The audiovisual material included in this page was recorded in Crete in 2011 and provides additional background context to the lives of these women, the impact of war and the causes of migration, the connection with Aotearoa and life as it is now on the island. Filming took place in the villages of four of our women participants and additional places of interest, including the Suda Bay War Cemetery. The audiovisual “bites” is the uncut material at the core of a feature documentary project. 

Kaiti and her husband chose to return to their village in Crete after many years in Aotearoa. They maintain the connection with NZ where their children live and have embraced both countries as part of their lives. They hosted us for the day and shared their daily life in the village but also reminiscing on the days before massive migration to cities and abroad, when village life was vibrant.

This was a special day for our filming crew. We were hosted by the brother of Tassoula Despotaki and his family and experienced in full the traditional Cretan hospitality. His vivid narratives of the war times and the atrocities directly experienced by his family and the village, the touring of their mountainous village, now almost empty after years of migration to towns and abroad, and the rich conversations involving tasting of the local raki left a deep impression on us. His stories provided a visual background to Tasoula’s own story.

In Alexia’s village our filming crew was hosted by members of her brother’s family. Her village, like all those we visited in the mountainous inland, looked almost abandoned with many old houses no longer inhabited. Poignantly, our host was a young girl, a granddaughter of Alexia’s late brother, who was curious about these strangers coming to her village. In some ways, she reminded us of Alexia, curious and open to learn about the world and others.

We were not able to meet any of Kiki’s family in her village, Dris Selinou. It looked so abandoned with many houses overtaken by vegetation. But in our meandering we met with old neighbour, Antonis Kountourakis, who in typical Cretan hospitality fashion, invited us to his home, offered us refreshments with water melon from his garden and gifted us with some amazing war stories (including bringing his old gun out) and life in the back in the older days. His house was a typical old Cretan house still maintaining its original structure and layout. 

The town of Kandanos in Western Crete was burned by the Nazis during WWII. The razing of Kandanos is well documented for its brutality, ordered in reprisal for the participation of the locals in the Battle of Crete that the NZ army took part in. Many of the women interviewed for this project mentioned the impact of the Nazi occupation on the village and family and some talked about the presence of NZ soldiers hiding near their villages with the help of the locals at the aftermath of the Battle. In this video we hear from a contemporary of these women who stayed in Crete, a blind woman, talking of the living conditions during and after the war.

The lives of the participants of this project were deeply affected by the fall of their island to Nazi occupation following the significant Battle of Crete in 1941 where the allied forces, including ANZAC soldiers, fought and lost. Their migration to NZ was the direct result of these catastrophic events which led some NZ soldiers to initiate a work visa program as a way of thanking Cretans for the protection they offered, often at the cost of their own lives.

The Suda Bay War Cemetery is an important historical landmark, located in West Crete. At the time of our visit, we met other New Zealanders visiting the graves of family members who lost their lives at the Battle. It was late afternoon and close to sunset when we heard the national anthem of NZ being played, and were told that someone from the hill facing the cemetery plays it at sunset. For a record of what the ANZAC soldiers experienced in the aftermath of the Battle of Crete see the the Memoirs: Prisoner of War Days – World War II, by C.A.G.V Petersen

Most of our project participants come from Chania, the western province of Crete. The historic city of Chania is its provincial centre, the old capital of the island before it shifted to Heraklion. Today it is a major tourist destination and a bustling social and cultural center.