Last week I organized a guided walk through Potamos for the Australian family Fardoulys. They wanted to find out more about the village where their grandfather (papous) James was born in 1900. During the walk they told me James’ story who, at the age of 14 years, emigrated to Australia. His parents sent him overseas to work on a farm with his uncle, hoping for a better life for him and to financially help maintain the family back in Kythira. Their second son emigrated to Australia as well. James and his brother never returned to Kythira and their parents never saw their children again…
Walking through Potamos we came across James’ house in the neighbourhood of Fardoulianika.
As a young boy, James worked on Kythira. He operated a taxi service using his donkey to take people from Potamos to Agia Pelagia and vice versa. And in Australia he was a taxi driver for thirty years. When he retired aged 60, he was able to spend more time on his hobby: naïve painting. He became a famous painter. The National Gallery in Canberra has a few of his paintings.
If you want to read more about James Fardoulys, click on this link.