developed a fascination with light and lenses and ultimately sight and the eye - an organ considered to be at the pinna­cle of evolution of sense organs.

Andrew Coroneo, whose family sold the Civic Theatre to my parents re­counts a childhood encounter with Scone’s Pittman gang from which, on one occasion, he escaped by climbing a pepper tree. A gang member, Skinny Crackett said “Let’s get Andy, he’s a dago”. Bruce Pittman, gang leader replied “He’s not a dago, his father owns the picture show”. At least the Pittmans had some sense of priorities.

Another event that may not be well known is that on the 22 May 1935 one of the first and largest meetings of an organisation known as AHEPA (Aus­tralian Hellenic Educational Progressive Association) occurred in Scone. The originators of AHEPA in Australia were Greek shopkeepers in NSW country towns. Its primary objective was “to revive and marshal into active service for Australia the noblest attributes of Hellenism”. There is a photo taken at this meeting and I believe my father was there and took some no­tice of this aim.

PHOTO: Anna and Theo Coroneo with young Dana Wilson, co-star of The Shiralee, (an Australian film starring Peter Finch, 1957) at the Pre­mier of the film held at the Civic Theatre, Scone.

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People, Notable Kytherians
Vintage Portraits/ People

Aretee and Dimitrios Sophios; parents of the photographer Manolis Sophios

Aretee Katsoules Sophios was the daugher of Kirani Chlentozs Katsouls and Giorgos Katsoulis.

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An Encounter with Manolis Sophios

Kirani Chlentzos Katsoulis with grandchildren Manolis & Giorgos Sophios

Manolis Sophios. Early years

Manolis Sophios, as a young man, engaged in painting

Manolis Sophios 1935. Aged 22

Manolis Sophios 1940. Aged 27

Manolis sister Grigora and her children

James Gavriles recalls the Sophios Photo Album


Kythera Connections
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Vintage Portraits/ People

Manoli Sofios 1991

This photo as taken in 1991 when cousins of Manoli Sofios; Milton and Harry Alfier, and John Alfieris, visited Kythera.

Maternal grandmother of Manolis Sophios

Arete and Demetrios Sofios. Parents of Manolis Sophios

Kirani Chlentzos Katsoulis with grandchildren Manolis & Giorgos Sophios

Manolis Sophios. Early years

Manolis Sophios, as a young man, engaged in painting

Manolis Sophios 1935. Aged 22

Manolis Sophios 1940. Aged 27

Manolis Sophios, in crowded Potamos, 1951

Manolis sister Grigora and her children

James Gavriles, Detroit, recalls the Sophios Photo Album

Obituary, Manolis Sophios

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Kythera Connections
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Anne (Tasia) Conomos Condas. Biography.

President Anastasia Condas accepts a philanthropic award on behalf of the Kytherian Society of California and the West for its many contributions to the Gerokomio of Kythera over the years. These donations have included a convection oven, dishwasher, clothes washer and dryer, an most recently, an electrocardiograph instrument.
From The Hellenic Herald, California, March, 2003.


Biography of Anne (Tasia) Conomos Condas

The Anne we have all known and loved was a remarkable individual — one with unfathomed abilities and potential and who always strove to make her world a better place through the results of her numerous accomplishments. Her intellect and energy drove her to fulfill two of her passions--love of educating and love of Hellenism.

I have attempted here to give you a brief glimpse of her formative years and relate some of the experiences that influenced her to become such an extraordinary person.

Tasia was the second surviving daughter of John and Penelope (Venardou) Megaloeconomos. Papa was born in Potamos, left for western Pennsylvania as a boy, returned to fight for Greece during the Balkan wars, and then returned to America where he had been a businessman. During a subsequent visit to Kythera, he met and married Mama, a lovely young woman from Agia Anastasia. They quickly produced Chiysanthy, and then migrated as a family back to Pennsylvania where Papa operated a popular restaurant. Tasia, born in 1936, was a bright child, with a very creative mind—while playing with her dolls, she would create and relate spell-binding stories, the plots of which would rival those of J. R. R. Tolkien or J. K. Rowling. She was a voracious reader, and took several years of piano lessons. At church, she attended several years of Sunday School and of Greek School, profiting from the experience more than most of us.

Tasia was always industrious, working at various jobs from a very early age at eight years of age, she worked in our restaurant, setting the tables with napkins and flatware. Her first paying job was at the age of 12 when she worked at a koumbaros’ store, supervising the magazine section. This was followed in her teen years by a long tenure of employment at the public library, where she mixed business with pleasure—earning a wage while being immersed, literally and figuratively, in literature.

Tasia was always an honor student, having academic interests that ranged from the sciences to the humanities. She was very active in student affairs, participating simultaneously in several organizations and becoming the president of most of them. With her activities came popularily, with her crowning social achievement being the prom date of the #1 class dreamboat. This date was also a measure of her mettle—she defied Papa by her choice of a date—he was an exchange student from Germany, and Papa had had enough of Germans for a lifetime — Mama, however, was beginning to show her independence and liberal bias, with the end result being that Prom Night was a memorable one for the entire family.

Tasia’ s religious life began at birth with the exceptionally good fortune of having extraordinary godparents—they were our parents’ closest friends and served as surrogate parents to all of us until their passing several years ago. This relationship subsequently led Tasia to closely practice the customs and traditions of koumbari, and in the coming years baptized several individuals and so created lifelong ties with them.

Immediately after Tasia’s high school graduation, we moved to San Jose—Papa was retired and Mama had been hearing great things about California—the family left for California at different times that summer-- Mama, Tasia, and I set out in the family car— I was too young to drive, Mama got headaches after only an hour of driving, and so Tasia, with only several weeks of driving experience, drove us across the country six days on Highway 40. It was Tasia’ s mettle again.
Tasia enrolled at San Jose State College that autumn, seeking and earning a degree in Elementary Education, and needless to say, graduating magna cum laude. While at State, she was a Reader in both Science Education and in Byzantine History. The latter activity afforded her the first formal and intense exposure to the world of Hellenism under the invaluable and sustained mentoring of Professor E. P. Panagopoulos. This association developed into close lifetime friendships with Beata and E. P. Panagopoulos.

Tasia’s first direct exposure to some of the fundamental needs of humanity came during her sophomore and junior summers when she worked as a counselor at an Easter Seal camp. Here, she worked with physically, emotionally, and mentally challenged children—while emotionally draining, it served as her inspiration to follow a life of benevolence.

Tasia’ s college social life was predictably active—I would watch in awe as she balanced part-time jobs, studying and dating several fellows at once. Her heart was won, however, by a very cerebral UC graduate student who would come courting from Berkeley with a car borrowed from his father. Although charming and erudite, I believe George ultimately succeeded with Tasia because of his frequent gifts to her of licorice ice cream.

They married as Tasia was turning 23, and they set up housekeeping in Hayward where she began to teach in an elementary school. Tasia’s auspicious beginning as a teacher evolved, after a several-year hiatus to give birth to and raise Diana and Penelope, into the area of secondary education, and the earning of a Master’s degree in Education. This degree led to a specialization in reading and her use of innovative reading techniques earned Tasia an excellent reputation in this field. Her marriage to George and association with his friends and later with the acquisition of others brought her life further intellectual depth and complexity—through these ties, for example, Teddi and Tikey
Zes and Herta and Ted Bogdanos and years later Effie and Stephen Miller became koumbari.

Tasia’s love affair with Kythera began in 1960 when she and George went to Greece for the first time. Here she met numerous direct relatives, and most importantly, met and immediately created a strong connection with Giagia, our maternal grandmother. Tasia took numerous trips in the succeeding years, the travel ultimately becoming an annual ritual. Her growing knowledge and understanding of both Greece and Kythera in particular, led her to become somewhat of an expert in the literature, history, geography, and culture of the region, and her fluency in the Greek language, written and spoken, became flawless.

One of Tasia’s joys was to expose others to the Hellenic experience whether by lecture or by tour—I would accuse her of being a masochist when she would take unappreciative teenaged family members with her on her annual jaunts—usually both parties would return and independently grumble about the ordeal, only to have the experience greatly appreciated by both in later years.

Among Tasia’s hallmarks is that she was a both a leader and a doer—when she had a vision she would immediately create goals and priorities to fulfill that vision, and would then accomplish them doggedly and in a timely manner. She would usually entice or cajole others to help achieve success in these endeavors, and when that help proved inadequate, she would do it alone. Her vision for a successful and vibrant Kytherian Society is one of her legacies. She needed our help, and having known her the way I do, I’m sure she is watching and waiting for our response.

10/28/05 Tasso John Conomos
Biography of Anne (Tasia) Conomos Condas
Open full entry
History, FB Old photographs
Notable Kytherians

Anne (Tasia) Conomos Condas

[[picture:"Condas Anastasia accepting award.jpg" ID:11620]]

President Anastasia Condas accepts a philanthropic award on behalf of the Kytherian Society of California and the West for its many contributions to the Gerokomio of Kythera over the years. These donations have included a convection oven, dishwasher, clothes washer and dryer, an most recently, an electrocardiograph instrument.
From The Hellenic Herald, California, March, 2003.

The Anne we have all known and loved was a remarkable individual — one with unfathomed abilities and potential and who always strove to make her world a better place through the results of her numerous accomplishments. Her intellect and energy drove her to fulfill two of her passions--love of educating and love of Hellenism.

I have attempted here to give you a brief glimpse of her formative years and relate some of the experiences that influenced her to become such an extraordinary person.

Tasia was the second surviving daughter of John and Penelope (Venardou) Megaloeconomos. Papa was born in Potamos, left for western Pennsylvania as a boy, returned to fight for Greece during the Balkan wars, and then returned to America where he had been a businessman. During a subsequent visit to Kythera, he met and married Mama, a lovely young woman from Agia Anastasia. They quickly produced Chiysanthy, and then migrated as a family back to Pennsylvania where Papa operated a popular restaurant. Tasia, born in 1936, was a bright child, with a very creative mind—while playing with her dolls, she would create and relate spell-binding stories, the plots of which would rival those of J. R. R. Tolkien or J. K. Rowling. She was a voracious reader, and took several years of piano lessons. At church, she attended several years of Sunday School and of Greek School, profiting from the experience more than most of us.

Tasia was always industrious, working at various jobs from a very early age at eight years of age, she worked in our restaurant, setting the tables with napkins and flatware. Her first paying job was at the age of 12 when she worked at a koumbaros’ store, supervising the magazine section. This was followed in her teen years by a long tenure of employment at the public library, where she mixed business with pleasure—earning a wage while being immersed, literally and figuratively, in literature.

[[picture:"Condas Conomos Anna age 15.jpg" ID:11693]]

Anne aged 15

Tasia was always an honor student, having academic interests that ranged from the sciences to the humanities. She was very active in student affairs, participating simultaneously in several organizations and becoming the president of most of them. With her activities came popularily, with her crowning social achievement being the prom date of the #1 class dreamboat. This date was also a measure of her mettle—she defied Papa by her choice of a date—he was an exchange student from Germany, and Papa had had enough of Germans for a lifetime — Mama, however, was beginning to show her independence and liberal bias, with the end result being that Prom Night was a memorable one for the entire family.

Tasia’ s religious life began at birth with the exceptionally good fortune of having extraordinary godparents—they were our parents’ closest friends and served as surrogate parents to all of us until their passing several years ago. This relationship subsequently led Tasia to closely practice the customs and traditions of koumbari, and in the coming years baptized several individuals and so created lifelong ties with them.

Immediately after Tasia’s high school graduation, we moved to San Jose—Papa was retired and Mama had been hearing great things about California—the family left for California at different times that summer-- Mama, Tasia, and I set out in the family car— I was too young to drive, Mama got headaches after only an hour of driving, and so Tasia, with only several weeks of driving experience, drove us across the country six days on Highway 40. It was Tasia’ s mettle again.
Tasia enrolled at San Jose State College that autumn, seeking and earning a degree in Elementary Education, and needless to say, graduating magna cum laude. While at State, she was a Reader in both Science Education and in Byzantine History. The latter activity afforded her the first formal and intense exposure to the world of Hellenism under the invaluable and sustained mentoring of Professor E. P. Panagopoulos. This association developed into close lifetime friendships with Beata and E. P. Panagopoulos.

Tasia’s first direct exposure to some of the fundamental needs of humanity came during her sophomore and junior summers when she worked as a counselor at an Easter Seal camp. Here, she worked with physically, emotionally, and mentally challenged children—while emotionally draining, it served as her inspiration to follow a life of benevolence.

Tasia’ s college social life was predictably active—I would watch in awe as she balanced part-time jobs, studying and dating several fellows at once. Her heart was won, however, by a very cerebral UC graduate student who would come courting from Berkeley with a car borrowed from his father. Although charming and erudite, I believe George ultimately succeeded with Tasia because of his frequent gifts to her of licorice ice cream.

They married as Tasia was turning 23, and they set up housekeeping in Hayward where she began to teach in an elementary school. Tasia’s auspicious beginning as a teacher evolved, after a several-year hiatus to give birth to and raise Diana and Penelope, into the area of secondary education, and the earning of a Master’s degree in Education. This degree led to a specialization in reading and her use of innovative reading techniques earned Tasia an excellent reputation in this field. Her marriage to George and association with his friends and later with the acquisition of others brought her life further intellectual depth and complexity—through these ties, for example, Teddi and Tikey
Zes and Herta and Ted Bogdanos and years later Effie and Stephen Miller became koumbari.

Tasia’s love affair with Kythera began in 1960 when she and George went to Greece for the first time. Here she met numerous direct relatives, and most importantly, met and immediately created a strong connection with Giagia, our maternal grandmother. Tasia took numerous trips in the succeeding years, the travel ultimately becoming an annual ritual. Her growing knowledge and understanding of both Greece and Kythera in particular, led her to become somewhat of an expert in the literature, history, geography, and culture of the region, and her fluency in the Greek language, written and spoken, became flawless.

One of Tasia’s joys was to expose others to the Hellenic experience whether by lecture or by tour—I would accuse her of being a masochist when she would take unappreciative teenaged family members with her on her annual jaunts—usually both parties would return and independently grumble about the ordeal, only to have the experience greatly appreciated by both in later years.

Among Tasia’s hallmarks is that she was a both a leader and a doer—when she had a vision she would immediately create goals and priorities to fulfill that vision, and would then accomplish them doggedly and in a timely manner. She would usually entice or cajole others to help achieve success in these endeavors, and when that help proved inadequate, she would do it alone. Her vision for a successful and vibrant Kytherian Society is one of her legacies. She needed our help, and having known her the way I do, I’m sure she is watching and waiting for our response.

10/28/05 Tasso John Conomos
Biography of Anne (Tasia) Conomos Condas
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People, Notable Kytherians
Island Social Life

Potamos Market, August 2006

Sempriviva flowers for sale at the Potamos Market

To see slideshows of other photos taken in August 2006, click on these links:

Potamos Farmer’s Market, August 13, 2006

Movie clips of the Mitata Wine Festival, August 12, 2006

Agia Elessa, August 2006

Paliochora, August 2006

Milopotamos, August 2006

Mirtdiotissa, August 14-15, 2006

Movie clips and photos of the Panegyri in Potamos, August 15, 2006

Chora - Discover Your Roots, August 12, 2006
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Photos, Island Social Life
Modern Landscapes

Place of Sorrow

"The Place of Sorrow" is located just outside of Potamos on the way to Agia Pelagia. It is here by this lone carob tree that as many as 50,000 said their heart-wrenching farewells as their loved ones set off for foreign lands.
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Photos, Modern Landscapes
Current Affairs

DEATH OF EMMANUEL SOFIOS (11 September 2006)

The Kytherian photographer Emmanuel Sofios, who had been seriously ill for several years, died at home and was buried in Potamos on Sunday, 10 September. The son of D. Sofios of Logothetianika, who had been one of the island’s two pre-war professional photographers (the other was Panayotis Fatseas of Livadi), Emmanuel Sofios continued the family tradition, working in Potamos for many decades. He was perhaps best known for his famous photograph of Allied troop carriers and landing craft drawn up in Kapsali Bay on September 16, 1944, copies of which can still be seen in many houses and offices on the island. It is to be hoped that his extensive archives will remain on the island, as they undoubtedly reflect a substantial part of recent Kytherian history.
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Culture, Current Affairs

DOLMADES FOR LUNCH 4

Inheritance

"What will be mine, Nan?" An innocent question from a six year old... "What do you mean, what will be yours?" "When you live in Heaven instead of this house, what will be mine?"

We'd often chatted about what would be hers 'one day' as we dusted or put things away, or even as we shared morning or afternoon tea. I'm not a great one for putting things aside for good. I'd rather my family and friends get the enjoyment from special china, nice linen or any other good items. I'm sure my granddaughter will remember using beautiful china with special times with Nan, much more than she will recall seeing lovely things in a cupboard. So we use the best china, on a handworked linen cloth, perhaps embroidered by me, or maybe by her great great grandmother... nothing has been broken, without the need for constant warnings. I just tell her and my four year old grandson to take care, as these things will be theirs one day.

The question was repeated... so that began a game. "Will this be mine?" "No, that will be your brother's.." "What about this?" and so it went on. I took a key off the peg on the wall and asked her what it was. She said it was for my grandfather's house..almost right. The key belonged to the lock of the office Papauli built, in the house he built. She's heard the story many times before, but like all children, loved the repetition.. so began a morning of memories. I showed her the family photos and she picked out my grandfather, then we looked at the key and the suitcase.

The case isn't very large, about the size of what we would call an overnight bag..it was this beautiful, leather case, heavy with it's wooden frame and still in perfect condition, that Papauli brought all he had to Australia from Kythera in 1904. He scratched his initials on the brass locks, whether with pride or for security, I'll never know. What did he pack? He was from the village of Potamos, newly married.. a farmer, trying to eke out a living in what was virtually a barren land. Australia must have seemed like the Promised land. I was only five when he died, too young to know the questions to ask, those I would like to now. He was a very proud, hard working man, like so many of his fellow Kytherians. Perhaps a clean shirt or two, maybe some extra trousers, a razor and other essentials...something from home as a keepsake...was this what he packed, as he prepared to leave the land of his birth? How do you do that, head off to an unknown land, knowing that in all likelihood, you will never see your family again... not your parents, nor your four siblings? The only time he'd left home before was when he was a guard at The Greek Palace in Athens, but this was certainly different.

At 26 years old, with determination, sadness, memories and courage, he left his young wife and sailed to the other side of the world. So began the journey that took him first to a cafe in Sydney, run by fellow Greeks, then after learning all he could, he saved whatever he could manage and eventually, some years later, brought his wife out from Kythera to join him. When she was pregnant with their first child, to be a boy, they moved to the Lismore area, to try their luck at farming. From there, to Bellingen, where two more children were born. Here, this young man ran a cafe in conjunction with a cousin, then later moved to Aberdeen, in country NSW, and more farming.. and more children... six in all, but one lost at a very early age. Before Aberdeen, his wife had planned a visit back home to Kythera, with three young children. That trip was never to be, as she gave birth in Perth to another daughter, her second.

I told all this to my granddaughter, then told her how the last move for this family, including her much loved Great Grandad, was to the mid north coast of NSW. She rubbed the suitcase with her tiny hands and told me that if I don't need the suitcase to go to Heaven in a very long time away, she would look after it for my grandfather and then tell her granddaughter where it came from.

"What will be yours, sweet child? All the love and courage, the strength and the caring that helped build your family.. and you can have the suitcase to keep it all in!"

Crissouli (c) 2006
Cafes, Shops & Cinemas

Blue Bird Cafe

Historian seeks stories of Emmaville's 'Blue Bird' Cafe.
Andrew Kalokerinos(Alexandrathes) and Peter McCarthy (Inverell NSW Australia) discussing the Bluebird cafe at Emmaville.

This meeting took place in the platea at Potamos Kythera October 2005
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Photos, Cafes, Shops & Cinemas
Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People

Vrettos Alfieris with Vrettos family

This photo was taken in 1955 when the Vrettos family from Oakland, California visited relatives in Athens. Pictured is Angie Vrettos (daughter of Yiannis and Maria Alfieris) with her Uncle Vrettos Alfieris, daughter Evonne, and husband James K. Vrettos.

See also:

Wedding of Vrettos Alfieris and Marigo Theodorakaki

Panayiotis Alfieris Descendants Chart

Kythera Connections

Alfieris Family Trees

John and Maria Alflieris approximately 1903

Ioannis Giorgos Alfieris 1884-1966

Maria (Chlentzos) Alfieris 1884-1968

Alfieris Family in California 2002

Alfieris Family in California 1955
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Photos, Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People
Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People

Manoli and Botitsa Alfieris with cousin Angie Alfieris Vrettos and daughter Vikki

This photo was taken in 1955 when the Vrettos family, from Oakland, California, visited relatives in Athens. Angie Alfieris Vrettos is pictured with her cousins Manoli and Botitsa Alfieris from Pireaus. Angie's parents were Yiannis and Maria Alfieris, and Manoli Alfiieris parents were Vrettos and Marigo Alfieris. Angie passed away in 2002; Manoli passed away in 2004; Botitsa still spends time in their summer home in Agia Pelagia.
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Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People

Chlentzos - Alfieris family Easter Picnic 1914

This photo was taken at an Easter picnic in Oakland, California in 1914. Pictured is Yiannis Alfieris (1883-1966), squatting in front with the thick mustache. To his right is Vasilis Diamandis Chlentzos (1905-1967) and Diamandis (David) Panayiotis Chlentzos (1905 - ? ). Behind Yiannis Alfieris is his wife Maria Chlentzos Alfieris (1882-1968). In front of her is their daughter Alice (1910-1965). To the right of Maria is her brother Panayiotis Chlentzos (1880-1961). The couple on the far right is Yanoula Koulentianos Chlentzos (1886-1984) and Diamandis Chlentzos (1874-1969) with their sons Harry (1908-2001), Angelo (1911-2003) and Pete (1909-2006). The smaller girl toward the front holding flowers is Lula Alfieris (1907-1989). Behind her is Angelo Chlentzos (1880-1961). To the left of Maria Chlentzos Alfieris is Vasiliki Chlentzos Xidis (1878-1976) and to her left is her husband Dimitris Xidis (1887 - ? ) holding their first born son George Dimitris Xidis (1912-1997). The boy in front on the far left is Gus Alfieris (1905-1977).

In June 2013 another person in this photo was identified by Megan Pearse. Her great grandfather Dimitrios Simos, is the man in front reaching toward the lamb wearing a vest and tie.

See also:

Kythera Connections

Alfieris Family in California 2002

Alfieris Family in California 1955
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FB Old photographs

1932 Olympian - Peter Clentzos

Reprinted by permission, from the Desert Dispatch, August 10, 2004

Lisa Hart/Staff Photographer
Olympian Pete Clentzos looks through his collection of articles and newspaper clippings about his accomplishments at his Pasadena home. Most recently, Clentzos, 95, was one of the carriers of the Olympic torch in Los Angeles in June.

Backward Glance, by Steve Smith (part one)

Backward Glance, by Steve Smith (part two)

See also:

Pete Clentzos

Kythera Connections
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Life Stories

Desert Dispatch biography of Peter Clentzos

Reprinted by permission, from the Desert Dispatch, Barstow, California

[[picture:"peteclentzos.jpg" ID:10924]]
Tuesday, August 10, 2004

Backward Glance by Steve Smith
Meet Barstow's Olympian: Pete Clentzos

Editor's note: This is the first of two parts.

Recently I was watching the Olympic torch relay on TV when the torch was passed to Pete Clentzos. They briefly ran down his biography, mainly emphasizing that he, having just turned 95, is the oldest USC Olympian, oldest Greek Olympian and possibly the oldest Olympian in the world.

I also saw an interview with him later and both times they did not mention the most important piece of his biography, at least to my fair and balanced mind. He was Barstow Union High School's athletic coach from 1936 to 1941.

Pete Clentzos was born June, 1909, to Greek parents in Oakland. He went to college at the University of Southern California. At USC he was a member of the football team, varsity track and letterman for three years in pole vault.

When he tried out for the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles he hit a snag. He tried out for the American team but didn't make the cut.

"I felt great that day, but I have no excuses," Clentzos said, "It was just one of those days."

Luckily his dual Greek/American citizenship paid off. He tried out for the Greek team and made it. He finished seventh in the pole vault event at the Olympics

Pete has many fond memories of the 1932 Olympics. One of the things that he remembers that was vastly different about his games compared to today is security. The Olympic village in 1932 was open to spectators and the athletes shared a lot of time together. He remembers that most nights they would gather to watch movies in an amphitheater.

Pete has many mementos from the 1932 games including the bamboo pole that he used in the competition.

After the 1932 Olympics he traveled around and competed in many different competitions. In 1935 he set the Greek National pole vault record of 13' 5". This record stood from 1935-1950.

In 1936 he consulted in the 1936 Olympics that were held in Berlin. He wanted to go but it was the depression so he had to get a job. He was one of thirteen teachers that applied for a job at Barstow Union High School.

Pete was hired to teach history and physical education. An additional class he taught was a new program at the school, woodshop. Pete's father was a carpenter, so he learned the trade from him. He also coached football, basketball, baseball, wrestling, and of course, track.

One program he started that our high school still excels at was the first cross country team in Barstow. He remembers that they used to close down Main Street and race down the road with many locals cheering them on.

His coaching experience was a great success. He took two football teams to the CIF finals with his 1940 team being one of the best. They won seven games, lost one, and tied another. For the season the Riffians outscored their opponents 213 to 47. They beat Victorville that year 32-0.

One of the difficulties he had coaching in our area was that a number of his players were from outlying communities like Ludlow. Due to bus schedules, these students only had about 40 minutes at a time to practice.

He would hurry them along by yelling out his trademark phrase "Hubba Hubba!" This phrase would give him national recognition in another chapter of his story.

Pete wasn't just about sports in our area. He had fun other ways too. He was a participant in our early Calico Days.

Calico Days at the time was held in Barstow near where U-Haul is today. Pete remembers that they also went to Calico for some of the activities.

One of the big competitions at the time was the Whiskerino. All the local men would grow out their beards. Those who didn't were good naturedly thrown in jail. To view the jail that housed these miscreants and was used in many other fun events, come to the Mojave River Valley Museum, 270 E. Virginia Way.

On the day of the competition, the men's beards were judged to see whose was best. Pete, with his Greek heritage, seemed to be a ringer for this competition.

One story that Pete told me about Calico Days was of the time that a number of his friends got dressed in their Western gear and rode to the Harvey House.

A passenger train would pull in and the posse greeted them with many whoops, hollers and shots in the air from their guns. Most of the passengers ran back into the trains in fright, getting their fill of the real Wild West.


Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Backward Glance by Steve Smith
Olympian finds wife in Barstow, future in teaching

Editor's note: This is the second of two parts about Pete Clentzos, an Olympian who lived in Barstow.

Pete Clentzos's time in Barstow changed him in several ways.

He met his wife, Helen, in Barstow. Helen was a grade-school teacher in town.

In a Greek coincidence, Helen was originally from Troy, N.Y., so the Greek boy, Pete, achieved the thousand of years old dream of marrying "Helen of Troy," and it didn't even take a war. Helen passed away in 1985.

As it did for everyone at that time, Pearl Harbor Day, December 7, 1941 affected the Clentzos' life. Pete realized he would be drafted, so he joined instead and left Barstow. He was stationed at Santa Ana Air Base. He later enrolled in officer training.

The Army was wise in Pete's case and let him do what he did best, teach physical education. While he was teaching troops he used to hurry them up with his trademark cry of "Hubba, Hubba." Soldiers picked it up and took the phrase all over the world. To this day, Pete proudly claims that he invented "Hubba Hubba."

He was in the military for four years, 1942-1946, and afterward he moved to Pasadena. He and his brother-in-law built two houses to live in on the same lot and Pete still lives in his Japanese influenced house. Even though the decor of the house is mainly Japanese-inspired there is still a lot Greek decor on the walls.

He continued his teaching career, teaching and coaching at Roosevelt High School in Los Angeles from 1946-1959. In 1959 he was boys' vice principal at Narbonne High School and finished his teaching career at Franklin High School as an assistant principal from 1959-1974.

Of course, after he retired in 1974 he did not take this as a sign to slow down. He participated in or contributed to many local sports and service organizations.

One of the more interesting projects he worked on was one for the State Department. In 1979 he organized a 15-man team of coaches to give workshops to athletes in China. One of the venues they worked in will be used in the 2008 Olympics.

When the Olympics came back to Los Angeles in 1984, he had to be a part of it. He was assigned the job of deputy manager of track and field officials.

He has had his hand in many aspects of the 2004 games. He was a member of the committee that attempted to get the games to Greece in 1996 that Atlanta won.

This year he carried the torch for 400 yards and handed it off in front of his beloved Memorial Coliseum. He had the choice to carry it into Dodgers Stadium but he chose his route because it was in the area he taught at Roosevelt High School. A number of his students showed up and cheered him on with cries of "Hubba Hubba." When we visited with Pete he gave us a rare treat to actually hold the torch he carried.

We visited with Pete on Aug. 5. He was getting ready to go to the Athens games on that Friday with his son, Pete Jr. He isn't just going to see the games. he is an honored guest.

On the Saturday after he arrived he was honored by a reception thrown by the American ambassador to Greece. He also received the key to Athens from the mayor.

When I asked him about the secret to his long life he said, "Exercise. Life is meant to be active. It's work, but it's worth it." He still runs a half mile almost every day. He has a weekly exercise schedule at a local gym. After we visited him he was going for a swim. He is also an avid golfer and runs the golf competition for a the Pasadena Senior Olympics.

He also keeps a strict diet that predominantly consists of fruits and vegetables with some chicken and fish and very little red meat.

Pete Clentzos still has fond memories and ties to our area. A number of his students and players, like Lowell Larson, are still in contact with him and he writes to them and sends cards regularly.

STEVE SMITH

Is vice president of the Mojave River Valley Museum

Backward Glance, by Steve Smith (part one)

Backward Glance, by Steve Smith (part two)

See also:

Pete Clentzos

Kythera Connections
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People, Life Stories
Island Social Life

Kythera and the Gerokomio

Tom Coroneos, a fellow Kytherian and world traveler from Oakland, California, spent two months on the island of Kythera in 2001. During the month of September, he rented an apartment across the street from the gerokomio (old folks home) in Potamos. Each morning, he would walk across the street with his boom box and play CDs for the old folks. Little by little they became great friends and companions. Tom was especially received by a white haired gentleman named Nikos Bernardos.
On the links to these webpages are video clips from the times he spent with the people from the gerokomio.

Kythera and the Gerokomio

Chrysoula

Maria

Lady in Red

Greek Dancing

Agia Moni

Kythera Photos

See also:

Kythera Connections
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Photos, Island Social Life
Modern Portraits

Alfiers Cousins

This photo was taken in Daphni in June 2005 our last night in Athens.
Back row: Vikki Vrettos Fraiol from California (grand-daughter of Yiannis and Maria Alfieris), Elspie and Stergios Kanaropoulos from Athens, (great-grand-children of Vrettos and Marigo Alfieris, and their mother Martha Georgopoulos (grand-daughter of Vrettos Alfieris.
Front row; Jamie, Tommy and Tom Fraioli, from California.

See also:

Three Alfieris cousins meet in Athens

Wedding of Vrettos Alfieris and Marigo Theodorakaki

John and Maria Alflieris approximately 1903

To see Martha's parents see Agia Pelagia 1951

Kythera Connections
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Photos, Modern Portraits
Modern Portraits

Three Alfieris cousins meet in Athens

This photo was taken at a restaurant in Athens in June 2005. From left to right: Martha Georgopoulos from Athens (grand-daughter of Vrettos Alfieris), Katherine Alfieris Stathis from Livermore, California, and Vikki Vrettos Fraioli, from Modesto, California (grand-daughters of Yiannis Alfieris)

See also:

Alfieris Cousins

Wedding of Vrettos Alfieris and Marigo Theodorakaki

John and Maria Alflieris approximately 1903

To see Martha's parents see Agia Pelagia 1951

Kythera Connections
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Photos, Modern Portraits
Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People

Alfieris Family in Kythera 1951

This photograph was taken when my grandparents, Yiannis and Marigo Alfieris, went back to Kythera for the baptism of Yiannis' grand nephew in 1951. Yiannis and Marigo immigrated to the USA via Alexandria, Egypt in 1906.

From left to right seated: Yiannis Alfieris (1883-1966), Marigo Chlentzos Alfieris (1883-1968), Marigo (Theodorakakis) Alfieris with Takis "Felias" Georgopoulos on her lap, Vrettos Alfieris (1890-1974), and Maria Alfieris Vamvakaris ''koumoulitses.''

Standing from left to right; Regina Vamvakaris, Stelios Megaloconomos, Manoli Alfieris (1925-2004), Stavros Stellios, Spiridoula Alfieris Georgopolous (1929), Niko "Felias" Georgopoulos.

Children seated from left to right:
Jimmy Sofios
Giorgos Lazos
Matina Skiatha Petrochilos
Elizabeth Lazos


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Kythera Connections

Wedding of Vrettos Alfieris and Marigo Theodorakaki
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Diaspora Weddings and Proxenia

Wedding of Vrettos Alfieris and Marigo Cordato (Theodorakakis)

This is a photo of the wedding of Vrettos Alfieris (1890-1974) to
Marigo Cordato (Theodorakakis).
They married in Dubbo, Australia on August 4, 1922.

Back row standing from left to right:

Anthony Cordato (Theodorakakis), brother of the bride
Jim Cordato (Theodorakakis), brother of the bride
Evangelos Chlentzos (Balos), koumbaro
Stavros Stellio, brother-in-law of the bride
unknown woman
and Kirakos Cordato (Theodorakakis), brother of the bride.

Front row from left to right:

Anthi Cordato (nee Minoucos), wife of Anthony
Fr. Dimitris Marinakis
Vrettos Alfieris & Marigo Theodorakakis
Spiridoula Alfieris (nee Argiris) (1855-1927), mother of the groom
Emmanuel Alfieris, brother of the groom,
and unknown woman

Seated child in the sailor suit is Manual Cordato, son of Anthi and Anthony

 

Other child unknown

Help identifying others in the photograph would be appreciated.

See also:

Vrettos Alfieris at Agios Theodoros

Vrettos & Marigo Alfieris with Stavroula Gouveri in Potamos

Kythera Connections

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Photos, Diaspora Weddings and Proxenia
Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People

Zafeiria Koroneos Alfieris, and son Angelo Alfieris

Zafeiria Koroneos (1890-1949) married Panayiotis Alfieris (1882-1934) in 1910 in Egypt. They had 8 children, all born in Cairo; Evangelos (pictured above), Margarita, George, Spyros, Stella, Katina, and Demetrios. Margarita, George and Spyros died as infants. Stella and Katina married Englshmen and immigrated to the UK. Demetrios and Evangelos lived in Australia and Greece.
Panayiotis was the son of George Alfieris (1860- ? ) and Spirithoula (Argyri) Alfieris (1855-1927). Panayiotis and his brothers, along with their father went to Alexandria, Egypt in the early 1900's. His brother John Alfieris (1883-1966), immigrated to the USA in 1906. Other Alfieris brothers immigrated to Australia.

See also:
Kythera Connections
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Photos, Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People
Island Social Life

Woman holding scale at Potamos Sunday Bazarre

This image is part of a photographic documentary series entitled “One Year on Kythera”. “One Year on Kythera” was created by photographer Kristina Williamson, who spent one calender year living on Kythera, documenting the lives of Kytherians today; what aspects of traditional life remain in practice and in what ways the island is changing.

To view more of her work or to purchase photographic prints please visit her website at:www.kristinawilliamson.com
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Photos, Island Social Life
Island Social Life

Tis Nyfes

Apokreas celebration in Potamos 2005

This image is part of a photographic documentary series entitled “One Year on Kythera”. “One Year on Kythera” was created by photographer Kristina Williamson, who spent one calender year living on Kythera, documenting the lives of Kytherians today; what aspects of traditional life remain in practice and in what ways the island is changing.

To view more of her work or to purchase photographic prints please visit her website at:www.kristinawilliamson.com
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Photos, Island Social Life
Island Social Life

Magus

Apocreas parade in potamos 2005

This image is part of a photographic documentary series entitled “One Year on Kythera”. “One Year on Kythera” was created by photographer Kristina Williamson, who spent one calender year living on Kythera, documenting the lives of Kytherians today; what aspects of traditional life remain in practice and in what ways the island is changing.

To view more of her work or to purchase photographic prints please visit her website at:www.kristinawilliamson.com
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Photos, Island Social Life
Modern Portraits

Panayiotis' General Store in Potamos

This image is part of a photographic documentary series entitled “One Year on Kythera”. “One Year on Kythera” was created by photographer Kristina Williamson, who spent one calender year living on Kythera, documenting the lives of Kytherians today; what aspects of traditional life remain in practice and in what ways the island is changing.

To view more of her work or to purchase photographic prints please visit her website at:www.kristinawilliamson.com
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Photos, Modern Portraits
Island Social Life

Dance at Potamos, August 15th

This image is part of a photographic documentary series entitled “One Year on Kythera”. “One Year on Kythera” was created by photographer Kristina Williamson, who spent one calender year living on Kythera, documenting the lives of Kytherians today; what aspects of traditional life remain in practice and in what ways the island is changing.

To view more of her work or to purchase photographic prints please visit her website at:www.kristinawilliamson.com
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Photos, Island Social Life
Modern Portraits

The Potamos Baker

This image is part of a photographic documentary series entitled “One Year on Kythera”. “One Year on Kythera” was created by photographer Kristina Williamson, who spent one calender year living on Kythera, documenting the lives of Kytherians today; what aspects of traditional life remain in practice and in what ways the island is changing.

To view more of her work or to purchase photographic prints please visit her website at:www.kristinawilliamson.com
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Photos, Modern Portraits
Sporting Life

Ted Minas Panaretos world record holder

My first Cousin,Ted Minas Panaretos, Detroit ,Michigan. Son of Minas Theodoros Panaretos. 5 Mile competition hydroplane. World record holder, 89.012 MPH, in the mid 60's

***Winner of the GND 2006 Coroneos ("Belos") Prize, for for Best Sporting Life entry - any subject***

The winner is, James Gavrile for this photograph of Ted Minas Panertos, World record holder.

The Committee recognises that James Gavriles has made numerous contributions to the web-site, in various categories, and thank him very much for his ongoing support of the kythera-family.net web site***
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Photos, Sporting Life
Guestbook

Stacey T Gavrily - Sydney, Australia

Vale Theodore William Gavrily: Born Narrabri NSW 11/12/1924 - Died Manly, Australia 28/8/04.
Finally I have registered more than 12 months after Dad's passing. As it is when a patriarch leaves us, we struggle to recall what was such a familiar past when spoken so fondly by the man himself.
It is difficult to remember the many names of Dad's friends that were a great part of country NSW/Qld community last century. It didn't matter which country town I mentioned, Dad knew someone, a Kytherian inveriably, with a story or two to tell. I'm sure that some stories have been passed on to the next generation and we can share a rich & proud past with our kids.
It would be greatly appreciated that if you or your parents knew of Theo and want to share any good stories with me or simply say gidday.
Next time I log on I will tell you the one about the Greek who caused the match factory to strike!
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Guestbook
Diaspora Social Life

Vikki (Chlentzos-Alfieris) Vrettos and Tom Fraioli and family.

The photo was taken while vacationing in Zakynthos, Greece in June 2005. Pictured are Tom, Jamie, Vikki and Tommy Fraioli. The Fraioli famly resides in California.

Vikki's grandmother was Maria Venardos Chlentzos Alfieris (1882-1968), from Christoforyiankia. She decends from Manoli Venardos and Martha Koroneos and Panatiotis Chlentzos and Theodora Sofios.

Vikki's grandfather was Yiannis Giorgos Alfieris (1882-1966) from Potamos. He decends from Giorgos Alfieris and Spirithoula Argyris.
Yiannis and Maria immigrated to Egypt then to the USA in 1906.

See also:

Kythera Connections

John and Maria Alflieris approximately 1903

Please contact me with any information on relatives of these families.
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Photos, Diaspora Social Life
Documents

Silver Platter. ABC Cafe, Gilgandra. Stavros (Stan) Baveas. 1920's.

The Gilgandra Historical Society is in possession of a number of "Baveas" platters - at least two of which are on permanent display in Gilgandra' Museums.

The Serving Tray is inscribed:
With Compliments From
The ABC Cafe
S Baveas
Gilgandra
Choice fruit and Confectionery,
American Soda Fountain Drinks &
Delicious Ices
Afternoon Tea Always Ready

This platter is on display at the Gilgandra Rural Museum.

Gilgandra Rural Museum

The second platter is, among other realia from Kytherian cafes and shops in Gilgandra, on display at the Coo-ee Heritage Centre.

Baveas platter at the Coo-ee Heritage Centre

The platter dates from the mid-1920's.

Stavros, known as Stan Baveas established the ABC Cafe in Gilgandra/

The Baveas's history of ownership of the ABC unfolds like this:

Stavros Con Baveas, left Potamos, Kythera as a 20 year old in 1908. He spent a few years as a cook for the Cordatos' in Dubbo, prior to establishing the ABC Cafe in Gilgandra in 1910. Stavros Baveas ran the ABC for the next 17 years, with assistance from his brothers and his nephew Con Coroneos. In the 1916 census, he is listed as a Restauranteur and his brother, Sotiros Baveas, aged 31, is listed as a cook, in Gligandra. The ABC then passed to a H. Baveas, who ran it for two years.

Stavros was a civic leader in Gilgandra, and was a great benefactor to the town. He sponsored many sporting activities, and Clubs, including the Gilgandra Motor Cycle Club

Photo-plaque awarded to Stavros Baveas by the Gilgandra Motor Cycle Club as a token of gratitude

In 1928, Stavros sold the ABC Cafe to Emmanuel Theo Peter Georgopoulos, pronounced "Yeoryopoulos" - Manuel Poulos.

In 1934, Manuel asked his sister Chrisannthe, "Chris", to leave Potamos, Kythera, to come to Australia, and help him run the ABC Cafe. In 1939, in a trip to Bombala, Chris met, fell in love with, and subsequently married, Paul Kelly (Yiannakellis), originally from Mytilene (Lesbos).

Meanwhile, Stavros returned to Kythera, and remained on the island.

Biography of Stavros Baveas

Gilgandra. NSW. The Kytherian presence in the town. PART ONE.

Two of Stavros's daughters. Potamos school. 1947
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History, Documents
Diaspora Social Life

Proud grandmother with her grandsons.

Stella is holding latest grandson, Hamish Jack Aird, and is flanked by older grandsons, Nicholas and Toby Beed; the sons of Eleyna Beed (nee, Aird), Stella's second oldest daughter.

Hamish was born on 14.10.05.

Parents of the baby are Jonathan and Michelle Aird.

Jonathon is the only son of proud parent [holding the baby], Stella Aird (nee, Kelly), and David Aird, originally from Scotland.

Stella, in turn, is the daughter Chris(anthe) Kelly (nee, Yeoryopoulos), from Potamos, Kythera.

Chris and her husband, Paul Kelly, owned the ABC Cafe, Gilgandra, for many decades.
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Photos, Diaspora Social Life
Diaspora Social Life

Hamish Jack Aird, with cousins, Nicholas and Toby Beed.

Hamish Jack Aird was born 14.10.05.

Nicholas and Toby are the sons of Eleyna Beed (nee, Aird), daughter of David and Stella Aird.

The parents of the baby are Jonathan and Michelle Aird.

Jonathon is the only son of proud parents Stella Aird (nee, Kelly), and David Aird, originally from Scotland.

Stella, in turn, is the daughter of Chris(anthe) Kelly (nee, Yeoryopoulos), from Potamos, Kythera.

Chris and her husband, Paul Kelly, owned the ABC Cafe, Gilgandra, for many decades.
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Diaspora Social Life

Proud father Jonathon, with his mates and his Dad.

Celebrate the birth of Hamish Jack Aird.

Hamish was born on 14.10.05.

Hamish's mother is Michelle.

Jonathon is 2nd from the right in the photograph. [White checked shirt].

Jonathon is the only son of proud parents Stella Aird (nee, Kelly), and David Aird, originally from Scotland.

David Aird is standing on the far left hand side in the photograph.

Stella, David's wife, is the daughter of Chris(anthe) Kelly (nee, Yeoryopoulos), from Potamos, Kythera.

Chris and her husband, Paul Kelly, owned the ABC Cafe, Gilgandra, for many decades.
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Diaspora Social Life

Hamish Jack Aird, with cousin ..........Ulgiati.

Hamish was born on 14.10.05.

Parents are Jonathan and Michelle Aird.

Ms Ulgiati is the daughter of Eleyna and Jonathon's elder sister, Kristi.

Father of Hamish, Jonathon, is the only son of proud parents Stella Aird (nee, Kelly), and David Aird, originally from Scotland.

Stella, in turn, is the daughter of Chris(anthe) Kelly (nee, Yeoryopoulos), from Potamos, Kythera.

Chris and her husband, Paul Kelly, owned the ABC Cafe, Gilgandra, for many decades.
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Photos, Diaspora Social Life
Diaspora Social Life

Hamish Jack Aird, held by aunty Eleyna Beed (nee, Aird).

Hamish was born 14.10.05

Parents are Jonathan and Michelle Aird.

Hamish is flanked by cousins, Georgia & Isabella Ulgiati [who are the daughters of Eleyna and Jonathon's elder sister, Kristi], and Eleyna's sons, Nicholas and Toby Beed.

Proud grandad, David Aird, is standing (obscured) on the left hand side of the photograph.

Father of Hamish, Jonathon, is the only son of proud parents Stella Aird (nee, Kelly), and David Aird, originally from Scotland.

Stella, in turn, is the daughter of Chris(anthe) Kelly (nee, Yeoryopoulos), from Potamos, Kythera.

Chris and her husband, Paul Kelly, owned the ABC Cafe, Gilgandra, for many decades.
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Photos, Diaspora Social Life
Diaspora Social Life

Hamish Jack Aird.

Born 14.10.05

Parents of the baby are Jonathan and Michelle Aird.

Jonathon is the only son of proud parents Stella Aird (nee, Kelly), and David Aird, originally from Scotland.

Stella, in turn, is the daughter of Chris(anthe) Kelly (nee, Yeoryopoulos), from Potamos, Kythera.

Chris and her husband, Paul Kelly, owned the ABC Cafe, Gilgandra, for many decades.
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Photos, Diaspora Social Life
Diaspora Social Life

Stella Aird (nee, Kelly), with Hamish Jack Aird.

Born 14.10.05

Parents of the baby are Jonathan and Michelle Aird.

Jonathon is the only son of proud parent [holding the baby], Stella Aird (nee, Kelly), and David Aird, originally from Scotland.

Stella, in turn, is the daughter Chris(anthe) Kelly (nee, Yeoryopoulos), from Potamos, Kythera.

Chris and her husband, Paul Kelly, owned the ABC Cafe, Gilgandra, for many decades.
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Photos, Diaspora Social Life
Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People

Kyrani Chlentzos Katsoulis (1874- ?) with grandson Kostaki Chlentzos

Kyrani Chlentzos was the daughter of Efrocene (Venardos) and Haralambos Chlentzos. She was married to George Katsoulis. She had a son Mitso (aka Jim Kastele, who immigrated to Australia, then the USA), and four daughters; Areti who married Dimitri Sofios; Rigoula who married ? Papalianos; and Pascalia who married ? S. Eftimios.

If anyone has information on these families,
Email Vikki Fraioli

See also Grigoria Chlentzos with children Viola, Anna, and Kostaki
and Kythera Connections
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Photos, Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People
Vintage Portraits/ People

Kythera 1951

Top left in the back of the truck from left to right is my grandfather, Ioannis Alfieris (1882-1966 Potamos-USA), his wife Maria's sister Kiriani Chlentzos Katsulis. The others I do not know. If anyone recognizes the other people in this photo, please email me.
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Photos, Vintage Portraits/ People
Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People

Emmanuel Alfieris & Lukia Fardouli on their wedding day 1931

From left to right top row:
Panayiotis Vamvakaris (husband of Marigo Alfieris);

Emmanuel & Lukia; Marigo Theodorakakis (Cordato) Alfieris (wife of Vrettos Giorgos Alfieris);

Minas Vamvakaris (son of Panayiotis Vamvakaris)

Bottom row: Spyridoula Vamvakaris (daughter of Panyiotis);

Katina Alfieris (daughter of Panayiotis Giorgos Alfieris);

Marigo Vamvakariis;

Marigo Kalogridis (mother of Lukia);

and Panayiotos Koroneos (brother of Marigo Kalogridis)

See also:

Kythera Connections
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Photos, Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People
Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People

Stavros Baveas II

Stavros Baveas, Notable Kytherian

(Tears fill the eyes of Anastasia Baveas as she talks, much moved, of one of the greatest men she ever knew, her father.)
Stavros Baveas left Kythera, like many Greek men of his time, at a very young age to work in Australia. In his first years there he worked on a farm owned by the Kordatou family, and later, having saved up enough from his wages he opened his own establishment, the ABC café. He was a hardworking man, honest and willing and people loved him for it. Like many Kytherians in Australia, having reaped the fruits of his labours he was very generous, his love for sport got him interested in many athletic organizations whom he also supported financially, and apart from various smaller donations to many others in need he also financed a hospital wing in the country that had been so good to him. He became a well known and beloved benefactor.
He returned to Kythera a rich man in 1932, having brought a house in Athens he then proceeded to build on his families land, creating an ultra modern – for the times – villa with a large garden and a mill. He also opened the first bakery in Potamos. He deposited the rest of his earnings in the bank… and lost everything to the depression of 1938, but this did not stop him from giving out all the food supplies left in the bakery that he had to close to anyone in need, both to less fortunate families and to any suffering from ill health.
Once more, Stavros found himself on the verge of hunger and forced to work for his living. Meanwhile he had married a girl from Karavas, and by her had in due course four children, a boy Kostas, two girls Anastasia and Erifili, and one more boy, Vaggelis. He worked hard again, labouring in the fields to keep himself and his family alive. His wife died young, and he himself, having succeeded in raising the children by himself, died in 1967 due to a stroke. He was buried in the family tomb that he had erected himself in the Potamos cemetery.
Later, his daughters, while arranging his belongings, came across various receipts in an old chest belonging to their father, receipts that showed them that the generosity he had been used to show in Australia had continued as long as was possible on his return to Greece. The Kytherian church Myrtidiotissa in Neo Faliro, Athens, owes all its silver to Stavros, and the Ilariotissa in Potamos its throne and golden icon.
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Photos, Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People
Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People

Stavros Baveas

Stavros Baveas, Notable Kytherian

(Tears fill the eyes of Anastasia Baveas as she talks, much moved, of one of the greatest men she ever knew, her father.)
Stavros Baveas left Kythera, like many Greek men of his time, at a very young age to work in Australia. In his first years there he worked on a farm owned by the Kordatou family, and later, having saved up enough from his wages he opened his own establishment, the ABC café. He was a hardworking man, honest and willing and people loved him for it. Like many Kytherians in Australia, having reaped the fruits of his labours he was very generous, his love for sport got him interested in many athletic organizations whom he also supported financially, and apart from various smaller donations to many others in need he also financed a hospital wing in the country that had been so good to him. He became a well known and beloved benefactor.
He returned to Kythera a rich man in 1932, having brought a house in Athens he then proceeded to build on his families land, creating an ultra modern – for the times – villa with a large garden and a mill. He also opened the first bakery in Potamos. He deposited the rest of his earnings in the bank… and lost everything to the depression of 1938, but this did not stop him from giving out all the food supplies left in the bakery that he had to close to anyone in need, both to less fortunate families and to any suffering from ill health.
Once more, Stavros found himself on the verge of hunger and forced to work for his living. Meanwhile he had married a girl from Karavas, and by her had in due course four children, a boy Kostas, two girls Anastasia and Erifili, and one more boy, Vaggelis. He worked hard again, labouring in the fields to keep himself and his family alive. His wife died young, and he himself, having succeeded in raising the children by himself, died in 1967 due to a stroke. He was buried in the family tomb that he had erected himself in the Potamos cemetery.
Later, his daughters, while arranging his belongings, came across various receipts in an old chest belonging to their father, receipts that showed them that the generosity he had been used to show in Australia had continued as long as was possible on his return to Greece. The Kytherian church Myrtidiotissa in Neo Faliro, Athens, owes all its silver to Stavros, and the Ilariotissa in Potamos its throne and golden icon.
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Photos, Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People
Notable Kytherians

Stavros (Stan) Baveas. Σταύρος Μπαβέας

[[picture:"Baveas Stavros 1.jpg" ID:8788]]

Stavros Baveas

(Tears fill the eyes of Anastasia Baveas as she talks, much moved, of one of the greatest men she ever knew, her father.)

Stavros Baveas left Kythera, like many Greek men of his time, at a very young age to work in Australia. In his first years there he worked on a farm owned by the Kordatou family, and later, having saved up enough from his wages he opened his own establishment, the ABC café. He was a hardworking man, honest and willing and people loved him for it. Like many Kytherians in Australia, having reaped the fruits of his labours he was very generous, his love for sport got him interested in many athletic organizations whom he also supported financially, and apart from various smaller donations to many others in need he also financed a hospital wing in the country that had been so good to him. He became a well known and beloved benefactor.
He returned to Kythera a rich man in 1932, having brought a house in Athens he then proceeded to build on his families land, creating an ultra modern – for the times – villa with a large garden and a mill. He also opened the first bakery in Potamos. He deposited the rest of his earnings in the bank… and lost everything to the depression of 1938, but this did not stop him from giving out all the food supplies left in the bakery that he had to close to anyone in need, both to less fortunate families and to any suffering from ill health.
Once more, Stavros found himself on the verge of hunger and forced to work for his living. Meanwhile he had married a girl from Karavas, and by her had in due course four children, a boy Kostas, two girls Anastasia and Erifili, and one more boy, Vaggelis. He worked hard again, labouring in the fields to keep himself and his family alive. His wife died young, and he himself, having succeeded in raising the children by himself, died in 1967 due to a stroke. He was buried in the family tomb that he had erected himself in the Potamos cemetery.
Later, his daughters, while arranging his belongings, came across various receipts in an old chest belonging to their father, receipts that showed them that the generosity he had been used to show in Australia had continued as long as was possible on his return to Greece. The Kytherian church Myrtidiotissa in Neo Faliro, Athens, owes all its silver to Stavros, and the Ilariotissa in Potamos its throne and golden icon.

[[picture:"Baveas Stavros 2.jpg" ID:8789]]


Gilgandra. NSW. The Kytherian presence in the town. PART ONE.

Stavros established the ABC Cafe in Gilgandra.

Baveas ABC Cafe platter at the Coo-ee Heritage Centre

Baveas ABC Cafe platter, at Gilgandra Rural Museum

Gilgandra Rural Museum

Stavros was a civic leader in Gilgandra, and was a great benefactor to the town. He sponsored many sporting activities, and Clubs, including the Gilgandra Motor Cycle Club

Photo-plaque awarded to Stavros Baveas by the Gilgandra Motor Cycle Club as a token of gratitude

Two of Stavros's daughters. Potamos school. 1947
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People, Notable Kytherians
Associations

USA. New York. Kythira Association of New York

[[picture:"KAANY.jpg" ID:17861]]

NEW YORK, NEW YORK
 

President:Tina Dapontes Damiris

Vice President: Joe Ponte

Treasurer: Kathy Patakis-Schenker

Secretary: Anna Stratigos-Formont

The Secretary - Anna Stratigos-Formont,
can be contacted via email here

[[picture:"KAANY2.jpg" ID:17862]]

Historical Background

The Kythira Association of New York was formed in 1919 with Stefanos Fatseas as its first president. He owned the Rockasy Restaurant at 42nd Street (P. Panaretos, 2001).

Committee of the Grand Mask & Civic Ball, c.1919.

[[picture:"Palies Association2 001.jpg" ID:20205]]

Photograph: Kytherian Celebration and Dinner, Hotel Empire, New York, Sept 29. 1946

[[picture:"image.jpg" ID:20228]]

Photograph: At the Ship-A-Hoy, just before leaving to atten the Kythira Ball at Riverside Plaza. 1940

In 2001 there were approximately 500 members.

They gather to cut the Vasilopita at a picnic by the sea. They hold a yearly dance and have artoclasia on September 24th each year. They participate in the March 25 parade on 5th Avenue, carrying along the Kytherian labarum. They donated the icon of Panaghia Myrtidiotisa and placed it in a beautiful throne in the Holy Trinity Cathedral in New York.

Their descendants are well-educated and have become medical doctors, attorneys, successful financiers and business persons.

The U.S. ambassador to Greece is a member of New York's Kytherian Society in that his parents were from the village of Kalamos.

There is a provision in the Society's constitution to provide assistance to the sick and the poor of Kytherian descent. The Society pays for doctors' bills, funeral expenses and even transportation of deceased bodies for burial in Kythera.

Background History

History of Migration

From the geocities site:

http://us.geocities.com/raissis/genea4.html

The early American migration pattern is in sharp contrast with the Australian experience; here early Greek settlement tended more to collective enterprise rather than the cumulative effect of individual adventures; eg. 1,400 Greeks founded the communal settlement of New Smyrna in the colony of Florida as early as 1768. Nevertheless, there was still only a small number of Greeks in the USA until the world wide depression of the 1890's turned the trickle of Greek migration into a flood. Between 1890 and 1900, 16,000 Greeks entered the country, a mere 1,400 of whom settled in New York which, even so, had only previously been home to no more than about 100. However, by 1893 there were sufficient numbers to support the establishment of New York's first Greek fraternal organization, the Brotherhood of Athena.

Like other immigrants, the Greeks came to North America to find a better life; they emigrated because of economic necessity, the lack of opportunity in their homeland, or to escape the repression of local governmental officials. Their aim was to make money and return to their homeland and, as a result, until 1910 almost all Greek immigrants were primarily male. But despite their original intentions most did not return and instead remained in the United States and raised families.

Between 1900 and 1915 close to 25% of all Greek males between the ages of 15 and 45 departed for America. By 1913 20,000 of them had chosen to settle in New York, amongst whom was the small Kytherian community which formed the Kytherian Brotherhood of New York in 1917. Twenty four other regional groups had formed Greek fraternal organizations in New York by 1911 which precluded achieving the dominance which the Kytherians achieved in Sydney.

With continuing mass migration and the influx of Asia Minor refugees, nearly 400,000 Greeks had arrived in the USA by 1924. Most entered the food catering trades but unlike Australia a greater proportion also moved into other fields such as construction, taxi cabs, dock laboring and the fur and hotel industries. A steady stream continued in the ensuing decades and by the outbreak of WW2 over 53,000 Greek-Americans were recorded in New York city alone, of whom over 50% were Greek born. By the late 1940's New York had overtaken Chicago as the home to the largest Greek American community in North America.

Strong family ties, fervent Greek nationalism, hard work and upward mobility have been the dominant traits of the Greek immigrant of New York city. Beginning with little capital, thousands entered the American middle class with amazing rapidity. As in Australia, they generally did not make a life career of working for wages but sought to own their own independent businesses as soon as possible.

Today New York city is home to at least 500,000 Greek-Americans, is the headquarters of the Greek Archdiocese of North and South America, has two Greek language daily papers and a plethora of weekly and monthly publications, and is home to hundreds of Greek fraternal, professional, educational, social and religious groups. For a more detailed history of the Greek-American community of New York visit the

"Vryonis Centre" http://www.glavx.org/

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Culture, Associations
Diaspora Social Life

George and Alexandra Protopsaltis's backyard. The longer view. Olive trees are

...still (2005) visible in the backyard of the their then Gilgandra home, 7 Morris Street, Gilgandra.

A member of the Jehovah's Witnesses now lives in the house, and he kindly allowed me into the backyard to take photographs.

The configuration of the backyard is very different to the one that prevailed from the 1950-1975 when the Psaltis family lived there.

A very large almond tree which dominated the front centre of the backyard, is no longer there. Nor is George and Alexandra's vegetable garden, with its various demarcated areas.

However I do remember a number of olive trees - some towards the rear fence - 2 of which are still there.

These are depicted in this photograph.

My guess is that these two olive trees were planted by George (Proto)Psaltis when he first moved into 7 Morris Street.

They are, like those of Jack Pentes gigantic by Kythera, Greek, and European standards.

In another entry about the Monterey Cafe in Gilgandra, I revealed that "...I was born in Gilgandra, in 1952, and left after completing my schooling in 1969.

The Kytherian presence in Gilgandra began in 1910, with the Baveas family establishing the ABC Cafe in the town.

A comprehensive history of the Kytherian presence in Gilgandra

From about the end of WWII, until mid-1975 - Gilgandra, population, 2,900 - became a very Kytherian town.

5 families - the Pentes, Sklavos, Kelly (Koumokellie), Psaltis (Protopsaltis), and Poulos (Tzortzopoulos) - lived in close proximity to each other - culturally, residentially, and commercially.

In the main, Kytherians embraced Kytherians - Gilgandra embraced Kytherians - and Kytherians embraced Gilgandra".

During the middle of the year 2004, I took my father, now 88 years old, on a nostalgia tour, back to Gilgandra, and through other towns in the Central and North West of New South Wales.

Not a single person of Kytherian origin now lives in Gilgandra.

Elsewhere I have also spoken about the olive-ization of Australia. This is part of that same phenomenon.

Olive-ization. Hot off the press

Olive-ization of Australia. Swan Valley, Western Australia

Jack Pentes, who ran a store on the intersection of the main street, opposite the Royal Hotel, and lived one street further back, had planted a number of olive trees.

I have outlined the history of Jack's trees in another submission.

Olive trees. Living Memorials to Jack Pentes

The trees on the footpath outside this house in Morris Street, Gilgandra, were planted by Yarni Logothetis, from Logothetyianika, Kythera.

His son, Harry, and daughter-in-law Voula, had purchased the Gilgandra Fruit Shop from their "buzunaki" and brother-in-law Con George Poulos in the early 1970's.

For a few years he came to Australia, and lived in the house with the Logus family.

In a sense you could say that the 2 olive trees are a living memorial to Yarni Logothetis.

Olive trees. Living Memorials to Yarni Logothetis, and other Kytherians in Gilgandra

Similarly, these two gigantic olive trees, which are are more clearly visble at -

George & Alexandra (Proto)Psaltis's Olive trees. 70 years hence.

-are living memorials to George and Alexandra (Proto)Psaltis and family.
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Photos, Diaspora Social Life
Diaspora Social Life

George & Alexandra (Proto)Psaltis's Olive trees. 70 years hence. Gilgandra, NSW.

Still (2005) in the backyard of the their then Gilgandra home, 7 Morris Street, Gilgandra.

A member of the Jehovah's Witnesses now lives in the house, and he kindly allowed me into the backyard to take photographs.

The configuration of the backyard is very different to the one that prevailed from the 1950-1975 when the Psaltis family lived there.

A very large almond tree which dominated the front centre of the backyard, is no longer there. Nor is George and Alexandra's vegetable garden, with its various demarcated areas.

However I do remember a number of olive trees - some towards the rear fence - 2 of which are still there.

These are depicted in this photograph.

My guess is that these two olive trees were planted by George (Proto)Psaltis when he first moved into 7 Morris Street.

They are, like those of Jack Pentes gigantic by Kythera, Greek, and European standards.

In another entry about the Monterey Cafe in Gilgandra, I revealed that "...I was born in Gilgandra, in 1952, and left after completing my schooling in 1969.

The Kytherian presence in Gilgandra began in 1910, with the Baveas family establishing the ABC Cafe in the town.

A comprehensive history of the Kytherian presence in Gilgandra

From about the end of WWII, until mid-1975 - Gilgandra, population, 2,900 - became a very Kytherian town.

5 families - the Pentes, Sklavos, Kelly (Yiannakellis), Psaltis (Protopsaltis), and Poulos (Tzortzopoulos) - lived in close proximity to each other - culturally, residentially, and commercially.

In the main, Kytherians embraced Kytherians - Gilgandra embraced Kytherians - and Kytherians embraced Gilgandra".

During the middle of the year 2004, I took my father, now 88 years old, on a nostalgia tour, back to Gilgandra, and through other towns in the Central and North West of New South Wales.

Not a single person of Kytherian origin now lives in Gilgandra.

Elsewhere I have also spoken about the olive-ization of Australia. This is part of that same phenomenon.

Olive-ization. Hot off the press

Olive-ization of Australia. Swan Valley, Western Australia

Jack Pentes, who ran a store on the intersection of the main street, opposite the Royal Hotel, and lived one street further back, had planted a number of olive trees.

I have outlined the history of Jack's trees in another submission.

Olive trees. Living Memorials to Jack Pentes

The trees on the footpath outside this house in Morris Street, Gilgandra, were planted by Yarni Logothetis, from Logothetyianika, Kythera.

His son, Harry, and daughter-in-law Voula, had purchased the Gilgandra Fruit Shop from their "buzunaki" and brother-in-law Con George Poulos in the early 1970's.

For a few years he came to Australia, and lived in the house with the Logus family.

In a sense you could say that the 2 olive trees are a living memorial to Yarni Logothetis.

Olive trees. Living Memorials to Yarni Logothetis, and other Kytherians in Gilgandra

Similarly, these two gigantic olive trees are are a living memorials to George and Alexandra (Proto)Psaltis and family.
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General History

Gilgandra Cut Price to continue trading.

Gilgandra Weekly, 19th January, 1983.

Following a period of uncertainty over the future of the store Gilgandra Cut Price is to continue trading.

Principals of the store David and Stella Aird and Mrs Chris Kelly told the “Weekly” this week that cut price has been in receivership for the past 2½ years, but finance was obtained just prior to Christmas, and the family feels that, with hard work and the support of the residents of Gilgandra and and District, they will be able to provide a service to the community.

"We will still offer weekly specials, free home delivery service and a phone order service to our customers and we feel we have a lot to offer the residents of Gilgandra".

"The family has been involved with Gilgandra since the 1930’s and we have hopes of a continuation of this good reputation for years to come".

"We have faith in this district and its future and in spite of the present circumstances we feel there are better times ahead for everyone and we are going to do our best to be part of the future of the area".

"The closure of any business house in a small community is a retrograde step so we hope our action will be seen as a confirmation of our faith in the district," Mrs Aird said.
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History, General History
General History

ABC Cafe closes. The end of an era at Gilgandra.

Gilgandra Weekly, 1974.

"I am proud to say that during the 44 years I have been in the cafe, not one local person, young or old, has ever been rude to me."

The speaker is Mrs Chris Kelly, who has operatcd the ABC Cafe at Gigandra since 1934.

In a few weeks the cafe will close its doors for the last time.

The premises wi1l he remodelled and wilI open again as a a Cut Price Food Market operated by Mrs Kelly, her son Theo, and her daughter, StelIa, and son-in-law David.

The cafe was opened in 1908, and is visited by people from throughout the Orana Region, and beyond.

"People come back, year after year,’’ Mrs Kelly said. "There is one family who pass through Gilgandra, who were brought here by their parents when they were children. They now bring their children here when they pass through."

"Sometimes the people don’t buy anything, but they always call in to say hello".
Mrs Kelly said that the ABC Cafe had been one of the busiest in the Central West.

"The pictures used to he on four nights a week and people would come into town by car or sulky and stay for the day," Mrs Kelly recalled.
"They would have morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and supper here. Those days are gone forever."

Mrs Kelly says she will miss the cafe.

"I love people, paricularly young people. The yooung people go away but when they come back to Gilgandra they visit their home and then the next stop is here," she said.
"I am going to miss all the people who came to the cafe; particularly the young people."

The cafe was originally opened by Stan Baveas.

He was later joined by Manuel Poulos, who was then joined by his sister Chris (Mrs Kelly) and a brother, Peter.
Miss Poulos then married Mr Paul KeIly. The cafe was run as a partnership between Mr and Mrs Kelly and Peter Poulos for 30 years, before Peter sold out and went hack to Greece in 1955.

Mr Paul Kelly died in 1971, and the cafe has since been run by Mrs Kelly and her children.
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History, General History
General History

Mrs Chris Kelly. Chris's 50 Years in Gilgandra.

Gilgandra Weekly, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1984.

On October 14, 1934 a 22 year old Greek woman arrived in Gilgandra to work for her brother in the A.B.C. cafe.

Mrs Chris Kelly, then Miss Chris Poulos, had absolutely no knowledge of the language or the customs of this new country.

Mrs Kelly was born on the Greek island of Kythera, and she arrived in Sydney on October 4, before continuing her journey to Gilgandra.

The building in which the Cut Price Supermarket now operates was built by relatives of Mrs Kelly.

In 1926 Mrs Kelly’s brother, Manual, went into partnership with another gentleman (Mr Baveas) but during the 1930’s Manual’s partner decided to return to his home country and sold his share to Manual.

After five and a half years in Australia Mrs Kelly and her brother decided to go on a holiday to Bombala where she met her husband Paul Kelly.
“I remember a favourite story my husband used to tell our children,” said Mrs Kelly. “I was walking down a street in Bombala and Paul was packing bananas in a shop window when he saw me walk past, he instantly fell in love with me.”
‘When I returned to Gilgandra after my holiday Paul came to visit me and we were married six weeks later in Sydney.”

"In 1939 my husband and I bought the paper shop. During that time I had the misfortune of losing my brother, Manual. We owned the paper shop for 12 months, then sold it and went into partnership with my other brother, Peter, with the Cafe"."

Some time later Peter sold his share of the business to my husband and myself and left the district,” Mrs Kelly said.
“Both my husband and I carried the business on until his death in 1971.”

The building continued as a cafe till 1978 and then was converted into the Cut Price Supermarket in partnership with her daughter Stella, and son-in-law David Aird and son Theo who has since left the business and district for Sydney.

“I have seen many changes since being in Gilgandra over the last fifty years,” Mrs Kelly said.

“I have seen drought, the Great Flood, dust storms, but over the last fifteen years many people in the area have built up lovely gardens.”

She continued to say, “I have also seen very very happy times and some sad times. 1 have been happy to live in Gilgandra and the people have been wonderful tome over the years. I have raised my family here, one daughter, Stella (Mrs. Aird) and two sons, George, who now lives in London and Theo who lives in Sydney. I also have four granddaughters and one grandson.”

In the 50 years that Mrs Kelly has been in Gilgandra she has endeared herself to all who have known her for her kindness, understanding and christian ways.
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History, General History
Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People

Alfieris Family in California 1955

Floor: Alice Alfieris Golfes, Florence Alfieris Newton, Athena (wife of Harry Alfieris), Harry Alfieris
Seated: Evangeline Alfieris Vrettos, James K. Vrettos, Delius Newton, John Alfieris, Maria Alfieris
Standing: Harry Golfes, Lula Alfieris, Frances Alfieris (wife of Milton), Milton Alfieris, Argery Golfes (daughter of Alice and Harry. Not pictured is Gus Alfieris.
Maria Alfieris was born in Christoforianika (1884-1968), John Alfieris was born in Potamos (1884-1966) Gus and Lula Alfieris were born in Alexandria, Egypt. The rest of the children were born in Oakland, CA.


a href="http://www.kythera-family.net/en/redirect?nav=117-118&cid=190&did=8464&pageflip=1"_blank">John and Maria Alflieris approximately 1903

Ioannis Giorgos Alfieris 1884-1966

Maria (Chlentzos) Alfieris 1884-1968

Diamantis and Yanoula (Coulentianos) Chlentzos, with sons Bill and Harry

Efrocene (Venardos) Chlentzos

Alfieris Family Trees

See also my website at:

Kythera Connections

On this site there are photo videos and an audio interview, along with many old photographs of the Chlentzos, and Alfieris families. My cousin Terry Chlentzos Kermaris and I spent one afternoon at the home of Tikey and Tedde Zes, in San Jose, CA, where we video-taped Tedde's mother, Stamatoula Mavromatis Chlentzos, as she told us about the people in many of her old photographs from Kythera. Stamatoula just turned 99!
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Photos, Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People
Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People

Yiannis Giorgos Alfieris 1884-1966 & Vrettos Panayiotis Stellios (??)

(right) Yiannis Alfieris (1883-1966) was born in Potamos. His parents were Giorgos Panayiotis Alfieris and Spirithoula Argyri. His paternal grandfather was Panayiotis Alfieris. His paternal grandmothers name is unknown. His maternal grandfather was Yiannis Argyri who carved the “Iero” in the monastary at Agia Moni. It was completed in 1844.
As a teenager Yiannis went to Alexandria, Egypt with his father and brothers. In 1903, he married Maria Chlentzos from Christoforianika. He immigrated to Oakland, CA, USA in 1906, and she followed approximately one year later. There are 101 living descendants of John and Maria living in the USA today, mostly in California.
left: Vrettos Panayiotis Stellios

 

3/18/2018

I had written that the person on the left is Vrettos Panayiotis Stellios, however, now I am uncertain if that is correct. Can anyone help identifying the person on the left?
 

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Photos, Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People
Cafes, Shops & Cinemas

ABC Cafe, Gilgandra. Late 1950's.

"Behind the counter".

Left to Right:

Peter Georgopoulos,

Elesa Lorandos (nee, Fatseas)...my mother)

George Lorandos (Nephew of Paul and Chris Kelly)

???

Paul Kelly

For further information on the ABC cafe:

Robyn Waltons appraisal of my great-uncle and great-auntys', and the ABC Cafe's influence on the town of Gilgandra

A comprehensive history of the Kytherian presence in Gilgandra

ABC cafe in the 1940's
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Photos, Cafes, Shops & Cinemas
Cafes, Shops & Cinemas

ABC Cafe Gilgandra. Late 1950's.

The first cousins. "Behind the counter".

Left to Right:

George Lorandos (Nephew of Paul and Chris Kelly)

Helen Kalos, (nee, Georgopoulos, [Pronounced Yeoryopoulos],

Steve Peroyannakis,

Theo Georgopoulos, (Helens brother).

For further information on the ABC cafe:

Robyn Waltons appraisal of my great-uncle and great-auntys', and the ABC Cafe's influence on the town of Gilgandra

A comprehensive history of the Kytherian presence in Gilgandra

ABC cafe in the 1940's
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Photos, Cafes, Shops & Cinemas
Cafes, Shops & Cinemas

ABC Cafe, Gilgandra. Late 1950's.

"Behind the counter".

Left to Right:

Paul Kelly

Stella Kelly (later, Aird)

George Lorandos (Nephew of Paul and Chris Kelly)

Helen Kalos (Nee Georgopoulos). Helens father, was Peter Georgopoulos.

For further information on the ABC cafe:

Robyn Waltons appraisal of my great-uncle and great-auntys', and the ABC Cafe's influence on the town of Gilgandra

A comprehensive history of the Kytherian presence in Gilgandra

ABC cafe in the 1940's
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Photos, Cafes, Shops & Cinemas
Cafes, Shops & Cinemas

ABC Cafe, Gilgandra. Behind the counter.

Left to Right:

??

Mrs Chris Kelly (nee, Georgopoulos)

George Lorandos (Nephew of Paul and Chris)

Miss Beryl Palmer, (Later to marry Kytherian Nick Belos Coroneos)

Paul Kelly

For further information on the ABC cafe:

Robyn Waltons appraisal of my great-uncle and great-auntys', and the ABC Cafe's influence on the town of Gilgandra

A comprehensive history of the Kytherian presence in Gilgandra

ABC cafe in the 1940's
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Photos, Cafes, Shops & Cinemas
Cafes, Shops & Cinemas

ABC Cafe, Gilgandra. 1940's.

A very luxurious fit-out.

Note the marble-top tables.

It is an almost exact fit-out to the Notaras's Marble Bar Cafe in Grafton, NSW.

Marble Bar Cafe, Grafton, NSW

For further information on the ABC cafe:

Robyn Waltons appraisal of my mothers' and the ABC Cafe's influence on the town of Gilgandra

A comprehensive history of the Kytherian presence in Gilgandra

ABC cafe in the late 1950's, with Paul Kelly and George Lorandos "on the counter"
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Photos, Cafes, Shops & Cinemas
Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People

Kelly family, Gilgandra. Mid 1990's.

Standing

Stella Kelly (nee, Aird).

Theo Kelly
Chrisannthe (Chris) Kelly (nee, Yeoryopoulos, Poulos), from Potamos, Kythera.
George Kelly

Birth order of children - Stella, George, Theo.

I live in Dubbo, George in England, and Theo in Sydney. (2005).

Gilgandra background

My uncle, Emmanuel Theo Peter Georgopoulos, pronounced "Yeoryopoulos" - Manuel Georgopoulos, known as Manuel Poulos, arrived in Australia in 1921. He spent 18 months in West Maitland, 3 years in Kempsey, 1 year in Casino, with brother Peter, before returning to West Maitland, in early 1927. He then moved to Kempsey for about 12-18 months, were he worked for the Motte Bros, and then returned for a short time to Casino. In 1928, he aquired the ABC cafe, at Gilgandra.

In 1934 Manuel wrote to Mum in Potamos, Kythera, asking her to join him in Gilgandra, Australia, to come and help run the ABC Cafe. She acceded to his request.

In 1939, in a trip to Bombala, Mum met, fell in love with, and soon married Paul Yiannakellis - abbreviated to Kelly. Dad was from the Greek island of Mytilene, also known as Lesbos, which lies in the eastern Aegean Sea, near Turkey. The wedding of Paul and Chris was one of Australia's "celebrity" weddings of the 1930's, and was covered intensively and extensively by Movietone News. CD and DVD copies of the original Movietone coverage have survived.

Mum and Dad assumed control of the ABC Cafe in 1939.

Dad died suddenly and unexpectedly on the 3rd of May 1961.

Mum remained in business in Gilgandra until the 1980's.

For a photograph of Kelly family 1954

For, Robyn Waltons appraisal of my mothers' and the ABC Cafe's influence on the town of Gilgandra

For a comprehensive history of the Kytherian presence in Gilgandra

ABC cafe in the 1940's

ABC cafe in the late 1950's, with Paul Kelly and George Lorandos "on the counter"
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Photos, Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People
Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People

The Kelly Family, Gilgandra, 1954.

Left to Right

Chrisannthe (Chris) Kelly (nee, Yeoryopoulos, Poulos), from Potamos, Kythera.
Theo Kelly
Paul ((Yianna)Kelly, originally from Mytilene,(Lesbos)
George Kelly
Stella Kelly (later, Aird).

Birth order of children - Stella, George, Theo.

My uncle, Emmanuel Theo Peter Georgopoulos, pronounced "Yeoryopoulos" - Manuel Georgopoulos, known as Manuel Poulos, arrived in Australia in 1921. He spent 18 months in West Maitland, 3 years in Kempsey, 1 year in Casino, with brother Peter, before returning to West Maitland, in early 1927. He then moved to Kempsey for about 12-18 months, were he worked for the Motte Bros, and then returned for a short time to Casino. In 1928, he aquired the ABC cafe, at Gilgandra.

In 1934 Manuel wrote to Mum in Potamos, Kythera, asking her to join him in Gilgandra, Australia, to come and help run the ABC Cafe. She acceded to his request.

In 1939, in a trip to Bombala, Mum met, fell in love with, and soon married Paul Yiannakellis), abbreviated to Kelly. Dad was from the Greek island of Mytilene, also known as Lesbos, which lies in the eastern Aegean Sea, near Turkey. The wedding of Paul and Chris was one of Australia's "celebrity" weddings of the 1930's, and was covered intensively and extensively by Movietone News. CD and DVD copies of the original Movietone coverage have survived.

Mum and Dad assumed control of the ABC Cafe in 1939.

Dad died suddenly and unexpectedly on the 3rd of May 1961.

Mum remained in business in Gilgandra until the 1980's.

For a photograph of the Kelly family in the mid-1990's

For, Robyn Waltons appraisal of my mothers' and the ABC Cafe's influence on the town of Gilgandra

For a comprehensive history of the Kytherian presence in Gilgandra
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Photos, Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People
Oral History

ABC cafe, Gilgandra, memories....

My first memories of the shop were growing up with lots of people around all the time – the watchdogs we had ( which would jump the back fence every time there was a storm) and of course sitting on top of the woodheap to watch the movies (for free) as we got older. The other thing was that we shared a common lane with the Western Stores and there were stables at the back on the riverbank where the country folk used to bring their horse and sulkies into town and leave them out the back in the days before everyone had a car or ute – I don’t remember ever seeing any horses there but the stables stood until I was in my teens.

The fish pond at the back of the shop was always full of fish and Mum had a beautiful garden when they first married in 1939 but when we were growing up my Dad developed a love of birds and the flower garden became an aviary in which Dad bred and kept beautiful canaries. The main thing I remember was that he had a gift for breeding great whistlers and I used to watch and listen to them for hours as a child. – It is interesting that my eldest daughter Kristi has the same love of bird but she breeds Budgies !!

Stella Aird. Daughter of Paul and Chris Kelly. Paul Kelly, (Yiannakellis), was originally from Mytilene (Lesbos).
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History, Oral History
Nicknames

Adzatos - Cassimatis Family

To distinguish between the many families with the surname "Cassimatis", nicknames were very common. Adzatos was the name given to my great-grandfather who lived in the village of Potamos. I have been told that it means "thick/large/strong thighs". In Potamos, there is a building on a corner which is the tallest building on your right-hand side as you leave the village heading for Agia Pelegia. This corner was known as the "Adzatos Corner" for many, many years. This is because it was owned by my great-grandfather, Theodore Cassimatis (Adzatos)! This is also the corner where my grandfather, before migrating to Australia, made and sold lemonade. He was also a butcher and had a butcher shop in another building that he owned further up the road in the main section of Potamos.
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People, Nicknames
Oral History

George Miller & Michael Jonson. Good Mates.

Two Of Us – George Miller and Michael Johnson

Interviews by: Georgia Cassimatis

Director, Dr George Miller, 59 and best friend, pharmacist Michael Jonson, have known each other since they were 12 years old. With Michael funding George’s first film, Mad Max, they talk about the closeness of their enduring friendship over the past 45 years.

George Miller and Michael Jonson. Photograph taken at George's twin brother's wedding in 1970.

GEORGE:

Micky was the first person I met on my first day at Sydney Boys High School. At the gate there was a hazing ritual; new boys had the tags ripped off their ties the moment they stepped into the school ground. I grew up in rural Queensland so I was a bit green. Micky, this little kid, came out of nowhere and ran me through the gauntlet. The big boys didn’t lay a hand on us and we never lost our tie tags. We became best friends and have remained such for 45years.

We were never in the same class, or clique, but we did coach rowing together. He coxed the senior eight, and I was struck by his effortless authority; here were the cool guys, a lot older and towering over him, doing anything for him.

When he was fourteen he lost his father, so he took on adult responsibility young. He made it through university and started out in business young. That’s not to say he didn’t like to party, and his family home was always a magnet; on any given afternoon at the Johnson’s there’d be up to a dozen people, playing cards, raiding the fridge and, above all, playing cricket and touch football in the back yard.

Micky has always been a very active sportsman; he played rugby for South Australia and touch football for Australia. Then there’s his thing with racehorses. Basically he’s your classic Australian sports tragic; he’ll cross the globe to watch a horse run, or see a cricket or rugby test.

His big love, however, is women. Since we left school he’d call every few weeks to tell me about a fantastic new person he’d met. He’s always jumping in at the deep end, giving all of himself. It’s happened many times and what is amazing to me is that he retains warm friendships with almost all of them. They all fell in love with him for the same reason I did. He has the biggest heart in the world.

Micky is one of those rare souls who gives a whole lot more than he expects to get back. The paradox is of course, that it comes back to him in spades.

Way back, when we went out to raise money for my first movie, Mad Max, everyone thought I was a bit weird. "What’s George doing trying to make movies? What makes him think he can pull off a feature film with no real experience?” Micky never had a second of doubt. He was the first investor and with nothing but dumb faith in me, he brought in others. Without Micky there would have been no Mad Max or the successes that followed and, some would argue, no kick-starts to the careers of Mel and Nicole and so forth.

Of all the people I’ve known the one of whom he reminds me most is Jack Nicholson (Miller directed Nicholson in Witches of Eastwick). They’re both ridiculously loyal to their friends, always falling for beautiful women and both enjoy the deepest affection of anyone who has had the good fortune to encounter them in life.

Over the last couple of years Micky’s had this Herculean battle with cancer and this has somehow amplified all his virtues and wisdoms. When he called to tell me his diagnosis I was shaken, but then he did something that still boggles me; he said the main reason he was calling was to ask a favour for a friend…could I talk to their kid who was desperate to break into the movie business. Typical Micky. He never lacks courage in anything. Eros, Agape and now facing Thanatos. He’s an ornament to the game.

George Miller and Michael Micky Jonson. A recent photograph. 2005.

MICHAEL:

My father moved out from Cyprus in 1924 to start a family here. We had a really wonderful childhood: our family was always very close and there was lots of love and warmth. Even though we were Greek ozzies, our Greek heritage was always instilled in us, so we were always going to events like The Young Matrons societies: which were formed by Greek mothers who’d have parties for all the Greek kids so they could get together and maintain their heritage.

I first met George and his twin brother John, at Sydney Boys High School. They were new to town and, being Greek, we’d heard about them. I instantly liked George because of his soft, warm, gentle nature. He’s a considerate, caring guy, which is my type of person.

I remember George used to help his father in their chocolate shop, and I always thought his father was a little hard on him, probably because they had four kids and were doing it tough themselves. So when he didn’t have any money to go to the movies, I’d give him two shillings, and we’d hang out and buy popcorn at half time. He said he’s never forgotten it.

We used to get up to a lot of mischief, a lot of which I can’t mention. But there was one time I remember vividly. Being from the Eastern suburbs, we’d heard stories from my older brother and his mates, about these debaucherous North Shore surfie parties. The year George and I were finally allowed to go, we were so excited and our imaginations ran wild with thoughts of hot girls and lots of orgies. But all that happened was a bunch of guys ran around the house naked with lit newspapers in their butts, called ‘rooster tails’. And the older boys were trying really hard to crack onto all the chicks. We both just sat on the couch like little schoolboys.

George was never a typical Greek boy: he did his own thing and was more off-beat and eccentric. He’d do things like wear a Hawaiian shirt to a Greek dance, when everyone else would be wearing ties. Because of this I wasn’t allowed to have him as my best man; I had to have someone conservative. But when I got married the second time, no one was going to railroad me.

He was also popular with all the girls and had lots of girlfriends. The first time he really fell in love he wrote me a five-page letter about it, which I have framed on my wall here at home.

Even though he has gone on to become successful in the entertainment business, he’s actually quite shy and avoids the limelight if he can. One time at university he asked me to go up and accept an award for him, which I thought was silly and said no, but he got his twin brother to. He’s not into big awards nights either: at the Oscars for Babe, he took his niece just so she could experience it.

When George found out I had cancer he wanted to hop on the first plane from Los Angeles and come back, but I knew he was doing a big business deal and told him it could wait a week.

I haven’t felt crash hot of late, but I did have a wonderful, life-changing experience at the Ian Gawler Foundation in Victoria, which is a retreat for cancer patients, and I’ve asked George if he could help me expand the retreat so it’s Australia-wide. He said he’d be more than willing to be the benefactor and do anything he could.

We both spend a lot of time these days hanging out up at his weekender in Whale Beach. At the end of the day I couldn’t have asked for a better friend who has gone through all my relationships, career, kids and marriages than George. In that respect I feel I’ve had a charmed and blessed life. We both do.


This article, was published in the Good Weekend Magazine, which forms part of the Sydney-Morning-Herald, Sydney - on April 30th, 2005, page 18.

Georgia Cassimatis is the author the article.

A brief profile of her life and career, appears below. It can also be viewed - with photograph - at Photography Diaspora, subsection, Working Life.

Georgia Cassimatis

[[picture:"Georgia CassimatisSMALL.jpg" ID:7368]]

Georgia Cassimatis began her career as a writer on Australian Cosmopolitan magazine in 1996. After a two year stint, she freelanced for various magazines before being appointed the Editor for teen magazine Barbie. During her time there she met an American man and moved to Los Angeles, which saw her world open up in ways she'd never imagined: she has since worked as a Los Angeles based writer, reporting for lucrative US titles Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Teen and Marie Claire magazines, as well as have her work syndicated internationally.

Born in Australia, Georgia is of Greek decent: her paternal grandfather, John Cassimatis, was born in 1902 in Kythera in the town of Potamos, where his Father was a priest known as Papa Nikolaki. His Mother was Ekaterini Levouni, also of Potamos. He was the 11th of 12 children. Of the nine surviving children, four went to live in Athens and five came to live in Australia, where they had cafes along the Murray River towns. Her grandfather worked in Swan Hill until 1936.

Georgia's paternal grandmother was Georgia Koroneos born in 1917. The second of six children, her father was Panagiotis Koroneos (Poulakis) from Karava and Ayia Pelayia. He was also the President of the Kytherian Society in Athens in the 1930's. Two of his sons went to the USA, and one the aeronautical Engineer returned to live out his life in Agia Pelagia, and the other, became a senator in the Greek parliament.

Panagiotis Koroneos built the wharf at Ayia Pelayia and came to Australia in the late 1950s to find fund raising for the wharf, which lead his travels to many NSW and Queensland towns visiting Kytherians. There is a plaque commemorating his achievement on the wharf.

Georgia Koroneos' mother was Hrisanthi Koroneos who was brought up in the town of Baltimore in the USA where Panagiotis married her, had three kids and returned to Greece.

Georgia's own father, Nicholas Cassimatis, was born in Australia and is a well-known Sydney psychiatrist. Her mother is Anglo Australian with some German blood and loves the Greeks and Kytherian family. Actually her anglo maternal grandfather came to Australia later than her Kytherian forebearers. And Georgia looks Kytherian.
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History, Oral History
Miscellaneous

Georgia Cassimatis.

Georgia Cassimatis began her career as a writer on Australian Cosmopolitan magazine in 1996. After a two year stint, she freelanced for various magazines before being appointed the Editor for teen magazine Barbie. During her time there she met an American man and moved to Los Angeles, which saw her world open up in ways she'd never imagined: she has since worked as a Los Angeles based writer, reporting for lucrative US titles Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Teen and Marie Claire magazines, as well as have her work syndicated internationally.

Born in Australia, Georgia is of Greek decent: her paternal grandfather, John Cassimatis, was born in 1902 in Kythera in the town of Potamos, where his Father was a priest known as Papa Nikolaki. His Mother was Ekaterini Levouni, also of Potamos. He was the 11th of 12 children. Of the nine surviving children, four went to live in Athens and five came to live in Australia, where they had cafes along the Murray River towns. Her grandfather worked in Swan Hill until 1936.

Georgia's paternal grandmother was Georgia Koroneos born in 1917. The second of six children, her father was Panagiotis Koroneos (Poulakis) from Karava and Ayia Pelayia. He was also the President of the Kytherian Society in Athens in the 1930's. Two of his sons went to the USA, and one the aeronautical Engineer returned to live out his life in Agia Pelagia, and the other, became a senator in the Greek parliament.

Panagiotis Koroneos built the wharf at Ayia Pelayia and came to Australia in the late 1950s to find fund raising for the wharf, which lead his travels to many NSW and Queensland towns visiting Kytherians. There is a plaque commemorating his achievement on the wharf.

Georgia Koroneos' mother was Hrisanthi Koroneos who was brought up in the town of Baltimore in the USA where Panagiotis married her, had three kids and returned to Greece.

Georgia's own father, Nicholas Cassimatis, was born in Australia and is a well-known Sydney psychiatrist. Her mother is Anglo Australian with some German blood and loves the Greeks and Kytherian family. Actually her anglo maternal grandfather came to Australia later than her Kytherian forebearers. And Georgia looks Kytherian.
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Photos, Miscellaneous
Diaspora Social Life

George Miller & Michael Jonson. Good Mates.

George Miller and Michael Jonson. At George's twin brother's wedding in 1970.


Two Of Us – George Miller and Michael Johnson

Interviews by: Georgia Cassimatis

Director, Dr George Miller, 59 and best friend, pharmacist Michael Jonson, have known each other since they were 12 years old. With Michael funding George’s first film, Mad Max, they talk about the closeness of their enduring friendship over the past 45 years.

GEORGE:

Micky was the first person I met on my first day at Sydney Boys High School. At the gate there was a hazing ritual; new boys had the tags ripped off their ties the moment they stepped into the school ground. I grew up in rural Queensland so I was a bit green. Micky, this little kid, came out of nowhere and ran me through the gauntlet. The big boys didn’t lay a hand on us and we never lost our tie tags. We became best friends and have remained such for 45years.

We were never in the same class, or clique, but we did coach rowing together. He coxed the senior eight, and I was struck by his effortless authority; here were the cool guys, a lot older and towering over him, doing anything for him.

When he was fourteen he lost his father, so he took on adult responsibility young. He made it through university and started out in business young. That’s not to say he didn’t like to party, and his family home was always a magnet; on any given afternoon at the Johnson’s there’d be up to a dozen people, playing cards, raiding the fridge and, above all, playing cricket and touch football in the back yard.

Micky has always been a very active sportsman; he played rugby for South Australia and touch football for Australia. Then there’s his thing with racehorses. Basically he’s your classic Australian sports tragic; he’ll cross the globe to watch a horse run, or see a cricket or rugby test.

His big love, however, is women. Since we left school he’d call every few weeks to tell me about a fantastic new person he’d met. He’s always jumping in at the deep end, giving all of himself. It’s happened many times and what is amazing to me is that he retains warm friendships with almost all of them. They all fell in love with him for the same reason I did. He has the biggest heart in the world.

Micky is one of those rare souls who gives a whole lot more than he expects to get back. The paradox is of course, that it comes back to him in spades.

Way back, when we went out to raise money for my first movie, Mad Max, everyone thought I was a bit weird. "What’s George doing trying to make movies? What makes him think he can pull off a feature film with no real experience?” Micky never had a second of doubt. He was the first investor and with nothing but dumb faith in me, he brought in others. Without Micky there would have been no Mad Max or the successes that followed and, some would argue, no kick-starts to the careers of Mel and Nicole and so forth.

Of all the people I’ve known the one of whom he reminds me most is Jack Nicholson (Miller directed Nicholson in Witches of Eastwick). They’re both ridiculously loyal to their friends, always falling for beautiful women and both enjoy the deepest affection of anyone who has had the good fortune to encounter them in life.

Over the last couple of years Micky’s had this Herculean battle with cancer and this has somehow amplified all his virtues and wisdoms. When he called to tell me his diagnosis I was shaken, but then he did something that still boggles me; he said the main reason he was calling was to ask a favour for a friend…could I talk to their kid who was desperate to break into the movie business. Typical Micky. He never lacks courage in anything. Eros, Agape and now facing Thanatos. He’s an ornament to the game.

MICHAEL:

My father moved out from Cyprus in 1924 to start a family here. We had a really wonderful childhood: our family was always very close and there was lots of love and warmth. Even though we were Greek ozzies, our Greek heritage was always instilled in us, so we were always going to events like The Young Matrons societies: which were formed by Greek mothers who’d have parties for all the Greek kids so they could get together and maintain their heritage.

I first met George and his twin brother John, at Sydney Boys High School. They were new to town and, being Greek, we’d heard about them. I instantly liked George because of his soft, warm, gentle nature. He’s a considerate, caring guy, which is my type of person.

I remember George used to help his father in their chocolate shop, and I always thought his father was a little hard on him, probably because they had four kids and were doing it tough themselves. So when he didn’t have any money to go to the movies, I’d give him two shillings, and we’d hang out and buy popcorn at half time. He said he’s never forgotten it.

We used to get up to a lot of mischief, a lot of which I can’t mention. But there was one time I remember vividly. Being from the Eastern suburbs, we’d heard stories from my older brother and his mates, about these debaucherous North Shore surfie parties. The year George and I were finally allowed to go, we were so excited and our imaginations ran wild with thoughts of hot girls and lots of orgies. But all that happened was a bunch of guys ran around the house naked with lit newspapers in their butts, called ‘rooster tails’. And the older boys were trying really hard to crack onto all the chicks. We both just sat on the couch like little schoolboys.

George was never a typical Greek boy: he did his own thing and was more off-beat and eccentric. He’d do things like wear a Hawaiian shirt to a Greek dance, when everyone else would be wearing ties. Because of this I wasn’t allowed to have him as my best man; I had to have someone conservative. But when I got married the second time, no one was going to railroad me.

He was also popular with all the girls and had lots of girlfriends. The first time he really fell in love he wrote me a five-page letter about it, which I have framed on my wall here at home.

Even though he has gone on to become successful in the entertainment business, he’s actually quite shy and avoids the limelight if he can. One time at university he asked me to go up and accept an award for him, which I thought was silly and said no, but he got his twin brother to. He’s not into big awards nights either: at the Oscars for Babe, he took his niece just so she could experience it.

When George found out I had cancer he wanted to hop on the first plane from Los Angeles and come back, but I knew he was doing a big business deal and told him it could wait a week.

I haven’t felt crash hot of late, but I did have a wonderful, life-changing experience at the Ian Gawler Foundation in Victoria, which is a retreat for cancer patients, and I’ve asked George if he could help me expand the retreat so it’s Australia-wide. He said he’d be more than willing to be the benefactor and do anything he could.

We both spend a lot of time these days hanging out up at his weekender in Whale Beach. At the end of the day I couldn’t have asked for a better friend who has gone through all my relationships, career, kids and marriages than George. In that respect I feel I’ve had a charmed and blessed life. We both do.


This article, was published in the Good Weekend Magazine, which forms part of the Sydney-Morning-Herald, Sydney - on April 30th, 2005, page 18.

Georgia Cassimatis is the author the article.

A brief profile of her life and career, appears below. It can also be viewed - with photograph - at Photography Diaspora, subsection, Working Life.

Georgia Cassimatis

Georgia Cassimatis began her career as a writer on Australian Cosmopolitan magazine in 1996. After a two year stint, she freelanced for various magazines before being appointed the Editor for teen magazine Barbie. During her time there she met an American man and moved to Los Angeles, which saw her world open up in ways she'd never imagined: she has since worked as a Los Angeles based writer, reporting for lucrative US titles Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Teen and Marie Claire magazines, as well as have her work syndicated internationally.

Born in Australia, Georgia is of Greek decent: her paternal grandfather, John Cassimatis, was born in 1902 in Kythera in the town of Potamos, where his Father was a priest known as Papa Nikolaki. His Mother was Ekaterini Levouni, also of Potamos. He was the 11th of 12 children. Of the nine surviving children, four went to live in Athens and five came to live in Australia, where they had cafes along the Murray River towns. Her grandfather worked in Swan Hill until 1936.

Georgia's paternal grandmother was Georgia Koroneos born in 1917. The second of six children, her father was Panagiotis Koroneos (Poulakis) from Karava and Ayia Pelayia. He was also the President of the Kytherian Society in Athens in the 1930's. Two of his sons went to the USA, and one the aeronautical Engineer returned to live out his life in Agia Pelagia, and the other, became a senator in the Greek parliament.

Panagiotis Koroneos built the wharf at Ayia Pelayia and came to Australia in the late 1950s to find fund raising for the wharf, which lead his travels to many NSW and Queensland towns visiting Kytherians. There is a plaque commemorating his achievement on the wharf.

Georgia Koroneos' mother was Hrisanthi Koroneos who was brought up in the town of Baltimore in the USA where Panagiotis married her, had three kids and returned to Greece.

Georgia's own father, Nicholas Cassimatis, was born in Australia and is a well-known Sydney psychiatrist. Her mother is Anglo Australian with some German blood and loves the Greeks and Kytherian family. Actually her anglo maternal grandfather came to Australia later than her Kytherian forebearers. And Georgia looks Kytherian.
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Diaspora Social Life

George Miller and Micheal Jonson. Good Mates.

George Miller and Michael Jonson. A recent (2005) photograph.


Two Of Us – George Miller and Michael Johnson

From, Good Weekend, a supplement in the Sydney Morning Herald, April 30, 2005, page 18.

Interviews by: Georgia Cassimatis

Director, Dr George Miller, 59 and best friend, pharmacist Michael Jonson, have known each other since they were 12 years old. With Michael funding George’s first film, Mad Max, they talk about the closeness of their enduring friendship over the past 45 years.

GEORGE:

Micky was the first person I met on my first day at Sydney Boys High School. At the gate there was a hazing ritual; new boys had the tags ripped off their ties the moment they stepped into the school ground. I grew up in rural Queensland so I was a bit green. Micky, this little kid, came out of nowhere and ran me through the gauntlet. The big boys didn’t lay a hand on us and we never lost our tie tags. We became best friends and have remained such for 45years.

We were never in the same class, or clique, but we did coach rowing together. He coxed the senior eight, and I was struck by his effortless authority; here were the cool guys, a lot older and towering over him, doing anything for him.

When he was fourteen he lost his father, so he took on adult responsibility young. He made it through university and started out in business young. That’s not to say he didn’t like to party, and his family home was always a magnet; on any given afternoon at the Johnson’s there’d be up to a dozen people, playing cards, raiding the fridge and, above all, playing cricket and touch football in the back yard.

Micky has always been a very active sportsman; he played rugby for South Australia and touch football for Australia. Then there’s his thing with racehorses. Basically he’s your classic Australian sports tragic; he’ll cross the globe to watch a horse run, or see a cricket or rugby test.

His big love, however, is women. Since we left school he’d call every few weeks to tell me about a fantastic new person he’d met. He’s always jumping in at the deep end, giving all of himself. It’s happened many times and what is amazing to me is that he retains warm friendships with almost all of them. They all fell in love with him for the same reason I did. He has the biggest heart in the world.

Micky is one of those rare souls who gives a whole lot more than he expects to get back. The paradox is of course, that it comes back to him in spades.

Way back, when we went out to raise money for my first movie, Mad Max, everyone thought I was a bit weird. "What’s George doing trying to make movies? What makes him think he can pull off a feature film with no real experience?” Micky never had a second of doubt. He was the first investor and with nothing but dumb faith in me, he brought in others. Without Micky there would have been no Mad Max or the successes that followed and, some would argue, no kick-starts to the careers of Mel and Nicole and so forth.

Of all the people I’ve known the one of whom he reminds me most is Jack Nicholson (Miller directed Nicholson in Witches of Eastwick). They’re both ridiculously loyal to their friends, always falling for beautiful women and both enjoy the deepest affection of anyone who has had the good fortune to encounter them in life.

Over the last couple of years Micky’s had this Herculean battle with cancer and this has somehow amplified all his virtues and wisdoms. When he called to tell me his diagnosis I was shaken, but then he did something that still boggles me; he said the main reason he was calling was to ask a favour for a friend…could I talk to their kid who was desperate to break into the movie business. Typical Micky. He never lacks courage in anything. Eros, Agape and now facing Thanatos. He’s an ornament to the game.

MICHAEL:

My father moved out from Cyprus in 1924 to start a family here. We had a really wonderful childhood: our family was always very close and there was lots of love and warmth. Even though we were Greek ozzies, our Greek heritage was always instilled in us, so we were always going to events like The Young Matrons societies: which were formed by Greek mothers who’d have parties for all the Greek kids so they could get together and maintain their heritage.

I first met George and his twin brother John, at Sydney Boys High School. They were new to town and, being Greek, we’d heard about them. I instantly liked George because of his soft, warm, gentle nature. He’s a considerate, caring guy, which is my type of person.

I remember George used to help his father in their chocolate shop, and I always thought his father was a little hard on him, probably because they had four kids and were doing it tough themselves. So when he didn’t have any money to go to the movies, I’d give him two shillings, and we’d hang out and buy popcorn at half time. He said he’s never forgotten it.

We used to get up to a lot of mischief, a lot of which I can’t mention. But there was one time I remember vividly. Being from the Eastern suburbs, we’d heard stories from my older brother and his mates, about these debaucherous North Shore surfie parties. The year George and I were finally allowed to go, we were so excited and our imaginations ran wild with thoughts of hot girls and lots of orgies. But all that happened was a bunch of guys ran around the house naked with lit newspapers in their butts, called ‘rooster tails’. And the older boys were trying really hard to crack onto all the chicks. We both just sat on the couch like little schoolboys.

George was never a typical Greek boy: he did his own thing and was more off-beat and eccentric. He’d do things like wear a Hawaiian shirt to a Greek dance, when everyone else would be wearing ties. Because of this I wasn’t allowed to have him as my best man; I had to have someone conservative. But when I got married the second time, no one was going to railroad me.

He was also popular with all the girls and had lots of girlfriends. The first time he really fell in love he wrote me a five-page letter about it, which I have framed on my wall here at home.

Even though he has gone on to become successful in the entertainment business, he’s actually quite shy and avoids the limelight if he can. One time at university he asked me to go up and accept an award for him, which I thought was silly and said no, but he got his twin brother to. He’s not into big awards nights either: at the Oscars for Babe, he took his niece just so she could experience it.

When George found out I had cancer he wanted to hop on the first plane from Los Angeles and come back, but I knew he was doing a big business deal and told him it could wait a week.

I haven’t felt crash hot of late, but I did have a wonderful, life-changing experience at the Ian Gawler Foundation in Victoria, which is a retreat for cancer patients, and I’ve asked George if he could help me expand the retreat so it’s Australia-wide. He said he’d be more than willing to be the benefactor and do anything he could.

We both spend a lot of time these days hanging out up at his weekender in Whale Beach. At the end of the day I couldn’t have asked for a better friend who has gone through all my relationships, career, kids and marriages than George. In that respect I feel I’ve had a charmed and blessed life. We both do.

Comprehensive Biography. George Miller

This article, was published in the Good Weekend Magazine, which forms part of the Sydney-Morning-Herald, Sydney - on April 30th, 2005, page 18.

Georgia Cassimatis is the author the article.

A brief profile of her life and career, appears below. It can also be viewed - with photograph - at Photography Diaspora, subsection, Working Life.

Georgia Cassimatis

Georgia Cassimatis began her career as a writer on Australian Cosmopolitan magazine in 1996. After a two year stint, she freelanced for various magazines before being appointed the Editor for teen magazine Barbie. During her time there she met an American man and moved to Los Angeles, which saw her world open up in ways she'd never imagined: she has since worked as a Los Angeles based writer, reporting for lucrative US titles Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Teen and Marie Claire magazines, as well as have her work syndicated internationally.

Born in Australia, Georgia is of Greek decent: her paternal grandfather, John Cassimatis, was born in 1902 in Kythera in the town of Potamos, where his Father was a priest known as Papa Nikolaki. His Mother was Ekaterini Levouni, also of Potamos. He was the 11th of 12 children. Of the nine surviving children, four went to live in Athens and five came to live in Australia, where they had cafes along the Murray River towns. Her grandfather worked in Swan Hill until 1936.

Georgia's paternal grandmother was Georgia Koroneos born in 1917. The second of six children, her father was Panagiotis Koroneos (Poulakis) from Karava and Ayia Pelayia. He was also the President of the Kytherian Society in Athens in the 1930's. Two of his sons went to the USA, and one the aeronautical Engineer returned to live out his life in Agia Pelagia, and the other, became a senator in the Greek parliament.

Panagiotis Koroneos built the wharf at Ayia Pelayia and came to Australia in the late 1950s to find fund raising for the wharf, which lead his travels to many NSW and Queensland towns visiting Kytherians. There is a plaque commemorating his achievement on the wharf.

Georgia Koroneos' mother was Hrisanthi Koroneos who was brought up in the town of Baltimore in the USA where Panagiotis married her, had three kids and returned to Greece.

Georgia's own father, Nicholas Cassimatis, was born in Australia and is a well-known Sydney psychiatrist. Her mother is Anglo Australian with some German blood and loves the Greeks and Kytherian family. Actually her anglo maternal grandfather came to Australia later than her Kytherian forebearers. And Georgia looks Kytherian.
Open full entry
Photos, Diaspora Social Life
Diaspora Working Life

Georgia Cassimatis. Journalist.

Georgia Cassimatis began her career as a writer on Australian Cosmopolitan magazine in 1996. After a two year stint, she freelanced for various magazines before being appointed the Editor for teen magazine Barbie. During her time there she met an American man and moved to Los Angeles, which saw her world open up in ways she'd never imagined: she has since worked as a Los Angeles based writer, reporting for lucrative US titles Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Teen and Marie Claire magazines, as well as have her work syndicated internationally.

Born in Australia, Georgia is of Greek decent: her paternal grandfather, John Cassimatis, was born in 1902 in Kythera in the town of Potamos, where his Father was a priest known as Papa Nikolaki. His Mother was Ekaterini Levouni, also of Potamos. He was the 11th of 12 children. Of the nine surviving children, four went to live in Athens and five came to live in Australia, where they had cafes along the Murray River towns. Her grandfather worked in Swan Hill until 1936.

Georgia's paternal grandmother was Georgia Koroneos born in 1917. The second of six children, her father was Panagiotis Koroneos (Poulakis) from Karava and Ayia Pelayia. He was also the President of the Kytherian Society in Athens in the 1930's. Two of his sons went to the USA, and one the aeronautical Engineer returned to live out his life in Agia Pelagia, and the other, became a senator in the Greek parliament.

Panagiotis Koroneos built the wharf at Ayia Pelayia and came to Australia in the late 1950s to find fund raising for the wharf, which lead his travels to many NSW and Queensland towns visiting Kytherians. There is a plaque commemorating his achievement on the wharf.

Georgia Koroneos' mother was Hrisanthi Koroneos who was brought up in the town of Baltimore in the USA where Panagiotis married her, had three kids and returned to Greece.

Georgia's own father, Nicholas Cassimatis, was born in Australia and is a well-known Sydney psychiatrist. Her mother is Anglo Australian with some German blood and loves the Greeks and Kytherian family. Actually her anglo maternal grandfather came to Australia later than her Kytherian forebearers. And Georgia looks Kytherian.

Georgia Cassimatis's two of us article.

Georgia Cassimatis is the author of an article which was published in the Good Weekend Magazine, which forms part of the Sydney-Morning-Herald, Sydney - on April 30th, 2005, page 18.

Cassimatis article about the mateship between George Miller (film director and fim producer) and Micheal "Micky" Jonson, Pharmacist
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Guestbook

Michael Levonis - Gold Coast

My wife Julie and I visited Kythera in September 2003 for the first time. We stayed with Rereka Stratigou in Milopotomos (a first cousin to my mother on the Freeleagus side). It impressed me so much that I felt regret at not having made the effort to visit Kythera earlier in my life. My father is Denis Levonis (son of Menas and Caliope Levounis(Toowoomba)) and mother Despina (daughter of Dimitri and Anastacia Freeleagus (Brisbane)).
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Cafes, Shops & Cinemas

5 Star Supermarket. In 2004, where the ABC operated from.

In another entry about the Monterey Cafe in Gilgandra, I revealed that "...I was born in Gilgandra, in 1952, and left after completing my schooling in 1969.

From about the end of WWII, until mid-1975 - Gilgandra, population, 2,900 - was a very Kytherian town.

5 families - the Pentes, Sklavos, Kelly (Yannokellies), Psaltis (Protopsaltis), and Poulos (Tzortzopoulos) - lived in close proximity to each other - culturally, residentially, and commercially.

In the main, Kytherians embraced Kytherians - Gilgandra embraced Kytherians - and Kytherians embraced Gilgandra".

During the middle of the year 2004, I took my father, now 88 years old, on a nostalgia tour, back to Gilgandra, and through other towns in the Central and North West of New South Wales.

Not a single person of Kytherian origin now lives in Gilgandra. And only one family of Greek origin lives there.

I found of course, all the buildings, where the Kytherians had conducted their businesses; but all of these - with the exception of the Gilgandra Fruit Shop (my father's old shop), had substantially changed their usage.

This supermarket is in the location were the ABC Cafe used to be.
The ABC Cafe was owned in the post WWII era by Paul and Chris Yanno(Kelly). Chris, now 94, and living in Dubbo, was a "Grand matriarch" for not only Kytherians, but for all residents of the town of Gilgandra. She became the most "beloved" person in Gilgandra's history.

With the decline of Cafes in New South Wales and Australia, Chris and her daughter Stella, with husband David Aird, (a Scotsman originally), converted the cafe into a supermarket in the 1980's.

In another sign of social change, the building next door to the "ABC Cafe" - the mighty Western Monarch (Picture) Theatre, has become a Christian Outreach Centre.
[For more about Cinemas in Gilgandra see
ISSUE 27 · February 2000, CinemaRecord, magazine of the Cinema And Theatre Historical Society.
*Film Theatres of Gilgandra NSW · by, Gerry Kennedy:
Coronation Hall; first Australian Hall; Crystal Palace Hall, & Open Air;
second Australian Hall & Australian Pictures (Open Air); Western Monarch Theatre & Open Air

http://www.caths.org.au/arccinerecd.htm ]
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Guestbook

Pauline (Politimi) Miroulis - Mamaroneck, New York

Father:Theodore Hlampeas born 1888.Potamos, d.1975 Parents Stavros & Politimi(Tsigounis)
Mother:Antigone Faros born 1905 Karavas,d.1989
Parents Panayiotis and Eleni (Skekou). In 1905, Dad migrated to Sydney where he opened a chocolate-making store on King Street. Returning to Kythera in 1911 and served in the Balkan Wars '12-'13.Finally, he migrated to New York in 1918 where he owned a restaurant for 20 yrs. On a visit in 1929, he married my mother. I have one brother Steven and married a Greek from Bucharest.
we have 3 sons and 4 grandchildren. I have had an on-going love affair with the Island since my first visit in 1955 and again 1999. I attend the New York Kytherian Society events, especially the Feast of The Myrtidiotissa every year. What a wonderful website! Any possible relatives with the above surnames would love to hear from you. I have many relatives in Australia and hope to travel there soon.
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Vintage Portraits/ People

Theodore Haralambos Catsoulis

My grandfather, Theodore, was born in Potamos in 1878. He was a farmer, a guard at the Palace in Athens, and later, in Australia, a cafe owner, then again a farmer. Most of all, he was a wonderful husband and father, and to me, the most perfect grandfather. He died in 1953, leaving a huge gap in our family. I loved his gentleness, kindness, patience and his unlimited love for his family. He came to Australia on the Grosser Kurfurst, around 1904/5. He married my grandmother, Chrisanthe Coronoes on 29th December, 1903/4. Her mother was Stavroula Megaloconomos, who died at age 104... Nona died in 1965, was born in 1881, also in Potamos.
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Diaspora Weddings and Proxenia

Con and Maria Simos.

19/1/1958

Con and Maria were married at the Holy Trinity (Agia Triada) Greek Orthodox Church, in Bourke Street, Sydney.
The reception was held at the Hotel Australia, and they had 250 guests.
The bridesmaids were Marika Marsellos, Maxine Mitchell and Martha Christianou.
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Island Churches & Icons

Papa Levounis.

Papa Levounis.
This picture hangs in his cell, number 10, at the monastery - Myrtidiotissa. He left a written document allowing any of his descendants to stay in that cell.

"When I was about ten or eleven my mother and I stayed at Myrtidia from the first of August, where it is traditional for people to stay for a period fifteen days to celebrate the Panagia’s entry into heaven. The end of this time was celebrated by a dance in the church square".

From Maria Simos-Levounes. My Story., in History, subsection, Oral History.
For a more detailed history of the Levounes family from Potamos, see this entry.
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Photos, Island Churches & Icons
School Photos

Peter Levounis at the class at Astiko in 1945.

From Maria Simos-Levounes. My Story., in History, subsection, Oral History.
For a more detailed history of the Levounes family from Potamos, see this entry.

Peter and Matina are Maria's brother and sister.

Peter was a good student and became a tutor; here his is with his teacher, Mr. Triarchis, and the class at Astiko in 1945

"My brother was always studying in his office; from 1941 to 1943 he was a tutor at the mixed high school at Potamos. He went on the study medicine at Athens University, but my mother never saw him become a doctor because she passed away before he completed his degree.

Matina was an excellent student and even though she missed two years school because of the war, she was still accepted by Athens University to study dentistry".

Can you recognise and name the other students?
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Architecture

Levoune' House in Potamos in two eras.

Bottom: House when first built and occupied by the Levounes family.

Top: House when George Levounes returned to visit it many decades later.

For a full history of the Levoune family from Potamos, and of the construction of the house, see the detailed entry in History, subsection, Oral History, entitled, Maria Simos-Levoune. My Story.
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Photos, Architecture
Oral History

The Charles Cassim Story.

From:

http://www.rootsweb.com

November 2002

As written by Katie Cassim - April 2002

Charles Cassim - was the eighth child, and third son of a Minister in the Greek Orthodox Church. His Grandfather and his matemal Grandfather were also in the Church on the island of Kythera. His Father was also an Iconographer, a graduate of an Art School in Crete. In Kythera, the family owned property on which grew vines, grapes and pears. They also had in the family two Chapels.

Charles went to school in Potamos, Kythera and at the age of fifteen, he came to Australia to his brother Harry and also to his cousin Harry, also Cassim. He worked with friends and relatives in a network system at whatever he could. As he became established, he took an interest in the Stock Exchange, also in Property. Charles knew from the time he was very young that he had to help provide dowries for his three sisters - one was already married - this he did.

Charles decided to return to Greece (maybe 1925) but unfortunately he heard that his Mother had died. His Father and oldest sister had died in the great influenza epi-demic. He decided to stay and married his best friend's sister Maria and they settled in Sydney.

The Great Depression came along and Charles was devastated and he had to begin all over again only now he had a wife and a little girl Katherine, known as Katie. Meanwhile his brother John had found a Restaurant in Swan Hill and named it "The Paragon", and he invited his brother to join him; and so they came. Two more girls were bom to them, Helen and Elizabeth. A fourth child was born - a son who died in childbirth.

John left Swan Hill and Charles took over and later added the Crystal Cafe in Swan Hill. Charles was a strong family man, a devout Christian. He was a highly intelligent gentleman and he remained close to his family in Greece. Charles bought several properties in Swan Hill.

He together with his family left Swan Hill in 1946 and went to Sydney. Charles continued his work in stocks and shares and also buying property. Charles died in 1981 and his wife Maria died in 1987.
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History, Oral History
Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People

Ruby (Hericlea) Megaloconomos (family nickname -Caponas) and Micky on the boat to Australia

Ruby and Mickey Megaloconomos on their way back to Australia in about 1924. Their mother Gussie was pregnant with the third child, Peter at the time. The family story is that Mickey had to be dressed up as a little girl to be allowed to leave Greece at the time. All manpower was required for the war with the Turks!!
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Photos, Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People
Oral History

Maria Simos-Levounis. My Story.

Maria Simos-Levoune was born in Kythera on the 10/10/1934; she came to Australia in 1948. In 1958 she married Con Simos, and they had three children, Irene, Katina and Andrew. This excerpt is from the memoir she is writing for her grandchildren about growing up in Kythera.

My mother Katina Levoune nee Nicolasou was born in Aroniadiaka, Kythera on the 15th of August, 1901. She came to Australia in 1923 with her newly-married sister, Stamatoula Aroney, who went to live in Port Macquarie. My mother stayed with her sister in Bundarra till her wedding day where she dressed as a bride in Mrs. Marsellos’ house in Kensington. She married my father, George Levoune, who had a fish shop in Balmain.

[[picture:"George Levoune and Katina Nicolasou.jpg" ID:6216]]

George and Katina's engagement photo 1923

My mother lost her first baby, then my brother Peter was born on the 23rd of September, 1925, weighing 12 pounds, my sister, Matina, was born on the 9th of July, 1927. In 1929 my parents decided to live in Kythera where they could build a large house and live off the income from Balmain. In 1932 another girl, Maria, was born, but sadly passed away eighteen months later, and I was born a couple of months after that.

[[picture:"Peter and Matina Levounis.jpg" ID:6217]]

Peter and Matina Levounis

Because of the Depression the rents stopped coming so my father was forced go to Australia to work. That was in 1934, just before I was born. He was preparing to come back five years later but England declared war on Germany, preventing his return to us. We suffered during the war but we survived with what we could produce ourselves and by selling some of our possessions.
After the war my father brought us to Australia, except for my brother who was in the army. My mother passed away in Sydney on the 21st of June, 1954, from a brain haemorrhage. In 1956 my father went to Greece for my brother’s wedding, and died there in 1973. Sadly, my father’s dream for us to be together was never realised and we never again lived together as a family.

[[picture:"George with Peter.jpg" ID:6218]]

Proud father George with Peter

[[picture:"Peter Levounis.jpeg" ID:6237]]

My brother, Peter Levounis, aged c. 23 years. The picture was taken in Athens, Greece, where he studied to become a doctor.

[[picture:"Levoune Peters weding F & S.jpg" ID:6309]]

Father and son at Peter's wedding.

On the morning of the 10th of October, 1934, a girl was born, and if you can guess, that was me. My mother called me Maria to remind her of the little girl she had lost.

[[picture:"Maria aged 17.jpg" ID:6219]]

Maria at 17

Back in Australia my father started a new fish shop at 300 Darling Street, Balmain and immediately began sending us money. Although the economy was recovering it still took him five years to organise everything so that he could return to Greece to be with his beloved family. He had booked for the 7th September on the Otrando, but England declared war on Germany on the 1st, so he decided not to travel until things settled down.
In the meantime we went to live in Hora, the capital of Kythera so that my brother and sister could attend the only high school on the island. We rented the Kaloutsis house which was at the foot of the Kastro, surrounded by private chapels, all of them white. I was only five years old; I remember my first day at kindergarten, I was so excited I rushed out of the house and cut my eyebrow on the doorknob. I still have the scar. At the end of the school year we returned to our own house in Potamos.
On the 28th of October, all the high school children assembled in the square to hear that Prime Minister Metaxas had said OXI! to Mussolini. If the Italians wanted Greece they had to fight for it. Greece was at war.
Greece beat Italy, but Germany was a different story and within one month the Swastika was flying over the Acropolis. Two things happened under the German Occupation; communication between Greece and Australia ceased and in 1941, the schools closed indefinitely. So we packed up and returned to Potamos, to an empty house in Potamos and a four-year silence from Australia. We suffered a lot under the Germans but we managed to survive. My sister, Matina, was a hero during the war, sacrificing the best years of her life to support us.
In 1945, British paratroopers landed in Drymona and the war was over. I was very young and unaware of much of what happened at that time, but I will never forget and it is still vivid in my memory, the end of the war and everyone rejoicing; singing, dancing and my sister jumping on the bed and yelling ‘Eirini! Eirini!’ (Peace!) And best of all, we could communicate with our father again.
What he really wanted to do was to come back to Greece, but without a house in Athens, it was very difficult to educate us there, so he decided to bring us to Australia. Unfortunately Peter was in the army and couldn’t leave the country anyway plus it wasn’t easy to travel after the war, so until we could leave I went to school as usual.
I attended first year high school in Kallithea in 1946. We were staying with our loving relative, Doris Megaleconomos, who gave me the beautiful cross I wear; my father gave it to her when he christened her in 1923. I went to second year high school at Agia Sophia in Piraeus where I stayed with my father’s sister, Anna Levounis, who gave me her precious gold earrings.
After three attempts to come to Australia, we finally left on a war plane on the 4th June, 1948. We were supposed to arrive in six days, but there were problems with the plane and we were forced to stay in Macassar in India for twenty days. It was very hot and we had to sleep under the mosquito nets, even so, my mother still got malaria which made her very sick a few years later.

[[picture:"Levounis house, Potamos.jpg" ID:6220]]

The Levounes' house in Potamos

I have lived in Australia for so many years and yet I still think of the beautiful house I was born in. I remember how big it was with high ceilings and large windows overlooking a garden filled with fruit trees; lemons, oranges, grapefruit, cherry, plum, apricot and fig. It was full of scented flowers and vegetables and the stone wall that surrounded it was draped with bunches of red and white grapes. Every time I looked out of my window I’d see a mandarin turning from green to orange just waiting for me to pick it.
There were verandas front and back upstairs and three rooms on either side of a central corridor. The first room on the left was the formal lounge which adjoined the dining room. It had folding doors so that it could become a large entertainment area. There were three bedrooms and a kitchen big enough to eat in where there were stairs going down to the cellars and storeroom.
A flushing toilet was a rare thing in Kythera then; ours was outside the back veranda and it had a water tank in the roof. I was always scared to go there by myself at night. I remember with embarrassment that I asked my brother to take me when my sister was away.
The house was surrounded by a concrete yard with cement seats and planters full of my mother’s colourful flowers. Nearby was a laundry with a concrete pool on the roof for the water which came from the well. There was another storeroom away from the house and a toilet and the stables for the animals which were vital to country life, especially during the war years. We had rabbits, chickens and of course, the rooster which woke us every morning, a goat and the humble donkey, as necessary to us then as a car is today.
There was a separate kitchen near the main house which we used all the time; it had a wood oven where my mother used to cook delicious baked dinners, bread and scrumptious sweets.
The front veranda overlooked the bridge at Potamos and I could watch people crossing it; every time I heard the horn of the bus from Agia Pelagia port, I would run to see it passing by. The gigantic Ilariotissa church stood like royalty near Potamos square. The bells would ring one way for happiness and another way for sorrow. I remember writing an essay about my town and the bells when I was ten and my teacher was very impressed.
On the lintel above the front door is the year the house was built, 1930 and the initials Γ,Π,and Λ: Γ which stands for Georgios; Π which stands for Panayiotis; Λ, which stands for Levounis (Λεβουνής). My brother, who inherited the house, has two sons, George and Petros; my father said that the house now belongs to George and Petros Levounis so the initials don’t have to change. How clever.
Our home was near the square, but far enough away for privacy. We only had two close neighbours. One family had four children, all older than me and the other had one girl who was younger and I used to play with her a lot. My favourite places were upstairs in a little cupboard in the dressing table where I had all my toys or under the arches of the house where the builder had made a toy house where I played mummy cooking a meal. No wonder I still like cooking.

[[picture:"George Levounis.jpg" ID:6222]]

My father, George Levounis

I always knew my father was far away and waited for him to return. I believed he could see me dancing for him through the glass of his photo which hung on the wall. Even though I had never met him, I missed him badly, but I grew up with the unconditional love of my family. They were all very protective because I was the baby. My brother and sister used to curl my hair with rags to make me beautiful. My sister used to put me to bed; she always cared for me.

[[picture:"Mother brother sister.jpg" ID:6223]]

The only photo Maria has which includes her mother, brother and sister; it was taken just before they left Greece
Back row: Peter and Katina
Front row: Maria, Anna Levoune and Matina.
1948.

I have a deep love and respect for my sister, Matina, who has supported me my whole life and has sacrificed many things for my sake and I will always be grateful. I remember one time that she knitted a sweater for me but I complained it was too small. Too weeks later she gave it to me again and I was satisfied that she’d fixed it only to find out later that nothing had been done to it. I must have been a menace because my nickname was ‘Grinnia’, my brother even made up a song about it. When he made a radio, convinced me that the voice I heard was our father.
Our beloved mother was a wonderful person. She was loving and kind and generous. She had a great belief in education so as well as our normal school we also had private English lessons. She taught me self-respect and to do the right thing like going to church every Sunday. I don’t remember her going out much, most of the shopping was delivered, but I remember begging her to come to my sixth class celebration as I had received honours like my brother and sister.
The primary school I went to was just five minutes away. Maria Protopsaltis was my first and second grade teacher. She was a friend of the family and her sister, Panagiota, used to take me home to play with the other children in the neighbourhood. Our regular teacher, Mr. Melitas, was in the army. One hundred and forty children went to that school, but we didn’t get much schooling because of the war.
There was much to be done to help our soldiers. Those who could knit, like my mother and sister made them warm pullovers and socks and we sent parcels; even our father contributed by sending money from Australia.
I will never forget the school play our handsome teacher produced when he returned from the army because I was in it. He chose four girls for the seasons; the prettiest was spring with flowers in her hair and she sang a song, the skinniest was winter, she had cotton wool in her hair and said a poem. Autumn had leaves on her dress and because I had a pretty dress with cherries, I was Summer and I held a basket of fruit.

[[picture:"Maria Simos, young.jpg" ID:6224]]

Maria in her cherry dress, aged 10

I was a neat writer and when the printing machine at the bank broke down I was chosen to write the class reports. What a carefree time that was. My weakest subject was maths and my sister always tried to help me as she did in many things. My mother told me to always listen to her advice because she was older and wiser.

[[picture:"Peter school photo, 1945.jpg" ID:6225]]

Peter was a good student and became a tutor; here his is with his teacher, Mr. Triarchis, and the class at Astiko in 1945

My brother was always studying in his office; from 1941 to 1943 he was a tutor at the mixed high school at Potamos. He went on the study medicine at Athens University, but my mother never saw him become a doctor because she passed away before he completed his degree.
Matina was an excellent student and even though she missed two years school because of the war, she was still accepted by Athens University to study dentistry. Meanwhile, I continued to live in Kythera with my mother. I enjoyed school and homework and always chose a fine point ink pen to do it in.
Every afternoon after school, my mother would have a large mug of warm goat’s milk and a koulouri waiting for me. I enjoyed playing with my friends, going to Potamos shops to do messages and buy lollies; every stone on that road was familiar to me.
On Sunday we went to Potamos markets where people came from all over the island with their goods. You could get anything there, fruit and vegetables, fabrics, clothes. The local barber would cut my hair and one time I turned up smelling of kerosene as my mother tried to protect me from a lice epidemic at school.
When I was about ten or eleven my mother and I stayed at Mirtidia from the first of August, where it is traditional for people to stay for a period fifteen days to celebrate the Panagia’s entry into heaven. The end of this time was celebrated by a dance in the church square.

[[picture:"Papa Levounis.jpg" ID:6228]]

Papa Levounis.
This picture hangs in his cell, number 10, at the monastery. He left a written document allowing any of his descendants to stay in that cell.

I visited my grandmother in Aroniadika many times. She was our strength and our guidance. She lived in a double storey house surrounded by olive trees. She had her animals, her chickens, a goat and a donkey. My grandmother taught me to tell the time from the sun. One time my mother sent me to her with a loaded donkey, only half way there the load came off. Luckily someone helped me to arrive safely.
My grandmother lived alone as my grandfather had passed away and all of her surviving children had gone away, one to Athens and the rest to Australia. Her great heartbreak was the death of my aunt who died of a brain haemorrhage on the morning of the day she was to marry the love of her life. It was such a tragic story that it made the front page of a Sydney newspaper.

[[picture:"Dimitrios Nicolassos with 4 children.jpg" ID:6227]]

Dimitrios Nicolassos with four of his five children.
Seated from left: Stamatoula, her rwin Theodore, and Stavroula, who died on her wedding day in 1935.
Standing: Dimitrios and Katina

My grandmother was a tall, slim woman with beautiful teeth and she was always happy to see me. Her maiden name was Combes and out of seven children she was the only girl. She passed away in 1952 at the age of 75. I don’t remember either of my grandfathers but I do remember my father’s stepmother who lived with us for a few years before we went to Hora in 1939.

[[picture:"Levoune Grandmother & g son.jpg" ID:6308]]

Maria's grandmother Maria Nicolassos (nee, Combes) with her grandson Dimitrios Souliotis.

Across the paddock from us lived my godfather, Zachariah Fardoulys. He lived with his sister Helen, who later came to Australia and married a Cassimatis. My godfather was well-off; I remember that once he gave me a silver coin and I couldn’t wait to spend it. I always thought that I’d been christened at Potamos, but I’ve recently found out from my niece, Maxine, that I was christened at Mirtidia.
Once a year we went to Agia Pelagia to wash our blankets in the sea. We used to go the night before and sleep on the beach near the little church of Agia Pelagia. One particular time, my mother told us not to sleep near the church but to go further away. Early in the morning it was blown up by two local fishermen who were trying to open a bomb they had found on the beach. They died instantly and all the icons were shattered. I remember the Germans asking us where the ‘boom boom’ came from.
My memories during the war: the Germans and the Italians coming to the island, especially the Germans. I was scared of them with their striking silver- grey uniforms and their long, shiny back boots. How can I forget that we had to salute them and say ‘Heil Hitler’? I remember some Germans staying across from our house and we had to darken our windows so there was no light even though we had no electricity and only used oil lamps. We dug shallow graves near the house to hide, in case we were bombarded by the enemy.
We had to exchange most of the fine items our parents had brought from Australia such as linen and silverware and cutlery for necessities; even our beautiful gold christening crosses were traded, and our mother went without bread for us.
Our local priest hid an Australian soldier in his house who married his daughter at the end of the war, and brought her to live in Australia.
When I was twelve and just finishing primary school the time came for me to leave our beautiful home. I left my mother in Kythera and joined my brother and sister who lived with Doris Megaleconomos and her family in Kallithea. I remember always getting lost in the large, busy streets. Luckily the school was on the street where we lived; it was the same school my sister had attended although she had left the previous year.
I never went to my brother’s room because he had a skeleton in his closet and I was a scaredy cat. But Athens was very exciting and I had a lot of first experiences there; the first time I’d ever used a door bell and the first movie I had ever seen, it was Pinocchio by the way.
We’d go visiting and shopping with Doris and her brother Con. Her mother was a dressmaker and made me new dresses. It was a lot of fun. A year went by and I moved in with my Aunty Anna Levounis who lived in a one bedroom flat in Piraeus; she owned the house in front which she rented out. I was happy there. She had a lot of different coloured flowers in pots and a vine provided shade and sweet grapes. That garden inspired me to write a composition for school.
My new school was a twenty minute walk away. I met many girls there and I remember going with them on picnics on the mountains surrounding Athens. However I never finished that school year because we left for Australia in June to begin a new life.

[[picture:"George Levoune ouside Potamos house.jpg" ID:6230]]

George Levounis in front of his beautiful house in Potamos.

Twenty years later I brought my three children to that beautiful house in Potamos that I loved so much, but I came as a visitor; it was no longer my home. It was unforgettable because it was my opportunity to live with my father for the first time ever. We spent two whole months together. The upstairs was rented but I didn’t complain about having to stay in the basement because I enjoyed remembering my childhood. I found the fading footprint I left in the cement at the entrance of the house when I was a baby, but I was sad to see the doll’s house was gone.

[[picture:"Maria and father.jpg" ID:6231]]

Maria Simos-Levounes with her father, George.

I went to the small bridge which joined the two gardens and recalled that when my sister was a little girl she tried to cross it with her eyes closed and fell into the creek below, causing our mother to faint and remain paralysed with shock for six months. My sister still has the scar on her forehead. All the time I was there, I was remembering my mother and looking for her with my mind’s eye, but although I spent time in her garden and the house she loved, she was nowhere to be seen, but she will always be in my heart.

[[picture:"George and Katina Levounis.jpg" ID:6232]]

George and Katina Levounis.
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History, Oral History
School Photos

Yiannis Melitas with class in Potamos, Kythera

This is a picture of Yiannis Melitas with his class in Potamos. The writing translates as-
Picture of Yiannis Melitas with students of the Public School of Potamos.
Play performed during Holiday of Panagia (August 15, 1947).

Yiannis was my grandmother Efrosini (Trifillis) Trearchis' first cousin, Yiannis' aunt being Efrosini's mother.

Anyone with any info on Yiannis, his ancestry, or his children would be great. By the way does anyone know who any of the children in this photo are?

My e-mail address is dktrearchis@comcast.net
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Photos, School Photos
Vintage Portraits/ People

Yiannis Melitas with Class in Potamos, Kythera

This is a picture of Yiannis Melitas and his class in Potamos, Greece. The writing on the photo translates as-
Picture of Yiannis Melitas with students of the Public School of Potamos.
Play performed during Holiday of Panagia (August 15, 1947).

Any person with any information on Yiannis Melitas, his family, or ancestry would be a major help to me. Does anyone recognize any of the children?
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Photos, Vintage Portraits/ People
Guestbook

Gary Smith - Albuquerque USA

My Papou, Ioannis Kritharis came to the U.S. before 1896, eventually settling in Miami, Arizona in 1912. My YaYa came from Pireaus.

I visited Kythera in November 2004 and fell in love with it. We found my mother's first cousin, Marouli Faro in Karavas. She is a beautiful woman living in a beautiful corner of the world! The people living on Kythera are among the best!

I am an amateur photographer, that has had the privilege of having professional photographers for friends and clients. I have been taught some nice techniques by them.
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Guestbook
Vintage Portraits/ People

Yiannis Melitas Family in Potamos, Greece

This is a picture of Yiannis Melitas who was a teacher in Potamos. Yiannis (John) Melitas is on the far right. In the middle is Popi (more likely Penelope?), front left Caliope and rear Evangelia. Picture was taken on Jan. 12, 1945, and it is dedicated to "My uncle and aunt". If anyone can recognize anyone in this picture and has info about their family I would be greatly appreciated.
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Photos, Vintage Portraits/ People
Associations

Kytherian Hospital Appeal Committee

We are fortunate indeed to have a Hospital in Potamos that serves not only the local residents but also visitors from abroad. It is consoling for Kytherians and visitors to know that urgent medical support is available when needed.

The Hospital however is desperately short of equipment and a committee of volunteers has been formed to rectify the situation and raise the money needed. All funds raised will go directly to the manufacturers that supply the equipment.

The committee consists of:

Peter & Chrissa Vlandis
Dr Mitchell & Bente Notaras
Theo & Rene Feros, and
John & Tina Kass.

Funds have already been raised to purchase a Biochemical and Blood Analyser for the hospital. It has now been recognised that the Hospital is in desperate need of an ULTRASOUND as the present machine is hopelessly outdated.

Kythera has become a very popular holiday destination with visitors from Australia and elsewhere, mostly of Kytherian descent. Many are restoring family homes. Unfortunately we are an aging population, residents included. Please keep in mind the person you may be helping or even saving could be yourself, a family member or a relative.

It is hoped we can purchase further equipment to improve the standard of care and treatment at the hospital. Any donations will be used for this most worthwhile cause. For information on how to donate please email

kha@vlandisgroup.com.au


A receipt will be issued upon request. No equipment will be ordered or paid for without committee approval.

We firmly believe this appeal for the Hospital is most worthwhile and hope that all Kytherians will give it their consideration and support.

Thanking you on behalf of the committee,

Theo Feros and Peter Vlandis
07.08.2003

Kytherian Hospital Appeal Committee

Update. July, 2004.

From The KYTHERIAN, (Newsletter of the Kytherian Association of Australia), Oct, 2004, page 2.

Chrissa Vlandis.

During my holiday in Kythera in July, I, and other members of the Kytherian Hospital Appeal Committee, visited the Hospital in Potamos. We were welcomed by Mr Stais, who is the Adminstrator of the Hospital. He showed us around the hospital and also showed us the Biochemical and Blood Analyser that had been purchased by our Committee through the generosity of our kind donors.

The Biochemical and Blood Analyser is being used every day and a full time Pathologist is now in Kythera. Patients are able to have tests done in Kythera with the results available to them much earlier than before. We were most impressed. A few Australians visiting the island had cause to use the machine and remaked how simple it has made medical procedure. Mr Stais said that the hospital is undergoing changes. This will be a slow process, but I feel in time a lot of improvements will be made.

The next piece of equipment that the hospital needs is a machine to detect cancers. Cancer of the thyroid is becoming more common in Greece, and Europe.

A new machine will be made avaialble later in the year. This machine will prove to be very useful. Most patients on the island have to fly to Athens for simple tests, and this is a difficult thing to do, particularly for older Kytherians. Obtaining a machine for this purpose, may become the next goal of the committee.

On the same day that we visited the hospital, we went to the Old Peoples Home in Potamos. We were impressed how clean the wards were, and how pleasant the staff were. The hospital was installing new fire sprinklers. We spoke to a number of the people living there, and they were all very happy with the facility. We were welcomed by the President of the home, Mr Samios. Others present were Dr Argyropoulos, and Dr Spiro Tzannis, who both work with the aged. They made us most welcome.
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Culture, Associations
Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People

Megaloconomos and Coroneos - Around the Flag- Brisbane

In the centre seated is Evangeli Megaloconomos (Caponas) on his left is his brother Peter. The other two men I think are Coroneos? I was told one? of them went on to set up the hotel at Charleville. Unsure of the date or exact identities. I think this photo was taken in South East Queensland. Note the Greek flag background. Can anyone advise?
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Photos, Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People
Nicknames

"Delegos" - "Delegate" - Potiris.

From the guest book:

Costa Potiris - Sydney - Australia

Family village of origin: Potamos

My father Dimitris had two brothers, Theodoris and Evdoras all born in Asia Minor, Koukloutza village near Smyrna. In 1922 they were driven out to Greece, My father married Katina Stivaktakis, from Voutes Iraklio, Crete and had me and two sisters Stella and Maria, all born in Crete.

My father's father (Costa POTIRIS)had close relatives who migrated to Alexandria Egypt and USA. Either my grand father Costa, or his father came to Asia Minor from Kythera,

Their kytherian nick name was "delegos" (delegate).
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People, Nicknames
Notable Kytherians

John Harry Conomos

[[picture:"Conomos John Toyota.jpg" ID:5101]]

[John Conomos's village of origin on Kythera is Potamos.]

Toyota Australia chief set to join big boys

By Ian Porter
Melbourne AGE
April 13, 2004


Toyota Australia is poised to join the top echelon of the giant Toyota group with the proposed naming of John Conomos as a managing officer, reporting directly to the board.

Mr Conomos has been slated for election to become one of 44 managing officers at Toyota's June annual meeting in Japan. If elected, he will be only the fifth non-Japanese to hold such a senior post.

His nomination has come after a successful period in which Toyota Australia has been market leader seven times in the past 11 years.

An insider said it also recognised the success of the Altona production plant, which now turns out the Camry model to exacting Toyota standards and exports the bulk of its 100,000-plus output.

......Although Toyota Australia has often been market leader in Australia thanks to the sales of high-priced all-wheel-drive models, it has a [modest] earnings record despite an annual revenue that now exceeds $5 billion a year.

The company is expected to report a relatively strong result for the year to March 31.

The honour to be bestowed on Mr Conomos reflects the increasing visibility of Australia which, more than 40 years ago, was the first country outside Japan to build Toyotas.

Toyota Motor Corporation.
Managing Officers. Japan.

http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/news/04/0409.html

New Managing Officers (13 people)
—Pending approval at a board of directors meeting following this year’s regularly scheduled general shareholders’ meeting in June
Name Current title/assignment (at TMC, unless noted)
Wahei Hirai Seconded to Toyota Europe Design Development S.A.R.L. (ED2)
Tatehito Ueda General Manager, Power Train Management Engineering Div.
Takashi Shigematsu General Manager, Integrated System Engineering Div.
Yuzo Ushiyama General Manager, Overseas Planning Div.
Yoshikatsu Tanaka General Manager, Administration Div., Kinuura Plant
Nobuyoshi Hisada General Manager, Production Engineering Planning Div.
Yasumori Ihara General Manager, Business Development Div.
Mitsuhisa Kato Executive Chief Engineer, TOYOTA Development Center 1
Takahiko Ijichi General Manager, Accounting Div.
Toshio Furutani Seconded to FAW Toyota Motor Sales Co., Ltd. (FTMS)
Tetsuo Agata General Manager, Production Control Div.
John Harry Conomos Executive Chairman, Toyota Motor Corporation Australia Ltd.
Panagiotis (Takis) J. Athanasopoulos Executive Vice President and COO, Toyota Motor Marketing Europe

Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the General Division.

On the 13th June 2005, in delivering
THE QUEEN’S BIRTHDAY 2005 HONOURS,
The Governor-General was pleased to announce the following appointment and award:

Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the General Division

Mr John Harry CONOMOS
C/- Toyota Motor Corporation Australia,
Corner Gannons Road and Captain Cook Drive,
Caringbah NSW 2229
For service to the Australian automotive industry through contributions to policy formulation, economic reform initiatives
and the development of environmental and safety standards.
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People, Notable Kytherians
Guestbook

Costa Potiris - Sydney-Australia

My father Dimitris had two brothers, Theodoris and Evdoras all born in Asia Minor, Koukloutza village near Smyrna.
In 1922 they were driven out to Greece, My father married Katina Stivaktakis, from Voutes Iraklio, Crete and had me and two sisters Stella and Maria, all born in Crete.
My father's father (Costa POTIRIS)had close relatives who migtared to Alexandria Egypt and USA.
Either my grand father Costa, or his father came to Asia Minor from Kythera, Their kytherian nick name was "delegos" (delegate). Please give me further info if available.
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Tasso Conomos - Menlo Park, CA USA

I am the paternal grandson of Anastasios T. Megalokonomos and Chrysanthy Klenzos (sp), and the son of Iannis A. Megalokonomos and Penelope Venardou. All are from Potamos, except Penelope, who comes from Agia Anastasia (a few kilometers from Potamos). My mother Penelope's parents were her mother, Damiani Venardou, and her father, Stamatis Venardos. I have a sister Chrysanthy Conomos and another sister Anastasia Conomos Condas; Anastasia is a Kytherian mover and shaker, coming every summer and being involved in charitable endeavors. My mother Penelope lives in San Jose, CA, and at the tender age of 93 is still very physically and mentally robust--so, if you want me to ask her about people and families in the Potamos area circa 1925-1950, please email me at jjconomos@sbcglobal.net, and I'll try to get some answers.
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Paul Panaretos - Cuyahoga Falls, OH

On 02.08.2004 Ted Panaretos of Jupiter, Florida, U.S., posted an entry to the guestbook. My cousin's grandfather, Theodore Panaretos, was my great uncle. My grandfather, Panaiotis (called Peter after getting work in the U.S.) Panaretos arrived in the U.S. (Massachusetts-Rhode Island-Detroit, Michigan)via Canada. He married my grandmother, Leona (by the Greeks) Flood, from Ireland, who became fluent in Greek. Their two children (son and daughter), born in the U.S., were raised Roman Catholic. I became a priest, serving first for 12 years in the Archdiocese of Detroit, then entered the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and currently live and work in Ohio.
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Maria Robertson - Sydney, Australia

My cousin and I are trying to locate our family history. Our grandmother's maiden name was Effie Fardouly born to George & Maria Fardouly (nee Megaloconomos). Would be much appreciated if anyone has information with reference to Maria Megaloconomos father's ancestory
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Maria Cavacos - Fells Point, Baltimore, MD

Have been "visiting" the Kytherian site and I really am engrossed in all you have put together! Have contacted 2 of the other "visitors" and will continue to investigate all you have to offer. My fathers family is from there and I have visited often. After seeing my papou's house in ruins, I contacted the mayor of Potamos to see if I could fix it up but never heard back from them. I would love my children and grandchildren to be able to visit there in the future. My cousin Tassee Coroneos recently passed away. He loved the island - and did much for the Gerokomeion. I have seen the video of Tom Coroneos...it is wonderful! keep up the good work- it is is truly a labor of love!
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Ted Panaretos - Jupiter,Fl. U.S.

My people left Kythera and went to Smyrna. My grandfather Theodore was in the wine, ouzo and brandy distilling business. My father Minas left after 1920 for Istanbul, Marsailes, Tampico then the U.S. He last had a restaurant in Detroit seating 500. 10 years after he passed away I opted out and went back to Law School. I guess I'm sort of retired at 76.
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Kytherian Arts/Craft

A night at the games 2004

So, this year, as we have all been informed countless times, the Olympic games are returning to their roots here in Greece. Based on this fact then, at the end of their school year, the junior school of Potamos put on a show, with a special appearance of the Kindegarten, a show about the Olympic games… a show I can safely say was the best theatrical production (or any sort of production for that matter) Kythera has ever seen!
The whole thing was organized by a wonderful young teacher, who schooled her charges for three months steady, so as to be able to give us the most fantastic performance imaginable, using just about every technique for children’s theatre I have ever heard of, and a few more of her own. Now, where to start?
The setting consisted of the general stage, where scenery and costumes changed continuously, and a large screen where images and videos from the Olympic games and the accompanying rituals showed throughout the production. The narrators where two of the older girls from the top class, and they gave the general introductions to the scenes and rituals, reading various historical pieces on the games as well as pieces of literature and various facts on the subject. The first scenes showed the Gods of Olympus arguing with each other over whether they should support the games or not, each God portrayed beautifully both with their dress and their actions. After much discussion, as Aries voted war and Dionyssos continually offered the tsipoura around, Zeus broke the argument up and it was agreed that the Olympic games would have the aid and support of all the Gods, and each was given a part to play in the proceedings. Their followed the most dramatic piece of theatre any one present had ever seen and we all felt our mouths falling gradually open as a tall dark girl stood in front of the microphone and recited in ringing, passionate tones a poetic piece of literature, calling for the world to unite and come together in peace for the games. Then things started in earnest, and there followed a full two hours and more during which we witnessed the preparations for the games by the priestesses and their rituals, saw the torches lighted all over the globe, the priestesses danced and sang, olive branches and flickering torches flickered all around and, as the final touch, a white dove, the universal symbol of peace, was released into the nights sky as the fires danced higher. The children danced traditional dances and paraded the countries and cities who had hosted the Olympic games, the Kindergarten put in a special appearance carrying flags of Greece, Europe and the games, and the whole history of the games and their revival was laid before the viewers in words and imagery and songs. There followed sample performances of the various competitions, some seen through the screen of black theatre, some shown in live action by teams of children. Thus the Olympic games where bought to life in the amphitheatre of Potamos, athletes and priestesses, Gods and Goddesses, everyone played their part, and the whole performance was rounded of with heartfelt renditions of a selection of songs about the games, and few where left without a tear or a big silly smile as we watched the kids sing their hearts out and heard the oh so patriotic words they cried into the night.
There were many tears and hugs at the end, when three months of teamwork and bonding came to their climax and close, and as for the audience, well, we all had our mouths open and our hands were sore from clapping! So congratulations to the Potamos junior school, and we hope fervently to see some similar magic in the future, and to see some of those kids with rising stage carriers later on! A most amazing performance, and if you weren’t there it would be wise to get hold of a DVD of the night, either from the local television or from the Potamos school teachers. What a preparation for the Games, perhaps even better then the real thing!
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John Rampias - Thousand Oaks, Ca

The village name is Potamos, Kythera. Gregoria Panaretos, my Yaya came was born 1892 Married John George Rampias, and move to New Bedford ,Mass. USA. 1921..She had 4 sons George (my father) Stephen, Constantine, and Lambros. They are all deceased now. Her Brother was Cosmos Panaretos. I was told that we had relatives in Australia. My father and uncle Stephen, said they met some during WWII. Just seeing if anyone knows anything about their past.
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Anna Avgoustou - Australia

My mother was born Stavroula Theodorakakis (Cordato) in Potamo, and came to Australia in 1947/48 after her parents Dennis & Maria Cordato died. My mother married Harry Dimitratos and I have two sisters, Katherine & Maria.
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Kytherian Art

Panagiotis Protopsaltis at work in his studio

Panagiotis Protopsaltis at work in his studio.

As Panagiotis states in the People, subsection - High Achievers entry:

"I was born in Athens in 1945 and even though my father came from Potamos in Kythera, I have never been there myself unfortunately. I left Greece in 1961 for England where among other things like studing Philosophy and English Literature, I stumbled upon painting which was to become my true passion."
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Archive/Research

Page 91 of Church of St George, Potamos, parish register 1826-1865.

Page 91 of Church of St George, Potamos, parish register 1826-1865. [[picture:"page 91 of Church of St George, Potamos, parish register 1826-1865.jpg" ID:2517]]

Most Kytherians have probably never seached the records of the Parish Registers from Kythera. I have added a copy here to introduce the "style" of entry in the parish registers.

All are readily available in Australia and the USA. The method for obtaining copies of these records has been clearly enunciated in other entries in this section of kythera-island.net

I recall when my cousin Lilly Vanges was alive and conducting extensive searches for her family history at the "Mormon" Centre at Carlingford in Sydney. Lilly mentioned that it was very difficult for her to read the Greek writing - and that much of it was in a style that Kytherian Greeks were unused to speaking or reading.

I strongly recommend that you take a very good Greek "reader" with you, when conducting research.

This scanned copy was provided to me by the "Encyclopaedia Hellenica of Kytherian Knowledge", Mr Peter Tsicalas.
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Kytherian Arts/Craft

Michael Stralek - a Tribute

A few days ago, the well known to Kythera artist Michael Stralek died at his home in Germany.

Stralek has been coming to Kythera for many years, and with him he brought his artwork, his paintings, his drawings and his puppets. Many of his landscape paintings of Kythera hang in restaurants and cafes of the island, bringing out the colours of the bracken, the many hues of the olive trees, the fields at twilight… other paintings depicted demons, fairies, and often women, past lovers or beautiful models he met on his travels.

His puppets however outshone his other work, with their colours and vibrancy, the long, clever faces and fingers, their lifelike movements and expressions as they submitted to the fancies of their maestro. Michael often preferred to enact the words of songs, both Greek and English, as much as stories, when he gave small sample shows to the children of the island. In years back he also gave workshops for any children who cared to come for free and partake of a little of his talent.

Michael loved Kythera, and contributed anything and everything he could to the islands culture with his work and ideas. However his repertoire stretches far beyond the boundaries of Kythera. He has worked with some of the finest artists of his time, in all areas of the arts, and perhaps gave up a great career to submit to his love of the island.

As a person, at least in the years that we knew him, he was flamboyant, loud and course, blusterous and yet often strangely affectionate or romantic, passionate and fiery tempered at times, a showman, an artist, and it would be an understatement to say he was eccentric. I remember once watching him completing a transaction with the islands bishop over a painting, and in my mind I framed the scene and the title “The saint and the sinner” flashed through my mind. His course humour and eccentricity, combined with a fine love and appreciation of art and beauty contained in the physique of the person he often described as the “kologermanos”, fixed to make up his strange misunderstood character.

His artwork was amazing, and it is only appropriate to pay tribute to his contribution to the islands culture and artistic background, the loss of such a person is a great one for Kythera, our condolences to those close to him…R.I.P Michael.
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Emmanuel Cominos - GoldCoast AUSTRALIA

I am Dr. EMMANUEL J. COMINOS from the Gold Coast Australia. Both my wife and I are of kytherian extraction. My wife's name is MARIA. her maiden name is CAREEDY, from the village of MYLOPOTAMOS. MY MOTHER came from the village of POTAMOS. Her maiden name was MARIA PSALTIS. We think this is a fantastic website. My nephew Stephen Trifyllis brought the website to my attention. My wife and children and myself have embarked on a new enterprise in Queensland Australia. we have established THE COMINOS OLIVE GROVES at Stonehenge Road Millmerran .We visited Kythera in 1999, and visited our Olive Groves at "STA SILAKA" near POTAMOS. This inspired us to carry on the family tradition here in Australia.
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Home Remedies

bats and superstition

Maybe we should have a heading on superstitions?
Anyway, around our house in Michigan in the Fall, we used to get bats in our home on nights when the weather would start to cool in the evenings and the little bats would try and find a way into the hose to get warm. My mother being a Kytherian, from Potamos, was a very superstitious person and she would sort of freak out when they got into the house. Me or my father would catch them and more likely than not, the little bats would die. She would take and wrap them in newspaper and put them in a drawer. She had learned that it was good luck to do so?? I never understood where she learned this from. But anyway we had a few bats wrapped in newspaper in drawers at home.
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Elene Claire (nee Hellen) - Brisbane/Australia

I am the eldest grandchild of Vince (Valerio) and Elene Hellen (Veneris). Papou left Pourko when he was thirteen and initially went to work with his uncle in the USA. He joined his older brother Nicholas in Australia around 1906. My Yiayia Elene was from Potamos & was the oldest sister of Syd Levonis (see reference 9.3.04). She arrived in Australia in 1921. After living & working at Hellen's Siding area in central Queensland, the family settled in Goomeri. There were seven children and also a large extended family and network of friends throughout SE Queensland. I have wonderful memories of huge extended family get-togethers and celebrations.
In October this year I'll finally be visiting Kythera and Greece for the first time - thanks to this site, I've been able to explore & add to the stories I've heard over the years. I can't wait!
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menas levonis - brisbane australia

My father Syd Levonis was born the seventh and youngest child of Dennis Levonis and Meta Bavaes in 1911. He emigrated to Australia when a teenager to join his brothers and sisters. He still has clear memories of life on Kythera. Some of the extended family names are Cassamatis, Corones , Carides?. Menas Levonis was a priest in the church in Potamos.
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Religion

Carnival Time 2000

The rhythm of the rum,
The rhythm of the drum,
Bodies vibrating to the beat,
Colours shimmering in tropical heat,
Crowded streets, happy faces,
‘Jump up’ time in far off places.

‘Carnival’ or ‘jump up’ time for me conjures up brilliant images of street parades of frenzied dancers moving to the rhythm of brass band ‘roadmarch’ or calypso music. Gigantic costumes wheeled along by their bearers leading of tribes of dancers in brightly coloured, themed fluttering costumes. A shimmering rainbow of colour moving through streets heaving with revellers seeking release from the mundane every day existence. In countries where Carnival is an inherent part of the culture, a few days of fantasy for all is often the product of many weeks in the ‘mas camps’ where the music and costumes are conceived and produced in the hope of winning one of the prestigious prizes.

The word ‘carnival’ itself originates from the Latin ‘carne’ meaning meat and ‘vale’ meaning to leave and so, literally, carnival means the leaving of meat and marks the beginning of Lent, a period of abstinence from meat eating. Days have always been set aside for the observance of religious occasions, which have been important in all cultures. Pagan societies used such occasions to pacify evil spirits while Christian societies celebrated aspects of Christian life at these times. Many Christian festivals have their roots in pagan rituals and retain aspects from them. This is particularly the case with Carniva, which could seem like a bacchanal to the uninitiated observer. Carnival, as we now know it, is a product of the Western Hemisphere often influenced by Afro-Latino rhythms of music and dance. In places like New Orleans and in Latin American and Caribbean countries Carnival has become a three-day spectacle. Somehow the cold winds of February on a Greek island do not conjure up the same images but Kythira does have its annual carnival on the last Sunday before Lent, which usually falls at the end of February. The following day is Clean Monday, which is the name given to the day when, traditionally, the last traces of meat and grease would be cleaned from the household in preparation for the forty days of Lent. Recovering from the excesses of Carnival Sunday it is usual, on Clean Monday, to go to the beach, perhaps with a picnic, to fly kites.

Everyone looks forward to this winter festival weekend and we hope for the fine, sunny weather, which often blesses us in February. The children are especially enthusiastic as, for the three weeks before Carnival Weekend, they are allowed to visit houses in their villages in fancy dress and play Halloween. During this period of Apocreas, there are fancy dress parties with competitions organised for the Junior and High Schools and dances for the older members of the community. On the Friday of Carnival Weekend the children are allowed to go to school in fancy dress which means an early start to the day in those households which have excited young children.

The Carnival Parade takes place in Potamos in the centre of the island. For the last few years we have had a performance of traditional dancing preceding the parade. Three years ago the teenagers carefully rehearsed a maypole dance during the week before and since the arrival of our dynamic Junior Gymnastics teacher, Vassilis, we have been able to enjoy a spectacular performance of Kythirian dances by the Junior School children in traditional costume. The parade of themed floats which follows is (unlike in those Latin American countries where months of work go into making a visual spectacle), in true Kytherian tradition, put together, spontaneously, at the last minute. Nevertheless, the results are quite professional and extremely entertaining as the themes are usually satirical comments on topical political events. These can be of local interest as was the float recreated in the form of our smaller ferryboat “Nisos Kythira” renamed for the occasion “Isos Kythira” meaning ‘maybe Kythira’ stressing the ongoing difficulties of ever arriving on this island. Widening the range of interest to the rest of Greece, the Greek/Turkish conflict usually comes in for exposure and, more globally, President Clinton’s misdemeanors were an obvious target for fun. For some years the village of Mitata has stolen the honours as the whole village has been involved in creating a mobile feast for all dressed up in various guises.

So now to the year 2000 – the greatest Carnival of all? Posters appeared round the island promising events and a parade at 4.00pm. Most of us, of course, were happy to turn up, expectantly, to enjoy the fun without having contributed anything at all, our minds directed to what delicacies might be provided for our palates this year by Mitata. The square was roped off and decorated, large stereo speakers in place. The ‘Politistikos Eksoraistikos Syllagos of Potamos’ had provided a table of gastronomic delight and Rowan Parkes and Adriana Galanis had set up their face-painting stall. The dancing was announced and was received with great enthusiasm as usual. It was followed by Mr.Floros’s High School Students letting off steam and a lot of flour in their re-enactment of student revolution and then the start of the Grand Parade with the Kindergarten children dressed appropriately for their adopted theme of “Protect the Forest” and then ……absolutely nothing. We waited and waited and waited but sure enough there was no parade, well how could there be? We were all waiting to watch and not one of us had thought to participate this year. As usual we had relied on the same few people to provide for our annual entertainment without a thought to their wishes or even to the financial implications of their contributions. If our Carnival is not to become a part of history as some of our other annual festivals have become, we will all have to do something next year to make it happen.
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Helen Cominos - Sydney

My father Dimitrios Cominos is from Potamos and my mother's maiden name is Rose Gerakitis Maneas. My grandmother Eleni was originally from Mitata. My father has a sister named Aida Menas who lives in America and a brother named Peter Cominos, who has passed away. I have a sister named Poppy married to Barry Weir. They have two children named Alex and Christina. I am in the process of putting together my family tree and would appreciate any information, from other fellow Kythereans.
On another note, I would like to congratulate the people who have put together this marvelous website. It has brought so many Kythereans in touch with each other and its a great resource for the young and old.
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George Venianakis "Nenes" - Sydney/Australia

Congradulations to the Team who organised this site. What a wonderful way to keep this Island's wonderful heritage alive. My Grandfather Minas Nenes was the village's local butcher for many years in particular during the depession. My mum's name is Hrisanthy and she was one of 9 children.
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Notable Kytherians

Theodore Souris

State Bar Mourns the Loss of Former Justice Theodore Souris
State Bar leaders have expressed deep sadness on the death of Theodore Souris, a former justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, who succumbed to leukemia on June 21st, 2002 in Chicago. He was 76 years old.
Souris was first appointed to the Michigan Supreme Court in January 1960 by former governor G. Mennen Williams, and elected in November the same year to a term expiring in 1969. At age 33, he was the youngest justice to have served on the high court. He was also the first person of Greek heritage to serve on any state's highest appellate court. He returned to private practice, concentrating on business law, after his service to the Supreme Court.

"Ted Souris was one of the finest lawyers who ever practiced in this state," said Bruce W. Neckers, president of the State Bar of Michigan. "He had a remarkable career as a lawyer and jurist and he will be missed by all of us."

The executive director of the State Bar, John T. Berry said he learned of the tremendous integrity of Justice Souri early in his tenure. "I was fortunate to begin corresponding with him recently and learned of his gracious manner. It is a great loss to us all and my prayers go out to his family and friends," Berry said.

Born and raised in Detroit, Souris served in the Army Air Corps during World War II and returned to earn his law degree at the University of Michigan in 1949. Other career highlights include serving as general counsel for the Office of Price Stabilization in Michigan and as Wayne County circuit court judge. He was also the first chairman of the State board of Canvassers from 1954 to 1959 and, a member of the state's Board of Ethics from 1974 to 1984. Justice Souris was the founding member of the Hellenic American Bar Association.

His wife, Karla Scherer, four children and seven grandchildren survive Souris.


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Supreme court justice Theodore Souris

State Bar Mourns the Loss of Former Justice Theodore Souris
State Bar leaders have expressed deep sadness on the death of Theodore Souris, a former justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, who succumbed to leukemia on June 21st, 2002 in Chicago. He was 76 years old.
Souris was first appointed to the Michigan Supreme Court in January 1960 by former governor G. Mennen Williams, and elected in November the same year to a term expiring in 1969. At age 33, he was the youngest justice to have served on the high court. He was also the first person of Greek heritage to serve on any state's highest appellate court. He returned to private practice, concentrating on business law, after his service to the Supreme Court.

"Ted Souris was one of the finest lawyers who ever practiced in this state," said Bruce W. Neckers, president of the State Bar of Michigan. "He had a remarkable career as a lawyer and jurist and he will be missed by all of us."

The executive director of the State Bar, John T. Berry said he learned of the tremendous integrity of Justice Souri early in his tenure. "I was fortunate to begin corresponding with him recently and learned of his gracious manner. It is a great loss to us all and my prayers go out to his family and friends," Berry said.

Born and raised in Detroit, Souris served in the Army Air Corps during World War II and returned to earn his law degree at the University of Michigan in 1949. Other career highlights include serving as general counsel for the Office of Price Stabilization in Michigan and as Wayne County circuit court judge. He was also the first chairman of the State board of Canvassers from 1954 to 1959 and, a member of the state's Board of Ethics from 1974 to 1984. Justice Souris was the founding member of the Hellenic American Bar Association.

His wife, Karla Scherer, four children and seven grandchildren survive Souris.


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Obituaries

Supreme Court Justice Theodore Souris

State Bar Mourns the Loss of Former Justice Theodore Souris
State Bar leaders have expressed deep sadness on the death of Theodore Souris, a former justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, who succumbed to leukemia on June 21st, 2002 in Chicago. He was 76 years old.
Souris was first appointed to the Michigan Supreme Court in January 1960 by former governor G. Mennen Williams, and elected in November the same year to a term expiring in 1969. At age 33, he was the youngest justice to have served on the high court. He was also the first person of Greek heritage to serve on any state's highest appellate court. He returned to private practice, concentrating on business law, after his service to the Supreme Court.

"Ted Souris was one of the finest lawyers who ever practiced in this state," said Bruce W. Neckers, president of the State Bar of Michigan. "He had a remarkable career as a lawyer and jurist and he will be missed by all of us."

The executive director of the State Bar, John T. Berry said he learned of the tremendous integrity of Justice Souri early in his tenure. "I was fortunate to begin corresponding with him recently and learned of his gracious manner. It is a great loss to us all and my prayers go out to his family and friends," Berry said.

Born and raised in Detroit, Souris served in the Army Air Corps during World War II and returned to earn his law degree at the University of Michigan in 1949. Other career highlights include serving as general counsel for the Office of Price Stabilization in Michigan and as Wayne County circuit court judge. He was also the first chairman of the State board of Canvassers from 1954 to 1959 and, a member of the state's Board of Ethics from 1974 to 1984. Justice Souris was the founding member of the Hellenic American Bar Association.

His wife, Karla Scherer, four children and seven grandchildren survive Souris.


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Leaving for Australia 1939

Stratis Tzannes (third from right) about to leave Greece for Australia with his bride Phofo (nee Panaretos) (third from left). Also pictured, Peter Crithary (left) and Phofo’s father Spiros Panaretos (second from left)

Family name: Panaretos & Tzannes
Village of origin: Potamos & Livadi
Photo taken: Greece 1939
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Spiro Levonis - Brisbane, Australia

Having visited Kythera for my first time last year (03), I now appreciate what my friends and family have been raving about and what a special Island it is. Thankyou to the organisers of this website! I look forward to seeing the progress. I hope to visit Kythera again in 2005. See you there!
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Oral History

The story of Michael Panaretos

[[picture:"tzannes8.jpg" ID:884]]
This is a copy of a photograph of Michael Panaretos. The original is in the Cultural Centre in Potamos. The photo was taken after he returned to Greece from the Belgian Congo.

Michael Panaretos left Kythera when his parents refused him permission to marry a girl they thought unsuitable. He vanished without a trace. He was about 22 at the time. His father in his will left him a one third share of his estate. This third share was to be kept intact for thirty years should he re-emerge. But he did not.

However as an old man he returned to Athens with two nurses, to live. He was apparently unmarried and childless, and had changed his name to Panagiotou. He was discovered by his family when he applied for a copy of his birth certificate from Kythera which he needed to obtain to prove his Greek nationality. Because he applied in the name Panagiotou no record was found but then he remembered his original name was Panaretos and reapplied. Stavros Megaloconomos noticed the application and wondered who this man was. He told the Panaretos family of the application.

Maria Freeleagus (nee Panaretos) went to visit the old man and gained his confidence. She learnt that all those years of his absence had been spent in the Belgian Congo where he had prospered. He was forced to leave the country and return to Greece in his old age following the Belgian withdrawal from the colony and the associated fighting that had broken out. Michael had nowhere else to go but Greece. Now relatively rich he bought office premises near Syntagma Square. In his will he left the income from that investment to the Kytherian Community. The money from that investment now funds the Cultural Centre in Potamos.

Story told by Ross Tzannes of Sydney, Australia
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Vintage Portraits/ People

Michael Panaretos

Photograph taken after he returned to Greece from the Belgian Congo.

The original photograph is in the Potamos Cultural Centre on Kythera.

Read the story of Michael Panaretos in the Oral History section of this site.

Family name: Panaretos
Village of origin: Potamos
Date of photo: unknown
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The Panaretos family in the early 1940’s

Andy Panaretos (middle front), Peter Panaretos (the muscle man), Maria Freeleagus (nee Panaretos) (left), and Maria’s husband Kiriakos Freeleagus (right).

Kiriakos Freeleagus was a member of the very prominent and prosperous Freeleagus family in Brisbane where he and Maria settled. His businesses included Brisbane’s fresh food and ice supplies and the Treasury Café in Queens Street, Brisbane, Queensland.

Family name: Panaretos
Village of origin: Potamos
Photo taken: circa 1940’s
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Peter Panaretos in the 1940’s

Peter Panaretos flexing his muscles in the 1940’s

Peter Panaretos settled in Glen-Innes (near Armidale) in NSW, and took over the Peter’s store. He ran the business with his brother Andy (the 7th child of Spiros Panaretos) until he died from pneumonia in 1944. He was in his late 20’s. Peter left the business to Andy who then ran it for many decades.

Family name: Panaretos
Village of origin: Potamos
Photo taken: circa 1940’s
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Spiros Panaretos with his father Peter Panaretos circa 1908

Spiros came to Australia in the late 1890’s and built up the Peter’s stores in the New England District NSW. He regularly bicycled between them.

He returned to Greece in 1906 to marry Eleni Gengos. He was dissuaded by his family and his own personal experiences from returning to Australia to live permanently. Soon after his marriage he returned to Australia with his young nephew Peter Crithary so as to transfer his businesses to various members of his family and to friends. He set up Peter Crithary in the Glen-Innes store and himself returned to Kythera where he set up as a merchant and lived in Potamos in a fine house with his wife and seven children. Although several of his children (Maria, Peter, Phofo, Andy, and later George) migrated to Australia from the late 1930’s onwards he himself did not return to Australia except for a visit late in his life with his wife in the 1950’s. At that time he told his grandchildren that a major reason for quitting Australia in the early 1900's was because the locals refused to treat him as one of their own. This was not because of his Greek background but because he would not join them in weekend Aborigine shoots. He considered Australia to be a barbaric country.

Family name: Panaretos
Village of origin: Potamos
Photo taken: circa 1908
Peter Panaretos was born circa 1840-50
Spiros Panaretos was born 1880 and died 1964
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Peter Coroneos - Australia

My paternal grandfather was Panayiotis (Peter) Coroneos (nickname Bellos) born at Potamos in the late 1870's. I understand he came to Australia in the late 1800's with several of his brothers. He settled in Perth where he established a business, an oyster bar in Wellington Street. His wife, Eriphili (who was a Delaveris) died while still reasonably young, but not before giving birth to a large family of whom six daughters and three sons survived into adulthood. The youngest of their sons, Byron is my father. I am still researching this information and will add more as it comes to light. In the meantime, I have now loaded a number of Coroneos gravestone pics taken at Potamos. No doubt they will not be all related, but might still be of use for those doing genealogy research.
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Miscellaneous

The place of tears, joy and sorrow

This is the plaque on the monument of the place of tears, joy and sorrow. This monument is found just outside Potamos on the road to Agia Pelagia. It was erected in 1908 to commemorate the place where family and friends farewelled those leaving to seek their fortunes abroad
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Nature

Quince

Ripe in the fall, this fruit makes a delicious spoon sweet. How to prepare this treat soon to be included in the recipe section.
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Vintage Portraits/ People

Constantine Fardoulis and wife Helen Katsoulis

This information was sent into us by Lindsay Johnstone (many thanks!).

Re Photo of CONSTANTINE EMMANUEL FARDOULIS AND WIFE HELEN KATSOULIS,

I am married to Maria Emmanuel Fardoulis, and this is a photo of her father's parents, Constantine Emmanuel Fardoulis and Helen Katsoulis (daughter of Charalambos Katsoulis and Stavrula Baveas). Details of his identity and family are set out below:

Constantine Emmanuel Fardoulis (1866-1938) married Helen Katsoulis who died at Kythera 23 Nov 1944. He was son of Emmanuel Pangiotis Fardoulis ( ca 1840 -1901)who built the church of St. Constantine just outside Potamos). Stamatina Levunnis was his mother.

The home of Con and Helen Fardoulis (in the photo) was on the road to Agia Triada,Potamos. They had lands at "Drakos" and "Kambos", Potamos. Con was a gunner in the Greek navy which was involved in an incident with Turkey in 1897. He went to Australia in 1901, and worked at Gunnedah NSW. In 1908 his young son Emmanuel joined him from Greece. They worked in Bingara, Inverell and Tingha. Con returned to Greece prior to World War I, bought a sailing vessel and transported vegetables from Kythera to the Piraeus. Between 1921 and 1924 Con was back in Australia, but returned to Greece in 1924 and farmed at Potamos until his death in 1938. He had three sons and two daughters who lived mostly in Australia. His eldest son was Emmanuel Constantine Fardoulis (1895-1984), my wife's father.
This information may help with guessing an appropriate date for the photo.

Lindsay Johnstone


From the collection of George P. Levoune (Potamos)
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Andrew Alexander Coroneo, i Psomas - Sydney NSW Australia

"Bravo for initiative, worthy of financial support."
Father Alec 1898-1970 d.Sydney but interred with parents at Potamos at own request; settled in Glen Innes NSW 1907, motion picture exhibitor. m.1934 to Anastasia Ioannou Diacopoulos "tou Gerou Mai" 1913-1980, from Karavas (Sourris relatives in Baltimore USA). Settled Gosford NSW 1924. m.1934. Andrew b. Armidale NSW 1935; retired pharmacy and travel agency proprietor; "married out" -- "ine xeni alla den pirazi" Nicky Thalassinos from Aliveri,Euboea,1976. Daughters Anastasia, 24, lawyer; Elisabeth, 22, law student; Alexandra, 19, architecture student (all "professional" violinists). Would love to hear from Kytherians of similar interests, esp. classical and folk "musos".
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Oral History

Memories of '43

Late on a Wednesday evening I sat down with Mrs Pavlaki in the kitchen in her daughter’s apartment in Potamos. The electricity had been wiped out in the area, so we sat in candlelight, talking and remembering. Mrs Pavlaki must surely be one of the most humorous people I know, her tinkling laughter and sparkling eyes flashed and filled the kitchen, as she burbled over everything from her mother's cooking to the hungry years of '43. The very idea that I had come to hear some stories from her seemed absolutely hilarious to her, and it took a while for her to get started. Soon however, she was deep in '43...

"In '43 when the hounta were in charge we had no bread and no flour, but we were certainly luckier than some because, having animals, we also had enough dairy foods and plenty of meat, and we had wood for the fire. It really wasn’t that bad! (tinkling laughter)

All the Athenian kids who had Kytherian heritage had come back to the island, as things were really bad in the city. I was sixteen. We all used to gather together in the cafes and perform, plays and songs and poetry. I played an island in a play (more tinkly laughter). The older boys were taken by the Germans though, to make barricades and to fight. But we never had any murders. Times were hard but we were young and strong and survivors.

In the war, before the island was taken over, we girls used to knit for the soldiers. Vests and shirts and pullovers and blankets, because the mountains were cold and they weren't holding out in the bad weather.

And then, after four years of hounta the English came and all the bells were rung and we all piled into the churches and sang praises. Many of us had relations in Australia and America and when the war was over they all sent us packages with candy and clothes and food and money. It was wonderful fun! We'll never forget those years..."
Her husband is by now listening, and adds: "We didn’t have light then either!"
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Poor man from Potamos

Not to be outdone by the recently submitted picture of the hippie, Nikolaos Moulos, here is an unknown poor man taken in Potamos, sometime in the early 50's. Can't imagine being all bundled up like this on Kythera? Doesn't get that cold? Very sad for one of our own .
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Eve (Evangelia) Vaggi Scott - Dearborn, MI U.S.A.

I'm the first generation daughter born in the U.S.A of Mary Gavriles Vaggi and George Demitrios Vaggi. I have a huge family tree on my father's side that was prepared and given to me by my first cousin in Australia, Theodore Vanges and his wife Olympia. I'm trying to find my grandfather's brother whom I believe was named Thomas Gavriles. I cannot locate any information on him. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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Jack Cordatos with joey

Jack (Ioannis) Cordatos of Potamos pictured here with his pet joey. This photograph was taken at the back of the Cordatos Bros Cafe in Hillston, NSW, Australia circa 1936. Jack ran the business with his brother Dimitri.

Cordatos was his father's paratsoukli (nickname) his clan name being Theodorakakis
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Where to stay

Potamos

HOTEL:

Porfyra
Tel. +27360 . 33329
Tel. +27360 . 33924

.._ _ _..._ _ _..._ _ _...

APARTMENTS / ROOMS

Antonis Katsoulis
Tel. +27360 . 34359
Tel. +0945 . 216173


Source: "Kythera Summer Edition"
If you would like to subscribe to this wonderful yearly publication send you details and payment (A$12 per year) to Metaxia Poulos, Kythera Summer Edition, Mylopotamos, Kythera 80100.
Information:
Greece: Tel. +27360 . 34152, Fx. 31879
Australia: +267 . 664807
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Tourist Information, Where to stay
Nicknames

Michalakakis - Tsicalas

The story goes that a few families from the Mixalakiani clan (aka Michalakianikos/Michalakianoi/…) of the Mani progressively arrived on Kythera from the late 1700s and, to differentiate themselves, one lot adopted, or brought with them, or had thrust upon them, the nickname Tsikalas (meaning potter). Only a few descendants practiced the trade but most carried on the name.

Other families in the the clan included Aggelakos, Androutsakos (or Gerakarakos?), Diakaikos, Drakoularakos, Kalapothakos, Kleptogiannis (love that one!), Michaleas, Michaleakos, Mitsakos, Patsilinakos, Sigkikos, Tzouanakos, Xarxakos (or Arfanakos?), Xanthakos (or Katsakos?) and Zekakos. Some of these probably got recalibrated in Cerigoese.

At Potamos in 1866 Fr Nikolaos Magoulas, son of Antonaos Bavaeas, blessed the coupling of Spyro Ioannis Mixalakakis (Tzikalas) and Maria George Tzouanaki (Pavlakou), in front of witnesses Panagiotis Nikolaos Fardouli and Antonaos Panagiotis Diakakis. Fourteen years later Spyro and Maria begat their 8th and last child, George, so dubbed by his Godmother, Maria Emmanual Katsoulis, and endorsed by Fr Kosmos Trifyllis and confirmed by witnesses Andonis Panayotis Diakakis and Minas Theodore Nenes. The DNA was passed on when George begat Spyro in Bangalow and Spyro begat me in Lismore. And I potter about in Mullumbimby and sometimes muck about with clay. (That should satisfy the lawyers.)
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General History

Kithira Philharmonic Orchestra

At Kithira, before the institution of the philharmonic orchestra there was not an organised musical group like the rest of Eptanisa. Small, poor, and isolated from the rest of Eptanisa, Kithira did not accept the western cultural influence as it happened with Corfu and Zakithos for instance. On the contrary, thanks to its geographical position, the north part of Kithira accepted musical influence from Peloponnese and the south part of the island accepted musical influence from Crete. Influences, which are obvious, not only at the melody of Kithirian songs but also at the steps of the Kithirian dances. If someone examines carefully the songs of Kithira will distinguish some that are influenced neither from Peloponese nor from Crete. For example the melodically line and the steps of papadopanagiotisa or kombianiko, diplo, karavitiko and nifiatiko are purely kithirian.

The island was not only isolated but also its residents were separated to nobles and villagers; fact that did not help the growth of musical education. The kithirian nobles were living isolated from the nobles of the other islands and they were not interested in participating to their spiritual concerns .The villagers, on the other hand, were too poor; and the every day battle to secure their food was not letting them chances for musical and artistic concerns. Not mentioning that many of them were obliged to immigrate in order to survive.

" http://www.kithira-island.com/music.htm ".
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Smyrna refugees in Kythera 1923

This picture is from Kythera soon after the exchange of Greeks for Turks in Smyrna, 1923. These are refugees that have just come back from Smyrna to Kythera. My grandfather Theodore is seated in amongst the younger people. My gother, Helen, is seated to his left and my aunt Mary is seated to his right.
This may be some kind of a schooling or a teaching lesson, as the man all dressed up in a suit looks to be a teacher(?).
Also the man laying across the front looks relaxed and resting. Maybe some relative of one of the people looking at the web site?
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Notable Kytherians

My first cousins - WW II, all Kytherians

WW II. My first cousins. Picked to be in a Greek-American magazine. They all survived the war, and we were very proud of all of them. There are 3 Panaretos' whose grandfather was from Smyrna and before that Potamos. There are 2 Panaretos' whose grandfather was from Potamos and mother was an Aronis. There is one Gavrilis - his father was my dad's brother, and his mother was a Coucoulis, and there is one Nomecos whose mother was my aunt and was a Panaretos also.

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Elleni Chambiras - Sydney Australia

My father's father is from Potamos, Harambros Tsambiras and his wife Emila Jenkins (Tsigounis) originally from Smyrna. I am pleased we have a site that we will all work together to add our details and see all the peices fit together to learn more about our wonderful heritage.
Best Wishes
Elleni
:)
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Documents

Andonis Pentopoulos' steamship ticket to Australia (1928)

At sixteen years of age Andonis Pentopoulos left Kythera and migrated to Australia. He had hardly ever even been outside of his village when he set out on his first journey abroad.

Andonis had been sponsored by his uncles Theodore and Nikolas Marcellos, who were already living in Australia. They loaned him the money for his passage and guaranteed him three years work in their restaurant and bakery in Griffith, N.S.W.

It took him three years to pay off his ticket, and although Andonis would never return to Greece, he always kept the original steamship ticket he purchased for the journey.

This is a copy of the original ticket. It is a third class passengers' contract ticket purchased in Port Said from the Orient Line of Royal Mail Steamships. The ticket cost 38 pounds and indicates that Andonis embarked the Steamship Orvieto for Australia on the twelfth day of September in 1928.
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Modern Portraits

Panayoti Maneas

Panayoti Maneas is not only one of the nicest and friendliest shop-keepers on the island, his general store is also one of the most facinating shops to be found. Pins, towels, lamps, buckets, rope, pots, cheese drains etc, all placed strategically in shelves, glass cabinets, packing the window and covering the floor.

He is much too nice to be a really good business man - he does the bargaining for your by slashing a few hundred drachmas (at the time...) from most bills over 15,000.
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Kyriakos Baveas 1927

Kyriakos Baveas was born on the island of Kythera (Cerigo) 25 December 1880. His father was John Baveas who lived at Potamos.

Kyriakos together with son John Kyriakos Baveas arrived on a German ship the Roon at Sydney in 1908 and worked with other Baveas relatives in Inverell of a year before moving on to Narrabri for another seven years.

Kyriakos returned to Greece and fought in the Great War from 1916-23. It is possible that he may have been in Australia earlier than 1908 as his naturalization papers indicate that he had returned to Greece 1903-1904 to fight in the Balkans War.

He arrived back in Australia 1923/24 and bought the business of Con Peters & Co from Con Emmanuel Fardouly at Tingha which he conducted in his own name.

Kyriakos wife Stavroula (nee Fardouly) was still in Potamos in 1928 when he applied for naturalization as were his other children Metaxia aged 15, Helen 11, Peter 10, and Nicholas 8.

Kyriakos Baveas returned to Kythera 1930 and died shortly afterwards
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Diaspora Vintage Portraits/ People

Andronicos Bros of Lismore

Lismore ~1908.
L to R: Stan, David and Con Andronicos, the sons of Fr Theo Andronicos of Kousounari. They were in partnership with their brother-in-law, Peter Emmanuel Comino (Gialdelis), in the Olympia Cafe, Lismore, 1910-1915.
David established an Andronicos Bros branch at Tenterfield in 1906, while Charles, the youngest brother, established the main branch at Muswellbrook in 1908. David sold to Cordatos Bros ~1914 and spent a year Lismore until selling out to Notaras & Flaskas and joining Charlie at Muswellbrook.
Con and Stan returned separately to Kythera prewar but came back post war to join David and Charlie at Muswellbrook. Con married Stamatia Michalakaki (Tsicalas) 1912 Potamos.
The brothers finally sold their Niagara Cafe at Muswellbrook to Con Coroneos 1926/27 and went their separate ways.
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Cafes, Shops & Cinemas

Pap's Milk Bar

Andonis (Tony) Pentopoulos was born in 1912 in the village of Potamos, Kythera. He migrated to Australia in 1928. He is pictured here standing behind the counter of one of the many milk bars he ran during his working life. Andonis ran Pap's Milk Bar located at 54 Beecroft Rd in Epping, Sydney from 1961-79.
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Cafes, Shops & Cinemas

The Monterey Cafe in Moree, N.S.W.

Andonis (Tony) Pentopoulos was born in 1912 in the village of Potamos, Kythera. He migrated to Australia in 1928. Before marrying & settling in Port Macquarie, N.S.W, Andonis worked at the Monterey Cafe in Moree, N.S.W, for the Andronicus family. He is pictured here (far left) standing outside the Monterey Cafe with others who I assume are members of the Andronicus family.
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Oral History

Paul Panaretto

Twenty four year old Vrettos Dimitri Panaretto sailed into Sydney in 1892 and within a couple of years had acquired his own oyster saloon at 197 Oxford Street. Sometime in the late 1890s he and his younger brother, Ioannis, moved on to Moree where they can be credited with the establishment of one of the very first Greek Oyster Saloons in country NSW. Over the next few years they branched out into a number of nearby towns, installing fellow Kytherians as managers.

[[picture:"paneratos.jpg" ID:63]]

In early 1900 Victor went back to Potamos where he married Marouli Aroney, the daughter of Athanasios and Gregoria, and shortly afterwards the couple returned to Moree where their children Jim (Denny), Arthur, Jack, Calliopi (Poppy) and Gregoria (Florrie) were born. Ten years later the family returned permanently to Potamos where Kalypso, Paul, Eugenia, Sophia and Stamatina entered the world. Victor, who went on to become the President of the Commune of Potamos, died in the 1930s and Paul, on behalf of the family, subsequently donated the family mansion to the Potamos Old Peoples Home. This magnificent Georgian style villa, with a plaque dedicating the building to the memory of his parents, was handed over in a ceremony attended by all of Kythera’s dignitaries in 1981.

Victor’s sojourn at Moree was very rewarding, with his house an obvious statement of his success, and his example of what could be achieved in Australia contributed to the large wave of Kytherian migration just prior to the First World War.

His son Denny was the first of the family to return to Australia in about 1918/20 followed by Jack and Arthur two years later. They in turn sponsored out 14-year-old Paul in 1928 at the beginning of the Great Depression. At this time Arthur was working in Sydney, Jack in Lismore and Denny in Collarenebri beyond Moree.

Paul’s introduction to Australia didn’t augur well. Arthur, who met him in Sydney with the news that a job had been found for him at the Marble Bar Cafe in Casino, slipped him a couple of quid and promptly bungled him on a train for a terrifying journey north. Paul, alarmed and without a word of English, sat clutching his small suit case containing a change of underwear all the way to Grafton where the train terminated and, thinking this was the end of the journey, he got off and started looking for Jack who was supposed to meet him. With panic levels rising after a fruitless search he noticed that a ferry carrying all the other passengers was about to pull out across the Clarence. He just managed to scarper on board and on the other side doggedly stuck with them as they entered the railway refreshment rooms, where a waitress thrust an English menu in his hand and remained standing impatiently by his side. Greatly intimidated he eventually figured out what was going on, pointing vaguely at an item that turned out to be some inedible concoction that he stared at until all the other passengers got up and left. Not to be deserted be bolted after them, mimicking their actions on the way out and passed one of Arthur’s notes to the person on the till - and worked out sometime later that the uneaten meal had consumed 18 pence worth of this survival money.

Once on the train again, and still utterly bewildered, he cried all the way to Casino where, lo and behold, things got worse. Once again there was no sign of Jack and Paul’s anxiety levels were off the scale. ‘I cried and cried’ he said. It turned out that Jack couldn’t make it to Casino and had sent a taxi across from Lismore with instructions to the driver to walk up and down the station shouting “Polychronis Panaretto”. After all the other passengers had departed he was petrified when approached on the dark and deserted platform by this madman chanting something that sounded like ‘Polly Parrot’. Through some wild sign language he was eventually persuaded to hop into the cab, only to be ordered out again in the same language after a few minutes travel. Completely mystified and almost a gibbering wreck, he found himself in front of the Marble Bar Café and astonished to see an old school friend, George Simos, who eventually managed to assure him he wasn’t in the middle of a bad dream. ‘George saved my life’ says Paul.

[For the collectors of bizarre stories: The young Theo Mina Comino arrived in Sydney a couple of years earlier than Paul and was despatched like a parcel from Central Station by the Sydney Kytherians with a tag around his neck reading ‘Please put me off at Wee Waa’. It worked!]

Paul’s first English lessons were to recognise stock phrases like ‘ham n’ eggs, steak n’ eggs’ etc. On his first foray as a waiter he learnt a couple more. His customer ordered ‘steak n’ eggs’ which Paul, proudly resplendent in starched white jacket, duly comprehended and delivered, only to met with the phrase ‘Good onya’. Not to be out-bluffed, he appropriately bought the customer the onion he had ordered, but upon trying to place it on the plate was treated to a loud rendition of a new inscrutable language. He then called for interpretation from his boss, Peter Poulos, who taught him his next English phrase: ‘Bloody fool’.

Seventy five years later Paul still lives in Casino and probably enjoys the distinction of being the longest continuous Kytherian resident of any country town in Australia, let alone Northern NSW. He became a well-respected businessman in the district and a significant contributor to the development of Casino, serving on the committees of Rotary, Apex, the Masonic lodge, and a host of other community organizations that came and went over the years. In retirement he remains a well-known and well-liked figure around town. And now communicates in perfect English, although his eccentric cat only responds to Greek.

[Update wef 31Mar04: Paul is now running Coolamon Villa, Mullumbimby. His memory’s shot, he’s as deaf as a post and his arthritis won’t give him a break, but he’s still managing to charm the socks off all female residents under 95yrs of age. The staff is on guard to ensure he draws the line at socks, and, to assist in keeping him honest, ex-girlfriends and others can keep an ear on him at 02 6684 1248 or 1252, and, wef 6Apr04, directly on 66844022.]

[Update wef 13May05: Paul started on the next leg of his journey from Pinehaven Nursing Home, Byron Bay, at midnight Sunday 8/9May05, jumping the gun on his cheer squad who gathered at Casino yesterday to pray for his hassle-free run around the course. Yo Paul.]

[Another anecdote found in Paul’s store of stories:
The Poulos/Calopades/Chambiras partnership also owned The Golden Bell Café a few doors down from the Marble Bar. It was without a kitchen and only licensed for the serving of light refreshments, but when someone asked for something more substantial, rather than pass up the opportunity to pull a quid (these are Greeks we’re talking about), a runner would be dispatched down the back lane connecting with the Marble Bar where the meal was knocked up and delivered back with the customer hopefully none the wiser. One particular evening Tony Calopades and Paul were on duty in the Bell when a customer came in and ordered ham n’ eggs and Paul, still preening in new white mess kit (think Manuel in Fawlty Towers), was duly dispatched down the back lane. But it was a day of torrential rain and the lane was flooded, creating a great test of piloting skills. Completing the scene was a sewage main running down the lane, which had either broken or overflowed, giving rise to a few more floating navigation hazards. On the return journey the inevitable happened, as the Great Scriptwriter dictates, and Paul and the ham n’ eggs went for a swim. As fast as he could he brushed off the worst of the effluent from his now unstarched jacket, located the ham n’ eggs and picked out most of what shouldn’t be there, before making it back to the Bell dripping wet in what he thought was good time. But his sterling effort and devotion to duty went unrewarded as he arrived to find an irate Basil Fawltipades being berated by an impatient customer. Heavy negotiations were in progress, involving a complementary cuppa tea as a peace offering, the eventual outcome of which was a placated patron who walked out thanking the pair for a tasty meal. Said Paul: ‘The customer is always right’, a motto that served him well on the road to fortune, women and fast cars (I kid you not: a canary yellow E-type Jag and a duck-egg blue Mustang, with blonde passenger-seat accessories. Bastard.)]
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Vintage Portraits/ People

1927 Panaretos Clan

Gathering of the Panaretos clan at the family villa, Potamos 1927.
L to R:
Four Potamos born children of Vic and Marouli Panaretos (nee Aroney) – Eugenia (m. Jack Prineas), Paul, Sofia (m. Peter Locos), Matina (m. George Tambakis)
Gregoria (Florrie, black dress, b. 1908 Moree, m. Nick Crethar) Panaretos
Victor Dimitri Panaretos
U/K Kronopoulos female
U/K male
Calliopi (Poppy) Kronopoulos (nee Panaretos, b. 1906 Moree), black dress
Stamatia Mavromatis, white dress leaning against pillar. (daughter of Stavroula nee Aroney, sister of Marouli.Panaretos)
(4) Father of Dimitriakis Kronopoulos
(5) Kalypso Panaretos (b. 1911 Potamos, m. Peter Christianos)
(6) Sister of Dimitriakis Kronopoulos
(7) Bettina Conomos (nee Aroney, sister of Marouli Panaretos)
(8) John Conomos
(9) Dimitriakis Kronopoulos (husband of Poppy Panaretos, eldest daughter of Vic and Marouli, b. 1906 Moree)
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