Summary

Video documenting the preparation of the votive bread at the Valguarnera Italian Social Club in March 1997.
It aims to document a significant Italian cultural tradition which is still undertaken in Melbourne and widely practised in villages and towns of Sicily and other Italian regions. It was commissioned by Museum Victoria and shot by Screen Art Productions as part of the exhibition 'Chops and Changes: Food, Immigrants and Culture', held at the Chinese Museum, Cohen Place, Melbourne in 1997, at a time when Museum Victoria had temporarily closed its galleries in preparation for the translocation to the new Melbourne Museum. The exhibition consisted of a partnership between Museum Victoria, the Italian Historical Scoiety, the Jewish Museum of Australia and the Chinese Museum.

The video was commissioned by Museums Victoria and shot by Screen Art Productions as part of the Migration Museum South Australia travelling exhibition 'Chops and Changes: Food, Immigrants and Culture', held at the Chinese Museum, Cohen Place, Melbourne in 1997. The exhibition was augmented by local content through a partnership between Museums Victoria, Italian Historical Scoiety, Jewish Museum of Australia and Chinese Museum of Australia.

The Italian Historical Society's contribution to the project was a re-creation of a 'St Joseph's Table', a multi-tiered table with bread in many, mostly religious, shapes. Traditionally, the bread is made as part of the San Giuseppe Day festivities, celebrated annually on 19 March, a significant Italian cultural tradition which for decades was undertaken in Melbourne by male and female members of Melbourne's Valguarnera Italian Social Club in Clayton South. Valguarnera is a town in Sicily, from which Maria Tence (nee Attardi), who organised the Italian community part of the project, and her parents migrated.

The Italian Historical Society holds documentation and slides relating to the 'Chops and Changes' exhibition, as well as documentation showing how this tradition has been kept alive by Italian migrants in other regions of Italy (Eolian Islands and other parts of the world including the United States of America).

Description of Content

Video show the recreation and display of a 'St Joseph's Table', a multi-tiered table with bread in many shapes, part of the celebrations for the Festa San Giuseppe.

Physical Description

Black VHS Tape

Significance

The Valguarnera Italian Social Club was officially founded in 1969 following the first visit of an Italian President to Australia in 1967. Mr Saragat visited the major Australian cities pleading with Italian immigrants not to forget the culture and language. In the wake of Mr Saragat's visit, numerous Italian clubs were established throughout Australia, formal cultural exchanges were established including Italian Government funding of Italian language classes.

The Italy-born community was the largest non-English speaking migrant community in Australia, up until the 2010 Census (check). Italian speakers were migrating to the Australian colonies even before Italy was a sovereign nation. Geographically dispersed throughout Victoria, the contribution of Italian migrants can be found in every field of endeavour. The impact of Italian culture has been a major and extensive influence on the Australian way of life and socio-economic development. From architecture and construction, engineering and infrastructure, performing arts and fashion, retail and agriculture, food production and restaurant trade, Italians have been an integral part of Australian nation building since early colonial settlement. From the late 1960s through to the millenium, many Italian migrants and first generation Italian Australians were members of a variety of regional clubs, formed to aide them in remaining connected to their countryfolk, keeping their customs and language alive.

This a.v. documents a an element of the customs of Sicilian migrants and the significant cultural practice of the festive religious celebration of saint days, extensively practised throughout Italy, especially in the regions and rural areas. The celebration of the Tavola di San Giiuseppe (St Josseph's Table) subsequently transported to Australia through chain migration and retained as part of the preservation and maintenance of cultural life of people from Valguarnera Caropeppe. To the members of the Valguarnera Social Club, this celebration demonstrates the importance of maintaining customs as integral to their identity, retaining a connection with the country of origin and has played a pivotal role in the activities of the club as community organisations especially as a custom, that although widely practiced across Italy, for many Italian migrants, had to be left behind due to communities' being dispersed across Melbourne and regional areas and the lack of understanding of the place of religion in a multicultural, multidenominational country like Australia.

These are precious memories and practices which were of importance in the expression of identity, has over time diluted and maintaining such cultural practices and customs is increasingly challenging as subsequent generations become further distant from the original migrant generation and through the natural process of community settlement, integration and assimilation within the context of a multiculturally diverse society.

The Museum holds a significant collection relating to Italian migration, settlement and cultural life in Victoria, including that developed in collaboration with the Italian Historical Society CO.AS.IT. However, the documentation of a significant religious festival like St Joseph's table, remains largely uncollected. Evidence of similar festivals, like the blessing of the fleet festival in Western Australia and the frestival of the Black Madonna in Fremantle and religious festivals of other cultural communities, exist in migration publicatons.

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