A Strange Exhibition and Ambition
A STRANGE ‘EXHIBITION’ AND ‘AMBITION’
by His Eminence Archbishop Stylianos
Up till today, it has not transpired for me to have personally met Mr Leonard Janiszewski and his partner/co-worker Ms Effy Alexakis, even though I have lived in Australia, as the canonical Primate of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, since April 1975.
However, I am not unacquainted with the existence and the work of the above members of our community who, through their periodic publications and various exhibitions promoting their research (successfully conducted over some years), are at least by name broadly known. Consequently, to me as well, in some way!
In any event, I have no doubt that, had we met at some point, perhaps we may have been able to exchange many and useful things (knowledge and experience), since for both sides our common task is the better understanding and analogous evaluation of the Greek Australian presence in this vast Land and Continent.
Nonetheless, I must admit that, due to circumstances, the research work both of Mr Janiszewski (as a historian) and of Ms Alexakis (as a specialist photographer), could not have been properly known to me (with appropriate substantiation!), so I only had a sketchy impression of their work up until recently.
It was natural, therefore, that I would have conjured certain general queries, as well as certain specific questions in relation to the programme of their research on the one hand, and especially in relation to their deductions on the other.
The first thing I could not explain, from the outset, was why such insistence and almost ‘dogged’ focalization of their research interest on ‘one and only one’ theme which, again, the researchers themselves enunciated with unbounded optimism and generality(!) simultaneously, with the phrase:
“Greek Australians: In Their Own Image”.
I believed, nonetheless, that at some point the opportunity would have been afforded to myself also, in order that I might be responsibly enlightened as to the ‘tribulations’ and ‘feats’ of the first Greek immigrants - something which would have assisted greatly in my own broader pastoral work as well, and no less in the various research programmes at our Theological College of St Andrew in Sydney.
Only in this way, moreover, could we have all appreciated better the later years during which Australian Hellenism has literally produced ‘miracles’ in all fields (despite its unjust defamation on account of a few schismatic centres of anomaly which are projected by well-known libelous newspapers)!
Precisely this anticipated opportunity was given to me recently, in a completely unexpected manner, which I will attempt to state “without fear or favour”.
The Editor of the monthly newspaper of our Archdiocese (The ‘VEMA’ of the Church) Mr Ikaros Kyriacou, in presenting for my perusal the contents of the Easter edition (April 2009), also brought to my attention an advertisement which was sent to him under the following strange title:
“SELLING THE AMERICAN DREAM: AUSTRALIA’S GREEK CAFÉ”.
I hastened to determine, as clearly as possible, in relation to which “American dream” the research couple of our community, Janiszewski and Alexakis, is honorably striving to make the contribution of the “Greek café” known and appreciated.
The two sections of the title strongly aroused my concern. Not just the first part (Selling an American Dream), but also the second (Australia’s Greek Café).
Even more so, I was concerned that under the above title a “mobile” Exhibition, moving from State to State, and from Museum to Museum, was being characterized and advertized at the same time and indeed with the un-muted ambition of gaining ‘international’ status!
Comparing the accurate translation into Greek from the research couple’s original English, I had the possibility of realizing how many dangers of misunderstanding lurk amidst their good intentions, especially in some ‘loaded’ words which today have been established internationally as ‘technical terms’.
However, before proceeding to a brief objective analysis of such ‘dangerous’ terms, I must declare my admiration and gratitude for all that I learnt from my careful perusal of a densely-typed 30-page email in which the Janiszewski-Alexakis team outline most invaluable information regarding the Archaic Hellenism, shall we say, of the Antipodes.
There is no doubt that the personal Archive of the couple, with historical material from research presented in classic publications of others, from personal information gathered via interviews with surviving descendants of our pioneers, or from the photographic ‘documentation’ (which, altogether, continually better complement the image of that heroic period) has deservedly been deposited, for the most part, with the Department of Modern History at Macquarie University in Sydney.
Additionally, the work deservedly attracts funding from State and other sources so that, neither the zeal of the Philhellene Mr Janiszewski be exhausted, nor the supplementary enthusiasm of his partner and co-worker Ms Alexakis.
Following the general and most positive assessments which I have gladly articulated – after careful perusal of the 30-page email – the moment has come to express, with the same sincerity, my ‘objections’ and ‘fears’ which emanate freely from what I read.
These objections and fears do not refer only to a mistaken, in my opinion, interpretation of certain almost chance incidents and circumstances, but particularly to the technical terms with which the research couple of our community sought, probably out of a great degree of journalistic enthusiasm, to advertise the findings of their research.
There are mainly four ‘loaded’, and for that reason dangerous key words, which I shall analyze briefly, as I promised above:
1. The term “American Dream”.
2. The verb “sell” (in direct connection to the “American Dream”).
3. The characterization “Americanization of Australia” (in direct connection to the “Greek Café”).
4. The internationally-known term “Trojan Horse” (from the expedition of the Greeks against Troy), which is always used in a critical context.
The four of these verbal constructions fall in such a concerted manner as to form together an unlikely ‘cluster’, so that the advertised theory appears to be almost ‘plausible’.
However, as we shall see, both the term “American Dream” and that diachronic symbol of ‘cunningness’ created by Homer’s Odysseus with the “Trojan Horse”, in no way can support the theory of the ‘Americanization’ of Australia by Greek immigrants during the first half of the 20th century.
As is known, the term “American Dream” was introduced for the first time by the historian and writer James Truslow Adams with his book ‘Epic of America’ (1931).
His aim was to express the almost romantic ‘optimism’ held by all those migrants (from various Lands and Races) who, tantalized by the famous Statue of Liberty, hastened to the shores of America in order to indulge, collaborating as ‘equal citizens’ (sic), in the diverse wealth of the United States.
That this was but an acutely deceptive utopia, soon became apparent. Already, from Plato’s marvellous work ‘The Republic’, contemplative Sociologists had learnt the fundamental lessons about human nature.
A ‘dream’, as sacred as it might be, does not become reality simply through ideas and ‘pious hopes’, wherever man might venture.
Because, as the ascetic monks of Mt Athos wisely say: it is not the “place, but the manner” in which the ascetic struggle is conducted that leads to a daily self-transcendence and guarantees stable outcomes.
Yet, even if the vision of the “American Dream” had lured some ambitious migrants to America, already from the decade of the 60’s, no serious and thinking person could again see auspicious prospects, from the materialistic spirit and the national audacity of that Superpower’s politicians, in conjunction with the economic and strategic plans of the Pentagon, on a global ‘chessboard’.
The first question to be asked, then, is how could the first Greek immigrants of Australia, through their purely subsistent activities, have had the scope to transmit (albeit subconsciously!) the foreign and uncertain ideal of the American dream? Did they not have their own ‘ideals’?
They themselves declared proudly that most of them had come to Australia with ‘empty suitcases’ (often with the ticket for their adventurous journey ‘on loan’), but their soul was fuelled by a deep faith in God and trust in the human person.
This ethico-spiritual ‘rigging’ gave them the courage to succeed later through their humble ‘achievements’, in the rural areas and the cities.
There is no doubt that, even from the Greek Restaurants (Greek Cafés) which sprouted up across regional Australia, they could have ‘transmitted’ the most noble elements of Hellenic and Christian Tradition.
Consequently, instead of assuming that they were selling the “American Dream”, the certainty is that, in every way possible, they ‘educated’ the then ‘suspicious’ and isolated Anglo Saxons of this distant 5th Continent with virtues such as hospitality (philoxenia), generosity, family warmth and a cosmopolitan openness of horizons that viewed every fellow human as a ‘friend’ and ‘brother’.
Whilst the team of our Researchers confirmed through their work a clear antagonism from the British, even against the Americans in those years, how was it possible for the Greeks to have run the danger of ‘persecutions’ akin to those of 1916 on the pretext that King Constantine of Greece, originating from Germany, was opposed to the ‘ENTENTE’ (an Inter-European front, mainly of Anglo-French alliance, but not including Germany and Turkey) with which the Prime Minister of Greece, Eleftherios Venizelos, had joined forces unhesitatingly?
At any rate, the deepest conviction (phronema) of most Greek immigrants during the ‘Archaic’ period in agricultural Australia (with sheep farms, wheat fields, restaurants and cinemas) is immortalized by Nicholas Lourantos from Kythera in the following moving manner.
I was fortunate enough to have met him upon my arrival in Australia. Together we laid the foundation, in the presence of the nation’s Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, for our first Nursing Home complex called ‘ST BASIL’S HOMES’ in Sydney, to which we assigned the name ‘NICHOLAS LOURANTOS VILLAGE’ due to his magnanimous donation towards its development.
That perceptive elderly man, although till the end of his life he lived simply and humbly at a ‘masonic hall’, as a more or less ‘cynical philosopher’, adored his Church, his Kythera and his Australia in a legendary manner.
When meeting some significant Australian (politician or businessman) he never carried ‘calling cards’ in his pocket to offer them. He would instead say epigrammatically to a stranger, with absolute naturalness: “What will you do with my name? It has no particular significance. In any event, it will be forgotten soon when I die. But please allow me, friend, to introduce you to my small Motherland which is admired by the whole world”!
And, in saying these words, he always offered a post-card of the Acropolis, kept proudly in his pockets, with a brief history and the significance of this immortal Monument printed on the back.
Queen Elizabeth meritoriously decorated him with the title ‘Sir’, but he remained humble, as always, and his name has become an unforgettable symbol of social sensitivity and un-blazoned human decency (anthropiá). And of course, he quietly set an example for numerous fellow-countrymen to follow subsequently.
Instead, therefore, of delving into ‘why’ and ‘how’ Greek migrants became famous with doubtful laurels of materialistic enterprise, they should rather have recorded the works of social charity and cultural contribution in which no other ethnic community in this Fifth Continent has demonstrated such profuse blossoming and variety (Orthodox Churches and Schools, Child-care Centres, Bilingual Day Schools, tertiary Theological College and a plethora of other institutions, especially after 1950).
My concluding question, therefore, to our amiable couple and Research team is very simple: Why did they not wish to advance into these later glorious years? Why did they restrict themselves to the Greek Café and to whatever American Dream it sold?
That is all for the time being, and I think it is sufficient.
This Article was published in the Greek Australian newspaper
TO VEMA MAY 2009