by Josie Gagliano
Worth: $18.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Greta Scacchi (narrator), Celestina Mammone, Maria Marino, Terry McClain, Cathy Harris, Tina Arena, Alegra Spender, Franca Arena
Intro:
… respectful and insightful …
If you’re of Italian-Australian background, have had an Italian neighbour, or wondered just how olive oil and Parmigiano arrived in Australia – so basically, everyone – this movie is for you.
Clips featuring stamped passports in the 1930s, black and white photos of ships, passenger lists, and a suitcase full of hope and not much else, this is a beautiful history lesson about the Italian wave of migration to Australia, all wrapped in layers of Italian-Australian nostalgia, and filled with emotional stories of triumph over adversity in a country 16,000 kilometres from the motherland.
Beautifully narrated by Greta Scacchi, the interview subjects start with the delightful 94-year-old Celestina Mammone (who has sadly passed since filming), who speaks in her effusive, enthusiastic and distinctly Aussie twang, thanks to her early upbringing in Mildura, Victoria, where her family landed decades ago.
Mammone, alongside the other strong Italian-born women, reveal snippets of their lives in Terra Australis, the back-breaking work on barren Aussie soil, the struggle to be accepted and assimilate as best they could, and the hurtful name calling (“wogs”, “dagos”). A time when Italian cuisine was laughed at; freshly baked Italian bread school lunches lovingly made by mammas with all the good stuff for their bambini thrown in the bushes out of embarrassment. Wild, character-building times in every way.
Affirms Scacchi: “Their quiet strength is written into Australian history.”
Signing up for a 40-day journey on a ship departing Italy, they entered Australia and the great unknown, predominantly landing in Western Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, and Adelaide. It was the trek to Queensland – and specifically to Innisfail – where sugar cane cutting became the domain of the ‘dagos’ – where they took to the task at hand, went on to own the land, and were renowned for elevating the industry to one that positively flourished.
In exchange for monthly rent, the government gave the new migrants land, and left them to fend for themselves, narrates Scacchi, adding that: “For most, those empty dusty blocks meant little. But to Southern Italians, it meant opportunity.”
“You could put a Southern Italian into a piece of dirt that nobody can grow anything… you put on a Calabrese, he’ll grow something out of it,” says Mammone. “They knew the land.”
Ninety-nine year old Maria Marino, who arrived in Australia in 1934 at the age of eight, and settled in Innisfail, joined her father; he’d been cane cutting with his three brothers for years (a familiar story of married men coming to Australia and working and saving for five to seven years before family joined them).
Marino says: “My first impression, I wanted to go back to Italy, because the young Australians didn’t treat us very nicely. They called us dagos and threw stones at us… they weren’t very friendly at all. It was very hard. We came from a place where we were loved… and to be treated like that for no reason, it was terrifying to even be able to go to school.”
But “bigger problems were brewing back in the homeland” – namely, Mussolini aligning with Hitler – and Italians were now viewed with suspicion and sent off to internment camps (known as “enemy aliens” at the time). The official line from the Australian Government declared that “all said and done, they are mighty lucky Ities to be prisoners in this land.” Wild!
And so, the Italian women had no choice but to toil on the land (as they were before, but now without the men), while continuing to raise families; stories like one from Marino, who was driving an 8-tonne truck without a licence at age 14, loading up the lorry and helping to tend to the land.
Italian-born model Terry McClain (née Paliani, and known as Maria Teresa Paliani) arrived in Australia in 1955 after a 73-hour trip (!) for a special fashion parade for department store David Jones, later marrying an Australian and staying here, introducing a modern sense of style which, by McClain’s own admission, Aussies had not seen before. She then featured on the cover of The Australian Women’s Weekly with her baby – the first Italian woman to do so – representing a huge shift in what defined “being Australian.”
Cathy Harris (née Rossi), Chairperson of Harris Farm Markets, attests that it was all about family. “After the war, being Italian wasn’t quite so trendy,” and adds that being called wogs “never really worried me too much… ‘cause I’d think, you know, we come from Italy. This is like the most amazing country in the world,” she laughs.
From explaining why there were so many single Italian men in Australia in the 1950s and 1960s, filling boarding houses but lacking life skills with their mamma, to exploring the concept of marriage by proxy (“matrimonio per procura”), this doco is a glorious time capsule.
Chefs and restauranteurs – Olimpia Bortolotto (who recounts the absence of EVOO and parmesan), and Paola Toppi (from iconic La Strada and Machiavelli restaurants) – add such substance to the changing world of hospitality over the decades.
The doco also features other incredible Italian-born or Italo-Australian women of note, who all regale stories of different times: singer Tina Arena, politician Allegra Spender (who also speaks about her mother, fashion pioneer Carla Zampatti), politician Franca Arena AO, and many more. With their vision, all these women pushed through barriers, sexism, and racism… and triumphed in Australia. And all did it with grace and gratitude, which is still evident today.
Written, directed and produced by Angelo Pricolo, Jason McFadyen, and Shannon Swan (LYGON ST – Si Parla Italiano), they are to be congratulated for their respectful and insightful film, creating a beautiful space for all interviewees, who are the keepers of such valuable stories that are now solidified to recount for generations to come.
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