Collection GDA - GREEK DIASPORA ARCHIVE

Film and sound interviews conducted with Greek and Greek Cypriot migrants, chiefly 1991-2000, in the UK, USA, Australia, South Africa, Egypt, France, Germany and Cyprus, and related background research material.

The interviews include: the interviewees’ lives before and after migration; the role of the Greek Orthodox Church in migrant communities; business ventures among migrant communities; the role of education in the preservation of Greek Cypriot culture; Greek Cypriot traditional dance and poetry; the challenges of preserving a cultural identity; the life experiences of former migrants who later returned to Cyprus; recollections of Greek-Turkish conflict in Cyprus; life under British rule in Cyprus; rebellion against British rule in Cyprus, 1950s; the impact of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, 1974.

The related research material includes: interviews in a smaller pilot study, conducted 1990-1993, on the life experiences of the traditional lace makers and sellers of Kato Drys village, Cyprus; notes, research papers, books, pamphlets, newsletters and brochures, 1966-2013, relating to the history, language, religion, business, education and cultural identity of migrant Greek and Greek Cypriot communities in the UK and elsewhere in the twentieth century; papers, 1991-2013, relating to the establishment and running of the Diaspora Centre Trust (DCT); publications, 1991-1998, produced by the DCT; books, 1996-2009 on global migration; books and papers, 1979-1997, on Greek Cypriot poetry; photographs, 1908-2006, of interviewees, their relatives, and Greek Cypriot community events.