AHEPA NSW is preparing to host its annual event honouring the anniversary of Greek Independence Day, with this year’s event centred around a new painting by artist Angela Kiki inspired by a battle during the War titled ‘The Maniatisses’.
The association will once again celebrate the significant day in Greece’s calendar on Wednesday (26 March) at their Hall in Rockdale.
The event will be centred around a presentation by Kiki on her painting that is dedicated to the women of the mountainous Mani area, which is situated around the Messenia and Laconia regions of Greece.
The artwork honours the heroic women of Mani at the Battle of Diros in June 1826, a significant moment during the second expedition of the Ottoman general Ibrahim into Messenia that was part of his attempt to suppress the fierce villagers of the Mani area.
The painting encapsulates the significant battle, one of the many conflicts during the War for Independence, wherein women (using scythes, stones, wooden clubs and their own bodies) suppressed the Ottoman forces and forced them back from the village to the beach.
The association noted that the fierce resistance demonstrated is recorded in a song of mourning of the Mani area, which says “Hail to you, with your hails, women who became men, shouting like men, fighting like Amazons”.
