An Australian Greek Wife

An Australian Greek Wife is an excerpt from the film George and Toula (10 mins), an episode of Our Multicultural Society Series 1 (11 × 10 mins), produced in 1978.

Our Multicultural Society Series 1 explores Australia’s cultural diversity. The 11 documentaries in this first series explore issues around identity, community, communication, and lifestyle. They consider specific problems or challenges faced by particular individuals or groups, and look at our similarities and differences. The people featured in the progams range from new arrivals and second generation Australians to Indigenous Australians.

Our Multicultural Society Series 1 was produced by Film Australia.

Dimensions
Historical Knowledge and Understanding
At Level 6, students analyse events which contributed to Australia’s social, political and cultural development. These events could include: immigration. They demonstrate understanding of key ideologies and explain their influence on people’s lives.

Historical reasoning and interpretation
At Level 6 students locate relevant resources, including online resources. They identify, comprehend and evaluate a range of primary and secondary sources. They critically evaluate sources of evidence for context, information, reliability, completeness, objectivity and bias.

This video clip is also relevant for Civics and Citizenship (Level 6)

This material is an extract. Teachers and Students should consult the Victoria Curriculum and Assessment Authority website for more information.

Born in Australia, Toula is the daughter of a Greek-born father and an Australian-born mother from a Greek background but, by her own admission, she doesn’t feel comfortable in a wholly Greek environment. As a teenager she wanted to date but was pressured to marry instead. She’s been married ten years, has no children, lives in an apartment rather than a house, and works as a workers compensation officer — lifestyle choices that she feels attract the Greek community’s disapproval. Her husband George, on the other hand, is Greek-born — a welder who enjoys the races. The two don’t have much in common, according to Toula, who feels much greater ambivalence than her husband about the traditions in which she was raised.

1. The video clip:
   1. What is this video clip about?
   2. What is your impression of Toula?
   3. How is Toula trapped between two cultures?
   4. What are the costs and what are the benefits to Toula for what she is doing?
2. 1. What does this clip reveal about Australia’s immigration policy at the time?
   2. Should migrants adapt and be forced to accept certain core standards and values?
3. 1. Research the statistics on the main countries of origin of immigrants to Australia at each census since 1954. Describe the changes and continuities in the top 10 source countries for each census. Suggest reasons to explain that pattern.
   2. What has been the impact of post-World War 2 migration on Australian society and identity?

Go to The National Centre for History Education, choose Units of Work: Making History, select Making History: Middle Secondary Units – Investigating People and Issues in Australia after World War II, and go to Sunny Australia?