Vale Professor George Kanarakis (1936–2025)

The Greek-Australian community mourns the loss of Professor George Kanarakis, OAM, a pioneering academic, linguist and cultural historian, whose scholarship and passion for Hellenism left an indelible mark on both Australia and Greece.

Born in Piraeus in January 1936, Professor Kanarakis studied Greek and English Philology at the University of Athens before furthering his postgraduate studies in London and the United States, where he completed an MA in Applied Linguistics at Indiana University as a Fulbright scholar. In 1974, he received his PhD in Linguistics with distinction from the University of Athens.

In 1976, he and his family migrated to Australia, where he joined the staff of the then Mitchell College of Advanced Education in Bathurst (later Charles Sturt University). Over more than three decades of teaching and research, he established himself as a leading figure in linguistics, modern Greek studies, and the cultural history of the Greek diaspora. He also taught at universities in Greece, the United States and New Zealand, building bridges of scholarship across continents.

Professor Kanarakis’ groundbreaking works, including The Literary Presence of Greeks in Australia, Greek Voices in Australia: A Tradition of Prose, Poetry and Drama and The Greek Press in the Antipodes: Australia and New Zealand, remain foundational texts for the study of Greek-Australian literature and journalism. Through his research, he meticulously documented the creative contributions of Greek migrants, giving voice to the lived experiences of generations of the diaspora.

In Greek Voices in Australia which was published in 1987, Professor Kanarakis selected works from over 80 Greek-Australian writers of prose, literature and drama, earning high praise for what recognised by the Australian Bicentennial Authority as a treasure trove in understanding the contribution by Greeks in Australia.

As the late Classics Professor Ronald Godfrey Tanner wrote at the time, George Kanarakis' work exemplified with poignant sensitivity and fine scholarship the Greek migrant experience in the diaspora.   For indeed, through his prolific writings, Kanarakis superbly documented the literature, press, and cultural history of Greeks abroad, ensuring that the voices of migrants and their descendants were preserved for posterity.

His scholarship was not confined to Australia. His studies were published in a number of languages, circulating widely across Europe, the Americas, and the Antipodes. He also edited important volumes on the enduring legacy of the Greek language, demonstrating its influence across cultures and centuries.

In 2017 he published his seminal work, The Legacy of the Greek Language, which he had meticulously compiled and edited.  As was noted by the Greek Orthodox Community of Victoria when launching the book, it is a collective volume of thirty-six specialised studies by thirty-five noted scholars. Derived from primary research, the work evidences the unique contribution made by Greek from antiquity to the present, initially to the languages of Europe and through them to many other languages of the world, as well as to the cultures of their peoples.

In his contributing essay to this pioneering study, Professor Kanarakis wrote that the Greek language presents with its oldest and rich written tradition among the languages of Europe, reflected in its steady cohesion and uninterrupted diachronic continuity in the expression of high modes of thought, including philosophy, rhetoric, signs, poetry and logic.

For his immense contributions, Professor Kanarakis received numerous honours. In 1994, he was elected to the International Academy of Rome for the Promotion of Culture. In 1999, Charles Sturt University conferred upon him an Honorary Doctorate of Letters, and in 2002, he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for services to the community and to education, particularly through the study of Greek arts and culture.  He was later honoured in Greece with distinctions such as the Gold Medal of Alexander the Great and recognition by the University of Athens for his lifelong dedication to Hellenic values and his foundational role in the study of Greek and Cypriot diaspora literature, language, and social history in Australia and New Zealand.

Professor Kanarakis was not only a scholar but also a mentor, community advocate and cultural ambassador. He regularly spoke at community events, literary festivals, and international conferences, and was widely respected as a warm, generous intellectual who combined academic rigour with community service.

George Kanarakis was also highly revered by the Kytherian community in Australia, having taken part in the Second International Symposium of Kytheraismos held at the Hellenic Club of Canberra in September 2006 and a subsequent Kytheraismos symposium in Sydney in 2014.

Back in 2006 I wrote of his contribution:

"Professor George Kanarakis, the eminent professor of Greek literature, discussed the tapestry of Kytherian literary creation and the influence of Kytherian writers in Australian-Greek literature.  Professor Kanerakis has spent 30 years in Australia researching the Hellenic literary influence in this country and described the poetry of some of the early Kytherian settlers as a fascinating phenomenon.  Later in the symposium, Professor Kanerakis was so moved by one speaker that from the chair he declared: “I arrived at this conference a Pireoti (a reference to his birthplace of Piraeus) but I am leaving as a Kytherian!”

Professor George Kanarakis is survived by his beloved wife Marcia, his children Evangelos and Fotini, and extended family.

His passing leaves a profound void in the Greek-Australian intellectual landscape.   He will be sadly missed.

We pay tribute to this pre-eminent scholar of the Greek diaspora and to a life devoted to scholarship, culture and the preservation of memory.  Professor George Kanarakis’ legacy will endure forever in his writings, his eloquence and the cultural identity of the diaspora he so passionately celebrated.

May his memory be eternal.

 

George Vardas is the Arts and Culture Editor of Greek City Times.  He is a past President of the Kytherian Association of Australia and currently sits on the board of the Kytherian World Heritage Fund.