Byzantium in the Antipodes: the Flourishing of Byzantine Cultural Memory in the Greek–Australian Diaspora

In a global landscape where Byzantine studies are flourishing, Australia presents a compelling and unexpected case of ‘Byzantium beyond Byzantium’. While historically and geographically disconnected from the Byzantine Empire, 21st-century Australia has become a site for the ongoing life of Byzantium. This paper explores how the identity of diasporic Greek Australians, particularly of the third-generation, is enriched by Byzantine cultural memory. Drawing on the theme of 'Byzance après Byzance', this paper positions the Australian Greek Orthodox community as both custodians and interpreters of a living Byzantine legacy. Through urban centres like Melbourne, home to the second-largest Greek population outside of Athens, and Sydney, where vibrant Greek communities have built and adorned Orthodox churches in a distinctly neo-Byzantine style, this study examines how younger generations of Greek Australians engage with Byzantium. Far from being a dormant legacy dismissed or overlooked by younger generations, Byzantium has become important for identity and spirituality. This phenomenon is not a nostalgic one: it reflects a flourishing of Byzantine cultural forms in an unexpected global context. The use of icons in homes and the ritual practices surrounding their veneration, recent major museum exhibitions (https://mona.net.au/stuff-to-do/art/heavenly-beings) and aesthetic choices in new church architecture all point to a living tradition. Australia, once as distant as possible from the Eastern Roman Empire, has become a new frontier for the continued presence of Byzantium. In engaging with the theme ‘Byzantium beyond Byzantium’, this paper positions Australia as an example of how diasporic communities transmit Byzantine culture and adapt it to new cultural and generational landscapes.