ΕΛΛΗΝΕΣ. ΡΩΜΙΟΙ. ΕΛΛΗΝΟΑΥΣΤΡΑΛΟΙ

More than a year in the making, the Melbourne University Greek Association in collaboration with the Macquarie University Greek Association presents a photographic exhibition by Yannis Dramitinos: Greeks, Romioi and Greek-Australians.

Yannis Dramitinos is a journalist and photographer. He was born in Crete, Greece in 1971 and has been based in Sydney since 2009. Yannis has travelled through Cyprus, a country divided since 1974, Constantinople and the Princes’ Islands. He has visited sites such as Agia Sophia in Constantinople, the island of Halki, the second-largest of the Princes’ islands, and the Theological School of Halki, which once was the main theological school of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople but has remained closed since 1971.

The photographs of Dramitinos illustrate a familiarity which, as Greeks, haunts us and an enduring theme is the idea of Romiosini, the Byzantine legacy of Greeks. Romiosini encompasses a tragic history covering three millennia since pre-Christian times. It reveals a complex relationship with our identity as Romioi which we have yet to reconcile ourselves with. The photographs reflect on a paradox and conflict demonstrated through three identities. Whilst these are different identities, they are also intimately connected and historically linked from antiquity, across the Byzantine and Ottoman era and finally the modern Greek period which culminates in the founding of the modern Greek nation state. The exhibition is importantly also a reflection on the identification with “being Greek” in the present-day diaspora in Australia, where identity is no longer informed by state borders but the layers of history and culture that fundamentally transcend time and place.

The photographs challenge our perspectives on ethnography and semantics relating to the Byzantine and Ottoman Christian heritage of Greeks. The term Romioi is not simply associated with been a Roman or an Ottoman subject, but it is also synonymous with the term Greek or Hellene, it demonstrated a common culture, tradition, religion and language, evolving from pre-Christian to Christian times.

The Exhibition will be launched at the Steps Gallery on 62 Lygon St, Carlton on Monday February 25 2019 at 7.00PM and will be open to the general public from Tuesday February 26 2019 until Thursday February 28 between 12pm-6pm daily. We thank the Greek Community of Melbourne and Victoria and the Greek Community of New South Wales for their generous support.By Themistocles Kritikakos

Themistocles Kritikakos is President of the Melbourne University Greek Association and a PhD candidate at the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne.