An Author for All Seasons series 12 launch, 12th March 2022 - "Guide to Greek series" - Danae guides the way
Danae guides the way.
The Event
Thank you to all who saw or expressed interest in the Zoom program An Author for All Seasons Series 12 Launch “Guide to Greek series” with Danae Andrea
During the Zoom event, Danae guided us along the winding paths that were her sons becoming dual Australian/Greek citizens.
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Danae guides us on the ways of gaining citizenship
Mayor Cr. Steve Staikos introduced the event wonderfully with tales both intriguing and varied. The mayor’s story of his brother’s experience with the Greek army and his strong sense of the Greek community added to the atmosphere. He also tied the talk in nicely with the City of Kingston’s participation in International Women's Day, Cultural Diversity Week and Harmony Day, and he informed us that lesbians got their name from the Greek island of Lesbos.
City of Kingston
This was followed by Danae Andrea Konidaris’ entertaining and sometimes humorous tales of becoming dual Australian/Greek citizens and deferring their consequential enrolment in the Greek army service indefinitely as new Greek male citizens living permanently abroad.
Despite some technical issues, we heard an interesting story!
The Zoom recording is mostly clearer than the live event. Via email, we offered a download to those who took part or expressed interest before the event.
Thank you to Zoom participant and An Author for All Seasons creator, Julia Reichstein, for providing these questions below and forwarding follow-up responses from Danae Andrea Konidaris and Mayor Cr Steve Staikos.
Questions for Danae Andrea Konidaris and Mayor Cr. Steve Staikos...
What a joy to see you return to Mentone Public Library. Your presentation stirred in me the following questions...
Questions for Danae Andrea Konidaris
1. What is your advice/response to someone feeling overwhelmed and deterred by what is involved in applying for dual citizenship?
Keep your eyes on the prize!
Move toward your Greek citizenship goal «βήμα βήμα» (víma víma) - “step by step”.
At times you might feel overwhelmed, confused and frustrated during the process. (We did.) However, those feelings are temporary.
On the other hand, Greek EU citizenship and the benefits it can bring to you and your family are not. So, always keep your eyes on the prize.
One of our sons holding his brand-new Greek EU passport
- From Danae's ebook Guide to Your Greek Citizenship by Descent
It will help you greatly if you approach the Greek registration process with a positive mindset. The reason for this is that things might not move forward as quickly as you'd hoped. Also, unforeseen challenges could arise along the way (and they probably will). So, during the process it's best that you:
- maintain a constructive approach,
- attend to what needs to be done promptly, and
- keep your sights set firmly on your goals and the end benefits.
2. Can you recommend some professional services or agencies specialising in supporting individuals with their application?
I can only offer recommendations based on our experience. Apart from the assistance that we received from The Consulate General of Greece in Melbourne, the only other support we drew upon was from a specialised citizenship lawyer in Athens. She helped us sort out the additional citizenship laws that applied to our sons' applications (since they were born before we were married and the consular officer wasn't sure which laws and extra documents would apply).
Throughout the registration process our lawyer liaised with the Greek authorities and Consulate in Melbourne and attended to various matters as they arose. We communicated with her in English by email.
If anyone is considering getting the help of a lawyer in Greece and would like to know more about the lawyer we engaged, then Guide to Your Greek Citizenship by Descent will really inform you on this.
This is because this ebook shows you exactly what our lawyer did for us and the level of service she provided. Then you can make your own assessment. You'll find everything in our Timeline section.
You will also get an indication of our legal costs regarding our particular situation (remember, every case is different and the legal cost will vary accordingly). You can find our Greek lawyer's details in the Useful Contacts section of the ebook.
Guide to Your Greek Citizenship by Descent also provides ways to contact/contact details for:
- Municipal offices, registries, government citizenship departments and citizens service centres in Greece,
- Embassies and Consulates of Greece around the world,
- The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese and Metropolises around the world,
- Consulate and Honorary Consulate Generals of Greece in Australia,
- Victorian Births, Deaths & Marriages,
- DFAT,
- The notary in Melbourne who notarised our sons Special Powers of Attorney so that our lawyer in Greece could act for them, and
- Greek Orthodox Community of Melbourne and Victoria
By the way, if anyone does end up contacting our citizenship lawyer in Greece for some advice, please say hi to her from the Konidaris family in Melbourne!
3. What has been your personal greatest takeaway from this overall experience (both your sons' application process and then writing and publishing about their odyssey)?
For me the greatest personal takeaway from this overall experience has been reinforcement. What I mean by that is to not let apprehension, doubt, or uncertainty get in the way of you pursuing your goal. Keep working towards that goal bit by bit, even when things seem unclear and impossible. Get the information and support you need. If you can't find it straight away, keep looking. Often things come together piece by piece when you focus on your goal and not on the process and its challenges. This applies to our sons' Greek registration process and the project of writing and publishing their odyssey.
Our sons' registration experience and the guides can help you reinforce your Greek citizenship goal.
4. Do you intend on publishing your books in Greek? Not only the "Guide to..." series but all your preceding publications as well?
No, I don't intend to publish Guide to Your Greek Citizenship by Descent and Guide to Deferring Your Greek Army Service Indefinitely in Greek.
The reason is that the guides are for Greek people of descent whose first/second/third generation families have been living in English-speaking countries. Therefore, most likely, people of descent will speak English and Greek equally well or English more proficiently than Greek. Citizenship topics and matters can become quite complex and I believe that in most cases, English would be the preferred language to use when receiving specialised information on subjects such as applying for Greek citizenship.
However, in the ebooks I do provide the names of Greek documents and stages in the Greek registration process in Greek and English to help readers connect the two languages. Often, people of Greek descent will relate to a term in Greek much more easily than to the English equivalent.
Also, both books contain useful glossaries of words in Greek and English that relate to the entire Greek registration process. This is to help people with language conversion along the way or simply if they would like to expand their knowledge of these words in both languages. The glossaries also show how to pronounce the Greek words in case the reader is unable to read Greek.
Regarding preceding publications, I won't be revisiting those. In relation to all publications, if I were to translate them into Greek someone would have to do that for me! 😄
5. Trivial Question for you: Learning about the meaning behind your Greek name was really special...were you aware there is also an asteroid named after both you and your Green Goddess Sister Danae?!
No, I didn't know that! Delighted that I know now! Thank you!
To visit Danae's blog click here: https://tripover.blog
Questions for Mayor Cr Steve Staikos...
1. Are there particular facets of your Greek heritage that most strongly bind you to this part of your identity (e.g. the literature, the philosophers etc)?
The other half of my family comes from Nafpaktos: a beautiful seaside town in Aetolia-Acarnania a region in central/western Greece. This is where I am registered as a citizen as this is where my father’s family “portion” is located. Here is a nice article that shows some of the more touristic attractions of the town. https://greecetravelideas.com/things-nafpaktos-greece/
Have you heard of The Greek Myths? https://www.amazon.com/Greek-Myths-One-Two/dp/B00E86921K
\We were raised Greek Orthodox Christians of course. This is part of the national identity. The Church itself has woven itself into the national identity of the Hellenic people. However, Greek culture - including their religion, the 12 gods of Olympus, their eusebeia and threskeia – existed for thousands of years before the birth of Christ, before the establishment of the Church, before the schism between Rome and Constantinople, etc. But the Roman Empire, the Eastern Roman Empire and then the 400 years of Turkish / Ottoman / Muslim rule led Greece to become a deeply Christian nation.
After the revolution of 1821, there was a revival of classical Greek culture (except the traditional religion of Greece) mostly inspired by philhellenes / western European aristocrats (like Lord Byron) who came to Greece to teach the Greeks how to speak Ancient Greek again!!!
My parents raised us with the Greek Myths, we learned all about them at Greek school in Greek and English. We loved these stories. I often explain this to people as if they are like creation stories or the “dream time” of my people, we have an ancient history of storytelling, and I really cannot over-emphasise the key role played by Homer, around three thousand years ago, writing the Iliad and the Odyssey. Committing to paper (papyrus) the oral history of the ancient (to him) Greeks. This is a special part of our history which truly is a corner stone of western civilisation. Greeks are very proud of the fact that they are seen as the cradle of western civilisation.
2. It was fascinating learning how the island of Lesbos got its name, particularly as the month of March acknowledges our LGBTQI+ community, in addition to International Women's Day, Cultural Diversity Week and Harmony Day.
The island gave its name to lesbians not the other way around! This piece is a little silly, but fun! https://www.intomore.com/travel/the-fascinating-history-of-lesbian/
Here is another interesting piece from the Greek newspaper of Melbourne (English Language) https://neoskosmos.com/en/2020/10/06/life/beautiful-lesbos-10-things-to-know-about-sapphos-island/
3.
a. Can you recommend any further reading about the celebrated Archaic Greek Poet Sappho who inspired the island's name?
I think you’ll enjoy this article that was published in The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/feb/02/classics
b. Are there any known published anthologies of her poetry?
I recommend The Complete Poems by Sappho (Willis Barnstone) https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-complete-poems-of-sappho-9781590306130
Unfortunately many of her works were destroyed by the Christians who saw her poetry and writings as incompatible with Christian teachings. In 1073, Pope Gregory VII ordered that all of Sappho's works be burnt in Rome as well as in Constantinople. This was a disaster, however, her legacy lives on.
4. Could you please remind me when residents can expect the much-anticipated, full, City of Kingston Cultural Diversity Week program to be released and give a hint of the events in store showcasing Kingston's Greek community?
Here is the link to the Picnic I mentioned: https://www.facebook.com/events/5066068336817784
In respect to more information, I encourage you to contact Erin Pattie Erin.Pattie@kingston.vic.gov.auTo visit the page of Mayor Steve Staikos, of City of Kingston's Bunjil Ward, click here: Mayor Cr Steve Staikos
to find out more about the mayor's Ward, click here: (Bunjil Ward)
My gratitude again to you both for what you prepared and presented to us today.
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