Clip description
This clip shows members of the Canberra Greek community on their annual picnic at Good Hope just outside of Canberra on 26 December 1949.
Friends and relatives sitting in the shade lift their glasses and toast to the camera as it pans across their faces.
Some do a traditional Greek dance in a circle around a solo violinist.
Down by the side of the lake, the group gathers for another song.
http://videomedia.aso.gov.au/titles/gerakit1/gerakit12_du.mp4
Curator’s notes
by Poppy De Souza
Babies, children, parents and grandparents – all generations of the Canberra Greek community enjoy their annual Christmas outing and celebration in this clip.
It is a wonderful illustration of family and community life amongst the close-knit Greek community in Canberra during the late 1940s.
Dancing, singing, laughing and drinking are common throughout the Gerakiteys footage. Weddings, birthdays and celebrations such as this one are filled with details of Greek-Australian life.
Clip description
The Gerakiteys family celebrate their daughters’ birthday in their family garden.
Their younger son watches on as the girls sit with their birthday cakes. Other family members are shown and the whole family poses for a portrait.
http://videomedia.aso.gov.au/titles/gerakit1/gerakit11_du.mp4
Curator’s notes
by Poppy De Souza
Most of the home movie footage in these compilations was filmed by Emmanuel Gerakiteys, a resident of Canberra at the time.
In this clip, Emmanuel is shown with his wife, Agape, and their three children. Home movie footage of migrant communities in Australia is relatively rare, and the close-ups of the Greek family members are a change from the Anglo-Saxon faces which typically appear in 1940s and 1950s home movie footage in Australia.
GREEK WORLD MEDIA 