The story of a Victorian country girl of Italian descent who is developing a career as a professional player in women’s Australian football and is a staunch promoter of gender equality in all sports. (Photo Ksenia Belova)
According to the website emigrati.it, for every one hundred Italians living in Italy, there are another seven living abroad. This same source also tells us that of the four million Italian citizens spread out across the globe, most are those that have left Italy in the last twenty years. Currently, around 45,000 Italians emigrate per year. (Photo Courtesy of Fabrizio Venturini)
So far, all of my past articles have been surprisingly easy to write. That may be because I’ve been writing about my own experience as part of the Italo-Australian youth, as well as gli italiani anziani, the elderly Italians (or Nonni) with whom most of us Italo-Australians grew up with. (Photo Courtesy of Natalie Di Pasquale)
Located on a leafy street in residential South Yarra, the Italian Institute of Culture (Elm Tree House, as it is also known) was purchased by the Italian government in 1974. The building rests on centuries of local and international history alike. Built in 1857, throughout the decades this imposing house has accommodated notable Australians and Italians carrying out cultural as well as political functions.
CO.AS.IT. Melbourne the main Italian welfare and cultural organisation of Australia has turned fifty. The anniversary was celebrated last September with a number of events and a social gathering at The Docklands.
When I ask my students at Monash why they are studying Italian, many of them reply ‘because of my Nonni’. Many of them have in fact learnt to speak (or at least understand) some Italian, while talking to their grandparents, who usually migrated to Australia in the 1950s and 1960s.
I recently found myself at a checkout with my crying 10-week-old son. I spoke to the cashier in English then tended to my son in Italian, soothing him and using diminutive Italian forms of his name.
In his 1964 masterpiece The Italians, Luigi Barzini, in his infinite wisdom and acute social awareness, states: “In the heart of every man, wherever he is born, whatever his education and tastes, there is one small corner that is Italian”. What else could explain your need to pick up this edition of Segmento? Everyone can connect with, even in the smallest way, the Italian way of life, culture and language.
On a recent trip to the US I was humbled to explore Ellis Island’s National Museum of Immigration. The harsh conditions of the New York winter melted away as I stepped inside the warm and welcoming lobby. After catching my breath, I stopped to admire the world I had stepped into. Millions of hopeful immigrants had to withstand gruelling transit conditions with no guarantee of security in the US.
ALTO is the name of a business and social network created by a group of second-generation Italian-Australians who take pride in their Italian identity and bring it into play in their business dealings and social relations. They are the torchbearers of a transformed Italian culture in Australia that has come a long way from the experience of their parents.
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE ABRUZZO CLUB? “The club is not just a committee, the various subcommittees, the volunteers and staff; the Club is all of us! It is for you, for your family, for your children and friends.”
It is eleven o’clock and I am smoking a cigar on the busy waterfront of my hometown. On the seashore a father and son are sharing the son’s exciting experience of fishing.
At a recent funeral for a respected elderly family member I got to thinking that as more and more of that wave of Italian post-war migrants die off, our current lifestyle threatens the traditional view of what it means to be the sons and daughters of Italian immigrants to Australia.
