Showing posts with label Brundzaite. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brundzaite. Show all posts

13 August 2025

Jonas Motiejūnas (1921–2004): The Lithuanian Leader Who Left, by Rasa Ščevinskienė and Ann Tündern-Smith

The Photographs

Two photographs of two Lithuanians with Australia’s first Minister for Immigration, Arthur Calwell, are used frequently to illustrate early post–World War II migration to Australia. Arthur Calwell is clearly identifiable on the right, we are told that the woman is Konstancia Brundzaitė, but who is the man with her?

This presentation captured by a photographer clearly is an important moment, but what is that moment? A memoir written by a fellow Lithuanian migrant, Kazys Mieldazys, tells us (in Lithuanian), that the Kanimbla ship carrying the First Transport refugees from Fremantle in Western Australia to Port Melbourne in Victoria “reached Melbourne on 7 December. 

"There we were greeted by the Minister for Immigration, Arthur Calwell, together with other government representatives. The leaders of the Lithuanian group, Jonas Motiejunas and Konstancija Brundzaite, handed the Minister a gift – a picture book of Lithuanian views and a sash. Later this gift was deposited by Mr Calwell in the Australian Cultural Museum (sic) in Canberra …”.

From left to right, Jonas Motiejūnas, Konstancija Brundzaitė, Arthur Calwell, unknown Australian onlookers, when Calwell received the gift of a sash and book from the Lithuanians
Source:  Australian Maritime Museum digitising of print donated by Konstancija Brundzaitė Jurskis
 

This presentation occurred later, apparently, when the 
two Lithuanian leaders met Calwell again, as Jonas is in national costume this time:
judging from the background, it may have been at the 1951
travelling exhibition of New Australians' Arts and Crafts
Source:  SLIC

How did Jonas become a leader of the Lithuanian group, along with Konstancija? Kazys has written further, “We first organised ourselves at the Diepholz camp in Germany. A week before the ship’s departure a Lithuanian representative committee was established. It comprised Jonas Motiejunas, president, Povilas Baltutis, vice president, Napoleonas Butkunas, interpreter …”

Kazys added, “On All Souls Day, we honoured the dead and all those who had perished for Lithuanian freedom. J. Motiejunas was the keynote speaker. After that a prayer was recited for our homeland and a few hymns were sung …”

Young Jonas

Who was this leader among 417 Lithuanian men? He was born on 5 July 1921, in Janenai village, Sventezeris district, Seinai county, so he was 26 years old when selected. He had graduated from Lazdijai high school and completed his military service with graduation from the officer training school, in the last program before the school closed, ironically because of the War.

In 1941–1944, he studied electrical engineering in the Faculty of Technology at Vytautas the Great University, in Kaunas. He completed his studies after leaving Lithuania, in Germany’s Technical University of Braunschweig, receiving an electrical engineering degree.

He was an active athlete and exhibiting artist during his student days. He participated in the June 1941 uprising against the Soviet occupiers of his country, shortly before the Germans turn as occupiers. He was active in community organisations during this time.

Work and Marriage

After nearly two months in the Bonegilla camp, Jonas was among 28 men sent to pick fruit on the Dundas Simson Pty Ltd property at Ardmona, Victoria, on 28 January 1948. He returned to Bonegilla on 10 April. On 22 April, he was sent to work in the Australian Carbide Company’s factory at Electrona, 40 km south from Hobart, capital of Tasmania.

During his 10 days back in the Bonegilla camp in April, Jonas had met Ona Prižgintaitė by Lake Hume. She was one of the Lithuanian women on the Second Transport, the General MB Stewart, which had reached Fremantle on 12 February 1948.

Their casual acquaintance quickly grew into love and respect for each other. They married on 11 July 1948 in the Catholic Church in the town of Snug, near Electrona.  Jonas later told Ramunas Tarvydas, author of the 1997 book, From Amber Coast to Apple Isle, that the couple were surprised and delighted by the number of locals who attended to wish them well. 

Ona and Jonas Motiejūnas on their wedding day
Source:  Mikuliciene, Irena (2023) 
Lietuviai perkeltųjų asmenų (DP) stovyklose 1945–1951 m.

Meanwhile, Jonas was engaged in hard work, unloading large limestone rocks, smashing them with sledgehammers and loading them onto wagons.  He and his fellow workers shovelled coal onto the limestone, added both to furnaces, poured the resultant molten material into shallow basins to cool, then smashed the cold product and loaded it into barrels for export.  

The main product of the Electrona factory in 1948 was calcium carbide, a solid which reacts with water to produce acetylene gas. Using acetylene for lighting was common still in mid–20th century Australia. Another major use of acetylene is in welding.

As you can imagine from this summary, the work was dangerous also, as Jonas described to Ramunas Tarvydas, quoted in the next entry on the carbide factory.

Jonas was able to get a transfer to Hobart after talking with a CES official.  There he was employed more suitably as an electrical draftsman with EZ Risdon.  In his spare time, he drew house plans for other Lithuanians in Hobart. 

Accommodation

Jonas also told Ramunas that, "Electrona is a very lovely area.  We lived in houses especially built by the company.  One of the three bedrooms in the house was for us, the married couple, the other two were for four single men.  There was also a dining room, a kitchen and a bathroom.

"Our meals were excellent, first cooked by Mrs Stasytis, then by my wife, who also looked after the Lithuanians' house."

(Mr and Mrs Stasytis were Adomas and Veronika, who had arrived in February 1948 on the Second Transport, the General MB Stewart.  They had been sent together to Electrona on 28 April 1948, that is, 6 days after the 8 from the First Transport.  Apart from the cooking, doubtless expected by the men, Veronika Stasytienė was destined for "factory w", whatever that meant in this dangerous environment.)

Jonas’ New Family

Ona Prižgintaitė had graduated from midwifery school and studied history at Vytautas the Great University for two years. After reaching Germany, she studied history and art at the University of Heidelberg before leaving for Australia in January 1948.

Jonas and Ona had four daughters:

  • Ramunė (born 1949) – studied art in Paris, and worked as a formal wear specialist at Bloomingdale's, Beverly Hills, California.
  • Eglė (born 1950) – worked as an administrator at Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia.
  • Ruta (born 1952) – lived in Portland, Oregon, raising two sons.
  • Birutė (born 1958) – lived in Prescott, Arizona, working as a landscape designer until she had a son and daughter; sadly, she died in 2020 from breast cancer, aged only 61.

Ona and Jonas with their three oldest daughters:
(left to right) Ramunė,
Eglė and Ruta
Source:  Source:  Mikuliciene, Irena (2023) ,
Lietuviai perkeltųjų asmenų (DP) stovyklose 1945–1951 m.

The Family Moves

In 1954, the family moved from Tasmania to Melbourne, where Jonas got a job as an engineer on the railway. Later, he worked at the Ford Motor Company, which used to assemble cars in the Melbourne suburb of Broadmeadows, and southwest of Melbourne in Geelong.

On 21 April 1959, the family left Australia for Los Angeles in the United States. There Jonas worked as an engineer for various companies. His last job was at Hughes Aircraft company, where he worked 29 years until he retired in 1988. Meanwhile, Ona took care of the family.

Retirement in America

After Jonas retired, he and Ona moved to Prescott, Arizona, in order to be closer to Birute and her family. Ramune also was living in Prescott in 2020.

Jonas and Ona Motiejunas established two charitable funds in USA. Jonas said that he could only pursue his education with the help of scholarships, so he wanted to compensate for a small part of assistance he had received. The Jonas and Ona Motiejunas Scholarship Fund was started in 1990 with the Lithuanian Foundation with $10,000. The Lithuanian Foundation is a not–for–profit organisation in Lemont, Illinois, started in 1962, which still offers scholarships.

Jonas and Ona started their second fund in 1995 in order to help Lithuanian orphans with the interest earned. Their first $10,000, in the name of the Ona and Jonas Motiejūnas, was donated to Lithuanian Orphanage Committee in July 1995. The second cheque for $10,000 was written in October 1997, the third in February 1999 and a fourth in 2000. In October 1998, a cheque for $100 was acknowledged in the Draugas (Friend) newspaper. The $40,100 and possibly more of capital was admired as a beautiful sacrifice.

Jonas and Ona Motiejūnas were active Lithuanians, always participating in Lithuanian community activities. The family was seen as an exemplary, future–oriented family, harmoniously operating for the maintenance of Lithuania abroad and aid to Lithuania, and supporting that activity financially.

The family on the occasion of Ona and Jonas' 50th wedding anniversary
(left to right) Eglė, Ramunė, Ona, Jonas, Ruta and Birutė at front left

Jonas Motiejunas died on 28 February 2004, at the age of 83, in Prescott, Arizona, having been married to Ona for 55 years. At his request, his ashes were buried in his home village of Janenai. Ona Motiejuniene died more than 7 years later, at home on 22 September 2011 at the age of 90.

Of the two Lithuanians in the 1947 photos with the Minister for Immigration, Konstancija has been the easier to identify because she remained in Australia. She donated her prints of the photos to the Australian National Maritime Museum, where the donations are recorded in her maiden name as well as her married name of Jurskis.

We don’t know why the Motiejunas family left Australia in 1959. The common reason among other cases of departure … was other family members settled successfully in the United States. Vytautas Stasiukynas, the vet who left for Colombia, is the only case so far of someone leaving Australia because of better employment opportunities elsewhere.

Perhaps either or both of Jonas and Ona had relatives in Los Angeles. Their departure was Australia’s loss.

CITE THIS AS: Ščevinskiene, Rasa and Tündern–Smith (2025) ‘Jonas Motiejūnas, the Lithuanian Leader Who Left’

Sources

‘A†A Jonas Motiejūnas’ (RIP Jonas Motiejunas, in Lithuanian) Draugas (Friend), Chicago,  Illinois, 17 March 2004, p 5, https://draugas.org/archive/2004_reg/2004-03-17-DRAUGAS-i7-8.pdf, accessed 10 August 2025.

Ancient Faces, ‘Jonas Motiejunas’ https://www.ancientfaces.com/person/jonas-motiejunas-birth-1921-death-2004/86579155, accessed 10 August 2025.

Australian Lithuanian History ‘Two Year Contracts Part IV (Final)’ https://salithohistory.blogspot.com/2021/03/two-year-contracts-part-iv-final.html, accessed 9 August 2025.

Draugas, the Lithuanian World-Wide Daily, ‘A † A Ona Prižgintaitė Motiejūnienė’ (RIP Ona Prizgintaite Motiejuniene, in Lithuanian) http://www.draugas.org/legacy/mirties2011.html, accessed 9 August 2025.

Jasaitienė, Birutė (1995) ‘Jono ir Onos (Prižgintaitės) Motiejūnų Fondas Lietuvos Našlaičiams’ ‘Jonas and Ona (Prižgintaitė) Motiejūnas Foundation for Lithuanian Orphans’ (in Lithuanian) Draugas (Friend) Chicago, Illinois, 12 August, p 8 https://www.draugas.org/archive/1995_reg/1995-08-12-DRAUGASw.pdf, accessed 10 August 2025.

Jasaitienė, Birutė (1998) ‘Darnaus Gyvenimo 50 Metu Sukaktis’ (‘50th Anniversary of Sustainable Living’, in Lithuanian) Draugas (Friend) Chicago, Illinois, 12 August, p 4 https://draugas.org/archive/1998_reg/1998-10-31-DRAUGASm.pdf, accessed 10 August 2025.

Jasaitienė, Birutė (2000) ‘Jono ir Onos Motiejūnų Fondas’ (‘Jonas and Ona Motiejūnas Fund, in Lithuanian) Draugas (Friend) Chicago, Illinois, 19 February, p 4 https://draugas.org/archive/2000_reg/2000-02-19-DRAUGAS.pdf, accessed 10 August 2025.

Juodvalkis, A (1990) ‘Inž. Jonas ir Ona Motiejūnai Įsteigė Stipendijų Fondą’ ‘Engineer Jonas and Ona Motiejunas Established a Scholarship Fund’ (in Lithuanian) Draugas (Friend) Chicago, Illinois, 22 February, p 4, https://draugas.org/archive/1990_reg/1990-02-22-DRAUGAS-i7-8.pdf, accessed 9 August 2025.

Lithuanian Foundation, Inc. ‘Scholarships Reports’, https://lithuanianfoundation.org/lf-reports/scholarships/ accessed 10 August 2025.

Mieldažys, Kazys (1961) ‘Pirmieji Žingsniai Australijoje‘ [‘First Steps in Australia’ translated into English by Jonas Mockunas from an article in Metraštis (Yearbook)] https://www.australianlithuanians.org/history/ww2-kazys-mieldazys/ accessed 9 August 2025.

Mikulicienė, Irena (2023) Lietuviai perkeltųjų asmenų (DP) stovyklose 1945–1951 m. (Lithuanians in displaced persons (DP) camps in 1945-1951, in Lithuanian) Lietuvos nacionalinis muziejus, Vilnius, 440 p.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla]; Motiejunas Jonas, MOTIEJUNAS, Jonas : Year of Birth - 1921 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number - 601 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203902827 accessed 9 August 2025.

Rimon, Wendy (2006) ‘Carbide Works’ in The Companion to Tasmanian History https://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/C/Carbide%20Works.htm accessed 9 August 2025.

Ruffner Wakelin Funeral Homes and Crematory ‘Birute Motiejunas Upchurch, August 13, 1958 — February 8, 2020’ https://www.ruffnerwakelin.com/obituaries/birute-motiejunas-upchurch

Sydney Lithuanian Information Centre ‘In Memoriam, 24th April, 2005, Kastutė Brundzaitė - Jurskis (1921 - 2005), Among the Very First Lithuanian Post World War II Migrants in Australia’ https://www.slic.org.au/News/news_240405.htm accessed 9 August 2025.

Tarvydas, Ramunas (1997) From Amber Coast to Apple Isle : Fifty Years of Baltic Immigrants in Tasmania 1948-1998, Baltic Semicentennial Commemoration Activities Organising Committee, Hobart, Tasmania, pages 35-36.

23 April 2025

Arthur Calwell's "They're Coming" Press Release of 7 November 1947, by Ann Tündern-Smith

Updated 15 August 2025.

On 7 November 1947, the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman had been sailing from Bremerhaven for more than eight days.  Australia's Minister for Immigration, Arthur Calwell, decided that it was time to tell the public through the newspapers and radio that the very first migrants from Europe sponsored by the Government were coming.  All were refugees from the Soviet re-invasion, in 1944, of the 3 Baltic states:  Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.  Click on each page for a larger, more legible version.



Click on any of the pages above to open a larger, more legible version
Source:  Bound copy of Calwell's speeches and press releases in the
Department of Immigration Library

Fast communication by radio, telegram, telex and cablegram was possible already, so the press release could have been accurate.  The inaccuracy starts with the 860 passengers, when it should have been well known to officials in Australia that the actual number to depart on 28 October was 843.

There was 18 passengers younger than Algis Baranskis.  While 11 of them also had had 18th birthdays, 3 were still aged 17, 2 were 16, one was 15 and one was 14.  The youngest were with older family members or trusted friends.  Maybe the Minister wanted to appear responsible by not discussing those under 18, but his chosen example was neither the youngest nor the oldest of the 18 year olds.

The incorrect spelling of names was to persist for years, maybe lifetimes, but let's make known corrections here.  In the order of their appearance in the press release, we have first Captain Valentine Pasvolsky, not "Pascolsky".  As discussed earlier, he did not have charge of sailing the ship, but shipboard life for its passengers.  The person in charge of sailing the ship was Captain CM Pedersen.

"Brundazaite Constamcija" should have been Konstancija Brundzaite, using Western name order.  It looks like some of the passengers were providing their names to enquirers using what now is known as Hungarian name order, because it still is used in Hungary.  There's a typing error in "Constamcija" as well as an assumption that other languages use a C to represent a hard initial sound when they are far more ordered in their orthography than English.  Brundzaite was misspelled also.

"Rage Birute" was subject to the same misunderstanding of name order.  In Western name order she should be known as Birute Rage.  And no, her last name is not pronounced like an English synonym for "anger".  It is two syllables, for a start.

The men generally got off better, but it should have been Povilas and Petras Baltutis, not "Povillias and Petra Balutis".  "Ludas Krasaoskas" should have been Ludas Krasauskas.

Borisas Dainutis was only slightly mangled as "Borisis Dainutis".  We have his biography in preparation.  Sergejs and Nikolajs Bergtals suffered similarly as "Sergeis" and "Nikolais".  We're working on biographies for them too.

"Miss V. Mets" or Valeria Mets, later known by Australians after her marriage to one of them as Val Blackburn, seems to be the only passenger whose name was spelled correctly, perhaps because of its shortness.

Here's how the Minister's press release was used one day later, in the Sydney Morning Herald.  The number of passengers has been corrected.  There was no arrival date predicted in the press release, but now it has become 26 November.  Perhaps the Minister's office sent out a telex message of amendment, which has not been stored with the two copies of the press release that I have seen.


The Minister's press release, as published on the next day, 8 November 1947

Let us hope that the other details supplied in the Minister's press release are more accurate than the spellings.

Reference

Wikipedia, 'Surname' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surname accessed 16 April 2025.

07 April 2025

40 years since the arrival of the First Transport, by Antanas Laukaitis

[This tribute, in Lithuanian, was published on page 7 of the Australian-Lithuanian newspaper, Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) on 9 November 1987.]

On 30 October 1947, the American ship General Stuart Heinzelman sailed from the port of Bremerhaven in Germany, carrying the very first post-War refugees to Australia. They were only from Baltics and the majority were Lithuanians – 439 persons.

This photograph accompanied the original article, captioned “A group of Lithuanians on the ship
General Heintzelman in 1947, en route to Australia; 
first on the left in the front row is Valentinas Gulbinas”
 

This ship arrived at Fremantle Harbor on 28 November.  The passengers travelled to Melbourne on an Australian warship.  There they were met by the then Labor Government Immigration Minister Arthur Calwell and other government officials.

Lithuanians had their own cultural performances, holiday celebrations and more both during the trip and upon arrival in Melbourne, and later at the Bonegilla camp.  Even the first basketball team was formed, with most players being Lithuanians.

These players included Vincas Mažiliauskas (later known as a Melbourne Varpas player), Jonas Motiejūnas, (former chairman of Varpas now living in America), Algis Liubinskas (died in Sydney, supporter of Kovas, whose son Mikas follows in his father’s sporting footsteps, famous as a Kovas basketball player and former prominent rugby player), Romas Genys (“Bodžis” from Sydney, a former famous Kovas basketball player in the days when Kovas won competitions between Australians and Lithuanians) and Zigmas Paškevičius. [Kovas is Sydney’s Lithuanian Sports Club while Varpas is the Melbourne equivalent.]

When they arrived in Australia, the first Lithuanians found a few compatriots who had been living here for a long time already.   They discovered the former Lithuanian Association of Australia, which was headed by the venerable Antanas and Ona Baužė and family.  They were the Lithuanian guardians and guideposts to the aliens in a land new to us.

The first Lithuanians who arrived were brave and determined, choosing this distant and so little-known land for their future life.  And how other compatriots who stayed in Germany waited for the first letters from Australia and resumés in the press!  Most of them needed to make a decision to go to Australia or choose another, more famous land.  Not all of the first letters and descriptions in the press were good, as everything was so new, the climate was hot and the jobs were the worst ones that Australians didn’t want to do.  Even worse, the wages were not very high compared to the working conditions.

When I came to Australia two years later and went to the desert, where the heat reached 125 degrees Fahrenheit [52 degrees Centigrade] in the summer, there were blizzards of red sand and poisonous spiders, scorpions and even snakes were hiding in the tents, apparently away from the heat.  Even I cursed this country with curses that I only knew and wanted to run away from the desert, but I could not escape.

However, there were also happier people who spoke positively about Australia.  After that, more and more of our compatriots were willing to go for a swim, without fear that kangaroos would swipe them with their tails.  They did not fear that scorpions and spiders would crawl into their beds.  They no longer thought that the Aboriginals would impale a white-skinned Lithuanian, and even better, the fair Lithuanian women, to roast them on their spears in a eucalyptus fire.*

The number of Lithuanians grew more and more.  A considerable number, especially singles, went to distant regions of Australia and stayed there, creating non-Lithuanian families who were completely separated from Lithuanian life and Lithuanians.   Quite a few, including some of our first arrivals, have found their eternal rest in Australian graves, but the traces and fruits of their work are very clearly visible.

This is the first of the arrival generation and the beginning to our communal and organisational life, which today their children and even the third generation of Lithuanian youth continue very beautifully.  It is to be hoped that the Lithuanian spark of Lithuanian life, culture and our beautiful traditions ignited by those first arrivals, which is currently lit in a big and beautiful Lithuanian bonfire, will burn for a long time in our youth and future Lithuanian generations, showing that Lithuanians are truly resistant to all kinds of foreign storms.

It is good that in Sydney we have a dozen representatives from the very First Transport.  Among them, Anskis Reisgys, the current head of the Talka Credit union in Sydney, did not get lost after going through the hardships of Australia, but acquired a teacher's license and taught for many years, participating in all activities related to our country.  Mindaugas Šumskas, another employee of Talka, is an active member of the community.  Valentinas Gulbinas, former chairman of the District, honorary member of Kovas, has worked a lot with young people and was one of the leaders when Australian Lithuanian athletes went to America and Canada.

Mykolas Petronis, a well-known former businessman in Sydney and honorary member of Kovas, is the representative of various organisations and an active member of the community.  Romualdas Genys, a player in the first Australian Lithuanian basketball team, later rose to fame.  Juozas Šuopys, who had a successful home rental business, is a great friend of Lithuanian players.  Vincas Šuopys, a printer, started painting Mūsų Pastogė in Lithuanian. As for the female representatives, we have Balanda [Dulaityte] Liubinskas, the mother of our outstanding athlete Mick, Konstančija [Brundžaitė] Jurskis and others who arrived later.

The first Lithuanian immigrants contributed a lot to the establishment and construction of the Sydney Lithuanian Club.  The sponsors and honorary members of the Kovas Sports Club include First Transport arrivals.  At Sydney Lithuanian Club on Saturday evening, 21 November, Kovas will honour these distinguished and first post-war Lithuanian immigrants to Australia during its annual ball.

They will be introduced with ceremony to our younger citizens and current athletes, who, under the guidance of the tireless coach and manager, Snaige Gustafson, will carry out the evening's program.

The athletes and managers of Sydney's Kovas Club invite everyone, not only Lithuanians of the very first, but also of later transports, their families and their guests, to participate in this ball in large numbers.  There they can remember their own youth and those first steps taken in this great and hospitable land of kangaroos. 

* Modern-day apologies to any indigenous or other readers who are offended or shocked by this expression of the ignorance of the writer and others.

SOURCE

Laukaitis, Antanas (1987)'40 Metu Nuo I-J Transporto Atvykimo' ['40 Years Since the Arrival of First Transport'] Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] Sydney, 9 November, p 7 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1987/1987-11-09-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 7 April 2025.