Australian Lithuanian History

In 1981 the Adelaide Lithuanian Catholic Women society contacted the United Lithuanian Relief Fund of America (Bendras Amerikos Lietuvi ų Fondas A Šalpos)   (BALFAS).   The society had decided that it would like to outreach to Lithuanians in the Suvalkija triangle.   Suwałki Region is a small region around the city of Suwałki in northeastern Poland near the border with Lithuania. The territory was disputed between Poland and Lithuania after World War II. A Stepenien ė from Adelaide knew that BALFAS had connections with that area and asked for families to contact.   BALFAS had for many years had been providing aid, mainly in the form of clothes.   Each month they sent 40-50 parcels of good clothes and food. The letters written in Lithuanian usually gave an outline of the dire straits families were living in.   No specific requests were made, just asking for assistance.   In that year the society received about 32 letters, to which all wer...

In October 1963, 45 young men and women aged between 14 and 22 gathered at O’Sullivan’s Beach for a camp.   The camp was organised by the Catholic Association. The camp was an opportunity for Adelaide youth to develop and strengthen their character.   The camp program was organised to include something new and interesting all the time.   There were discussions and debates to broaden ones thoughts.   Sport, games, excursions, singing, the evenings around a camp fire and being so close to the beach, swimming. The main benefit of the four days was for the youth to feel like real Lithuanians, not just in language but in thought.   One questions raised for thought and discussion was ‘is it worth being a Lithuanian in Australia?’   Discussion was lively and of course got of tract.   There was much discussion over ‘young’ and ‘old’ and how each views the other.  The write up about the camp for the newspaper was written by a parent at the ca...