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Mary Nihas, 2024
Speaker Profile Προφίλ ηχείου
Mary Nihas
| Language: English
Mary Nihas, 2024

Speaker background

Occupation: Factory worker, shop owner

Mary was born in Sydney in 1930, to parents from the Peloponnese and Castellorizo. Her earliest memories are of her father's barbershop in Riley Street and the urban environment of East Sydney. Following the death of her younger brother, the family moved to Inverell in Northern New South Wales for a short period. The family later returned to Sydney.
 

Location in AustraliaYowie Bay

Interview summary

Mary begins the interview by recounting her experiences of xenophobia at school. The interview is replete with rich details of what life was like growing up in East Sydney during the interwar period. Mary also discusses the reasons why her parents migrated to Australia and reflects on her family’s brief move to the country following the death of her younger brother.

Interview highlights

highlight
Mary recalls acting as an interpreter from the age of 4.

Mary: I was speaking the English language, and consequently, because I was the only one in the house, in our family, who spoke English, I had to act as an interpreter, from a very, very young age. I used to take different relatives who’d come out and were unable to speak English. Friends of the family also, who had to visit doctors or go to the taxation department, or any public service departments for different issues, and I’d accompany them. As a matter of fact, visiting hospitals with sick relatives gave me a very, very clear picture of physical anatomy. That was something I learned quite early in the piece. I remember at the age of eleven, we moved from Riley Street to Kensington. And the GP there was a lovely person. He had a sense of humour. And whenever I’d walk in with any of the relatives and or any of his patients, he’d welcome me and say, ‘Here comes my interpreter!’

Timecode 02:36 - 03:49
highlight
Mary describes her life operating a small business in the 1950s.

Mary: We married in 1949, and we got into business. A variety of shops. One was a restaurant [...] The building itself belonged to a Greek from Kythera, but he’d rented it out, but it was a veritable mess when we got it. We cleaned it up and we started the business there. My husband had got into a partnership with his uncle. It was 5 o’clock until 8 o’clock at night. Three-course meals. Three-course meals. Porridge and eggs for breakfast in the morning, lunch which consisted of mainly roast vegetables, et cetera, and evening again, and dessert of course. Same thing. And it was a hard slog. And he worked hard at cooking. And I was mainly serving. Standing on my feet all day. And I’d had one child and was pregnant with a second child. We were there until … I was pregnant with my third child. So, we worked there for quite a few years. We did well. And we went on from that shop to another, and another, and another, mainly in the city, and one particularly in Manly, another one in Coogee. And that was the working part of our lives.

Timecode 45:25 - 47:31

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