With a lecture entitled “The Palimpsest: Layers of History and Memory in Greece” which will be presented by the Walkley Award winning journalist and lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney Ms Helen Vatsikopoulos, on Wednesday 5 October 2016, at the Greek Centre, will close another successful year of the Greek History and Culture Seminars, offered by the Greek Community of Melbourne.

Also as part of the closing lecture event, participation certificates will be awarded to qualified attendees and the 2017 seminar program will be unveiled.
It was Nikos Kazantzakis, one of Greece's best known and loved authors who said "The face of Greece is a palimpsest of twelve overlapping scripts: the modern, 1921, the Turkish Occupation, the Frankish Occupation, Byzantium, the Roman Empire, the Hellenistic Age, the Classical Age, the Doric middle ages, the Mycenaean, the Aegean and the Stone Age."

Helen Vatsikopoulos have set out on a personal journey to discover her own "Prespa Palimpsest". Prespa is a wetland and lakes region that is shared by Greece, Albania and FYROM. She has ventured to the Greek part of Prespa - the home of her ancestors to peel back the layers of the palimpsest and discover the stories of the overlapping scripts. It is a post-memory project as she takes guardianship of the memories of her parents and grandparents through oral histories and photographs - as an antidote to forgetting.

Helen Vatsikopoulos is a Walkley Award winning journalist with three decades experience at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the Special Broadcasting Service and the Australia Network.

She has worked on flagship programs like ABC News, 7.30, Lateline, Dateline and Asia Pacific Focus and has produced three documentaries for SBS, ABC and the BBC. Helen is currently lecturing in Journalism at the University of Technology Sydney specialising in digital reporting and video and documentary supervisions. She is also working on a Doctorate in Creative Arts.

When: Wednesday 5 October 2016, 7.00pm
Where: Greek Centre (Level M, 168 Lonsdale St, Melbourne)