From Nonna with Love: Talk Events

Beyond Arrival: Migration stories and the hard realities of 'fitting in' - Panel event plus Q&A 

Many people who arrived and grew up in WA as migrants have experienced the challenges and difficulties of 'fitting in' to Australian schools and communities. The experience of discrimination can create quiet scars that mark us as adults: from experiencing racist slurs, to having the wrong contents in a school lunchbox, being told that your way of being doesn't 'fit' is an acute experience for young people. In this panel discussion, we explore the Italian community experience of being 'the other', and what kind of resilience is built up through the harmful intolerances that migrant communities struggle with. 

Topics we look forward to addressing include:

• Italian war-time internment: women's experience of hardship and racism, perceptions of Italians being on the 'other side'
• WA's apology for Italian internment
• Reclaiming the meaning of 'wog'
• The tension between fitting in and selling out: walking in two cultures
• Reflections on racism, harm and resilience
• Keeping children safe from racism and harmful intolerance

Vittoria Melia migrated from Calabria to Western Australia in 1963 as a married woman with a small child, with her husband having previously arrived in Fremantle to establish the family. An accomplished seamstress, Vittoria worked hard to develop opportunities through her expertise in order to improve her family’s fortunes. Her experiences both positive and negative as a migrant in WA were always framed through her motto: “Never look back, look to the future and don’t stop”.

Rosina Ventrice migrated from Calabria as a young child to Western Australia in the early 1950s and moved to Harvey from Perth after marriage to raise her family there. As a talented cook both in the home and commercial roles, Rosie and her husband Cosimo shared their love of music and their Italian heritage through performing in two folk groups in local clubs, Echo D’Italia and the Southwest Italian Folk Group. Her active contribution to social life in the community exposed her to the complex balance between maintaining her Italian heritage and fitting into Australian country life.  

Rita La Bianca is the daughter of Nonna Carolina Vinciullo, who arrived as a married woman to Western Australia in 1952 to an empty house with a tin roof – no beds or basic furniture. Resolving to work as hard as she could to improve their circumstances, Carolina had a business-minded approach to life guided by the motto: “In business you have to be smart and know when to turn the wheel”. Carolina’s husband was a founding member of the Sicilian Club Perth, and she fervently supported fundraising for the club in the belief that Sicilian culture would not be forgotten and was able to be enjoyed by the community through the club’s activities. Rita will speak to the family’s experiences of walking in two cultures in WA, including some of the challenges.

Greg Re is the son of Marianna Re, who arrived in Australia as an infant from the Aeolian Islands in Sicily. Marianna met her future husband at the WA Italian Club, which was the hub of a community support network developed to support Italian migrant families to find social connections in WA. The couple ran a successful fruit shop in Subiaco, which extended into other successful business ventures over the subsequent years. Marianna was a nurturing family figure with a great sense of fun, who took delight in an active social life including 10 pin bowling, swimming and playing cards. Greg will share some of the family stories that characterise their migrant experiences, and how his parents’ commitment to building support networks within the WA community have transformed the family’s experiences.    

Maria Rosaria Francomacaro is the Italian Government Lecturer at the Department of Italian Studies at the University of Western Australia in Perth. She coordinates and holds courses in Italian Language, Linguistics, History and Culture. Maria collaborates with the Consulate and many local Italian-Australian associations with public dissemination and training interventions. Her scientific interests range from language teaching to sociolinguistics. 

Nonnas Talking - Panel Event plus Q&A

Join us for a community panel hosted by Tina Altieri as we open up the conversation to give our Nonnas the floor. Look out, Nonna's got the talking stick! Join us for a lively discussion of topics including:

• Early expectations and adjustments
• Setting up networks, building community in WA
• Friendships: the importance of women's networks, intercultural friendships
• Italian comare and compare networks, how did this tradition support family life?
• Fostering Italian culture and maintaining traditions

MC Tina Altieri is the daughter of Nonna Giulia Altieri, and credits her mother for the hard-work ethic and support that has led her into a successful media career. Tina started off in media as a young radio reporter at 6IX News after studying broadcasting at WA Academy of Performing Arts. Subsequently Tina has served as a reporter and newsreader for several networks in Perth, and currently is a TV news presenter for 7NEWS Perth, having developed over 30 years experience as a journalist and presenter across radio and TV. Her work as a media communicator, compere and industry mentor demonstrates her passion for the art of communication and its importance to the field of business and building great relationships.

Nonna Franca Roberti migrated as an adult from Rome in 1976 with her young family, with an ache in her heart for close knit family and her beloved life left behind. As she settled into her new life in Perth and developed support networks, Franca found opportunity calling her as a radio broadcaster. Her career in local radio consolidated when she commenced her weekly program Panorama Italiano in 1980 on Radio 6NR. Franca was awarded the Order of the Star of Italy for her service to the community through Italian language broadcasting, and the promotion of friendly cultural relations between Italy and Australia.    

Nonna Vittoria Melia migrated from Calabria to Western Australia in 1963 as a married woman with a small child, with her husband having previously arrived in Fremantle to establish the family. An accomplished seamstress, Vittoria worked hard to develop opportunities through her expertise in order to improve her family’s fortunes. Her experiences both positive and challenging as a migrant in WA were always framed through her motto: “Never look back, look to the future and don’t stop”.

Nonna Rosina Ventrice migrated from Calabria as a young child to Western Australia in the early 1950s and moved to Harvey from Perth after marriage to raise her family there. As a talented cook both in the home and commercial roles, Rosie and her husband Cosimo shared their love of music and their Italian heritage through performing in two folk groups in local clubs, Echo D’Italia and the Southwest Italian Folk Group. Her active contribution to social life in the community exposed her to the complex balance between maintaining her Italian heritage and fitting into Australian country life.  

Nonna Louisa Perroni (nee Re) was born in Perth as the eldest of six children in an Italian migrant family, with her father Umberto (Bert) migrating to Australia to marry his beloved sweetheart Felicia in Sydney after meeting during wartime, then moving to Perth to build a new life together as a family. Her hard-working father became a successful businessman, owning and operating B. Re & Sons Butchers along with his wife from 1953, an enterprise that become one of the first continental smallgoods producers in Perth. Louisa’s parents were community minded,  contributing to Italian clubs and sporting groups including becoming founding members of the Sicilian Club Perth. Despite a positive and happy family life where Louisa “grew up Italian”, experiences of racism and discrimination were felt by the Re family in many ways, including during Bert’s experience of internment in WA during WWII along with other Italian men.

Nonna Anne Ferrari was born into the renowned Re family, whose combined entrepreneurial skills developed a WA food dynasty spanning over a century. Born of ancestral Sicilian merchants, Anne’s father founded the hugely successful Re Store in Northbridge. In a modern way for the times, her father treated his daughters with mentorship as if they were sons, and Anne learned all aspects of running the business from the age of 14 when she commenced working full time. Anne became a pioneer in the development of coffee roasting and blending for the Re Store business, long before the days of modern coffee culture. She has become an iconic personality in the Perth food scene.

Nonnas 2.0: Stories from behind the black apron - Sunday Seminar

On International Women's Day, hear stories of the struggles, strength and resilience of Italian migrant women that go beyond the stereotyped caricature of the Italian Nonna. 

In popular Australian culture, the character of the loving, generous, no-nonsense Nonna matriarch looms large in social media and in advertising where Nonnas sell everything from pasta sauce to pork. In this talk, historian Susanna Iuliano encourages us to look beyond the stereotype of the black-clad Nonna. Drawing on the complex stories of Italian migrant women against the background of Australia's post-war immigration policies and practices, Susanna argues how the role and impacts of Italian migrant women in Australia extended far beyond the kitchen table.

Dr Susanna Iuliano is a historian, librarian and heritage professional with decades of experience in the community history and collections sector. Susanna is a former Commonwealth Scholar whose PhD dissertation was a comparative study of Italian migrant women's roles and experiences in post-war Australia and Canada. She is the author of three books on Italian migration history (The Blessing of the Fleet; Fremantle's Italians and the award winning Vite Italiane:  Italian Lives in Western Australia).  She has worked in different roles in federal and state governments leading projects and programs in the areas of immigration and multicultural policy. She currently works in local government in the area of heritage promotion.