A Greek evening of live music and dance with the Greek Band Wgtn and Stama Boolieris with a great Greek mezedes supper and dancing lessons to this style of music.

Ticket sales were sold for the first time through Humanitix. https://events.humanitix.com/rembetiko-live

• $55 early bird special until end of September 2024
• $60 regular price from 1 October 2024.
• $30 children under 12years old

Plus booking fee per ticket (profits from booking fee to go to educational charities)

https://www.facebook.com/HellenicNewZealandCongress

An evening with John Irwin, film maker, on his 34-year journey, documenting significant aspects of the Anzac - Greece relationship was held on 13 August.

John showed a series of short film clips on various topics including:

-         Excerpts from ‘Anzac: The Greek Chapter’ John’s 2024 feature length documentary.

-         Anzac battle sites in Greece

-         The WWI Lemnos Story

-         George Devine Treloar and the Pontian refugees

-         Excerpt from ‘Unbroken Bonds’ 2006 Pilgrimage to Crete of NZ Veterans

-         Excerpts from ‘In Rich Regard’ the1991 documentary on the Crete/NZ

-         relationship

-         Excerpts from ‘Stories My Child, Stories’

-         Episode 1 of the series ‘Out of Their

-         Own Hands’ on the women of Crete during the German Occupation

-         ‘Suda to Alex’. Home movies from the Greek Campaign and the Battle of Crete

-         ‘Petros Vlahakis’. 1990 Interview with the artist behind the iconic images of the

-         Battle of Crete (the stoning of a German paratrooper)

-         ‘Ruth Riordan’s Cretan Journey’. Ruth’s connection with the village of Kousteryerako where her father was sheltered for almost two years.

It was a free event (thanks to Greek Orthodox Community of Wellington for providing venue) with koha towards tea/coffee/biscuits cost. Doors opened 7pm for 7.30pm start and 9pm finish.

Our Annual General Meeting was held on Thursday 18 April. 

Doors opened 6pm for 6.30pm start at GOC Hall, school room, 3 Hania Street, Mt Victoria.

We have an exciting list of events planned for this year including a premier of a new documentary on World War II with a Greek perspective, Rembetiko Live evening and Greek Myths & Maori Legends talk.

While not strictly Hellenic in nature, some of our members are involved in this local production at Circa theatre in Wellington.

It looks like it's going to be a lot of fun and is on from 25 November to 17 December 2023.

Go to https://www.circa.co.nz/package/the-secret-lives-of-extremely-old-people/ to book.

This had been postponed from 2020 when the pandemic first started and then was delayed due to social distancing requirements.

It was a night to dance and enjoy the live music and singing from Greek Band Wgtn and Briar Prastiti.

The AGM for 2023 was held on Thursday 20 April 2023 at 6.30 pm .

It was held on the ground floor of the building beside the church used as the Greek school. This is a different location from last year.

We had further news about the much delayed Rembetiko function among other things and reviewed last year.

Wellington premiere of these two Greek plays, written by locals, was held in December 2022 at Gryphon Theatre in Wellington. We'd like to thank Paul Kay, President of Stagecraft, for directing these plays.

The plays were almost sold out every session with a great response from many theatre goers.

The AGM took place on Thursday 5 May 2022 6.00pm at the Greek Community Hall in Hania Street. It was upstairs in the Library/AV room.

Due to renovations, there is one open space on this floor. The AGM was in the old Library/AV part.

For more information including new member enquiries, please contact hnzc.secretary@gmail.com.

Our annual cooking class returned this year, with our popular demonstrator, Stella Bares.

She prepared three dishes, leek rice, giant beans and orange pie, in front of us for sampling. We also had some nibbles on the table to enjoy while watching the demo.

Hellenic New Zealand Congress partnered with Homeland to provide the opportunity for members of the Hellenic diaspora (Auckland, Wellington and Rotorua) to spend the day with Peter Gordon in his cooking school and cook a lunch as part of his Community Tuesdays.

We also prepared a 3 course dinner which showcased Hellenic cuisine to Kiwis. The event was the first community dinner at Homeland and sold out within 24 hours of being advertised.

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Hellenic New Zealand Congress were delighted to hold a free talk about Greek films by our distinguished guest speaker, Dr Anastasia Bakogianni, Senior Lecturer in Classical Studies from Massey University.The talk included famous Greek directors such as Theo Angelopoulos (keep an eye on our future events for a retrospective film event on him) and Michael Cacoyiannis.

It started after our Hellenic New Zealand Congress AGM (also open to the public) ends so all were free to attend both events if interested in learning more about Hellenic New Zealand Congress.

It was held at the Greek Community Centre on the top floor in the AV room.

20 April 2021

We welcomed all members (past, present and future) to attend our Annual General Meeting (AGM) which preceded a talk 'Screening Ancient Tragedy in Modern Greek Film' by Dr Anastasia Bakogianni, Senior Lecturer in Classical Studies from Massey University.

We held the AGM and talk at the Greek Community Centre on the top floor in the AV room.

An event with Friends of Te Papa on the subject of Greek Easter for their members. It is an introduction to the Eastern Orthodox Easter for those who've never experienced one.

Dimitrios Mitsotakis, Stella Bares and Father George Kanellis presented their own perspectives on the most important event in the Hellenic calendar.

https://www.friendsoftepapa.org.nz/features/review-greek-easter/

https://www.friendsoftepapa.org.nz/event/talk-greek-easter-101/

Church service that included the Hymn which was one of the rallying cries of 1821, followed by showing of 1821 documentary with English subtitles.

Series of free talks by distinguished speakers, leading up to Bicentennial commemoration.

Hellenic Congress was one of the sponsors for this tribute concert at Victoria University to celebrate the extraordinary compositions of a famous Greek in New Zealand.

Oikos Hellenic Cuisine helped cater for this event with delightful mezedes.

Our annual cooking demo class was held at Greek Orthodox Community hall in Hania Street.

It was quieter this year post COVID-19 lockdown but still fun. A nice way to spend the evening after work to watch four Greek dishes being prepared, while eating some nibbles and then sampling the Greek food once it's cooked.

We advertised the class on Facebook Events page and Eventfinda event.

Wellington premiere of "Ο Ηρακλής, ο Αχελώος, και η Μεσοχώρα" (Heracles, Acheloos and Mesochora, with English subtitles). The movie will start at 3.30pm after the AGM tea/coffee break as the AGM is being held same day at 2.15pm (all welcome) in the TTC clubrooms.

"The village of Mesochora, as well as the paternal home of the documentary director, is on the banks of the Acheloos river, in the mountain range of Pindos. The area, however, is flooded by the artificial lake created by the diversion of the river.

The documentary unfolds the incredible story of the hostage of the village, the family tragedy of the director himself, and the admirable struggle of the inhabitants of Mesochora."

We would like to thank the director and ERT for providing this film to us free of charge and to Elias Pavlidis for organizing the film to come to Wellington.

Direction: Δημήτρης Κουτσιαμπασάκος

Script: Δημήτρης Κουτσιαμπασάκος Cinematography: Yorgos Papaioannou

Editing: Yorgos Savoglou Sound: Nikos Paliatsoudis, Antonis Kypreos, Yorgos Petroutsas

Music: Vangelis Fampas Production: ERT Production 

Country: Greece | Production Year: 2019

Thanks to contributions from the Congress members including a sizable donation from John Davidson and the kindness of the Greek Orthodox Community, we set up our stall on Hania Street to raise money for the GOC through a raffle and promoted the Congress activities.

A good day had by all!

Our very own Congress member and Secretary, Professor John Davidson, launched a new book of poetry on Romans and Ancient Greeks at Victoria University last year.

It was well attended by Congress members.

Another opportunity to provide funding, this time towards a local production of Agamemnon. The students did an excellent job, portraying their Greek tragedy on a sparse stage.