Days in the preparation but a short week or so on display the Greek Cultural Community organised a series of events to commemorate the 200 years of the Greek Revolution of 1821 which led to freedom from the Ottoman Empire and to the state of Greece emerging as we know it today.
Mando Mavrogenous
Our focus was on Revolutionary Women - not much was known of them or their activities and so it was refreshing to firstly have Dean Kalimniou, lawyer and writer from Melbourne, apologise for being a man talking about them, but he was excellent in his portrayal of them. The most well known in the history books were women like Mando Mavrogenous, Bouboulina and Margio Zafaropoulou. What did these women have in common? Well this is what made me laugh because a mother of Greek sons will always wish a good Greek girl for her son from a well respected wealthy family. All these women were that, but they used their wealth and connections to further the cause of the Revolution and in Margio's case to pass sensitive information to the Greek fighters. Sadly most of them died in poverty and were even denied pensions by those in power in the day. The rest, and there were so many, were horribly treated, often abused and sold into slavery. We should never lose sight of that and how far women have moved forward in our own lifetimes, yet still not far enough.
We took even more delight in researching some of the Revolutionary Greek women of our times. We came up with a fair few and heard Helen Gregory a historian here in Brisbane recounting what immense challenges some of these women faced in their lives, whether it was immigration, poverty, war and more recently the challenges of women in science, arts and politics. Listening to Dr Sia Athanasas and Dr Antiopi Varelas, both medical researchers, here in Brisbane telling us the challenges they encountered as well as the thrills was heartwarming and empowering.
Finishing with Dr. Roslynne Bell, from the University of Melbourne talking about Women Warriors in the form of the Amazons was a fitting end to a big week. I did not know very much about the Amazons who were a race of mythical warlike women, noted for their abilities to ride and fight. They came from a city called Themiskyra near the black Sea and we know about them from depictions on pottery from ancient times.
They fought well known greek heroes, killed many in the process and ultimately were defeated. They fought not for their own glory but for the collective glory of the Amazons and this is what sets them apart. Favourite slide was the one of Amazon dolls found, one sporting moving arms - look at these wonderful playmates for the children of the ancient Greek world. A far cry from the disappointing images of Barbie and Ken which we were treated to growing up.
So this has been a week serving up all things Greek which has been rewarding, enlightening and fun.
