A total of 15 Cretan women and one New Zealander were interviewed for the oral history phase: six women in Aotearoa New Zealand, plus an additional interview with their Kiwi English language teacher; five in Australia; and five in Crete. Five of these 15 women agreed to take part in the filming phase and whose video interviews are under Digital Storytelling Project. Secondary interviews were also conducted with family members and Cretan villagers and are included in separate videos under the Crete-The Origins page.
Image and document archive
“I was angry that we had to leave because the men wanted a dowry. I could not understand why I had to pay a man to become a slave to him. You marry a man and you have not right to talk, I’m talking about the Cretan men here, you do as you’re told and treat him like a God and you just work. I never understood why girls had to buy a husband.”
Alexia Pendaraki
“We were picking olives and we worked everyday. It was raining all day and we had a sack to cover our heads as we picked olives. A man came by and he said to us ‘Why are slaving away in the heavy rain? Why don’t you leave and go to another country,’ and he gave us a newspaper which had an item about migrating.”
Anastasia Despotaki
“One day my mother called us together and we sat at the table, I remember it well…and said ‘I can’t educate you all, the boys will continue at school and the girls will have to learn a trade”.
Argiro Pendaraki
“And we thought, hello, there must be a better life than this… We were so naïve those days, let’s face it and we just looking for something better. All I wanted those days [was] to have a nice car, because [that’s what] a rich family back there used to have … Always dream to have a nice car. Stupid might be but yeah… ‘I would have gone anywhere’.
Adriana Weston
“I was angry that we had to leave because the men wanted a dowry. I could not understand why I had to pay a man to become a slave to him. You marry a man and you have not right to talk, I’m talking about the Cretan men here, you do as you’re told and treat him like a God and you just work. I never understood why girls had to buy a husband.”
Alexia Pendaraki
“We were picking olives and we worked everyday. It was raining all day and we had a sack to cover our heads as we picked olives. A man came by and he said to us ‘Why are slaving away in the heavy rain? Why don’t you leave and go to another country,’ and he gave us a newspaper which had an item about migrating.”
Anastasia Despotaki
“One day my mother called us together and we sat at the table, I remember it well…and said ‘I can’t educate you all, the boys will continue at school and the girls will have to learn a trade”.
Argiro Pendaraki
“And we thought, hello, there must be a better life than this… We were so naïve those days, let’s face it and we just looking for something better. All I wanted those days [was] to have a nice car, because [that’s what] a rich family back there used to have … Always dream to have a nice car. Stupid might be but yeah… ‘I would have gone anywhere’.
Adriana Weston