Migration of Cultures Symposium, 10-13 April 2006

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https://hdl.handle.net/2328/1484

The focus of this symposium was intended to convey the themes of cultural identity and ethnicity which are the focus of the scholars involved, while also indicating their interest in migration and movement. The research interests of the group include Irish, Scottish, German, Celtic, Italian, French, and Greek identities and migrations.

Professor Ros Pesman (Challis Chair in History, University of Sydney) and Dr James Jupp (Director of the Centre for Immigration and Multicultural Studies in the Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University) were the symposium's special guests.

This event was planned as a working symposium, in which everyone took an active part in discussion works in progress.

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    Adopting and adapting: Italian settlement in South Australia in the 1950s and 1960s. [abstract].
    (2006) O'Connor, Desmond John
    The biggest influx of Italians to Australia, including South Australia, occurred during the 1950s and 1960s as a result of the Australian government’s post-war immigration programme, which attempted to meet the perceived need to populate Australia and to supply labour for the nation’s expanding industries. In the two decades 1950-1970 over a quarter of a million Italians migrated to Australia, 30,000 of whom (12%) settled in South Australia. This paper considers some social and cultural implications of the settlement of Italians in South Australia during these two decades. Extensive use is made of the life experiences of a number of SA Italians who have been interviewed during the last ten years.
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    More than a sea change? Post-World War II French migration to South Australia. [abstract].
    (2006) Bouvet, Eric James
    The proposed paper seeks to examine the contextual reasons as well as the personal motivations that spurred the French to migrate and settle in South Australia in the 1950s and 1960s. This study constitutes the second stage of the investigation of post-Word War II French migration to South Australia up to the early 1970s, this time from a qualitative perspective. A quantitative study carried out in 2003-2004 produced original demographic and socio-economic data about the French migrants settling in South Australia (see Bouvet & Boudet-Griffin, 2005), however, it did not provide information about the migration process as experienced by individuals.
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    The Irish in South Australia: names and naming. [abstract].
    (2006) Lonergan, Dymphna
    In celebrating its centennial in an Irish way, despite having little Irish background, The Dublin Progress Association chose to exploit what Pierre Bourdieu would call the ‘economic’, ‘cultural’ and ‘social capital’ associated with the name of their town. We can see that an ‘Irish’ place name in South Australia can have meaning and value that extends beyond its role as a geographic indicator and an historic reminder. Recognition of the economic, cultural, and social value of place names reveals new insights and possibilities. This paper explores Bourdieu’s concepts through the naming of, in the main, Irish related places in South Australia.
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    "Unrecorded Lives": Oral Narratives of a Group of First-Generation Campanian Women Residing in Adelaide, South Australia. [abstract].
    (2006) Glenn, Diana Cavuoto
    This paper will focus on issues of identity and cultural maintenance, as evidenced by the oral testimonies of a generational cohort who were born in the region of Campania in Southern Italy and who emigrated to Australia in the 1950s-1960s. Although, during the post-war period of mass migration by Italians to overseas destinations, an Assisted Migration Agreement was signed by Australia and Italy (in 1951), the majority of Campanian migrants to Adelaide were not the beneficiaries of assisted passages. Instead, sponsorship by spouses, relatives or paesani, followed by cluster settlement patterns, were strong features of transnational immigration by Campanians to South Australia in the post-WWII period. Therefore the journeying and resettlement experiences of this project’s sampling of first generation Campanian women were predominantly influenced by family kinship networks operating within a system of chain migration.
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    Wog boy moves: Greek-Australian performance and the transnational masculine, 1955-2000. [abstract].
    (2006) Bollen, Jonathan James
    Drawing on archival research into Australian theatre history, this illustrated paper explores relations between Australian imaginings of ancient Greek theatre and a culture’s erotic investment in the transnational masculinity enacted among others by Greek-Australian men.
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    Values and traditions of South Australian Italian migrants from Caulonia (Calabria). [abstract].
    (2006) Rose, Daniela
    To what extent do South Australian Italian migrants from Caulonia (Calabria) maintain their cultural practices and traditions in everyday life in Adelaide, Australia? This is one of the main questions that this paper aims to explore. Cauloniese migration is particularly interesting because of the proportionately large percentage of arrivals in South Australia. Among the Australian states, South Australia was by far the preferred destination of the cauloniesi, followed by Western Australia and Victoria.
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    "Materialising" a Diasporic Irish Family on the Frontier of S.E. SA (1852-1860). [abstract].
    (2006) Lynch, Gaynor Lyndon
    This paper interrogates the idea of using fiction to re-imagine local myth. Can the novelist history-writer seeking to construct a narrative from the occluded stories of an 1850s Irish settler family, give just consideration to the essentialisms of modern history? A central concern of the paper is the representation, then and since, of the Irish diaspora on the frontier of S.E. SA. (1852-1860). It calls attention to the complex diversity of Irish immigrants on station settlements dominated by Scots cleared from the Highlands, Prussians fleeing religious persecution, and enterprising English pastoralists. How are Gambierton Irish settlers portrayed, and by whom? What did they carry with them? Where did they spring from, and have some histories fallen through the cracks? Are there contradictions, instabilities?
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    Authenticity of product: Italian heritage and branding in the Australian wine industry. [abstract].
    (2006) King, Sara
    This paper will discuss the use of cultural markers in branding and marketing techniques of Italian Australian winemakers. A survey of these brands carried out by the author found that Italian wine makers in Australia almost invariably refer to their Italian heritage in their marketing material. The use of this reference, and often their immigrant ‘rags to riches’ stories are utilised in an attempt to add authenticity to their product, to make them stand out from the others in an increasingly competitive and overcrowded market. But does it work? What do we think we are buying when we buy an ‘Italian’ product? What cultural associations do we make as Australian consumers? The commodification of culture is an area of study that would be well adapted to Italians in the wine industry in Australia, and is the focus of this paper.
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    World War I Memorials in the Barossa: Markers of Identity Shift and Dissonance. [abstract].
    (2006) Leader-Elliott, Lynette Frances
    In South Australia’s Barossa Valley, war memorials link regional identity and national politics as well as commemorating the dead. Settled by German Lutherans in the 1840s, the Barossa today is a close knit regional community, with a publicly projected image of a distinctively Australian region with German and English antecedents. But the history of the region has not always been one of cross-community harmony, and on closer examination there have been periods of significant disharmony, especially around the two World Wars of the twentieth century. The war memorials are now seen as reflections of the whole community’s commitment to fighting for Australia and the British Empire, but at the time they were erected they represented complex social and political agendas of citizenship and loyalty, acceptance and suspicion.
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    Migration Beyond the Second Generation: Ancestry and Identity in Historical and Fictional Narratives. [abstract].
    (2006) Habel, Chad Sean
    This paper is an exploration of ancestry and cultural identity in texts which fall into various genres, including history and fiction. The main focus will be on the Irish-Australian authors Thomas Keneally and Christopher Koch, and the ways in which they deploy ancestry to aid in the construction of a hyphenated Irish-Australian cultural identity. It will suggest further possibilities for research into ancestry so that familial origins can be seen as rhizomes rather than roots.
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    Community and Church: the Italian "problem" in Australia during the inter-war years. [abstract].
    (2006) Tolcvay, Monica
    The mass migration of Italians to Anglo-Saxon countries, such as the USA and Australia, caused a great amount of discontent in religious circles, so much so that Italian migrants have been considered a religious “problem”. This paper will examine the Italian “problem” in Australia. It will establish that the “problem” did exist in Australia before the Second World War, a period that has been considered by scholars to be a period of non-activity and has consequently been neglected. Quite often it is believed that, due to small numbers and remote settlement patterns, Italian migrants did not pose a “real challenge” to the Catholic Church in Australia before the Second World War.
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    Endogamy and exogamy among post-war Calabria-born women in South Australia. [abstract].
    (2006) Ciccone, Giulia
    This paper analyses the results of Giulia Ciccone's study of single Calabria-born women who married after their arrival in South Australia. In order to look at their marriage patterns Ciccone sifted through the marriage registers of four Catholic Parishes in Adelaide covering the period 1961 to 2005 and identified all the marriages in which there was a Calabria-born bride. The parishes of Newton, Salisbury, Seaton and Virginia were chosen for study as they are located in areas where there is a high proportion of Italians. These parishes are frequented by a large number of Italy-born people. By examining the bride’s choice of spouse it was possible to determine whether these Calabria-born brides married endogamously or exogamously and, when the latter, the spouse’s place of origin. Marriages were classified as endogamous when the Calabria-born bride married a man born in either Calabria or in another region of Italy or when she married a man of Italian origin. Marriages were considered exogamous when the Calabria-born bride chose a spouse who was not born in Italy and was not of Italian origin.