Summary

Black and white digital photograph of the village of Sitohorion near Kopanaki, Greece, circa 1940s.
It is the village where the Dimitrakopoulos family lived before Evanthia Dimitrakopoulos migrated to Australia in 1958.

It is one of a collection of five family photographs which relate to the wooden spoon (HT 57621), hand-made around 1948 by Dimitris Dimitrakopoulos from one piece of wood in Greece and brought to Australia by his younger sister Evanthia (Effie) when she migrated in 1958. The images show family life in Greece and Australia.

Physical Description

Black and white digital photograph copied from an original print.

Significance

This collection represents the power of simple objects which embody powerful memories and connections to homeland. The spoon crosses time, generations and place, from the brother in Greece who made it to the grandmother who used it in Greece to the sister who brought it to Australia as a precious family heirloom.

Effie's Story:
"My name is Evanthia (Effie) Leggas (nee Dimitrakopoulos), and I was 20 when I migrated to Australia from Greece by boat in 1958 on my own. I left behind my mother, father and 4 siblings. One brother was already in Australia. I only had a few possessions with me - my passport, the clothes on my back and a wooden spoon - what I considered to be my family heirloom. That wooden is so special to me because we didn't have many things, it was something from motherland, and something that was hand made by my brother, Dimitri, from one piece of wood. He was 11 years old when he made it around 1943 and I was only five.

That spoon made countless meals. We didn't have cutlery. We all made our own spoons to eat with. And depending on what we were having for a meal that day, would determine whether we used our spoons or our fingers. Food was scarce in those days. When a soup was made, it didn't have much in it really and it was more liquid than anything else, but my mother always tried to make the best of what she had. We always looked forward to when the animals were having their babies because it meant that there was milk for us to drink.

I remember my yiayia (grandmother) was bedridden, and as children, we were always noisy, usually laughing and playing. She would always tell us to be quiet, but we would not listen to her. Being the youngest of the six surviving children, she would always command me to bring the wooden spoon to her. She would then fling it across the room at the rest of my siblings. This often got our attention. We didn't have much back then, but the home was always filled with love."

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