Versione Italiana

With much enthusiasm I welcome the invitation from the Italian School Committee to write the preface of this wonderful publication and I am grateful to “the Committee” to have consented me to link the name of the Consulate of Italy and mine to such an initiative, which I consider of utmost importance due to its artistic level and for the reflections it stimulates through these wonderful images.

It draws a painting of a dynamic and modern Italy and it describes the story of immigrants being different from the pioneers; from the period when, leaving one’s homeland, looking forward to a welcomed return, was often impossible to materialise. That was a moment of great drama, often motivated by circumstances beyond their control. These were the times when “nostos” was synonymous with failure.

The voyage depicted here assumes the characteristics of autonomy and dynamism. It gains stimulus and strength by the search of something new, by the instinctive attraction for the unknown, by the distance which separates us from unfamiliar reality, by the desire of knowledge in the widest sense of the word.

In this new dimension, the young immigrants, integrated in the Australian reality, speaking the English language, attending local schools and frequenting fellow Australians, kept their Italian roots, through their hunger for knowledge, the discovery or “re-discovery” of their parents country, of its culture, its music and its more modern aspects.

The pictures contained in this publication reflect the ideals of these new generations and they assist us to define and identify a more updated concept of “Italianity” by means of an excellent synthesis of those who represent early immigration and those who, for either residential or study or work reasons, represent current immigration. Both display a splendid image of our Country in Australia.

Francesco Capecchi

Consul of Italy in Queensland and  Northern Territory