Cibo! The silent migrant
The role of food in Italian immigration and assimilation to Melbourne in the 1950’s and 1960’s
Food is synonymous with Italy. It is a culture and country unsurpassably rich in history, art, ideals of family and tradition, as well as religion. and what truly makes Italy and Italians idiosyncratic in these spheres, is the role food plays in binding them together. This identity becomes most discernible and apparent simply by noting the importance food clearly played in Italian migration to Victoria in the 1950’s and 1960’s.
[Below] Neapolitan Marketplace, 1952. For millennia the market has played a far greater role than an economic one. To this day its significance on a social, local level cannot be understated still in Italy, as well as Australia. Food shopping bears an opportunity to mingle with the broader community.
Being a strongly catholic country, with 83% of Italians currently identifying as practicing or observing Christians, Italy and Christianity worked in tandem with their relationship to food. For instance, the Last Supper is one of the three most artistically depicted scenes in the bible across the nations’ churches and galleries (the birth of Christ and the crucifixion being the other two). Ritualistically consuming Christ and being a good Christian merely by eating bread and drinking wine (body and blood, respectively), Christianity, specifically Catholicism, found a true home already moulded for it in the homes and lives of Italians, whom were already responsible for the universally comprehensible phrase, “Roman feast”. The post-war Italian environment at the dawn of the 1950’s was a difficult atmosphere in which to raise a family. By 1951, Italy had one of the lowest birth-rates in the world, when just 8 years prior, it held the highest in Europe. Political and economic uncertainty, as well as continued displacement left many Italians starving, and assessing their few options, and deciding upon migration. “When you sail to an unknown shore, and your food is scanty [Backdrop] Leonardo da Vinci’s that hunger forces you to eat [Quote] Roman poet Virgil’s ‘The Last Supper’, 1498 CE. your tables, that is the time, epic, The Aeneid. A work Ironically, this most famous and weary as you are, to hope for a blending History and Myth to recognised depiction was painted home. This is where you must construct a history of the on a wall of a cafeteria in the with your own hand lay down founding of Rome. One of the Santa Maria delle Grazie church in largest, most powerful, Milan. the foundations of your first buildings and raise a rampart wealthiest and the most influential empire was around them.” supposedly founded its first leader could find a decent meal. Highlighting that Italy’s ties with food reach as far back as recorded western history.
[Left] Hungry Artists. Michelangelo’s shopping list. Although literacy rates were low amongst commoners during the 1500’s CE, every Italian could read ingredients; especially if depicted by an undisputed master of forms. Once again, Italy’s history, even in the art world, is found inexorable from food.
Australia seemed a perfect candidate for immigration for many reasons. It was a country in demand for migrants to aid build its population and economy, and happened to harbour a ‘Mediterranean climate’, particularly in the states of Victoria, New South Wales and areas of South Australia. A similar climate insured an easier adaption and consequent assimilation to the developing Australian culture and identity. Most importantly however, the similar [Above] As displayed at the Melbourne Immigration climate promised similar agriculture and Museum, this is an authentic crate lid of some luggage of food production to those already in use in one Helene Ilich, departing on the SS Oceania in 1953 in the Italy. Genoese dock in northern Italy. Interestingly, the item also bears an Australian address (157 spring St.), indicating that [Below] Italians arriving via plane to Melbourne. perhaps this woman already had family members and cohabitants waiting in Australia, beginning their new life. Images like this, bearing imagery of happy families This was not uncommon and came to be referred to as arriving and waving to their new home, were marriages by proxy, wherein women in Italy would marry primarily used for promotional purposes, Italian men already living and setting up in Australia, attempting to discredit natural and rational doubts sometimes without having met in person. Up to 12,000 and fears of new beginnings. women are believed to have been wed in this fashion from 1945- 1976.
Getting to their new continent, Italian migrants journeyed almost exclusively by ship, for it was still the cheapest mode of transport. There were, however, efforts to mobilise Italians via air. Aeroplanes were, by the 1950’s, the preferred way to travel long oceanic distances. The trip however, could still take up to 3 days, and the in- food was somewhat less Costco-esque. Upon the arrival of those not fortunate to be privy to the Assisted Migration agreement of 1951, which guaranteed 2 years of paid work to Italian Migrants in Australia, the displaced were housed in hostels and temporary accommodation centres. In these facilities, the greatest friction between migrants and staff was always caused by the inadequacy of the food. It reached boiling point twice with a protest in 1952, and an all our riot and clash between both German and Italian migrants with police in 1962.
Settling in to the new country, food was, and is, absolutely pivotal. For instance, a staple of Italian cuisine, the humble tomato, is now Australia’s second most important food commodity, according to Ausveg (Australian Vegetable Statistics). Now contributing over 600 million AUD on average per year to the Australian economy, the initial instigators and developers of the Australian tomato industry were Italian migrants in the early 20th century, later assisted by their compatriots, expanding their farms and shops, aiding in economic and national growth.
[Above] Migrants dining at Bonegilla Migrant Reception and Training Centre. Many newcomers, not just Italians, found food such as that being devoured here to be nothing but “cold meals, cooked according to the Australian way, poorly seasoned, and tasteless.” It is no wonder many sought to create home-inspired dishes.
Another Italian –and now Australian –cultural staple, pumping 3.3 billion AUD annually through the Australian economy, is wine. However, the most visibly influential characteristic of the Italian and Melbournian narrative, is coffee. Now hosting an internationally renowned café scene and culture, Melbourne’s adoption of the artful stimulant was tweaked and perfected firstly by [Above]Giuseppe Madafferi, founder of Italian family-run bistros, before creeping into the Mediterranean Wholesalers in 1961. Still standing in laneways of the CBD and jostling inner suburbs. its original position today on Sydney Road in Brunswick, this store offers a city-wide community The first Italian cuisines to appear were typically Italian products that would be otherwise be southern, due to the inflowing demographic. One impossible to find. Traditional food is difficult to Salvatore della Bruna of Naples, opened his produce without the ingredients, this store (though by no means the only one of its kind) offered a sense ristorante, Bruna in 1961, which boasts to have of home to new Italian-Australian shoppers, as well been the first to introduce Australia to the oldest as introducing ‘continental’ cuisine and goods to recorded fast food in the world, and now one of curious non-Italian Melbournians. Now dubbed “Australia’s largest continental Food Store”, the the most preponderant; pizza. business provides security and strength to a broad community and economy. Although Italian immigrants were aiding in the boosting of the Australian economy, achieved greatly through their mastery in agriculture and hospitality, this was also contrasted by the isolation and attitudes imposed by the White Australian populace. Stemming from socio- Darwinistic reasoning that was national policy. Southern Europeans were still deemed and regarded as constitutionally “undesirable”. Accounts of the first budding Italian ristoranti in Melbourne describe the patronage as ambiguously “bohemian”. The reluctance by the members of the greater dining strata of Melbourne is evident in the architectural cliquing of the clear majority of Italian restaurants. The inner-city suburb of Carlton slowly transformed from a predominantly Jewish community in the early 1900’s, fleeing persecution in eastern Europe, to ‘Little Italy’ by the mid 1960’s. Interestingly, the two communities were able to, in some cases, form business unions, assimilating to Australia’s production and hospitality industry. Samuel Wynn, creator and founder of the world-renowned wine company, was a Polish-Australian Jew, whom began supplying and promoting his wines via Italian ristoranti such as Leon Massoni’s Café Latin on Exhibition Street. Ultimately contributing to the foundation of Australia’s nascent presence and reputation in food and wine.
[Above] Café Florentino Menu from 1942, offering a combination of English, traditional French and Italian cuisine. Today’s menu of the same restaurant has somewhat drifted away from the rustic, dropping most of the Anglo-cuisine and honing toward refined, modern Italian cooking.
[Left] Factory floor of the Pelaco clothing factory in Richmond, 1951. Floor workers of such factories,
particularly in textiles, were almost entirely female. Italians were also amongst the first choice for employment, due to their international renown for craftsmanship and manual skill, as well as minimal language requirements. The prevalence of factory workers in post-war Melbourne also helped slowly push reforms for Not every Italian migrant settling and assimilating into Australia and better working her developing culture opened a café, bistro or bar. Melbourne was conditions from the 1950’s onwards. just ending her stint from 1881 as the industrial capital of the country. Textile, brewing, and refining companies were still in [Bottom left] San Remo operation in the suburbs of Richmond, Fitzroy and Collingwood, and Pasta pamphlet from the required a workforce. Herein many Italian immigrants settled for 1950’s, advertising the various forms of traditional work to invest in their children’s educations and futures. This is pasta available. From the late where the tradition of food and community made their settlement 1970’s, San Remo pasta such as that advertised was being possible. As the traditional patriarchal structure of the Italian family manufactured in the was somewhat compromised, with both parents needing to work Adelaidean factory run then during the day thus be absent from home, having a close-knit and now by Maurice Crotti in South Australia. To this day community was in many ways a safety net. This close, family the company is exporting to orientated, micro-society is often referred to as a familista system. 35 countries while providing And was prevalent in Italy for millennia and migrated with them. Australians with employment. [Below] As displayed at the Immigration Museum in Melbourne, samples of Australian-made pasta on an industrial scale dating from as early as 1901. Made by the Lucini Brothers whom migrated in the 1850’s.
Italian immigration to Australia had peaked with the cadence of the 1960’s. Its presence and influence had come to be part of the [Below] Lygon Street today. The area still Melbourne story. In 1960, Lygon Street, Carlton, hosted nearly 50 operates and revolves Italian-owned stores and businesses, a generous sum of which are still around a culture of in operation. 1971 saw 121,000 Italian-born Victorian-Australians living food, however much of the cuisine may in Australia. Growing political stability in Italy, paired with Australia’s have drifted. The lesser need for more citizens and greater workforce led to a drop in neighbourhood also hosts an Italian Italian immigration. The eye of the Australian immigration policy Museum, Italian makers shifted toward the influx of immigrants and refugees coming Language School, and from Vietnam –with the escalation of the war, as well as countries in an Italian festa every year to celebrate their the tangle of decolonisation primarily from Britain and France. roots, attracting and However, the two decades of Italian immigration has left its flavourful educating thousands and unmistakeable mark of influence on the Melbourne narrative and whilst promoting local businesses. identity. Australia’s status on the international culinary stage is indisputably grandiose. No other community of immigrants has left their mark upon Melbourne as clearly and definitively as those from Italy. With their mastery of all things food – growing, production, service –Italians were able to make substantial contributions their immediate Melbourne society and adapt to their new welcoming, and now thankful, country.
[Left] Mediterranean Wholesalers today, with a fully restored café bar to serve 3rd generation Italians from all over the state. The only store in Melbourne in which you browse the aisles with a mug of fresh corretto.
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