Evalena Chilas
Personal Essay
Return
Migration Migration stories: stories:
my my Grandparents’ lives my Grandparents’ Grandparents’ lives lives from from Greece to Australia from Greece Greece to to Australia Australia Evalena Chilas My grandparents migrated to Australia from Greece in the 1950s and 60s. Each of them journeyed at a young age from different villages and towns to work in Australia and provide for their family back home. I’m writing this to share their migration stories.
THARUNKA ISSUE 02: RETURN
Yiayia Eva My yiayia Eva’s story begins in a small seaside town in the Peloponnese in Greece. She came to Australia at 21 years old as a promised bride. This meant that she went to the country just to marry my grandfather after he saw her photo. They exchanged letters, but I don’t know if my grandmother wrote them herself because she didn’t get an education past year two. She travelled to Australia by herself and met her sister here., Her sister went back to Greece after yiayia had her first child, leaving her with little family except for the one she had just started to create. I remember yiayia telling me about working in sweet and lolly factories when she first came to Australia, alongside women who I now know as dear aunties in the community. Even though she’s lived in Australia for most of her life now, yiayia still deals with a language barrier and seems to still feel foreign in this country. My yiayia Eva is a family woman and also a performer at heart, having never stopped hosting people in her home and always entertaining us at every family gathering. Her sacrifices mean that my sister and I can have the lives we have today. We can explore dance and performing in a way that she never was able to.
Yiayia Eva at 22 years old, soon after coming to Australia
Yiayia posing after a performance during Christmas one year 45
