2021-11-24

Sydney

Mousmoutis, Stavroula

Greeks in Australia

Oral history

Elefterias-Kostakidis, Eleni

Digitised

Copyright holder : State Library of New South Wales
Please acknowledge : Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales

Interviewer: Eleni Elefterias-Kostakidis

Occupation: Seamstress
Year of arrival: 1958
Method of transport: Ship (Flaminia)

Stavroula was born in 1932 into a poor agricultural family on the Ionian island of Kefalonia. She lost her mother when she was twelve and was brought up by her stepmother. She experienced WWII and the occupation of Greece by the German army. She travelled to Australia to join her brother. In Sydney, she worked as a seamstress and married. She struggled through a difficult marriage with a man who suffered from mental illness and was prone to violence.

Interview summary
Stavroula discusses the circumstances that led to her emigration, such as the loss of her mother at a young age and the earthquakes of 1953 and 1958, which made life on the island very difficult. She recalls how her family hid an Italian soldier from the Germans and the hardships endured by her village. She reminisces about the journey to Australia by ship and the musicians she met on the boat who ended up becoming her friends. She gives an emotional rendition of married life with her unpredictable and violent partner and the choices faced by migrant women. She remembers the Australian neighbours who helped her with the children as well as her eldest daughter’s experience of racism and bullying at school.

Sound recording

Siobhan Campbell