OUR NATIONAL ISSUES

Presentation to the Australian Hellenic Council NSW Inc

2010 Annual Reception

Australian Issues

Hellenic Education in Australia

Levels of Education

Pre-school

Primary School (Kindergarten - Year 6)

Secondary School (Year 7 – Year 12)

Tertiary(university-community/evening

colleges)

Australian Curriculum

What is it?Australia-wide programme covering

certain subjectsWhen is it coming in?Starting with English, Science, Maths

and History in 2011.Later with Geography, Languages

and Creative Arts

The Australian 17 June 2009,

35

AHC pushing for Hellenic to be included in National Curriculum – Languages, along with French, Spanish, Italian and German.

Structure of the History curriculumStages of schooling

• Stage 1 (typically from 5 to 8 years of age)• Stage 2 (typically from 8 to 12 years of age) • Stage 3 (typically from 12 to 15 years of age) • Unit 1: History from the time of the earliest human

communities to the end of the Ancient period (c. 60,000 BC — c. 500 AD)

• Unit 2: History from the end of the Ancient period to the beginning of the Modern period (c. 500–1750)

• Unit 3: The Modern World and Australia (1750–1901)

• Unit 4: Australia and the Modern World (1901–present)

• Stage 4 (typically from 15 to 18 years of age)

Australian Hellenic historical topics that could be included in Unit 4: Australia and the Modern World (1901–present) of the Australian Curriculum – History.

War Song of the GreeksOn in battle! Grecians on!

Think of all your sires have done,Dream, oh dream of Marathon

and glorious Thermopylae!Think of Leuctra's gory plain;Think of Persia's myriad dale;

Think, and act those scenes again,in wild war’s dreadful mimicry.Shall the sacred earth lie still,

Where the mighty one’s have trodShall it be profaned, oh God!

By impious Stamboul’s tyranny!Shall the sun whose crimson rays,

Saw it free as in other days,O’er lie bandaged pillars ... ... ,

Make dead the light o’er some cemetery!From their slumbers wake your swords,

Yield no more to Paynian lords,Burst your hearts and be your words,

"A freeman’s grave or liberty!"

Sydney, April 10, 1827.

The Argus (Μελβούρνη)17 Οκτωβρίου 1923,15

Οι καθηγητές A.C. Scott και Alexander Leeper του Πανεπιστημίου Μελβούρνης παρουσίασαν ομιλία με τίτλο «Πάντα οι Ίδιοι». Θέμα ήταν η ιστορική συνέχεια των Ελλήνων από αρχαιοτάτων χρόνων. Μεγαλήτερο αποδεικτικό στοιχείο: η γλώσσα των Ελλήνων.

Australian Hellenes and phil-Hellenes in the Balkan Wars (1912-1913)

The role of Lemnos, Imvros and Tenedos in the Gallipoli Campaign (1915)

Διακόσμηση στον χώρο έξω από μία σκηνή του 13th Battalion στην Λήμνο

το 1915.

Οι πρώτες ημέρες των Αυστραλών στην Λήμνο, Απρίλιος 1915

Ο ερχομός των Αυστραλιανών νοσοκόμων στην Λήμνο, Απρίλιος 1915.

The Argus (Melbourne) 7 January 1916,7

Αυστραλοί τραυματίες από την Καλλίπολη περιμένοντας να εισαχθούν στο Αυστραλιανό Γενικό Νοσοκομείο στην

Λήμνο.

Ένας Λημνιός όπως τον είδε Αυστραλός φωτογράφος το 1915

Australians on the Macedonia Front (1916-1918)

Sydney Morning Herald 23 July 1915, 10

«Όπως είναι τα πράγματα, αυτοί οι γενναίοι Αυστραλοί πολεμούν τον παραδοσιακό εχθρό των Ελλήνων, και οι Έλληνες κι όχι οι Αυστραλοί οι οποίοι θα προσκομίσουν τα οφέλη όταν συντριφθεί ο εχθρός, και οι σημαίες μας πετούν πάνω από την Κωνσταντινούπολη».

The Argus (Melbourne) 20 November 1915,19

Sydney Morning

Herald 22 December 1915, 15

Sydney Morning Herald15 January 1916,10

Sydney Morning Herald 14 November 1918,9

A PHOTOGRAPH OF THE

CORINTH CANAL, TAKEN

FROM THE H.M.A.S.

"PARRAMATTA" ON HER WAY TO

GREECE, FOR DOCKING, 1918-

10-02.

Australian prisoners-of-war: witnesses of the Hellenic, Armenian and Assyrian Genocides (1915-1918)

The Argus (Melbourne) 28 June 1915, 7

«Αξιολύπητη κατάσταση των Ελλήνων.

Ο Ελληνικός πληθυσμός της Μαίδου και της Κριθίας στην Χερσόνησο της Καλλιπόλεως, έχει εκτοπιστεί στο Πάνδηρμα σε θλιβερή κατάσταση.»

Σεπτεμβρίου 1922

Σε μία συνεδρίαση της παροικίας στις

24 Σεπτεμβρίου 1922

συγκεντρώθηκαν άνω των 500 λιρών

υπέρ των προσφύγων στον Ελλαδικό χώρο.

Σεπτεμβρίου 1922

Captain Thomas W. White

Prisoners who were kept in the Armenian church used its graveyard as their “exercise yard”.

“The iron-covered (Armenian) cemetery gates were riddled with bullets as if by machine gun fire and suggested that some Armenians had sold their lives dearly”.

Many prisoners died at Akroinos of various causes and were buried in the Armenian cemetery.

White, T.W. Guests of the Unspeakable

Captain Thomas W. White“One soldier thus

described his experiences: on arrival at Afion Karahissar I went into hospital. There I saw many weakly men knocked about by the Turkish orderlies simply because they were too weak to attend to themselves. I saw this happen to a QMS who died within a few days of the beating.

Captain Thomas W. White

“I saw about half a dozen men receive an injection from a Turkish doctor. This was done about 9 p.m. and in every case the man was dead next morning. We nicknamed one of the Turkish doctors ‘The Butcher’ from his habit of lancing abscesses with a sharpened half of a pair of scissors”.

“Underneath us on the floor of the room, were huddled, in all kinds of rugs, about sixty miserable creatures who, we afterwards discovered, were Greeks and Armenians employed on the tunnel. They were crouched about the fires made in old mess dishes and in that dull light, looked the lowest human beings I had ever set eyes on. … their fires, which gave forth horrible smoke and poisoned the air with their fumes. Some of the Turks on the opposite side objected to this and made one of the party put out its fire”. G.K. Kerr

E. H. Keeling“The number of Greeks was increased

during our incarceration by deportations from the coast of the Black Sea, whence hundreds of women and children, barefooted, in rags, and with enormous bundles on their backs, were brought in under escort.

“Almost all the Armenian inhabitants had been driven out of the town before we arrived, their property being confiscated on the ground that it had been ‘abandoned’. Only one or two who were useful, including the bank manager, were allowed to remain”.

Australian rescuers of Assyrian and Armenian Genocide survivors –

the Dunsterforce (1918)

Australian relief efforts for survivors of the Hellenic, Armenian and

Assyrian Genocides (1915-1930)

Rev. Cresswell

“The sights within the caves are beyond words. No words seem adequate to describe the misery that must be the portion of these poor people. A few yards inside, the light was very dim, then failed altogether, and it was necessary to use a lantern. On either side of the cave were to be seen families, men, women and children, sitting on the ground”.

Reverend Cresswell

“In some places, this was fairly dry, but for the most part, it was damp - the air was clammy and cold and in all respects it was depressing. Here were women, pale and emaciated, children with swollen abdomens, the result of starvation. Again, one saw little babes, pinched and pallid – further on, a little one just recently born, one tiny atom among thousands of the suffering children to be seen here”.

Dr Lincoln Wirt, Near East Relief

“I have never seen anything like the generosity of the Australian people. I look upon it all as more beautiful than anything else in my life. I did not believe that any people on earth would have done what Australia has done. … during my stay in this country, ten different committees have been formed, and all are hard at work; and we estimate that in the next few months, we shall have collected [pounds] 25,000 worth in money or food”.

“Dr Wirt (International Commissioner for the Near East Relief Federation) … informed a representative of the Australian Press Association that two shiploads of food and clothing had arrived from Australia…

“…appeals to continue…because a further 1,000,000 Christian refugees will probably be rendered homeless during the coming winter, Kemal Pasha having decreed the evacuation of all Christians from Asia Minor…before the end of the year”.

The Register (Adelaide) 20 November 1922,

Queenslander Joice Nankivell Loch and her Scottish husband, Dr Sydney Loch, spent decades working to help the community of Ouranoupolis recover from the Asia Minor Holocaust and the Second World War.

“... the only thing that connected these two widely differing groups was their fervent belief in the Orthodox Church and the idea that they were Greek”.

In the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that struck Halkidike in 1932, Loch wrote: “I was struck by the courage of the Greek people. ... There was no confusion or fuss. Each person took their turn. Those who were able helped the patients by brushing away flies”.

Colonel George Devine Treloar

Born in Ballarat, he served on the Western Front during World War One. Between 1922 and 1926, he served as the League of Nations High Commissariat for Refugees in northern Greece.

Treloar was engaged in the resettlement of the refugees; at first based at Komotene and later in Thessalonike, where his two eldest children were born. By 1923 his mission was handling over 108,000 refugees across east Macedonia and west Thrace.

Thrylorio Rodopes, western Thrace

One of the fifteen villages Colonel Treloar founded in west Thrace and east Macedonia.

Australians and Hellenes in World War Two

Athens, 25 March 1941 (previous slide)

Australian soldiers from the 2/2nd battalion talking with evzones near the Akropolis.

Left to right: TOM CAWLEY OF WALCHA, PETER BROWN OF MANLY, LEN LENNON OF INVERELL, HARRY TOWNSEND OF BEXLEY, and C. FOOT OF DENMAN.

AIF men on leave, March 1941

Athens, March 1941.All good friends together.Hellene soldiers on leave from the

Albanian Front do their best to make their Australian counterparts welcome.

There was a new optimism evident in Athens since the arrival of the ANZACs, who were being welcomed like honoured guests.

“As far as our men are concerned their general opinion is that Greece is the finest country in the world – bar one”. G. Silk (photographer)

Piraeus after German air-raids, 6-7 April 1941.

Servia Pass. A New Zealand Field Regiment observation post.

Brallos area, central Hellas, 23 April 1941. One of the Australian guns is

visible under camouflage netting around the base of a tree (right).

Burning trucks on the plain south of Lamia, after a German aerial attack.

Australians awaiting evacuation from Megara.

Australian nurses, Argos, April 1941

Kalamata, 25 April 1941. One of the main evacuation points

for Allied forces.

Battle of Krete (May 1940)

Sea of Krete, April 1941. Australians firing at German aircraft during evacuation.

The island of Krete

Souda Bay, April 1941. Lance Corporal R. Willots escaped from

Kalamata with his kit.

Milos, May 1941. German mountain troops waiting to

board transport aircraft.

The skies over Heraklion, May 1941.

Overlooking Herakleion, Krete

Krete, May 1941.

Krete 26 November 1944 (next slide)

After being hit by German anti-aircraft fire over Chania, this RAAF crew made a successful forced-landing in a friendly part of Crete.

They lived for two days with the local villagers.

Shown with their friends-in-need are:Back, left to right: R. Smith of Carlton,

Vic; W. D. Calvert, pilot, of Lane Cove, NSW.

Front: R. K. Mahoney of Rockhampton, Qld; K. J. Wiblin of Strathfield, NSW.

Souda Bay, Krete

Souda Bay Commonwealth War Cemetery

Souda Bay Commonwealth War Cemetery – Australian Section

Australians and Hellenes in the Korean War (1950-1953)

Korean War 1950-1953

Rocks arranged by the Royal Hellenic Battalion to form a crown and “Ellas” - “Greece”.

Australians on Cyprus (1964-2009)

Australian Diaspora in the 21st Century – Greece and

Cyprus home to about 150,000 Australian citizens

Recognition of the Hellenic, Armenian and Assyrian

Genocides by the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, as well as the state and territory

parliaments of the Commonwealth.

The development of social security arrangements between Australia and the

Hellenic Republic that benefit all concerned.

Foreign Policy Issues

Cyprus

support for a just and lasting solution to the partition of the Republic of Cyprus,

imposed by invading Turkish troops in July 1974.  

The site where Sergeant Ian Ward, NSW Police, was killed when his car

hit a landmine on 12 November 1974.

(previous slide)

Ward was escorting a family through the buffer zone. He was a member of the Australian civilian police contingent serving with the United Nations Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP).

Parts of the wrecked vehicle can be seen in the background, along with a sign on the fence reading, “R.I.P. KILLED IN THE SERVICE OF PEACE SGT. IAN DONALD WARD AUST CIVPOL 12 November 1974”.

A nearby memorial cairn (not visible) also marks the spot.

25 April 1984. AFP personnel at the Dawn Service at Wayne’s Keep Cemetery, in the ‘Green Line’.

Nicosia. 26 January 1985. AFP members prepare to sail their homemade “Australia III” in the Henley on

Pedhieos boat race.

(next slide)

Three members of the Australian Federal Police (AFP) contingent serving with the United Nations Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP).

Left, speaking with a female civilian police officer is Senior Sergeant Gary Brown.

They are observing the activities of Greek Cypriot demonstrators at the Ledra Palace crossing point in Nicosia, on the government side of the buffer zone.

Macedonia(a) maintenance of Australia’s support for a use of the United

Nations’ nomenclature (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia – FYROM) until just and lasting solution is agreed

upon between Athens and Skopje;

Macedonia(b) promotion of the

Hellenic identity of the northern Hellenic

province of Macedonia (made up of thirteen

prefectures)

The Mercury (Hobart)17 April 1903, 9

The Argus (Μελβούρνη)

2 Φεβρουαρίου 1924,7

Ανακαλύψεις Ελληνικών

αρχαιοτήτων στην Δοϊράνη, στα τότε

σύνορα Σερβίας-Ελλάδος.

The Argus (Μελβούρνη) 18 Ιουλίου 1934,16

“I, Athanassios Vassiliou Defenes, of Greek nationality, born at Bapchori, Macedonia, Greece, ...”

“I, Dimitrios Mihail Stergiou, of Greek nationality, born at Bapchori, Macedonia, Greece, ...”

“I, Nicolas Christian Milaetis, of Greek nationality, born at Bapchori, Macedonia, Greece, ...”

Support for the protection of the human rights of the remaining

Christian minorities in the Republic of Turkey, including

protection of their properties and cultural heritage

Parthenon Sculpturessupport for the restitution

of the Parthenon Sculptures to their home

in Athens

Hellenic-Australian War MemorialANZAC Parade, Canberra