100 Aciu - Eddie Gudelis

Eduardas Gudelis

Eddie (Dad) was born May 4, 1940 in Kaunas.  His biological father, Jonas Kondrotas, was an officer in the Lithuanian army.   He was arrested, sent to Siberia and later died there.  Juze, dad’s mother, never knew what happened to her husband.  Antanas Gudelis was there for her at this difficult time.  She married him and adopted dad.

As a family, they lived in refugee camps until 1949 when they arrived in Australia.  The family first lived in a share house in the city (Kintore Avenue) whilst having a house built at 8 Princes St, Prospect.

From a young age he was involved within the Adelaide Lithuanian Community – scouting, as a member of the Žilvinas Dancing Group and he also played basketball for the “Vytis” Sports Club.  In his later years he was an ALB and Vytis Sports Club member.

In his formative years, he was an altar boy and also had a private Catholic education at the Christian Brother’s College.  He was quite rebellious and enjoyed wagging school and going to the movies or playing football with his mates.

His love of sport included playing and watching basketball which he was passionate about.  He instilled the love the game into me.  He drove me to basketball games as a teenager and was a vocal supporter from the sidelines.  Later on we had season tickets for Adelaide 36’ers games for years.

His first love was basketball until he met mum and they had two daughters Kristina and Natalie.  Dad was very family orientated and every weekend we visited “Babytė” and “Senelis” and went to Sunday mass.

He was a quiet, selfless and caring person always thinking of others before himself.  He also had a dry sense of humour.

He instilled in me an interest in the Lithuanian community of which I am still involved.

Dad made sure both Nat and I worked hard for what we wanted and instilled in us the value of being humble about our achievements.

Submitted by his daughter, Kristina.

100 Aciu - Vytautas Vencius

Vytautas Vencius

In 1949 after WW2, at the age of 22, Vytautas arrived in Adelaide Australia.

He became separated from his family Lithuania, yet he wanted to keep his precious Lithuanian heritage alive within him.
In 1955, he married and became actively involved with the fledgling Lithuanian community in Adelaide.

He felt a need to help establish and renovate the Lithuanian Catholic Centre and Church at St Peters.  This was a huge property that required extensive renovation and Vytas was there to work and help create the Adelaide Lithuanian Catholic Centre “Taryba Caritas Inc”.

The Catholic Centre has proven to be a focus of his life.

In the early 1970’s, his focus turned to dancing group Zilvinas at the Lithuanian House in Norwood, which was starting to attract many children and teens.   He first joined the Parents Committee and soon took on the role as manager/organiser to ensure the dancing group was running smoothly and more importantly, to keep the young dancers happy!  He organised cool drinks for them during rehearsals break and organised parties, very often in his own home, to keep the dancers together.  These certainly proved to be popular!  He helped the teachers to find interesting dances and went to great lengths to ensure there was music which was mostly live and at one time, a band of musicians! He made sure the dancers looked their best with lovely costumes and good footwear.   

For the dancers to showcase their ability, he organised for Zilvinas to dance at special events within the Lithuanian community in Adelaide, the bi-annual Australia wide Svente, the Folkloric Society events which were numerous and involved many ethnic communities, the pre-Easter show at Barossa and several times on centre stage at the Adelaide Festival Theatre.  At one point, there were 60 dancers! Thanks to Vytautas’ hard, untiring work and drive, Zilvinas indeed was the most popular it had ever been.

Vytautas was a representative for the dancing group with the Good Neighbour Council of Adelaide and then the Folkloric Society.  He was with Zilvinas, in so many capacities, for 20 years.

After Zilvinas, he joined the Adelaide Lithuanian Theatre Group Vaidila.  He started with small roles and quickly progressed to appear in major roles which were often complex, and which he portrayed with great conviction.  

In the meantime, Vytautas was the Treasurer of the Lithuanian Catholic Centre and after 40 years, he recently retired from this position.

With his love for the Lithuanian Catholic Centre in Adelaide and the Adelaide Lithuanian community, Vytautas regularly performs ‘odd jobs’ and ‘fill ins’, even to this day at the age of 90!

100 Aciu - Regina Bajoruniene

A+A Regina BAJORUNIENĖ

My earliest memory of Mrs Regina Bay is from my childhood when I was about 8 or so. She had just married Andrius Bajorunas and they came to visit my parents.

Mum and Dad congratulated them on their recent marriage. Their surname was changed to Bay which was easier for Mr Bay in his work as a pharmacist when he often took on weekend shifts in addition to his usual weekday work. We came to call them Mr and Mrs Bay.

Regina became Pirmininkė/President of the Adelaide Lithuanian Women's Committee (Adelaidės Lietuvių Moterų Sekcija) after having been a member for a few years.

Among many activities, these women provided morning tea for all of us who attended Saturday Lithuanian School and prepared Christmas Eve supper/Kučios at Lithuanian House. They also catered numerous other events.  Among popular events were the fashion parades which started in the early 1960s and the annual Kartunų Balius or Cotton Ball also a fancy-dress event, which was held in late spring Sept/October. Prizes were awarded for the best dressed at the ball and a lot of effort went into making the prettiest cotton evening dress. I went to a few of these events when I was old enough to start going to a ball plus I even participated in a fashion parade in about 1963.

During much of this time we did not have a family car. Regina visited us often and had long conversations with Mum over a coffee or tea. Mum drank tea while Regina drank coffee.  She and Mum both had terrific senses of humour and there was a lot of laughter.

They also had deep heart to heart conversations.
Regina was always excited if we did well at school and encouraged us to continue and do better.

She also told us off if we did not speak Lithuanian at home but also understood that there was a specific reason for that, courtesy of an education department psychologist but that is another story.

Nonetheless she often reminded us that carrying multiple languages in one's head was not a heavy load.

She spoke Lithuanian, German, Russian, Polish and English. She had also always worked very hard from the time she and many other young Lithuanians 'conscripted' by the Germans to dig trenches as forced labour right through her years with Moterų Sekciją.

She had worked at the Adelaide Railway Station cafeteria and was quickly made manager. She also worked at the Government printing offices near Parliament House in North Terrace during her early years in Adelaide.

She loved animals and had been very upset when she had had to leave her home in Tauragė and could not take her dog with her. She saw her parents and neighbours shot by Russian army soldiers. She was just 13 when WWII started.

She often took my sister Nemira and me out or to her house and we had a lot of fun with her pets especially her budgie who was multilingual.  He could say 'Kur Andrius', 'Labas rytas', 'Andrius dirba', Auf Wiedersehen', 'silly rabbit' and many other things.

She was an excellent cook too, she led Moterų Sekcija for 17 years and worked very hard throughout. In addition to the actual work, after a day's food prep she would drive home women who had come by bus in the morning.

In preparation for a big event she would go to the market at the crack of dawn for provisions, plus she got to know smallgoods wholesalers in the area and as a regular customer got good deals on behalf of the community.
With her help we often helped Moterų Sekciją prepare various events such as weddings, balls and parties at Lithuanian House.

Lithuanian House was already a home away from home as it was for many of us in the community, but we also learned much from interacting with the older women who were exceptional caterers and a lot of fun.

This was a time of not only speaking Lithuanian but also coming to appreciate what had brought these people to Australia.

My own pacifist leanings were a direct result of learning about these people's displacement from their home land and the trauma of having to start all over again in a very different country like Australia. Most of us had relatives in Lithuania or elsewhere whom we felt unlikely ever to meet at least in those early years.

Participating in community events under her tuition added to our parents' encouragement of 'lietuvybė'.

Regina's commitment to the Adelaide Lithuanian community was exceptional and she was a wonderful role model for me for when I was older and able to be involved in various committees myself.

On a more personal level she lent me books about deportations among other subjects and I used some material in radio programs.

She was proud of us as if we were her own children when we did well.

She also thought the world of our Mum and was there when needed on the death of our sister Nemira.

Her love of Lietuva and passion for traditions which she worked so hard to maintain in our little Adelaide community certainly rubbed off on to me and others.

I remain grateful to this day for Regina Bajorunienė’s role in my life.

Submitted by Juratė Grigonytė

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