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Video Clip Synopsis:
Toula, an Australian-born Greek wife, is a Workers’ Compensation officer. Breaking free from traditional Greek women’s roles, she desires a career and creative freedom.
Duration:
2min 13sec
An Australian Greek Wife is an excerpt from the film George and Toula (10 mins), an episode of Our Multicultural Society Series 1 (11 x 10 mins), produced in 1978.
George and Toula: 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.
Our Multicultural Society Series 1: Our Multicultural Society 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.
Curriculum Focus: SOSE/HSIE
Year: 11-12
Strand: Time, change and continuity
Theme: Immigration & Work
Immigration; Identity; Diversity; Culture
ACT: | Past; Sources; Processes |
NSW: | N/A |
NT: | History Stage 2 |
Qld: | Senior History Unit 8 Modern Australia |
SA: | History Stage 2 |
Tas: | Senior Australian History — national identity |
Vic: | Australian history Unit 3 — Colony to Nation |
WA: | Year 11 Australian Studies — Australian identity |
From the 1970s, one of the ways many unions responded to the increasing number of non-English-speaking workers in industry was by appointing ethnic welfare officers.
The 1960s and 1970s also saw the second wave of the feminist movement, with many women (and men) being the first of their family to attend university and live out the new ideas of individuality and gender equality.
Many European migrants who arrived in Australia after World War 2 came from villages and farming communities. Traditionally, young girls from those villages were to become wives and mothers and they did not receive any education past primary school. Life in Australia was very different. This meant that girls automatically attended secondary school and could attend university if they chose to.
English Year 9-10, SOSE/HSIE Year 9-10, SOSE/HSIE Year 11-12