This year marks the 60th anniversary from the day 900 Greek single women known as nyfes (brides) landed in Australia after leaving their homeland and embarking on their journey to Australia in a quest for a better future. Greek-born educator Peter Photakis is hosting a special commemorative event which will pay tribute to those women who left their families and homes to come to Australia on the promise of a new and better life.
"We have scheduled a special event which will take place on Sunday 18 June at the Migration Museum of South Australia, and my aim is to reunite as many brides of 1957 as possible to share their migration stories and shed some more light on a post-World War II era that saw a stream of young women migrating to Australia to start their own families with their future husbands. Husbands whom they had never met before," says Photakis who, together with his mother and two brothers, was also onboard the ship Begoña that arrived at Melbourne's Port Phillip Bay in 1957.
"Although I was young, I have many fond memories of the journey and I distinctively remember wondering why there were so many young and beautiful women on Begoña. I actually thought those women were neraides and that's what I used to call them until one day near the end of the journey, my mother told me that my neraides were brides, who were married via a photograph. That confused me even more," recalls Photakis.
