100 Aciu - Victor Baltutis

Aciu Viktoras Baltutis
We recommend Victoras Baltutis for recognition for his service and commitment to the Adelaide Lithuanian Community and also the wider Australian Lithuanian Community.

We believe Victor deserves the recognition for everything he has done without asking for anything in return.

Reason for recommendation:

Victor Baltutis has volunteered diligently and selflessly for the Adelaide and Australian Lithuanian Community since arriving in Australia in 1948 on the seventh boat of displaced people to arrive from Europe. A displaced person was the term previously used for what is currently referred to as a refugee. His achievements include creating the Australian Lithuanian Archives (a fifteen year undertaking) which is currently housed at St. Casimir's Lithuanian Parish at 6 Third Avenue Saint Peters. These archives are the history of the Lithuanian Community in Australia from arrival in the late 1940's as displaced people to current times. These archives are now of significant historical value and protected from export by the Australian government.

Although Victor Baltutis is over 90 years of age, he continues to be active in the community, helping organise and coordinate Saint Casimir's Parish to have a priest presiding over Holy Mass for the parishioners every Sunday. Victor continues to assist younger Lithuanians who contact him for guidance and advice around various Lithuanian matters. He wrote and edited the Adelaide Lithuanian Bulletin on his own computer for many years. He just recently reduced his workload due to health reasons. The Adelaide Lithuanian Bulletin comes out every fortnight and is the highlight for the elderly Australian Lithuanians who may no longer have easy access to their community or written language. Victor still contributes to writing in this and other national and international Lithuanian publications.

Due to Victor’s work in the Adelaide Lithuanian and Australian Lithuanian Communities, he is well known and highly respected in the Adelaide and Australian Lithuanian Community. In 2017 he won the Norwood, Saint Peters and Payneham City Councils Citizen of the Year Award for his work. Victor very reluctantly accepted this award, as he views his contribution to the Adelaide and Australian Lithuanian Communities as a “natural thing to do”. Victor has always been humble and working tirelessly to promote and maintain the Lithuanian heritage in Adelaide and Australia. He previously declined an Order of Australia award due to his humility and considers his thousands of volunteer hours he has contributed to Australian Lithuanian Community as a normal way of life.

Significant achievements/contributions include:

 ● Lithuanian refugee from World War II – Migrated to Australia as part of the second group of Lithuanian refugees in Australia in the late 1940’s

● Coordinated the Lithuanian Parish and Community events

● Until late 2016, was part of the Adelaide Lithuanian Catholic Church Committee and has been for many years

● Was a Leader of the Adelaide Lithuanian Catholic Church Committee for many years

● Was the Secretary of the Adelaide Lithuanian Community and President of the Australian Lithuanian Community

● Volunteered as a Justice of the Peace for the Adelaide Community for 35 years

● Established the Adelaide Lithuanian Radio Programme in 1978 which continues to this day on 5EBI 103.1 FM every Saturday from 9 am to 10 am
● Established the Adelaide Branch of the Lithuanian Co-Op Credit Society ‘TALKA’ Ltd.

● Wrote and funded the publication of a book ‘Issinesem Tik Ilgesi” about the Lithuanian Community in Australia (in Lithuanian) and a book about Partizans in Occupied Lithuania “Akivaras”

● Wrote and directed a drama of Simas Kudirka 

NPSP Citizen of the Year 2017

● Created the Australian/Lithuanian archives
These books and the Australian/Lithuanian archives are an important resource for historical academic research of Lithuanians in Australian and their immigration to Australia.

● Taught Matriculation students the Lithuanian language

● Regularly contributes to the National Lithuania Newspaper ‘Musu Pastoge’ (Our Homeland)

● Organised and presided over a number of the Biennial National Lithuanian Cultural Festivals

● An inspirational leader and confidant for the Adelaide and Australian Lithuanian Communities
 Nominated by his daughters, Dana & Anita and son-in-law Craig Clarke.

Ačiū Jura Reilly

Jura Reilly (Jūratė Vitkūnaitė-Reilly)


Since her high school days in Adelaide, Jura has inspired other with her pride in her Lithuanian heritage. She has written 3 books about Lithuania, that have certainly shared her love of Lithuania with not only in South Australia, but throughout the whole world.

Jura was born in 1952 in Adelaide, South Australia. Her parents, Liuda and Alfredas Vitkūnas, came out from to Australia as refugees after WWII. They met and married in Adelaide. As guardians of their Lithuanian culture, they sent Jura, along with her brothers Rimas and Robert, to the Adelaide Lithuanian Saturday School.

Whilst Jura was at Adelaide Girls High school, and later Adelaide University, they encouraged Jura to teach Lithuanian language at the same Saturday School. She was also member of the Adelaide Lithuanian Scouts, and danced with the folk dancing group Žilvinas that was taught by Vytas Straukas.

After graduating from Adelaide University, with majors in English & International Politics, Jura married Ted Reilly, from Brooklyn Park: they moved to Victoria, where Jura completed her Diploma of Teaching at Rusden Teachers College.

They have 2 children, Anita and David, both of whom have been active members of Geelong Vytis Basketball teams. Jura taught History and English for 35 years in 3 Victorian high schools and completed post-graduate studies in Education Administration.

In Geelong, Jura re-established the Geelong Lithuanian Community's Saturday School, and helped out with the Lithuanian radio program. In 1991 she was invited by the Lithuanian Ministry of Education to teach ESL, and returned five times in a consultative capacity.

In 1983, Jura published a book of poetry, Lithuanian Lady. In 2013 she translated her Lithuanian aunts' memoirs of 37 years of exile in Siberia into English, and published it as a memoir, A Wolf At Our Door. This book has been translated into Russian and Spanish.

In 2014, Jura founded an International Baltic FaceBook group, Baltica. She also is the administrator for the FB group, Baltics in Australia. Through these groups, Jura regularly promotes South Australian Lithuanians' achievements and events, all over Australia and the world. She also promotes them in her role as administrator for the FB page, VilNews and The National Amercian Hall of Fame.

As a result, an American based FB group Lithuanian Traditions, now regularly highlights The Adelaide Lithuanian Saturday school's program.

In 2016, Jura published an historical novel, Circle of Amber, which was loosely based on her maternal great grandmother Magdalena Vilkiene, and was set in Lithuania and Australia. Both books are available at the Adelaide Lithuanian House bookshop. 

Jura's latest novel, Sylvia's Book Smuggler, is due to be released online on 16 Jan. It is based on her paternal great- grandfather, Tomas Žičkauskas, who was a teacher and book smuggler from Marijampolė.

Her other interests include making amber jewellery, as publicised on the FB page, Amber by Jura. She is also kept busy visiting her two children & four grandchildren, and travelling around the world with her husband.

 

Nominated by her husband Ted Reilly.

100 Aciu 100 Thankyou's

 

February 16th is the most significant date in Lithuania’s history. On this day, we celebrate the restoration of an independent state of Lithuania. In 2018 it will be 100 years since the Independence Act was signed. It is a reason to celebrate and reflect the significance of the past.

The Lithuanians who came to Australia became the guardians of their tradition and culture. They were the family members, teachers, friends and leaders who instilled in the younger generation a little bit of Lithuania. They’re our community heroes. They may not have been famous, but they should be remembered.

In 2018, the Adelaide Lithuanian Community would like to celebrate at least 100 people who inspired pride in their heritage. We are asking community members to nominate a person who shared their love of Lithuania with you. They must have an Adelaide connection and can be a living or deceased. You are welcome to submit multiple entries.

To participate, write a short biography of the person followed by how they shared their love of Lithuania with you. It can be in Lithuanian or English. Include a photo or two. This need not be more than an A4 page. 

We will share these stories throughout the Lithuanian community.  

For further information or to send your completed person please email Daina Pocius on riverhorse at internode.on.net or call on 0427617214.

Say thankyou! Padėkok!

Adelaidės Lietuvių Bendruomenė
Adelaide Lithuanian Community