45th annual federation and paseka conference - jan 27-29, 2017
The 2017 Federation of Cyprus Communities of Australia & New Zealand and PASEKA conference was held at the Cyprus Community of Queensland between the 27th and the 29st of January 2017.
Here is our report which was presented at the conference:
CYPRUS COMMUNITY OF WELLINGTON AND NEW ZEALAND
Cyprus Community of Wellington and New Zealand is more than likely the smallest community in our PASEKA group. Like all small communities in our group we are struggling to attract new members, especially from our younger compatriots, as well as maintaining an active interest from the older and more established generation.
There are occasions when we are encouraged by the presence of so many kids during our annual picnic and Christmas parties, and other times when you ask yourself what’s the point of doing this when so very few care to come along to help or participate.
In many respects, we are proud to be active members of the Greek Community. It’s also very important to emphasize that without the Greek Community our very existence as a community will be in grave danger of becoming non-existent.
I say this tongue in cheek, because our very close association to the larger Greek Community presents a unique risk of "friendly" assimilation. It is easy for us to maintain our roots as Greeks "Hellenes", however as a result the Greek Cypriot culture and traditions are facing extinction.
Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do about it as we have had absolutely no new immigrants arriving from Cyprus since 1974. Hence our kids now have three options: One, marry a Greek. Two, marry a barbarian (as ancient Greeks used to call all non-Greeks). Or three, marry a Greek Cypriot which is becoming so rare you now run the risk of inbreeding. Having said all that, hopefully people understand that this is a synopsis of reality and not a Donald Trump racist outburst!
We continued with our annual events throughout the year giving our members, their relatives and their friends an opportunity to get together. Our annual Picnic was a great success attended by more than 300 people from babies to people in their 80’s and 90’s. Soon after in February we joined our Greek Community selling souvlakia at the annual Paniyiri to raise funds for our church and School.
As always, the 1974 memorial service took place in our local church attended by many compatriots and leaders of all Greek Communities. The annual dance in early September was sadly a disappointment as a number of families were effected by a death in our community which as I mentioned at the beginning our small size is susceptible to various other events. In December, we had our traditional children’s Christmas party followed by a very successful New Year’s eve Reveyion.
Wishing you all a very successful conference.
Mario Kotsapas
President
Cyprus Community Wellington and New Zealand
Here is our report which was presented at the conference:
CYPRUS COMMUNITY OF WELLINGTON AND NEW ZEALAND
Cyprus Community of Wellington and New Zealand is more than likely the smallest community in our PASEKA group. Like all small communities in our group we are struggling to attract new members, especially from our younger compatriots, as well as maintaining an active interest from the older and more established generation.
There are occasions when we are encouraged by the presence of so many kids during our annual picnic and Christmas parties, and other times when you ask yourself what’s the point of doing this when so very few care to come along to help or participate.
In many respects, we are proud to be active members of the Greek Community. It’s also very important to emphasize that without the Greek Community our very existence as a community will be in grave danger of becoming non-existent.
I say this tongue in cheek, because our very close association to the larger Greek Community presents a unique risk of "friendly" assimilation. It is easy for us to maintain our roots as Greeks "Hellenes", however as a result the Greek Cypriot culture and traditions are facing extinction.
Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do about it as we have had absolutely no new immigrants arriving from Cyprus since 1974. Hence our kids now have three options: One, marry a Greek. Two, marry a barbarian (as ancient Greeks used to call all non-Greeks). Or three, marry a Greek Cypriot which is becoming so rare you now run the risk of inbreeding. Having said all that, hopefully people understand that this is a synopsis of reality and not a Donald Trump racist outburst!
We continued with our annual events throughout the year giving our members, their relatives and their friends an opportunity to get together. Our annual Picnic was a great success attended by more than 300 people from babies to people in their 80’s and 90’s. Soon after in February we joined our Greek Community selling souvlakia at the annual Paniyiri to raise funds for our church and School.
As always, the 1974 memorial service took place in our local church attended by many compatriots and leaders of all Greek Communities. The annual dance in early September was sadly a disappointment as a number of families were effected by a death in our community which as I mentioned at the beginning our small size is susceptible to various other events. In December, we had our traditional children’s Christmas party followed by a very successful New Year’s eve Reveyion.
Wishing you all a very successful conference.
Mario Kotsapas
President
Cyprus Community Wellington and New Zealand