Speaker background
Matina was born in 1935 into a poor family in a Peloponnesian village near Tripoli and Sparta. As the family could not afford a dowry, Matina was sponsored by a distant relative called Yannis to come to Sydney. She married Yannis, a photographer, with whom she set up a photography business. Aside from raising a family, first in Redfern and then Kingsgrove, she was also a member of a women’s charity focusing on relief work for Greeks, both in Australia and in Greece.
Interview summary
Matina describes her life as a devoted church goer, and her work in a women’s charity organisation, which was led by Sister Kalliniki. In the interview she describes her circle of friends when she first arrived, how she came to marry Yannis, and how she helped him build his photography business.
Interview highlights
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Matina describes the women’s charity she joined led by Sister Kalliniki, a Greek Orthodox nun.
Every time the ships would arrive she would go to the dock with two other ladies and wait to greet the young women, because they were all coming alone under the Assisted Passage Migration Scheme. She would get to know them, inform them that there were churches, that there was a women’s circle they could join. She offered to find them rooms to stay, to find them work.
Timecode 12:35 - 13:03
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Why did everyone leave the inner city suburbs like Paddington and Redfern?
Because these [inner city] homes were too small. There was very little room [. . .] I had four children, so that house we had was too small. In the house we had in Redfern, my husband had turned the downstairs rooms into a photography studio. We were all living upstairs. We had a tiny kitchen, and in one large room we all slept together. There was hardly any room. So we were all looking to see how to attain a better home. So that is why we came here and built this house [in Kingsgrove].
Timecode 24:11 - 24:53
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Were you in Redfern because you needed to be close to a church?
We usually wanted to be close to our churches. But back then, Yannis probably bought the house in Abercrombie St for work reasons, to be near the church where weddings were taking place. Yes, plenty of people were getting married at the Holy Assumption Church. There were crowds there as numerous people were getting married in those days. And it was convenient to have the studio across the road.
Timecode 24:11 - 25:18
