Launching ‘Little Greece’: Transcultural Place Naming and Narratives of Migration

Date: Thursday 3 August 2023 @ 7pm Melbourne
Location: Mezzanine, 168 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
Presenter: Dr Andonis Piperoglou

Language of Presentation: English
Entry: FREE

Synopsis

In early 2021, a precinct in Marrickville, a suburb in Sydney’s inner west, was named ‘Little Greece.’ Marrickville shares a history with many other inner city Sydney suburbs as an inhabited site of migrant settlement and adaptation. Indeed, after the Second World War, many Greeks came to call the suburb home, as did a plethora of other migrant groups from around the world (most notably Vietnamese refugees).

Using this renaming as an entry point into the rich global history of place naming in Greek migration history, this paper will explore how ethnic community building and the ethnic framing of suburbs share interrelated pasts and presents. Drawing on notions of "transcultural placemaking", I will argue that this renaming is not only emblematic of how Greeks are viewed as model contributors to contemporary Australian society but also how the politics of Greek migrant heritage in Australia can fall into the trap of ethnic singularity.

By charting the history of the suburb through oral testimonies, diaspora media reportage, as well as street-level visual culture, I will reveal that suburbs in which Greeks settled in large numbers have acted as sites of transcultural exchange, in which many non-Anglo migrants, not just Greeks, laboured and lived. The paper will conclude with some observations on how it might be possible to reconsider the history of ‘Greektowns’ in the broader Anglo-world as ethnic neighbourhoods in which Greek migrants interacted and coexisted with a range of other diasporic subjects.

Bio

Dr Andonis Piperoglou is the inaugural Hellenic Senior Lecturer of Global Diasporas at the University of Melbourne. Andonis is a specialist in migration and ethnic history and has published extensively on Greek migration to Australia. He works on historical connections between colonialism, racism, and migration, as well as human movements between the Mediterranean and the Pacific. In the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, Andonis teaches subjects on migration, diaspora, multiculturalism, cosmopolitanism, and globalisation. Currently, Andonis is the Vice President of the International Australian Studies Association.

How to Participate

This is an in-person only event, so please join us at the Greek Centre, on the Mezzanine Level (Press M in the elevator).

See our speaker live, ask questions during the Q&A and hobnob with fellow participants before and after the event.

We look forward to seeing you there.