Η Ελληνομάθεια στο Ρίβερλαντ

Abstract

Please note: this article is in Greek. The Teaching of Greek in the Riverland: This paper focuses on the introduction and establishment of the Greek teaching programs in the Riverland area. It is part of an ongoing study on the settlement of Greek migrants in the upper Murray area, during the 1960’s in particular. In a previous paper published in 2009 I examined the establishment of the Greek communities in the Riverland and focussed on the creation of cultural institutions and on the social interaction amongst the Greek migrants. In this paper I decided to expand on the teaching of the Greek language which became the major cultural focus that shaped not only the Greek communities in the Riverland, but also promotes interaction with the other local communities and will shape future generations. The findings of this paper is that the year 1966 was the catalyst; because for the first time Greek community schools were established and this development created a new dynamism in the local Greek communities. The first architects of these schools were priests that arrived in the area, built churches and decided to promote the teaching of the Greek language. Through the study it is has become obvious that these first schools, besides promoting and maintaining language, also very actively promoted national and religious celebrations. It was also a time when new colours, new attitudes and new languages were given a dynamic publicity, pre-figuring multiculturalism which eventually became the official policy of Australia in the mid-1970’s. I decided to give the paper a tone of a lively narrative, revealing ‘wild’ human lives in the process of building cultures and institutions, rather than anxiously follow scientific exactitude and statistics.