The Kalos Irthate (Greek for ‘welcome’) Migration Exhibition will launch next weekend, November 16 and 17 in Doncaster, Melbourne.
A Greek Australian migrant home will be transformed into an exhibition space which will feature original documents, vintage furniture, and a documentary where migrants will share their history.
If you’ve ever wondered what the inside of a migrant home looked like and how the process of migrating to Australia worked, then this is your chance to walk through a Greek Australian home and explore the lives of Greek migrants from the mid twentieth century.
As you walk through the house, you’ll find each room dedicated to a different aspect of the migrant journey; the move to Australia, building a life in Melbourne, and then reflections 70 years later.
Kalos Irthate has been curated by Christina Savopoulos, Jamie Gallos, and John Tzelepis, under the name ‘The Poseidoniate.’ Their group was formed earlier this year, and the name is derived from the Greek poem written by Constantine P. Cavafy in 1906, titled ‘Ποσειδωνιάται.’ The poem speaks to the nostalgic attempts of an Ancient Greek community to hold onto their Hellenic culture. Christina, Jamie, and John all felt the poem perfectly encapsulated the aims of their group—to preserve and showcase Greek culture in Melbourne. Kalos Irthate is their first project and certainly not their last.
When finding a location to showcase the multitude of migration related documents, Christina thought of using her Yiayia’s house.
“My Yiayia had passed away last year, and my family was about to sell her house. Using the house as the space for the exhibition seemed like the perfect way to honour the family’s memory of the house,” she said.
While the house has undergone slight changes over the years, its structure and design represent houses of the 1950s and 1960s which have become staples of Greek Australian migrant homes.
The exhibition is ultimately a homage to Greek migrants in Australia and the lives they built in Melbourne, which continue today.
Kalos Irthate catalyses the very essence of early wave migration and is effectively a time capsule that simulates migrant experience through documentation and early life in what we now dub a ‘migrant house.’
What The Poseidoniate aim to share with the community in this endeavour is to showcase all the cultural ‘artefacts’ we could find, and to stratify each stage of migration from life in Greece to life in Australia. This is all to achieve an adept community understanding of the wills and ways of Greek migrant history. As a diasporic people, it is paramount for our community to discover and be critical of these diasporic spaces as it develops and nurtures the very identity the community subscribes to.
The exhibition curators ask that you register to receive the address of the house. It is only $5 to attend the exhibition. The Kalos Irthate exhibition is running for just one weekend and is an exciting chance to learn about Greek migration and immerse yourself in the life of a migrant. The curators hope to see you there!
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