The Kytherian Association of Australia:
From humble café to cultural hub
Café Origins
The
Kytherian Brotherhood of Australia, now known as the
Kytherian Association of Australia, had its humble
beginnings in Sydney in May 1922 when several
Kytherian expatriates met in an Oxford Street café
to discuss the formation of a new fraternal
association - which would function almost like a
substitute family - to maintain and promote the
diaspora’s links with the island of Kythera. Although
small, the Kytherian community which existed in
Sydney in the early part of the 20th century was
tight-knit and very supportive. In 2012 the
Kytherian Association in Sydney celebrates its
ninetieth year as a prominent player in the broader
Greek-Australian community.
The
Kytherian wave of migration to this country is
legend. By 1940 it is estimated that there were
approximately 2,200 Kytherian settlers in Australia,
mostly men and mostly arriving in Sydney before
moving on to country towns in search of work. As the
historian Charles Price wrote, the Kytherians had a
special system of “business promotion”, a procedure
where many newcomers started as assistant cooks,
waiters and counter-boys in established restaurants,
milk bars and cafes, and then moved on after a few
years to their own little business in some other
town, then gradually passed on from town to town,
each time obtaining a larger and more prosperous
business until finally many of them moved back to
Sydney as men of means and substance. Kytherians
were resourceful and industrious, because they had
to be.
The Roxy Experiment
Fast
forward to 2011. The Kytherian nexus to the bush is
part of the grand narrative of Kytherian migration
to Australia. In April of that year the
beautifully-restored art deco cinema, the Roxy,
together with the adjoining Peters Café in Bingara
in north western NSW celebrated its 75th anniversary
with a fantastic "glendi". Three
resourceful Kytherian entrepreneurs had established
the Roxy cinema - their palace of dreams - in this
small rural outpost. It was just after the
depression and it was a calculated gamble which
ultimately failed. But their legacy remains and it
was an incredible journey back to Bingara to relive
the halcyon days of the Roxy and the Greek café
phenomenon.
Greeks in Australia at
the time were often subjected to criticism and
prejudicial
attitudes. In the case of the Roxy, a local
Australian businessman who operated a rival theatre
wrote to the local authorities warning of the “Greek
invasion into our little burg”. Ironically, that
‘prophecy’ finally came true on the weekend of 9-10
April 2011 when it was a case of Bingara meets
Mitata as Kytherians and others descended into the
town to honour the Roxy’s founders and the
legacy they created. But in general,
Kytherian café owners in the bush appeared to be
held in high regard. The Bulletin some years ago
published a series on Australian life and produced
this charming quote: “All the
milk bars and cafes in N.S.W. country towns seemed
to be run by Kytherians. They used to ring up with
an order for coffee or olive oil or something and my
father would just hear the name and say OK, he’s all
right, and tell me to give them credit without
anything in writing. The man was from Kythera and
that was enough.”
Life in
Australia Re-born
The migration connection has never been lost on the
Kytherian Association. In 1916 one of the first
books published in Australia in the Greek language -
appropriately titled Life in Australia - was sent
off to Greece for prospective migrants to read. It
was like a Who’s Who of successful Greek businessmen
in the land downunder and not surprisingly many
Kytherians featured prominently.
That book has long gone out of print but the
Kytherian World Heritage Fund - an offshoot of the
Kytherian Association managed so adeptly by
stalwarts Angelo Notaras and George Poulos -
arranged for the book to be translated into English
and republished in both its original Greek and
newly-translated formats. The re-launch was a great
success. We do not forget our roots.
Surnames
& Place Names
The
Kytherian Association is also at the forefront of
translating and publishing in English seminal works
that would otherwise be lost on current generations
whose command of Greek is sadly lacking. The eminent
Kytherian historian Manuel Kalligeros has written
two books dealing with Kytherian surnames and place
names and their tranlation into English will prove a
treasure trove.
We are all
curious as to where our parents came from and what
the significance of our surname is. Even the quaint
mesa dimou/ exo dimou demarcation still figures in
some discourse. And yet in terms of geography it is
truly a case that East meets West on Kythera.
Kythera-Family.net
Another
exciting development has been the creation of the
www.kythera-family.net
website. The Kytherian Association of Australia was
instrumental in establishing and maintaining this
ultimate global network of the Greek diaspora which
reaches into Kytherian and other
households all over the world. This website reflects
the digital progression from the chain migration of
the pre and post-war years to a virtual migration on
the internet as communities are brought together.
Publish or
Perish:
'The
Kytherian' Newsletter
Over the
years the Kytherian Association has tried to keep
its members informed, culminating in recent years
with a monthly colour newsletter (The Kytherian)
which has developed into a quality publication that
both informs and entertains. It has been described
as the “glue” of the Kytherian community.
Anecdotally speaking, the newsletter extends beyond
the current membership and finds its way into many
households and not just Kytherian.

Kythera
House: Library
& Cultural Resource Centre
But it has
not always been smooth sailing. During the late
1970s and 1980s the Kytherian Brotherhood tried to
set up and run a Social Club in Regent Street
Chippendale. The failure of that experiment was a
low point in the history of the association as the
building’s upkeep was a constant drain on the
association’s finances. The Chippendale building
was eventually sold and successive committees set
about looking for a suitable investment property
that also allowed the Association to create a
library and resource centre.
In 2009
the Association made an astute investment when it
purchased a small commercial building at 24 King
Street Rockdale destined to become the New Kythera
House. With solid rental income but also an upstairs
area that was vacant, the possibilities were
endless. And so it was that in February 2012 after a
substantial and inspired renovation the
Association’s new Hellenic-themed library and
cultural resource centre was finally unveiled.
The Roman
philosopher Cicero commented that to add a library
to a house is to give that house a soul. Our new
library, named the Nicholas
Anthony Aroney Library in honour of the great
benefactor, will house a rich collection of books,
manuscripts, articles, newspapers, artefacts,
memorabilia and other items that will serve as a
valuable inheritance
for generations to come. For our library is more
than just a room full of books. It is a place of
contemplation; a centre for research and learning
where our history, our sense of being, comes to
life. It is indeed a library for the soul.
The Future
As it has
done for decades, the Kytherian Association of
Australia will continue to stage cultural events,
including dances, a debutante charity ball, book
launches, seminars, picnics, movie nights and so on.
It will continue to sponsor sporting teams and other
recreational groups. It will continue to stage Greek
dancing classes to ensure that our
folkloric traditions are maintained. It encourages
the new and exciting community-based archaeological
excursions on the island as Kytherians literally dig
into the past. It will also continue to support the
Kytheraismos symposium - held in Kythera and
elsewhere on an alternating basis every two years -
in offering opportunities to Kytherians and
philoKytherians to embrace and perpetuate the
spirit of belonging to Kythera.
But the
biggest challenge is generational change and the
risk of dissolution that has befallen some of the
Kytherian associations and brotherhoods in the
United States. As the Kytherian Association of
Australia heads towards its centenary, we need to
ensure that generations to come will continue to
make that journey, both physically and spiritually,
in the knowledge that our collective Greek
consciousness must never die or disappear. |