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A smiling person
Speaker Profile Προφίλ ηχείου
Matina Mottee
| Language: English
A smiling person

Speaker background

Occupation: Community worker

Matina was born in Hobart, Tasmania, to parents from the island of Kythera. Her father operated a fish shop and café, and then gradually built a fishing business in Hobart. Matina often visited her Sydney relatives in her youth, and met her husband, Con, during one of these visits. The couple settled in East Sydney and then Croydon, where Matina raised four children while Con developed a thriving legal practice, which serviced many Greek clients. It was in her later life that Matina applied her energies to support services for migrant women and for victims of domestic violence. She received an Order of Australia for her services in 1994.

Location in AustraliaCroydon

Interview summary

Matina recalls her early life in Hobart, where her parents made a point of engaging with the wider community. She describes her visits to Sydney and the family trip to Kythera in 1952, which fundamentally changed her life, and how she met her husband. Matina has led an active life, particularly in community support services. Much of the interview highlights her work with women’s organisations and her engagements with government officials.

Interview highlights

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Matina explains how the Kytherians and other Greeks helped each other find work and businesses.

Matina: It was the Kytherian network that was very valuable. When the boys came to Australia, they were referred to a café owner, a gentleman who was down on Circular Quay, and he used to say, ‘Oh, so-and-so needs staff,’ or he’d refer them to staff. And they were always Greek. They weren’t always Kytherian, but they largely were Kytherian and they helped each other. They used to buy little places in the country, save their money, and then buy their own business. [...] They developed an amazing network, especially in New South Wales and Queensland.

Timecode 04:23 - 05:00
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Matina describes the family trip to her ancestral home Kythera in 1952.

Interviewer: Tell us a bit about the trip. The whole family went, right?

Matina: Not the boys. My mother and father and the four girls went, and we had almost a year in Greece. It was just magic. First of all, I would do anything to get out of Tasmania [laughter]. And they [others] said, ‘Oh, there’s only rocks and stone, and poor and that … We didn’t see that. We saw this beautiful, unspoiled island. […] We had toilets because the uncles who had been there fixed it [so we had] outside dunnies, and no lighting. […] We used to embroider at night, and we cooked on a fuel stove, and we had the most wonderful summer. The locals thought we were wonderful. These four Australian girls have turned up, and we used to go to all the dances, the parties. It was great fun, it was a great experience, and it probably changed my life.

Timecode 22:35 - 23:41
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Your kids, did they marry Greeks?

Matina: No. [laughter]. And I didn’t expect them to. I sort of thought they might. But I didn’t, in any way, [influence them]. I’ve got to tell you this. In my generation, the generation of the Olympic Club, so many of the people I met got pressured to marry people their parents wanted. And those marriages largely were disastrous. And I swore I would never. […] I didn’t want the same to happen to my kids. 

Timecode 49:37 - 50:13

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