William Metcalf, Utopian Dreams and Dystopian NightmaresBrisbane: Boolarong Press, 2022, 196 pp., A$34.99, ISBN: 9 7819 2264 3445
Jessica Stroja, Displaced Persons, Resettlement and the Legacies of War: From War Zones to New HomesLondon: Routledge, 2022, 164 pp., A$284, ISBN 9 7810 3221 3576 Seth Bernstein, Return to the Motherland: Displaced Soviets in WWII and the Cold WarIthaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2023, 312 pp., US$49.95. ISBN 9 7815 0176 7395
Welsh-born author and playwright John Naish worked and wrote on the North Queensland canefields between 1950 and 1963. Assisted by unpublished works, letters and diaries shared by the Naish family, this study outlines the full contents of Naish’s known oeuvre for the first time. It focuses on the depiction of canefield labour and society in two novels, an autobiographical piece and five plays – some newly discovered. Attitudes in his writings to sugar country class divisions, to workers and their rights, to canefield labour and labourers, to gender divisions and conflicts in the towns and fields, to race, Indigenous Australians and to British and Italian immigrants are exemplified and examined. Extensive evidence supports the conclusion that Naish was a liberal and compassionate thinker. Always competent and sometimes powerful as literature, together his works comprise an authentic socio-historical document.
William Metcalf, Utopian Dreams and Dystopian NightmaresBrisbane: Boolarong Press, 2022, 196 pp., A$34.99, ISBN: 9 7819 2264 3445
Lyndon Megarrity, Robert Philp and the Politics of DevelopmentMelbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2022, 335 pp., A$49.95, ISBN 9 7819 2266 9865
While considerable research has been undertaken on internment experiences during the World War II in Australia, little has focused on the thousands of ‘enemy aliens’, especially Italian-born women and Australian-born women of Italian descent, whose family members were interned. This article explores the ways in which the lives of three Queensland Italian women were impacted by the National Security (Aliens Control) Regulations 1939 (Cth). One of these three women was ultimately interned as a result of being perceived as a threat to national security. The experiences of each, documented in official records, highlight concerns about their treatment under the Regulations. How did the Regulations restrict the civil rights of Italian women and how did they respond? Examination of these three women’s particular circumstances shows that they each suffered hardship and isolation when loved ones were interned, yet two actively sought to improve their situation by appealing to the authorities. Their stories reflect the ‘war hysteria’ and suspicion, as well as isolation, discrimination and victimisation, that form a largely unacknowledged history of the wartime experience of ‘enemy alien’ women.
In this memoir, Antonella Riem reflects on her long career in Australian literary studies in Italy and internationally, and the scholars who have inspired her. She then outlines the principles of the partnership model of literary studies that she has developed over many years, and how she applies her approach to Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s ‘Kubla Khan’ and David Malouf’s An Imaginary Life.
Steve Capelin, Paradiso: A Novel Brisbane: AndAlso Books, 2021, 345 pp., A$30, ISBN: 9 780648 905110
Sir Samuel Walker Griffith (1845–1920) is distinguished as the first Australian translator of Italy’s ‘Supreme Poet’, Dante Alighieri (1265–1321). This article considers how Griffith’s entanglement with Dante casts light on the Queensland–Italian connection. First, it sketches the concept of entangled history and entanglement, an evolving transcultural historiographic approach. Second, it canvasses how entangled history can assist in appraising implications of Griffith’s recently contested legacy as Premier of Queensland. Third, it outlines points of convergence between Griffith and Dante, beginning with Griffith’s translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Fourth, it extends this lens on convergence to Griffith’s and Dante’s common dimensions that include Griffith’s Italophilia, and the experience of divisive, factional and fractious politics. Fifth, it narrows to consider the limited justice of contrapasso in Dante’s treatment of crime and punishment. Finally, it traverses codified justice that features in Griffith’s entanglement with Dante and the Italian Penal Code – Griffith translated Dante when drafting Queensland’s ground-breaking Criminal Code and when referencing the Italian Penal Code as a source therein. This article proposes that Griffith’s translational project was not simply a vehicle for sharpening his Italian or pursuing fame or status per se, but was a lifelong creative pursuit that offered imaginative, intellectual applications resonating with his public service values. Whatever impelled Griffith’s translations, his appreciation of Dante clearly instances Queensland–Italian interconnectedness.
The figure of Costante Danesi (1884–1969) stands out as an unrelenting defender of the rights of Italian migrants in Queensland’s history between the two world wars. Although his activism as an anti-fascist is documented in archival records and mainstream and Italian-migrant newspapers of the time, his role has received little more than cursory attention by scholars to date. This has led not only to confusion about his politics but also neglect of an opportunity for a deeper appreciation of the intercultural dimensions of resilience during the interwar years. Arriving in Australia in 1921, Danesi was not alone in speaking up to defend Italian migrants’ contributions to society or in aiding their wellbeing, and his activism in protecting their rights aligned with the principles of democracy. Yet an examination of those struggles reveals how the experiences of Italian sugarcane workers in North Queensland exposed overt and covert racism alongside Australia’s democratic ideals of the time. Drawing from the works of Joan Beaumont and Arjun Appadurai, this discussion repositions an Italian-born British subject as significant not only within the history of Queensland but also, more generally, in the demonstration of a minority community’s resilience over this tumultuous era.
This article presents some of the main dynamics of the social reproduction of an Italian community through an ethnographic study of the Feast of the Three Saints in Silkwood, North Queensland. It has been celebrated annually there since being imported from the Sicilian village of St Alfio in 1950. As a celebration of Italian sociality and the Italian way of life, the Feast offers a particular opportunity to study the relationship between popular religion, food production and consumption, the senses, memory and materiality. From this perspective, I argue that the Feast as ‘lived religion’ should be understood not only as an expression of Catholic devotion, but also in terms of the construction of a ‘domus’, defined as a social unit and a community based on shared values and practices enacted and continually renewed by the preparation of food and the sensorial aspects of commensality. In the ‘sacred street theatre’ of the Feast, it is by means of these food practices that a community comes into being by sharing knowledge, memories and feelings. [A religious feast in Sicily] is, above all, an existential explosion. (Sciascia 1965: 30)1 This completely irreligious way of understanding and professing a religion … has its roots in a profound materialism, a total rejection of all that entails mystery, invisible revelation, metaphysics. (Sciascia 1965: 21)
Antonella Riem Natale, Sue Ballyn, Stefano Mercanti and Caterina Colomba (eds), I’m Listening Like the Orange Tree: In Memory of Laurie Hergenhan Udine: Forum, 2021, 203pp, €17.10, ISBN978-88-3283-277-8
Capturing an important day in the life of a community, a photograph from the author’s family collection records a group that has gathered to welcome the Italian aviator Francesco De Pinedo to Innisfail in 1925. De Pinedo’s record-breaking 55,000-kilometre flight from Rome to Tokyo via Australia and back was an extraordinary feat, and a demonstration of Italian technological advancement and participation in the drive towards global connectivity of those times. He had been feted by the public and dignitaries, including the Prime Minister, at each stage of his journey around Australia. But the photograph reveals much more. De Pinedo’s visit was particularly welcome where Italians were denigrated and viewed with suspicion. At the time, there was unrest about the impact of ‘foreign’ – specifically Italian – immigration in North Queensland, to provide labour for its sugar industry. The men in the photograph were among the leaders of the North Queensland Italian communities, and three of them had been invited as witnesses before the Ferry Royal Commission just months earlier. The Commission was set up to investigate attitudes towards the increasing numbers of Italians, and those views were to result in widespread internment of North Queensland Italians during World War II. All but two of the Italian leaders photographed were interned. This article situates the personal histories and contributions of these individuals within their historical circumstances.
Artist Judy Watson, a member of the Waanyi people of north-west Queensland, has spent several periods in Italy, including on a residency in Tuscany in 1992, and when selected to present her work in the Australian pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1997 and as a speaker at the aabaakwad gathering of First Nations artists at the Biennale in 2022. In the interview, Watson reflects on her connection to culture and Country and speaks of the works inspired by her stays in Italy. She also comments on changes over time in the Venice Biennale, as well as the interest in Indigenous Australian artists in Italy.
The Introduction to this special issue explains the rationale for its publication. It is intended to further the exploration of both sides of the Queensland–Italy connection, extending the already considerable body of work on Italians in Queensland and contributing to the heretofore less-examined field of Queenslanders’ experiences of Italy. In particular, the influences exerted on Queenslanders by Italian culture and history, and the many ‘views from Queensland’ of Italy and Italians, warrant further attention. The contributions to this issue therefore fall into two categories: those concerned with Italians in Queensland, which relate to migrants and their descendants; and those concerned with movement in the opposite direction, but mainly for purposes other than migration, such as study and work, personal exploration, and acculturation. They include an interview, a memoir, a creative non-fiction piece and two book reviews, alongside five research articles.
This article presents some of the main dynamics of the social reproduction of an Italian community through an ethnographic study of the Feast of the Three Saints in Silkwood, North Queensland. It has been celebrated annually there since being imported from the Sicilian village of St Alfio in 1950. As a celebration of Italian sociality and the Italian way of life, the Feast offers a particular opportunity to study the relationship between popular religion, food production and consumption, the senses, memory and materiality. From this perspective, I argue that the Feast as 'lived religion' should be understood not only as an expression of Catholic devotion, but also in terms of the construction of a 'domus', defined as a social unit and a community based on shared values and practices enacted and continually renewed by the preparation of food and the sensorial aspects of commensality. In the 'sacred street theatre' of the Feast, it is by means of these food practices that a community comes into being by sharing knowledge, memories and feelings.
Sir Samuel Walker Griffith (1845-1920) is distinguished as the first Australian translator of Italy's 'Supreme Poet', Dante Alighieri (1265-1321). This article considers how Griffith's entanglement with Dante casts light on the Queensland-Italian connection. First, it sketches the concept of entangled history and entanglement, an evolving transcultural historiographic approach. Second, it canvasses how entangled history can assist in appraising implications of Griffith's recently contested legacy as Premier of Queensland. Third, it outlines points of convergence between Griffith and Dante, beginning with Griffith's translation of Dante's Divine Comedy. Fourth, it extends this lens on convergence to Griffith's and Dante's common dimensions that include Griffith's Italophilia, and the experience of divisive, factional and fractious politics. Fifth, it narrows to consider the limited justice of contrapasso in Dante's treatment of crime and punishment. Finally, it traverses codified justice that features in Griffith's entanglement with Dante and the Italian Penal Code - Griffith translated Dante when drafting Queensland's ground-breaking Criminal Code and when referencing the Italian Penal Code as a source therein. This article proposes that Griffith's translational project was not simply a vehicle for sharpening his Italian or pursuing fame or status per se, but was a lifelong creative pursuit that offered imaginative, intellectual applications resonating with his public service values. Whatever impelled Griffith's translations, his appreciation of Dante clearly instances Queensland- Italian interconnectedness.
The figure of Costante Danesi (1884-1969) stands out as an unrelenting defender of the rights of Italian migrants in Queensland's history between the two world wars. Although his activism as an anti-fascist is documented in archival records and mainstream and Italianmigrant newspapers of the time, his role has received little more than cursory attention by scholars to date. This has led not only to confusion about his politics but also neglect of an opportunity for a deeper appreciation of the intercultural dimensions of resilience during the interwar years. Arriving in Australia in 1921, Danesi was not alone in speaking up to defend Italian migrants' contributions to society or in aiding their wellbeing, and his activism in protecting their rights aligned with the principles of democracy. Yet an examination of those struggles reveals how the experiences of Italian sugarcane workers in North Queensland exposed overt and covert racism alongside Australia's democratic ideals of the time. Drawing from the works of Joan Beaumont and Arjun Appadurai, this discussion repositions an Italian-born British subject as significant not only within the history of Queensland but also, more generally, in the demonstration of a minority community's resilience over this tumultuous era.
In this memoir, Antonella Riem reflects on her long career in Australian literary studies in Italy and internationally, and the scholars who have inspired her. She then outlines the principles of the partnership model of literary studies that she has developed over many years, and how she applies her approach to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 'Kubla Khan' and David Malouf's An Imaginary Life.
