Got the call from my carlton person today - i am Ben’s silver sponsor.
It made me think of my grandfather (my nonno) & my grandmother (nonna). He sailed - yes sailed from Italy to Sth America for work then got wind of a railway being built here. He worked on the central train line, saved his money & bought a sugar cane farm in proserpine with his mate “Jack Kilo”. Then he saile back to Italy & his home town to find a wife. My Nonna was Margarita Ferronato - her surname translate to “born of Iron”. He brought her back to heat & floods, racism & prejudice. Heavily pregnant she had to travel around farms & not thru them cos she was a “dago”. heavily pregnant during flood season my nonna heard a small engine putting up the the proserpine river to her aid - Mary Tobin came to her aid. My aunty Mary was named in her honor. The Tobin family has always dealt with our families funerals ever since. She was shown as a new born around the hospital in astonishment cos she was “white”. The locals thought of the Italian migrants as “Kanaka’s” - the local indigenous workers. 4 daughters were born & a farming life was not for them. They moved to Melbourne to try find nonna’s Brother who was an opera singer & had shacked up with an older Australian woman. Oh the shame. My mother remembers dancing on the train station at spencer street as a young girl on arrival.. 4 young daughters who worked in a family shop selling Italian styled groceries. In the early 50’s my Nonna made a trip home to Italy to see her family. She spied espresso coffee & brought one home for the family shop in 1954. In 1954 my Nonna had one of the first commercial espresso machines in operation in Australia, just as the migrant influx began. My mum Natelina (Lina) & her 3 sisters, Mary, Elsie & Bette became the consulate, translators, helpers & providers of Italian life for these migrants. The shop boomed. The family shop was across the road from Dan O’connell Hotel, Canning St. Carlton. Mums family lived in Canning St as well, her neighbor’s family were “Silvagni”. Not the Sergio variety but a relation. Mum knew of Sergio but, in her words, they (the 4 sisters) weren’t interested in the Australian born Italians... mums hair was set for her wedding by Rita Silvagni. One of her bridesmaids was her Silvagni neighbor.
Mum turned 86 a few days ago.
Few can say their mother, aunties & grand parents were part of the cultural change of an entire country, but i can proudly say that my family was a part of changing Australia for the better.
I shed a tear this afternoon thinking of the sacrifice my grandparents & my migrant dad made - giving up everything & everyone they knew & loved so I could live a priveledged life.
Zulian family foto’s. All are mum, wedding foto is her & Silvagni cousin is on her left & her sister (deceased) Bette the youngest is to her right. Mum seated in foto in proserpine - only foto of her prior to losing most of her hand in a farm machinery accident (but that’s another story..)
If you notice the frame in the corner of the wedding foto - i shall post that next.
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