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On Sunday 31st of
May 1998 at the Maltese Cultural Centre in Albion,
Australia, a new audio-CD, "Maltese Voices Down
Under" and a book "Maltese in Australia", both
by Dr. Barry York, were launched.
 Despite
the surname - York - Dr. Barry York's dad is
Maltese. He was born Loretu Meilak but he changed
his name after the Second World War when the Air
Force (which he joined in Malta) stationed him in
London.
Dr. Barry York's dad brothers and sisters, parents,
etc., were all from Ghajnsielem, Gozo. The nickname
was "tan-Nassi". His dad, however, being the
eleventh child, happened to be born in Sliema,
Malta, as the family moved there from Gozo around
1916. His dad was born in 1918.
On this CD set, you will hear voices of Maltese men
and women who migrated to Australia in eras as
different to each other as the First World War and
the 1940s. In their own words, they recall aspects
of life in Malta and Gozo in the years before they
migrated to Australia and they reminisce about the
voyage to Australia.
In all, there are excerpts from oral history
interviews with twenty-one Maltese migrants. The
interviews were completed for the National Library
of Australia, which has an Oral History Collection
and a Sound Preservation and Technical Service Unit
of world class. The excerpts are linked together by
music – beautiful guitar and mandolin playing – also
recorded for the National Library. The musicians,
like the interviewees, are all Maltese migrants or
of Maltese background. Everything on this CD was
recorded in Australia.
The voice of Mr. Emmanuel Attard, who was born a
hundred years ago in 1898, will be heard. He talks
of conditions on the French mailboat, Gange, in
1916. This was the era when, as he points out, bulls
were slaughtered on deck for food. Mr. Attard was
among a group of more than 200 Maltese migrants who
were turned away from Australia and forced to go on
to Noumea. He states on the tape that the Maltese
passengers on the Gange had no reason to believe
they would not be allowed in. His voice, recorded in
1989, is slow, thoughtful and richly deep. We learn
more about the human being from listening to the
voice than we would from merely reading words on
paper.
Another early vintage migrant is Mrs. Josephine
Gauci, who disembarked at Adelaide in 1922. Her
voice bounces along at a merry rate. It is a very
different voice to Mr. Attard's. She didn't want to
leave her homeland but her father was already in
South Australia. Today it would be called a 'family
reunion' migration. Mrs. Cauci's laughter is
infectious, but one senses that it conceals sadness
as well as expresses happiness. Mixed emotions are
common on this CD. Bella Bugeja, for example, left
Malta in 1949 with a sense of adventure and, being
with her loved ones on the ship, did not feel sad.
However, when she thinks about it today, she says
she could cry!
Emmanuel Attard and Josephine Gauci are no longer
with us. Sadly, others on this CD – Joseph B. Attard
and Frank Falzon – have passed on. Yet through this
CD, and the original tapes on which they were
 interviewed at length, they live on. Nothing is as
indicative of the individual, nothing as reflective
of personality, as the human voice. And beyond the
idiosyncrasies, the voice also has much to tell
about a person's class and regional background.
There are many highlights on this CD. Another track
"Saga of Skaubryn", which features Georgina
Camenzuli relating the story, based on her own
experience, of how the migrants' ship Skaubryn
caught fire in the Indian Ocean in 1958 and sank.
Encouraged by her husband, Nazzarenu, who was also
on the Skaubryn, she wrote the lyrics so that future
generations will know – to use her own words – "how
we suffered to come to this country". Her song is in
the ghana tal-fatt genre: a Maltese folk-song based
on an actual event.
The people whose voices are heard on this CD set
were born in a range of different villages and towns
of Malta and Gozo: Hamrun, Msida, Birkirkara, Mdina,
Lija, Zejtun, Cospicua, Paola, Valletta, Qala,
Naxxar, Mosta, Senglea, Sliema and Ghajnsielem.
There is also the voice of Robert Gauci, a Maltese
from Egypt, who was born at Alexandria.
The original recordings were completed in places of
Maltese settlement in Australia: Sydney, Melbourne,
Bassendean (Perth), East Fremantle, Adelaide,
Canberra and Mackay (Queensland).
A range of accents will be heard, too, and I'm sure
linguists will be fascinated by the differences
between them. With two exceptions, the voices belong
to people who migrated by ship. The migrants voyage
is part of the direct personal experience of about
two million Australians. However, as migrants
shipping declined during the 1960s and unlikely to
ever happen again, it is an aspect of 'living
memory' that needs to be preserved and recorded now
– before it is too late. I hope the CD on the
"Voyage" theme has gone some small way towards that
end. The voyages remembered are of the Gange (1916),
Florentia (1951), Moreton Bay (1952), Sydney (1954),
Toscana (1954), Orosa Kulm (1956) and Skaubryn
(1958).
The "Memories of Malta and Gozo" CD features people
who made the voyage to Australia on the Orama
(1925), Asturias (1949 and 1952), Strathnaver
(1950), Himalaya (1954) and Castel Verde (1954). It
will bring back some wonderful memories for all the
Maltese in Australia and for those elsewhere too. It
will also provide important cultural insights into
Maltese life and society at particular points in
time. But the memories are by no means all happy
ones. Memories of war are never happy and the Second
World War features significantly on the CD. Joseph
Aquilina's recollections of the bombardment of Malta
will remain with listeners for a very long time. The
tiny Island of Malta was almost bombed to submission
by Nazi and Fascist Forces. But the Maltese did not
give in. It was in large part due to Malta's
war-time heroism that the Australian government
agreed to develop a scheme for assisted passages for
Maltese migrants after the war.
The great majority of Maltese people in Australia
migrated within the two decades after 1946. The
Australian Census of 1947 found only 3,238
Malta-born persons in Australia. The 1966 Census
found 55,104. This meant that by 1966 one in every
six Maltese had left Malta and Gozo to settle in
Australia. Today, there are about 50,000 Malta-born
Australians. If one includes the Australian-born
children of the Maltese migrants, then the figure
for "Maltese-Australians" stands at about 180,000.
It is ultimately for them, their children and their
children's children, that this CD set has been
produced.
Dr. Barry York
Research Fellow
Europe-Australia Institute
Victoria University of Technology
Melbourne, Australia |
