Yianni Cartledge, *Ikarians in South Australia, 1900–1945: Emigration, Settlement, Community Building, and Integration*. London: Anthem Press, 2026.

This scholarly monograph investigates a relatively unexamined diaspora that traces its roots back to the Greek Aegean Island of Ikaria. Ikaria is a small, isolated island located close to the Turkish coastline.

It has a rich and independent history, characterized by times of autonomy and self-rule, including the short-lived Free State of Ikaria in 1912, which arose from the Ikarian Revolution against the Ottoman Empire.

Up until the nineteenth century, the people of Ikaria were quite insular, but they began to migrate during that era. The initial Ikarian emigrants settled in Ottoman port cities and urban areas, as well as on nearby Aegean islands.

Over time, Ikarians made their way to major migration centers such as Egypt and the United States. By 1910, the first Ikarians had arrived in Port Pirie, South Australia, marking the start of a long-standing tradition of Ikarian migration and settlement in that area.

This book explores the experiences of Ikarians in South Australia from 1900 to 1945—a timeframe that has not been thoroughly studied, in contrast to most research on Greeks in Australia, which mainly emphasizes the mass migration that took place after World War II and the Greek Civil War.

This monograph opens up avenues for future research on Ikarians in South Australia beyond 1945. The book is organized around four key themes: emigration, settlement, community development, and integration, while also examining ideas such as localism and identity as significant elements within these themes.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Hello, welcome to the Dialogues in Refugee Studies podcast. I am your host, Ari Barboat, and today I'm grateful to engage in dialogue with Yanni Cartlige. We will discuss his newly published book, It Cariens in South Australia, 1900 to 1945, Immigration, Settlements, Community Building, and Integration, published in London by Anthem Press 2026. Dr. Yanni Cartlidge is a lecturer in history at Tabor College's faculty of education, having previously lectured in Greek studies at Flinders University's College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. His research interests encompass migration and the migrant experience, diaspora studies, Mediterranean histories, notably the Ottoman and British empires, and modern Greek history. This academic monograph examines a little explored diaspora that originates from the Greek Aegean island of Icaria. In the 19th century, Icarians remained quite insular, but they began to emigrate during that time. The first Ikarian emigrants settled in Ottoman port cities and urban centers, as well as nearby Aegean islands. Eventually, Icarians established themselves in significant migration hubs like Egypt and the United States. By 1910, the first Icarians had reached Port Iri in South Australia, marking the beginning of a long-standing tradition of Icarian migration and settlement in the region. This book delves into the experiences of Icarians in South Australia from 1900 to 1945, a period that has not been extensively researched, contrasting with most studies on Greeks in Australia, which predominantly focus on the mass migration that occurred after World War II and the Greek Civil War. This creates an opportunity for future research on Acarrians in South Australia beyond 1945. This book is structured around four central themes: emigration, settlement, and community development, and emigration and integration, while also exploring concepts such as localism and identity as important aspects within these themes. Yanni, it's an honor to be in dialogue with you today.

SPEAKER_02 3:11

Thank you, Ari. It's a pleasure to be able to uh discuss uh the book with you uh here in your podcast.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

To begin, can you kindly tell us about yourself? Can you comment on your educational background and your personal relationship to this project?

SPEAKER_02 3:28

Um yeah, thanks. So um so my background is in history. Um, so I'm still a fairly uh new uh early career researcher, you could say. Um so I graduated at Flinders University with my PhD in uh March 2024. Um and my focus through my studies was on Greek history, but specifically migration history, um looking at uh different groups that left Greece, especially the islands where people were very mobile and uh going to all sorts of regions around the world in different time periods. Um, my own connection here is that my uh part of my family heritage is uh Greek islander, uh part of a Greek islander migration, um, as my my mother's family actually migrated post-World War II Um to South Australia. So um for me personally, there's the personal interest, even though the book is about migration, that doesn't isn't my direct my kind of link. It's it's part of my community's uh history as well, essentially. Um but yeah, now I'm a at the moment I'm a lecturer at Table College in the Faculty of Education, and I lecture here um teaching history um in kind of a range of time periods, but always I do always like to bring it back to migration when I get that chance.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

What misconceptions about modern Greek history does your research attempt at correct? Why do these misconceptions exist and persist?

SPEAKER_02 5:03

Yeah, um so modern Greek history is a history of um I would say of tension. There's um so I guess we can really call that the period of modern Greek history beginning with, I guess, the Ottoman um Ottoman modern Greece in the Ottoman Empire, then the revolution against the Ottoman Empire in 1821, which formed the original Kingdom of Greece. But beyond then, many well, the main misconception really is that our modern borders of modern Greece um uh were all formed in this 1821 revolution, which is not the case because much of the region that would join Greece really didn't leave the Ottoman Empire for nearly another century after the original uh Greek revolution. Um the island of Icaria being one example, but other islands as well, Crete, um Samos, and big regions like Macedonia, these places joined the modern Greek state um just before just before World War I, essentially. So um what happened in these places is that the people essentially ended up with a different identity than those in kind of heartland Greece. They had a very localized regional identity, and that was within an Ottoman context as well. Um, the other misconception is that Greek migration essentially didn't really occur on a large scale until after World War II, uh, especially here in Australia. We have a very visible post-war migrant community. Um, however, the real facts are that there were significant numbers of people leaving before World War II and even before as early as before World War I and setting up communities. Many of these communities would help establish that post-World War II uh community as well.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

Can you introduce listeners to Ikaria?

SPEAKER_02 6:56

Yeah, um so great question. Ikaria or Ikaria, in we sort of call in English, is is is an island um in the North Aegean Sea, but it's kind of at the southern side of the North Aegean Sea. So really it's a central Aegean island, I would say. Um, it's not too far off the Turkish coast. Um on a clear day, you can see Turkey from the uh kind of eastern beaches. You can see Turkey in the distance. Um uh Icaria has kind of got a lot of um media attention recently, as it was known as a blue zone, so one of the you know five areas in the world where people have these kind of long life expectancies. Um very interesting development. This doesn't feature in my book, of course. This is just an extra kind of media attention the islands gathered recently, but it it is a small island. So uh, even though it's quite large in landmass, it's only about 8,000 people permanent residents there. So it is a small community, and there are more people of Ikarian descent living outside of the island than actually live on the island, essentially. Um, the island has been very insular, as you said in the intro. That's kind of been a very localized place, it's had its strong sense of identity, people marrying within their towns and villages for generations, not a lot of people coming and going, especially as it has no natural harbours. So it really kept people that were there kind of stuck there for much of history. Um, however, the island has had these kind of moments of exit where there's been emigrants leaving to different places, other islands, Egypt, the US, and eventually Australia. This especially occurred during the 19th century and that led over into the 20th century. Um so this was a big kind of uh big exit, we could say, or from Yikadia. It is a harsh environment, it is a very natural place, but also a very harsh environment because it's literally the tip of a mountain in the sea, essentially, this island. So um it is prone to famines at times, especially here, and it is prone to economic hardships, especially because it isn't a natural place of economic prosperity. Um it was independent very briefly, and we'll probably chat about that a bit more, but this was in 1912, and this was that transition period where between leaving the Ottoman Empire and joining uh the Greek state, it was its own independent state.

SPEAKER_00 9:21

And I think that testifies to its uh Inchula identity, we could say.

SPEAKER_02 9:34

Yeah, um so uh uh before I started my PhD, I was I did an honours project looking at um the Greek revolution, so 1821, so sort of almost a century earlier than the case study in the book. Um and I really got interested in kind of involvement of um uh let's say west western powers in modern Greece. I found this really interesting. When I started researching for the book, which really the book stems from my PhD project, um I just began looking at movements of people, movements of people from the Mediterranean, and I kind of honed in on Greece and the Aegean Islands, and then to a few case studies in the Aegean Islands. Um originally my PhD looked at three case studies, but I eventually only ended up with two. As is the way when you do a PhD project, things change as you probably know yourself, there's kind of new findings and that can shift your whole thinking sometimes. And uh my two words from two islands, one being Hios and one being Icadia, two very different migrations, but a story for another time, I guess. But when I started looking at Icadia, I really got interested in looking at the migration record, um, so shipping registers, uh, naturalization applications, um, sponsorship applications, because there was there were migrants that were sponsoring other migrants to come over. Um, I started really getting looking at what uh the records there. National Archives of Australia has quite an accessible, um, we could say, uh system, so we can access these records. A lot needed to be digitized, um, so I had to get some grants. Luckily, I was successful in getting some grants to pay for some digitization of records so I could access them. Um, probably the main hurdle I had in researching this book is that when I started my PhD, which led to the book eventually, I started in March 2020. And uh, as history tells us, this is when pretty much COVID really began in a big way, um, in especially in places like Australia. This is our first lockdowns and things like that. So I really relied on digital, the digital archive for this. Um, I was very lucky that the National Library of Australia has digitized thousands of newspapers as well. So that was another point of beginning this research. Um, so essentially, yeah, my research really began in the archives in and in in a digital way rather than in a physical way due to COVID, I would say.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

Can you describe the unification of Icaria with the kingdom of Greece in 1912, late 1912?

SPEAKER_02 12:36

Yeah, this is a really um key moment. So um 1912 being a very uh very tumultuous year for Icaria. Um Icaria in 1912 began as an Ottoman island, we could say. Uh by the middle of the year, they were in revolution against the Ottomans in their own small revolution. Um they had defeated the Ottoman garrison, they had established the free state of Icaria, they had an anthem, armed forces, their own stamps, they even produced stamps in that period. And I've got some of these things in the book as artifacts that can be seen, some photographs of these types of artifacts. They had their own flag, of course. Um so this happened in July, and uh by by November the island was in complete famine, being quite isolated as we've discussed, um, and non-reliant now on Ottoman imports, um, and having limited connection with other islands, especially as the Greco-Italic-Turkish war was happening, so it was quite a uh quite a pronounced war in the region that kind of stopped all the shipping lines and things like that. Um, essentially, Gary fell into famine and uh uh I guess requested to join the Greek state because of that. Um this fit into the plan of the Greek state, which had this idea of enosis or union of other Greek lands with Greece. This was the kind of the goal of the Greek state, it was to unify all the former Greek territories. We're kind of this of reinventing the Byzantine Empire kind of idea. Very interesting discussion of on its own. And um, yeah, for Ikaria and other islands that were in a similar situation. The neighboring island of Samos was one. Um, and Fudni is another small island which had joined the Icarian Free State, actually, and Fudni had. Um, these islands fell into famine, could no longer be autonomous and needed Greek aid, Greek assistance and governance. Um, so yeah, November, by November, their flag, the Greek flag, was then being raised in Icaria instead of the Icarian flag. So um, in one year there were three different administrations, we could say, on the island and three different national identities, which is which is a rare situation, we could say, in history.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

What was the impact on Icaria of the Italo-Turkish war of 1911 and 1912?

SPEAKER_02 15:14

Yeah, so this war was um uh it disrupted the Aegean region more broadly, uh, disrupted uh the small amounts of shipping and um trade that was occurring in the Aegean Islands. Again, Ikadia didn't have huge trade uh kind of um uh didn't have huge trade prospects, but there was some trade enough to support the island essentially. Um the island luckily was usually self-sufficient, but um uh in times of famine, of course, this was this was not the case. Um the Italo-Turkish War, although it was sort of the right opportunity for the Icarians to leave um to leave the Ottoman Empire because the Ottomans were preoccupied. So this is what enabled the revolution. Um they saw an opportunity, they saw the Ottoman Empire being very preoccupied with a large-scale war against the Italians, and this was the right time for Icaria to step away and become independent. Um, this had been in actually the the idea of an independent Icaria had actually been in the works since about 1908 when they contested um policies of the Young Turk Revolution in the Ottoman Empire, and this was sort of brewing and underlying uh for about four years before it actually happened. Um so yeah, this was this was the impact. So not only did it cause Icaria or allow Icaria to become independent, but then also the Italo-Turkish war also forced Icaria to eventually become part of Greece as well, due to the stopping of shipping and trade and things like that in the region. So it was a double-edged sword, we could say it yeah, but it it in the end it did it did, I guess you reunite Ikaria with Greece or unite it because it hadn't been united before with Greece.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

What was the Icarean Revolution of 1912? What were its causes and origins? What were its ramifications and repercussions?

SPEAKER_02 17:16

Yeah, so this revolution is this is that moment in in July 1912 where Icaria becomes independent. Um so it was obviously under the the as we said saw the opportunity of the Italo-Turkish War, and this was then the moment for the Icarans to rise up. Um the revolution was interesting because it was blending uh Icaria's kind of natural left-leaning population, a very leftist-leaning island, with a um very nationalist idea as well of having an independent nation state. It's kind of this left-wing nationalism that occurred on the island in this period. Uh, interestingly, the island later would become a hub for communists. It was later in later in history a very heavily communist island, but with the origins kind of coming back to 1912. Um, but yeah, so what really happened, um, a small force of uh a few dozen Ikarians um took up arms. Their leader was a man named Ioannis Malachias, and he was a well Malachias is probably how you pronounce it properly, and he was a um he was a doctor actually on the island uh with some military experience as well, and he kind of led them. There were some other key characters that led them. Fundulis was one, um, another character that kind of led the small band of Vicarians, and uh their their decision was to go and uh remove the Turkish garrison from the capital. Uh, this was the main place. There was a Turkish garrison. Uh the Turkish kind of um had placed uh uh someone called it Demo Yerondat there. It was a uh uh kind of a Greek that was um working for the Ottoman administration, essentially, from an he wasn't from the he wasn't a local, he was from somewhere else, but he was placed there as a Christian representative of the people. But uh his name was Thucydides Effendis. Uh essentially the Bicarians marched towards the garrison, barricaded the garrison, and until they uh until they waved the white flag, and then uh Effendis and his kind of administrators uh eventually left the island. Um there was a small Turkish force sent to reclaim the island, very small, but it not not much happened there. And only one person died in the whole revolution, and that was um a man uh by the name of Jurgos Spanos, who was killed, and he was actually probably killed by friendly fire. So um the Turkish resistance really wasn't that successful. Um, so the Ikarians essentially um liberated themselves with a very small force, and we are talking very small scale because it's a small population, and there was a small Turkish garrison, so we're talking very small scale. They administrated themselves, they proclaimed themselves a free state. They had they elected their general, um Allah Hyasi became the president. Um, and uh this this was quite successful at first. So there was a constitution drawn up, but um, as we said, it eventually fell into famine and other issues that could only be resolved at that point in time by joining the modern Greek state.

SPEAKER_01 20:30

Sure, kind of kind of how does your research shed new light on modern Australian history?

SPEAKER_02 20:38

Very good question. Um so yeah, we're talking very strongly about something that happened on uh virtually the other side of the planet to Australia, but how does it really impact Australian history? And that's I guess in the legacy of migrants that that that this time period spurred on. Um so yeah, obviously the revolution in that 1912 year was a very tumultuous year, a good year for a lot of people to exit and try and emigrate for a better life. Uh, however, that wasn't the only year. Following that was the Balkan Wars and then World War I, and the whole 1910s decade was quite uh tumultuous, not to mention the struggles of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire right next door in by 1922 and population extent changes and other things happening in the region. Uh, essentially, what uh what this research shows is that the modern Australian population was heavily shaped by events in other places. The Icarians are just one example, but so are other migrant groups. And this is not an unusual story, and it's not revolutionary in terms of scholarship, but it's reinforcing that idea that um of the interconnectedness of the globe and of migration patterns. Um, so what happens, I guess, in Greece uh impacts Australia because we get a new migrant community that. gets ingrained, it integrates and becomes essential to Australian society in many ways as well. Still happens to this day, we see it's the whole idea of refugees finding a new home and an event that happens on another one part of the planet impacts a population on the other side of the world. And I find those links fascinating. But yeah, I I I think uh it isn't it isn't an unusual story. This is this is just reinforcing what we already know I guess.

SPEAKER_01 22:30

What insights are presented here regarding the Young Turk Revolution of 1908.

SPEAKER_02 22:36

Yeah um so Young Turk Revolution is interesting and um anyone that's done Ottoman studies I'm sure has looked into it quite closely because it was aiming to be a uh a new new revolutionary kind of um way of thinking in the Ottoman Empire. However it did devolve into kind of similar patterns of oppression and behaviors. Essentially what the theirans did not agree with the Young Turk Revolution um especially around questions of conscription for military service and things like that. They did no longer saw themselves as having to represent the Ottoman Empire. Maybe it showed a disconnect from old imperial pasts. I guess that's what it really shows us. But also I think the Young Turk Revolution was a symptom of a collapsing empire. And obviously it makes sense because within the decades that followed the the empire did collapse. And I guess just on a small scale we can see how the Icarians were part of that collapse is it's it's just one region that fell away over that over that extended collapse in time. Goes back to that the the kind of the Western European perspective of the Ottomans in this period as the sick man of Europe I guess it goes back to that perspective. Who did you write this book for who do you have in mind as your ideal reader or readers who do you have in mind as your imagined audience or audiences so uh I guess my my aim for this book was to be broad in audience but also acknowledging that there is a specific interest from community groups I would say um Icarian community groups Greek community groups just maybe migrant community groups more generally um maybe even interest to South Australian or Australian historians I guess in general so I guess I've really tried to balance it being an academic publication with a community history at the same time um this wasn't easy trying to find that balance and I guess there it's up to the readers to decide if that balance was achieved but yeah in my mind it was something that would both service uh an academic audience but also a community audience so there's been I've tried to sort of synthesize you know at high academic kind of historical theories with micro histories of families and people and you know uh images and things like this I've tried to kind of blend the two to hopefully some success that yeah it it can appeal to both um so I guess that's who I had in mind when I was reading and it was yeah there was kind of two two kind of communities the academic community and the literal migrant communities that may find this interesting as well what was the Alexandria Brotherhood yeah uh so this is uh an interesting one so um and it kind of this will probably cover this idea of what brotherhoods are more broadly um so these uh the Icarians as they left in their first few waves of migration probably beginning in the 1890s so well before the Icarian Revolution as well uh we see Icarians beginning to leave the island looking for a better life uh travel becomes easier of course um Egypt becomes a huge center of Greek um migrant communities Egypt after the uh Suze Canal uh uh was was built in the 1860s um after that Egypt became a hut essentially it was a modern it was a modern modernizing country it was still part of the Ottoman Empire so technically the Icarians were not leaving their region as such um and uh there was people from all over the world in Egypt and obviously there was a strong British um uh British administration there at the same time partnered with the Ottoman Empire in that cadet kind of situation that they had going um so what happened is Icarians essentially left um Icaria and the first place they usually went was Egypt this was the first stop most ships left from Port Said and Suzcanal there most ships left from there um when they got there the Icarians began settling so we had a community settle in Cairo and a community settle in Alexandria these two cities had very large Icarian communities and very large Greek communities as well more broadly Port Said as well but specifically Alexandria and Cairo and by the 1890s or the end of the 19th century and the turn of the 20th century we ended up with uh organized communities in these cities one being the Alexandria Brotherhood the other being the Cairo Brotherhood which is just called the Egyptian uh Ikarian Egyptian Brotherhood these brotherhoods were kind of formal societies where uh they would support other Icarian migrants hold community events um you know celebrate together support each other raise funds for those in need in their community it's a way of I guess building community and that's one of those themes of the book Icarians did this everywhere they went as did other Greeks and as well um they built brotherhoods is is the term they use they did this once they got to the US in a very similar time period they've done this there's Icarian brotherhoods I know that are in Canada actually there's Icarian brotherhoods um in other parts of Greece so there's some in Athens for instance or in Rhodes um and eventually we get them in Australia as well um and these brotherhoods are essentially if an Icarian was arriving in a city this is where they would go this is one place they would go to they would look if there's a brotherhood nearby to meet with some compatriots. Other Greeks did this other cultures have done this as well and slightly different ways um but yeah this is the method that they use to build communities they literally build physical kind of visible communities we could say um this becomes extremely important as once a brotherhood is established in a city it just encourages more and more people to come to that specific city. So um that's what happened here in Adelaide in South Australia is that we have one of the two brotherhoods in Australia so that encouraged all the Icarians that came to Australia to go to either South Australia or to where the other brotherhood is in New South Wales. So um eventually that's what the Brotherhoods become it's like this is a place where there's other Icarans to live amongst um similar to other cultures that establish communities or churches or synagogues or other sorts of organizations where they can where it's easy for migrant uh new migrants to kind of slip into a community essentially what was the Pan Icarian Brotherhood can you say more about it? Yeah so that's um so the Panicarian Brotherhood is the name that the Brotherhood took in the US and then eventually in Australia um uh panicarian meaning all Icarian all encompassing pan being that word for all so in the US this was founded around 1902 1903 1902 quite early on um very small in uh Pittsburgh Pennsylvania is where where it was in the US eventually there's chapters of this all over the country in the United States and they've spread even into Canada um in Australia the Pandicarian Brotherhood was founded uh after the period of migration I'm focusing on but by the people that migrated earlier so it's a bit of a different situation uh it was actually founded quite late in Australia so 1958 um in Australia which is interesting because there was an established community but they just have not yet organized into an official community whereas the US Icarians and the Egyptian Icarians that we just discussed um form formulated their communities much earlier and much more quickly we could say so in in Australia there was about a generation before the Brotherhood was actually uh actually officially formed here in 1958 but again it was that place where Icarians that when new migrants could could come could find community members maybe people they used to live alongside in their villages and towns and slip into a community in their new new homes essentially um uh yeah and this it still serves that function to this day except there's less new migrants and it's more about maintaining uh community for that for those core com four core groups and their descendants essentially can you comment on the Pacific Island Laborers Act in Australian history from 1901 yeah um this might seem straightaway not important to the story but it actually is um so uh as many people know Australia became a nation in 1901 we were federated uh that then before then British colony um the earliest legislation passed in Australia unfortunately was uh what we termed the white Australia policy and this was a extremely racist set of policies that that did not um did not uh uh allow for non-white and especially actually even more specifically originally non-Anglo-Saxon or non-British migrants it was it was an act that aimed to keep Australia white um and this was detrimental obviously to early Australia population um and as would be discovered later on by uh in the post-war period post-World War II period it would be start to be questioned um part of those early uh policies uh white Australia policies one of them was the Pacific Islanders Laborers Act and um this is because during the British colonization of Australia many Pacific Islanders obviously being Australia's neighbors were working in Australia especially in places like Queensland where there was large uh plantations and things like that uh sugarcane being one um but now Australia had federated and even though these people were living in Australia had married some of them had had families and they were ingrained in society um the new policy had come in that Australia was to be a white man's country unfortunately and because of this um they had to do something about the large Pacific Islander community um so they introduced the Pacific Islanders Laborers Act and this essentially uh eventually had gave them a timeline to deport themselves from Australia return home to the Pacific Islands um some had exemptions very few got to stay there was children that stayed because they were technically born in Australia so you couldn't really make them leave some still had to leave horrible time for these families uh some many many actually married indigenous Australian people um so they stayed in Australia but they had Pacific Island ancestry as well as indigenous ancestry so it caused it caused mass upheaval in these communities what it did though as well is that it actually left a huge gap in the workforce in Australia the labor force um so after the Pacific Islanders left uh Australian authorities realized oh actually we now have massive gaps in the labor force who's going to do all these jobs that the Pacific islanders were doing this is you know something they've shot themselves in the foot essentially the Australian authorities at this point so um there was more encouragement then after this point for Mediterranean migrants to come to Australia and fill in those gaps in the labor force Mediterranean being all right yes they're not British they're not Western European or northern European but they're still technically white I guess in the in the term terminology of the time uh so they can come to Australia and fill these jobs so this is when we get large amounts of Italians Greeks um Maltese uh migrating to Australia uh at this point in time um Cypriots as well people from Cyprus Cyprus being part of the uh British Empire as well at the time same as Malta um so essentially the Greek and other Mediterranean communities would fill the gaps that were left by the Pacific Islanders in Australia. So this is why we get suddenly uh people like the Icarians look into Australia as a place to migrate to so a policy that affected a completely different group of people essentially encouraged a new migration essentially why were Icarians emigrating why did they go to Australia and why South Australia within Australia yeah so um so not just because of the gaps from the Pacific Islanders Laborers Act that was I guess the that was the precursor why they really were emigrating is uh 1910s were an extremely difficult period in the Mediterranean region especially in the Aegean region um so for Icarians it was logical and other other people in the Greek islands as well did this not just the Icarids it was logical for them especially their young men to travel abroad to find work make money to bring back home essentially this was the goal most of them came in this period not with the idea of staying permanently but with returning um with with money that they've made essentially to support their families um additionally uh there was um there were uh things other things pulling them to Australia so it's those push and pull factors essentially um so pulling them to Australia was a gap in the workforce as we mentioned but also high wages compared to European countries promise of work prospects of work etc other things that they liked about Australia were similar climates to the Mediterranean this was quite attractive to go live somewhere where climate was very similar so you didn't have to change a lot about your lifestyle. However we get Port Pirie in South Australia as a point where many many come and if you know much about Port Peary these days it's not a town we would assume as a hub of any uh descript it is a nice town but it's not a capital city it is not a large city i i I would dare say it's it's just pushing the limits of being called a city really um it is a town essentially a large town and it but it is a port town being a port Piri and this is a key thing and there was a large smelting industry established here as well as an agricultural industry that during the 19th and early 20th century was phenomenal it was huge. So Ikarians most of them in the early days actually went to Port Piri and then and almost all of them worked at the smelters virtually all of them at first in the 1910s. In the 1920s we get them moving into agriculture as well and same in the 1930s we also get some going into the fishing industries um with South Australia having large fishing industries as well as agricultural industries um so these these are the the trades that brought them there and uh these were skills that they could employ the similar skills to probably what they were using in their homelands um before they came um eventually pork peerie has um uh uh starts laying off a lot of migrant workers and there's a lot of questions and and the unions get involved and we do get a huge influx of the pork peerie occurrients into other places like especially Adelaide capital of South Australia so that's where we get that movement into Adelaide probably from the 1920s and 30s onwards we get that um there was even a lead poisoning incident at the Port Peary which was there was a Royal Commission into lead poisoning and and it demonstrated that Mediterranean migrant workers actually had higher levels of lead poisoning. So there was a lot of questions over workers' rights that kind of ended the era in Port Peary. However this even to this day there is still a large Greek community in Port Peary that descends from this this time essentially this is the key thing so it was the right circumstances of difficulties at home mixed with um mixed with a a a burgeoning kind of industry in a foreign land uh where migrants were very much very much uh encouraged to come and work essentially why where specifically within South Australia did they settle and why yeah so obviously the first place being Port Peary as we've discussed Adelaide the city of Adelaide being the second and eventually becoming the larger larger community however they settled in other places um all along what we call the South Australian West Coast places like Thevernard, Sejuna even uh probably some in Port Lincoln as well some other kind of port cities or port towns really with South Australia I mean we owning it's really towns when we say cities it's really towns here um by global standards. Also we had some Ikarians kind of go up into the what we call the riverland working in on irrigated blocks orchards things like that so towns like Berry and Barbara and Randmark. But eventually the largest and most significant community was Adelaide and second to that was Port Peary but many of the Port Peary families eventually have moved to Adelaide as well. So Adelaide is really the center of Icaryan settlement in in South Australia can you describe the geography and demography of Ikaria Yeah so Icaria is uh it's an interesting island it's kind of like the the tip of a mountain in the sea it's um it is green there's a lot of it but it is very rocky at the same time but it's it is quite uh it reminds me of this Australian bush I guess is and then I mean they've even got eucalyptus trees in Hecaria so there's a there's a connection there um uh but the uh it's uh it's its soil is very fertile but it is hard to work and that you'll see this in Icaria that because it's so so uh vertical there's a lot of terraced mountains and hills making it quite difficult to maintain essentially so it but it's um it is a place which can be self-sufficient in that sense but yeah it's also got other interesting features it's got um uh no natural harbors uh so they've had to construct harbors it's got um it's it's quite um uh there's parts that are quite hard to access still there's the roads are still quite not as developed as other parts of Greece um and if you look at their towns they're quite embedded into the landscape they're built amongst the landscape rather than replacing the landscape and I think that's a nice feature of uh the island actually because they've tried to retain their landscape um so it's a rugged place we could say even to this day it is quite a rugged island um that is that kind of kind of uh tries to blend in with its landscape rather than rather than recreate themselves so um yeah it it is it is an interesting place there's hot springs as well there's thermal back geothermal activity on the island which is really interesting as well possibly linked to um something to do with uh kind of healing and health and those kind of long life expectancies as well um but yeah it is um yeah it is uh I guess uh a healthy mix between a lush place but also that ageing barrenness that can come about especially in times of drought and little rain as well what was your guiding principle in conducting this research yeah and uh this is probably something I should have held to better in my reflections and on this but I I think I'll I tried to be evidence led as best as I could. Obviously being a member of an Icarian community I came into this with my own preconceived ideas and stories and things like that. Um I even dis discovered well I knew of this ancestor but I discovered an ancestor that had come to Australia quite early 1911. He he stayed for about 15 years or 20 years and then returned to Greece. So he um uh you know it was my great great grandfather so yeah even though that his migration wasn't our my direct family's migration we he we had it did have a presence here um but i tried to not let that uh i guess be my bias having that personal link or that community link i tried to i tried to be evidence led and see what the evidence actually told me so i tried to utilize statistics to do this so yes even though maybe there's some stories that tell us one thing what did the statistics say what did the data say what does the uh what does the what does the uh uh primary sources tell us so my goal was really to be evidence led um and not just try to confirm things just because I've heard them through kind of community stories but also to conf just to only to confirm things because I've got the evidence to confirm them and sometimes there were things that I had heard about and I knew probably existed such as certain community gatherings for instance but there was no evidence for um I did try to fill in some gaps in the terms of doing a few uh oral history interviews with a couple um community members that were connected quite strongly to that time period that I'm looking at um and that did fill in some gaps and they had some evidence they could show me and and their own memory as evidence so but not there were also things that I thought might have been there that weren't there so I guess it was aiming to be evidence led that was my that was my goal especially as I knew I had probably had some inherent bias in in the story. Also actually I tried to not see this as an opportunity for um uh kind of turning this into a kind of celebratory history even though this points of it to be celebrative it was more to take an analytical lens rather than be a celebratory community history it was an analytical and academic history it was trying to present some raw facts rather than rather than being focused on making something seem grander than maybe what it was what were the most difficult aspects of your research and writing process how did you overcome and circumvent such challenges yeah so as I talked earlier as I began my PhD which eventually led to this book um COVID began so it was the challenge of movement access to archives access to records digitization chasing up digitization um this was this was the challenge I guess this was the phenomenon that was difficult to to work within but we found ways as as we all know um uh other challenges were just um trying to piece together the stories uh of what actually happened from the from maybe the little snippets here and there um for a record that wasn't really always there so trying to really be forensic and kind of read between the lines as much as possible and trying not to get it wrong but trying to confirm things um these were the general challenges also obviously life challenges like personal challenges you know life gets busy your work families commitments um trying to find time to actually just sit down and put putting our ideas into into writing is is difficult especially with a book that is kind of in your early career as many people know that have done this this this is not something that is part of our job description this is something that we do on top as part of our love and interest it's it's not necessarily something that we're paid to do we all have kind of working careers as well so it's just trying to find that time to actually sit down and do this right and and uh yeah these these are the big challenges I guess it these kind of general challenges that I think anyone goes through in this process. However because of the pat my passion I guess and I guess it's advice to anyone when you have passion it's it becomes a labor of love I guess and and you just kind of you do find that that that urge to work on these sorts of projects um and you know and urge to kind of even go beyond them and you know sometimes when you're writing something like this disperse on ideas for other projects but you just try to still remain focused and and only focus on this because you know this is big enough as it's as it is so yeah these were the I guess the things I I went through and I don't think they're uncommon or unusual um covet obviously being the big spanner of the works there but I think these are these are the logical things people struggle with when you're when you're doing a a written piece of any kind you elaborate on the hymn of Ikaria on page 162 yeah the hymn um so this was the anthem of Icaria um uh from memory it was written by uh I might be wrong here I'm just trying to remember which brother but there was two two poet brothers Pablos and uh Frederikos Carrer both very well known poets in modern Greece I believe Frederikos uh Carrer is the one that wrote the humor Vicaria I might be wrong um but there the uh this was the anthem essentially of Vicaria and it's been little catalogued so I only found evidence of it in one place and I thought this was a good opportunity to catalogue it in another academ in an academic setting because it is something that hasn't isn't in the academic record at least in English language um there probably are examples of it in Greek language collections but um I think it's important to catalogue it in English language and I did do the translation for it myself um with guidance as well there um uh uh I guess I was a I was a Greek language teacher so that at the time of writing this book so this was something that was very fresh in my mind translation um but yeah I think it was an important thing for me to catalogue even though it is slightly off topic even though it's connected to the revolution it's slightly off topic for the um for the book because it's not necessarily integral to the migrants but it is an important historical record and I did try to do this a little bit in the book and in the appendices of the book to catalogue some things that I thought probably should be catalogued which aren't there in English language.

SPEAKER_01 50:21

What insights are presented here regarding a Korean diaspora political activism.

SPEAKER_02 50:30

Yeah so um and in some other actually articles I've written since I've um I've kind of really gone into this idea uh so the revolution being a key moment in political uh Icarians political consciousness they took this politically active mentality I guess we could say within the diaspora into their new nations and then we see Icarians in Australia in and also there's examples that I've looked at since in the US and elsewhere where Icarians have become heavily involved in local politics in their new nations um in different ways and this in the South Australia specifically we had union unionism I think Icarians becoming involved in unionism but also involved in um uh the CPA the Communist Party of Australia where there were many Icarian members uh we even had Icarians being uh monitored by our government agency here uh ASIO that was watching communists during the Cold War um there were Icarians that went into the Labour Party which is our kind of left leaning center left leaning party um yeah so they became really quite part of the political landscape in Australia especially the left leaning political landscape but also there are other groups and kind of pressure groups they formed um that that that kind of got involved in different ways that weren't official political parties but they were just political groups um that they formed and kind of chapters of of other groups as well so there was the um I believe it's called the Panhellenic society which was formed at one point there was also the uh uh which kind of had a pressure about Cyprus uh being joining Greece that was what kind of one main re uh main kind of pressure group that formed but there's also the um Platon Society uh which was heavily Icarian influenced founded by Icarians but was pan-Greek uh left leaning society um for workers' rights and things like that they became involved with a lot of protest movements and things like this so we see a faction of Icarians and even into the modern day um Icarian descendants being quite involved in politics and at uh and some even at some positional levels as well um so uh I guess this became a huge feature that the Icarians became known for as a specific uh part of their identity was this strong left leaning identity within the localized Icarian identity um and this this kind of permeates to the community to this day and this um yeah it was kind of a uh yeah it becomes a feature of Icarian identity and the in the US it a very similar thing happens as well um which I've explored later on in different contexts can you comment on the connection between the ancient Greek myth of Icarus and the island of Icaria yeah good one so the uh the island itself is named after the Greek myth well so they so the story goes um uh Ikaria named after Ikaros makes sense uh Ikarus left um had had flown with had escaped uh King Minos's pal uh palace with his father Daedalus and they had his father didn't was a great inventor so he had built wax wings uh wings made of wax and feathers sorry and they'd flown uh out of off the palace out of their kind of where they were being kept and they would flying towards the ANC to escape. Daedalus told his son Icarus obviously don't fly too close to the sun your wings will burn fly too close to the water and they'll get wet you've got to fly in the middle Icarus being the the youth that he was got too confident flew too close to the sun wings burnt and he fell where he fell was into a place called the Icaryan Sea which is surround where Icaria is surrounded by and the island takes his name from there. So um there's a spot just on the beach in Icaria where they claim he Icarus fell um also the island is kind of shaped like a wing it's an interesting kind of coincidence. This Greek myth I guess is synonymous with the island um and part of the identity the Icarans some Icarans use the name Icarus as a first name or Daedalos Icarus's father um it is ingrained into society very proud you see a lot of artwork there uh depicting the myth um you even see people with body art and tattoos depicting the myth in different ways it becomes a very it's become a part of the cultural law we can say it's a Greek myth that's really connected to cultural law um and it's that story of not flying too close to the sun not you know not not that kind of a that kind of um uh trying to you know make sure you s you're living within your mean within your limits essentially don't don't go beyond that and it's part of the kind of uh moderation lifestyle of the island probably contributes as well to its kind of healthy lifestyle and healthy living um however they've language studies have actually found that the name Ikaria probably derives doesn't actually derive from the myth the linguistically they believe that there was a local Anatolian language which had the word caria in it that actually meant fish and the island was known for its fishing industry. It was even called Ichtheosa which in ancient Greek which meant the fishing land of fish or something like that which might have been a translation of Caria this local Anatolian language which was right there on the Turkish coast facing Icaria so uh it is maybe just perhaps a coincidence that it sounded like Icarus or and was eventually the myth was maybe later ascribed to the island but originally the the name probably connected to just mean fish which is a very standard name for an island so um there might be a bit of kind of linguistic mythology happening is alongside the actual mythology there book has some interesting insights about Maltese migrant experiences in Australia where do those fit in the context of the insights presented in your book and the insights that you've brought to our attention in this conversation excellent question Ari I think um the Maltese are a good comparative case um not only are they from an island as well in the Mediterranean um they're quite a another kind of um very localized community as well um and then and they're and they're migrating alongside Greek migrants essentially at the same time they're using the same kind of shipping routes and imperial networks they're going through Egypt to get to Australia um this is I guess a very similar story for the Maltese community there are more Maltese than Ikarians but not as many Maltese as Greeks generally that arrive in Australia in this period there's also um the key difference of the Maltese is that they are British subjects because Malta is part of the British Empire at this point. So this is the key difference here so they have a slightly easier uh path to Australia having that status essentially similar to Cyprus is another comparative case as well um the Maltese in Australia experience very similar things to the to the Greeks and the Icarians and other other groups um they work in heavily in the laboring industries agricultural industries they set up communities in similar ways um we do get moments though where Maltese um especially being British subjects they get this um they get their uh naturalizations and things suspended for certain periods due to numbers of migrants and something I should have probably mentioned earlier is that uh Australia even though it was quite welcoming to in some ways welcoming to Mediterranean migrants um Australia did have a policy of keeping Australia 98% British in this time period so it was only a small portion of their population they allowed to be non-British so there were heavy restrictions on quotas because of that and it was just trying to maintain that 98% British um status of Australia. So because of that there were times when groups like the Maltese were not allowed to migrate and ships were stopped or people were deported um comparatively there was an event with the Greeks that should be mentioned where many Icarians were also obviously part of was they're part of the Greek broader Greek identity here is that in 1916 um there was this thing called the secret census where Icarians and other Greeks and all Greeks essentially it wasn't just Icarians uh were catalogued um uh by the government secretly by the special police so people so they could keep tabs on Greek migrants during the war because even though Greece was uh a neutral country um there was a worry that they would uh flip to be uh uh a central power even though this never happened they became an ally of course um but Greeks were catalogued um well every Greek in Australia was catalogued in 1916 and also their meeting places and things like that it was a huge but secret process that showed the kind of migrant monitoring that was happening in Australia Greeks' naturalizations were suspended as well at this time and we see similar things again happen of the Maltese at similar times we don't see them catalogued quite as extensively as the Greeks were but we see their naturalization is suspended we see hard limits put on migrant numbers from Malta and we see their communities kind of in similar ways congregating together to survive essentially in building their own communities so I guess um by mentioning the Maltese I hoped to kind of give a comparative case to the Icarans and there's a m there are many other comparative cases and I've tried to mention them throughout people from Cyprus people from other parts of Greece um even in Port Piri there's a comparative Italian community there and this is important because even though these are very localized communities they also all share something in common and that is this Mediterranean identity and this not being part of the the the majority British identity in Australia essentially can you tell us about the migrant camps that the Koreans experienced yeah um migrant camps uh really we can say become a feature of the migrant experience in Australia um firstly there were migrant camps in Greece and in Cyprus as well of kind of for like uh people claiming refugee status that we could say the Zeros camp in Cyprus being one um but there are other places in Greece um we see a lot more arise in Greece during and they they're not really camps really they're kind of not turned into kind of prison camps during the 1940s in the eve of the Greek Civil War and a lot of people especially people considered communist and obviously many Icarians fitting that bill um were placed into kind of prison islands and prison camps. This is a separate type of migrant camp but something that many Icarians were navigating at the same time once they get to Australia there are other migrant camps that are here especially as we get closer to World War II and the post-war world we have places like Bonagila and places um in the riverland and we have other where migrants were placed and processed lived and worked before they were sent into society. Many Icarans that could avoid this process of migrant camps um however not awkward especially those that were claiming refugee status at different times political refugees or or whether it was refugees from one of one of the various wars. But yeah these migrant camps essentially were processing centers and uh we still do this in Australia to this day we still have these processing centres and we've actually offshored them and this is a kind of dark reality of what we do with our refugees when they arrive in Australia and they're undocumented um and many obviously as as you know refugees often don't have documents this is part of the refugee uh issue essentially because documents have been destroyed or were never issued so we still have these kind of migrant council people are processed but unfortunately some never get to leave the these the these situations they can be there 10 years many many years um so and I think it's actually uh just as bad or even worse now than it as it was in uh in this in this kind of in this middle part of the 20th century essentially um but yeah so essentially camps become a a feature of migration on exit and on entry essentially and um different camps for different reasons internment camps as well during World War I and World War II for different migrant communities in Australia a separate kind of issue um but yeah this feature of camps is a is an interesting idea because it shows that the migrant was not always one country to another there were these intermediary places where they had to live and exist and build identity before joining societies um so yeah it's an interesting concept on its own on its own we could say as we bring our dialogue today to a close can you kindly tell us what where you've devoted your attention since completing this book yeah thanks so yeah and um I I think uh I guess after this book I've uh have had the opportunity to continue some research in this space on migrants migrant communities and there's been a few articles I've published on the Icarians and other migr uh Greek migrant communities um uh but much of my attention has sort of gone into I guess having taking a broader view of history through teaching and through other projects we've taken on but I've always I'm still trying to remain with within that lens of migration because I think it's extremely important especially as it is a feature of human humanity I believe migration is core to us as humans and whether or not um we've we've lived in the same place our whole lives or we've moved about we have all have migration somewhere in our heritage essentially it is part of all our stories even just moving within cities um very few people don't have any migration in their history but it I mean and if we all go back to the earliest humans obviously migration is a feature of our early humanity as well um so um yeah I guess my attention is still focused on migration however I guess I'm trying to weave it through a little bit more one project that is kind of on being completed is looking at health and migrants which is an interesting project that I've been working on with some colleagues including my old my former supervisor Professor Andrecos Banavla. Also I I'd like to future projects just ideas is is explore migration in the kind of humanities education context as well. But yeah I'm always looking out on how this can become part of of what we do and our greater understandings. Um so yeah uh thanks Ari.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:06

As we end today I'd like to emphasize my appreciation for your time and thoughtfulness throughout the course of our dialogue. I'm deeply thankful and grateful.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:18

Thank you Ari it's been a pleasure and I appreciate your um your uh your your questions and being interested in supporting my research and uh yeah wishing you all the best as we end today I'm signing off as Ari Barblat, your host on the dialogues in Refugee Studies Podcast.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:39

Today it's been my privilege to engage a dialogue with Dr. Yanni Cartledge. He is lecturer in history at the Faculty of Education at Tabor College and associate lecturer at Flinders University. We have been discussing his newly published book Icariens in South Australia 1900 to 1945 Emigration Settlement Community Building and Integration published in London by Anthem Press 2026 this monograph examines a little explored diaspora that originates from the Greek Aegean island of Icaria. Icaria is a small remote island situated near the Turkish coast it boasts a long and independent history marked by periods of autonomy and self-governance including the brief free state of Icaria in nineteen twelve which emerged from the Icarian revolution against the Ottoman Empire until the nineteenth century Icarians remained quite insular but they began to emigrate during that time the first Icarian emigrants settled in Ottoman port cities and urban centers as well as nearby Achean islands eventually Icarians established themselves in significant migration hubs like Egypt and the United States by 1910 the first Icarans arrived in Port Pyrie South Australia marking the beginning of a longstanding tradition of Icaryan migration and settlement in the region this book delves into the experiences of Icarans in South Australia from 1900 to 1945 a period that has not been extensively researched contrasting with most studies on Greeks in Australia which predominantly focus on the mass migration that occurred after World War I and the Greek Civil War. This creates an opportunity for future research on Acarian in South Australia beyond 1945. The book is structured around four central themes emigration settlement community development and integration while also exploring concepts such as localism and identity as important aspects within these themes thank you wholeheartedly