Going English: the Greek Migrants Who Left their Family Names Behind

Event Details

Presenter: Dr Phil Kafcaloudes

Synopsis

Who did so many migrants anglicise their family names? As Australia has devolved from a Fortress Australia mentality, exemplified by the White Australia policy, attitudinal remnants of the race-based exclusionary policies of the pre-war era continued to be felt even in the late 20th century. As a result many Greek migrants felt the perception that anglicisation would help them fit into Australian society. Dr Phil Kafcaloudes surveyed Australian Greeks and their children who anglicised their family names, asking why they did it, how they did it and have they considered reversion, with some surprising results. For a name-proud Greek culture, this is a study central not only to migratory and cultural issues but to the broader question of personal identity and how that may change when moving from one country to another. As a result, the study reveals at whether the perception among migrants of Australian attitudes has changed over the last hundred years.

About Dr Phil Kafcaloudes

‌Dr Phil Kafcaloudes is an author, journalist and writer who presented the breakfast program on the ABC’s Radio Australia for nine years, including the ABC’s first English language program from the mainland. In 2022 the ABC published Australia Calling, his history of international broadcasting. He has taught journalism at La Trobe University and at RMIT, earning a teaching award by the Journalism Education and Research Association. He has also taught journalism in South Africa, Vietnam, Malaysia, Fiji, Samoa and PNG. For a Churchill Fellowship, he studied journalism trauma training worldwide.

In 2011 his novel Someone Else’s War was published in Australasia and translated into Greek for Europe. His PhD looked at oral history storytelling, which involved adapting the novel into a play called Of Forgetting. In September 2024 the play will have its world premiere at La Mama theatre in Melbourne..