AIPA Key Events 01/09/2014 – 01/11/2015 – a list of events and activities that have either been initiated by AIPA, or with which the Institute has been involved in other ways, both in Australia and in Poland.
3/09/2014
Melbourne – Adam Warzel, AIPA’s Melbourne Cinematheque (MC) Liaison Officer, prepared submission to the Polish Consulate, to obtain funding for organising a season of Jerzy Kawalerowicz films in 2015. This was done in conjunction with Mr Michael Koller, the chief curator of MC.
Lodgement of the submission was preceded by meetings with Mr Koller and Poland’s Consul General, Ms Regina Jurkowska.
The season of Kawalerowicz’s films screened in October 2015 and AIPA’s sponsorship was publicly acknowledged by Michael Koller on the opening night.
16/09/2014
Melbourne – Adam Warzel was involved in the process of negotiating screening by Melbourne Cinematheque of films by a distinguished Hungarian film director, Miklos Jancso. The season commences in October 2015.
September 2014
Canberra – Vice President Aleksander M. Gancarz represented AIPA and helped organisers during the 2nd Australian International Chopin Piano Competition (15-21 September 2014, at the School of Music, Australian National University, in Canberra. Also, Aleksander established a friendship arrangement between AIPA and Friends of Chopin Australia (www.friendsofchopin.org.au ), organisers of the events. The President and Vice-president of Friends of Chopin Australia, Wanda Horky and Benjamin James, joined AIPA and both parties will cooperate in the future.
6/10/2014
Melbourne – Adam Warzel, responding to the request by Australian Centre for Moving Image, prepared an overview of films screened in October 2014 as part of Martin Scorsese’s Masterpieces of Polish Cinema season. www.acmi.net.au/acmi-channel/2014/made-in-poland
03/11/2014 – 11/11/2014
Sydney, Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne. Visit to Australia by Professor Andrzej Rychard, Director of the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Professor Rychard is the author and/or co-author of more than 100 scientific publications in Polish, British, Swedish, German and American professional journals, including books and monographs. Professor Rychard’s main engagements included:
Sydney
Canberra
Hobart
Melbourne
18/11/2014
Canberra – Vice President Aleksander M. Gancarz represented AIPA at the ceremony of awarding the title of the Righteous Among the Nations to Mr Roman Talikowski, who helped to rescue Jews from the Warsaw ghetto. Mr Talikowski was nominated by Mrs Josia Przygoda, who now lives in USA and who, as a 5 year old girl, was carried out of the ghetto in a backpack by MrTalikowski.
20/03/15
Melbourne –Alexandra Dunwill, AIPA Secretary, wrote a letter to the Editor–in-Chief of ‘The Australian’, Mr Chris Mitchell, remonstrating against the use of a misleading and offensive phrase „Polish death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau” in the article “Girl who defied the German machine three times”, (The Australian, 17.04.2015).
21/03/15
Melbourne – ‘Meet the POLCUL Foundation’. The evening consisted of panel presentation and screening of collage of two Polish documentaries illustrating activities of Polcul. The pane included members of the Board of Polcul Foundation: Prof. Jan Pakulski, Adam Warzel, Wojciech Zagala and Barbara Zagala.
25/03/2015
Melbourne – AIPA Secretary, Alexandra Dunwill presented a paper ‘Educational Transformation in Post-Communist Poland: Social Need for Diversity” at the one day conference “Elite Schools at Globalising Circumstances”, organised by the Monash University Education Faculty. Scholars from various world institutions, with interests in global education, contributed to this event.
20/04/15
Warsaw – Jan Pakulski attended a meeting in the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), with Dr Wladyslaw Bulhak and Patryk Pleskot on the design and planned visit to Australia of a poster exhibition devoted to life and achievements of AIPA’s first President, Prof. Jerzy Zubrzycki. The content, the form and the dates of the exhibition were discussed. It was agreed that the best time for the visit of the exhibition in Australia will be March-April 2016, and that the exhibition will stay in Australia. Jan Pakulski contacted Ambassador RP in Australia Pawel Milewski and arranged the storage of the exhibition in Canberra after the display – for further use.
24/04/15
Warsaw – Jan Pakulski met Mrs Wanda Horky. They discussed the prospects for future collaboration between AIPA and music organisations in Australia devoted to promoting Chopin’s music.
11/05/15
Warsaw– Jan Pakulski met Mr Andrzej Folwarczny the 2015 Guest of AIPA in Australia. They discussed the plan of the forthcoming visit. Further meetings (including one with Marcia Pinker and Adam Warzel) were arranged for June, July and August.
22/05/15
Warsaw – Jan Pakuski met Mr Izi Marmur and Mr Bernard Korbman representing the Association of Polish Jews in Australia. The welcome dinner was also attended by Zofia Pakulski and Barbara and Wojtek Zagala. The discussion covered the collaboration between the ASPJ and AIPA, as well as the participation (sponsoring) by AIPA of the exhibition in Melbourne devoted to Poles Saving Jews during the Holocaust.
28/05/15
Warsaw– Jan Pakulski met Mr Leszek Czarnecki, one of the candidates for AIPA Guest in Australia in 2016. They discussed prospects for the possible future visit.
09/06/15
Warsaw – Jan & Zofia Pakulski participated in the welcome dinner for delegations of Polish Jews from Australia and the USA organised by Mrs Katarzyna Miastkowska-Wujec. During the dinner, Bernard Korbman representing ASPJ in Melbourne spoke about the Polish-Jewish dialogue and congratulated AIPA as a best example of the successful dialogue organisation.
10/06/15
Warsaw – Jan Pakulski organised and chaired a half-a-day conference in Collegium Civitas, on The Future of Multiculturalism. It was attended by visiting scholars from Australia – Prof. Andrew Jakubowicz and Dr Aleksandra Hadzelek – as well as Polish scholars from the Collegium, University of Warsaw and UKSW. AIPA was mentioned during the discussion – as an example of dialogue organisation promoting multiculturalism.
23/06/15
Warsaw – AIPA Executive Committee member, Dr Gosia Klatt presented on “The Solidarity decade in Australia” at the event organised by Senate of the RP, titled: the Archives of Breakthrough 1989-91,
23/06/15
Warsaw – Dr Gosia Klatt interviewed for TV Polonia following her presentation on “The Solidarity decade in Australia” at the event organised by Senate of the RP, titled: the Archives of Breakthrough 1989-91.
June – October 2015
Canberra – Vice President Aleksander M. Gancarz helped organise a poster exhibition in Canberra in memory of Prof. Jerzy Zubrzycki. This included:
* Liaison with designers and authors of an exhibition at the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) in Poland
* Meeting and discussion with Ambassador Pawel Milewski
* Discussion with the Zubrzycki family
* Discussion with staff of the Australian National University
The exhibition is planned to arrive in Australia in March-April 2016.
11-12/06/15
Warsaw – Jan & Zofia Pakulski took part in the 2-day conference at the UKSW on the activities of the Japanese consul in Kowno, Sugihara. Dr Aleksandre Hadzelek was co-organising the conference. During the discussions AIPA was mentioned as a successful dialogue organisation.
26/06/15
Warsaw – Jan Pakulski held a meeting in Forum Dialogu in Warsaw with A.Folwarczny and Marcia Pinskier. They discussed the forthcoming visit of Mr Folwarczny in Australia.
5/7/2015
Melbourne – an Honorary Membership of the Australian Institute of Polish Affairs was granted to Mr Mieczyslaw (Michael) Nadworny in recognition of his life-long work for improving the relations between Polish and the Jewish communities, and in particular for his action to bestow honorary membership of the state of Israel on Jan Karski.
July-October 2015
Canberra – Vice President Aleksander M. Gancarz had several meetings with Ambassador RP Pawel Milewski and his deputy Piotr Buszta at the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Canberra to discuss a planned visit to Australia by the AIPA guest Mr Andrzej Folwarczny – the Founder and President of the Forum for Dialogue, the largest and oldest Polish non-governmental organization to engage in the Polish-Jewish dialogue (http://www.dialog.org.pl/en/home.htm ). Mr Andrzej Folwarczny will be visiting Canberra from 24 to 26 of November 2015. Aleksander M. Gancarz together with Polish Embassy staff are planning this visit which might include:
* Lunch and discussion with Australian Parliamentarians and Senators including members of the Australia – Polish Parliamentary Friendship Group,
* Meeting and lecture/discussion with Rabbi Alon Meltzer and the Jewish community in Canberra at the National Jewish Memorial Centre – The ACT Jewish Community (http://www.actjc.org.au )
* Lecture or/and meeting with Polish Community in Canberra.
* Visit and meeting with staff of the Centre for European Study at the Australian National University (http://politicsir.cass.anu.edu.au/centres/anu-centre-for-european-studies
6/08/2015
Melbourne – Adam Warzel, in his capacity as former Victorian representative of the Solidarity Information Bureau in Australia, delivered a laudation at the decoration ceremony of a distinguished trade union official, Mr Joe de Bruyn. Mr de Bruyn was decorated with the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit bestowed on him by the President of Poland for his support for Solidarity trade union movement throughout the 80s and 90s. The Cross was presented to Mr de Bruyn by the Consul General of Poland, Ms Regina Jurkowska.
01/09/15
Warsaw – Jan and Zofia Pakulski met Mr Marcel Weyland, a prominent translator and a friend of AIPA.
26/09/15
Canberra – AIPA Executive Committee member, Dr Gosia Klatt participated in the open day event organised by the Polish Embassy in Canberra “Windows to the world”.
29/09/15
Warsaw – during the Polcul Foundation 35-anniversary cocktail in Warsaw, the Directors of Polcul mentioned the links between Polcul and AIPA, and they distributed AIPA brochures.
2/10/15
Canberra – Vice President Aleksander M. Gancarz represented AIPA at the lunch hosted by HE Pawel Milewski, Ambassador of the Republic of Poland, on the occassion of a visit of Bishop Cyryl Klimowicz in Australia. Bishop Cyryl Klimowicz is diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Saint Joseph with the centre in Irkutsk. Bishop Cyryl Klimowicz was appointed Vice-Chairman of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Russia (KKER). He is Head of the Catechetical Commission and the Commission for inter-Christian and interreligious dialogue and dialogue with non-believers.
