'Almost 5,000 Italians were interned in Australia during World War II, a high proportion of them Queensland residents. Internment was a pivotal experience for the Italian community, both locally and nationally, complicating Italian Australians’ sense of belonging to their adopted country. Through an examination of two migrant autobiographical narratives of internment, Osvaldo Bonutto's A Migrant's Story and Peter Dalseno's Sugar, Tears and Eyeties, this article explores the impact of internment on the experience and articulation of cultural and civic belonging to Australian society. It finds that internment was a ‘trial’ or ‘transitional’ phase for these internees’ personal and civic identities, and that the articulation of these identities and sense of belonging is historically contingent, influenced by the shift from assimilation to multiculturalism in settlement ideology, as well as Italian Australians’ changing place in Australian society throughout the twentieth century.' (Publication abstract)
'A Migrant's Story by Osvaldo Bonutto is a thin volume. Even with the addition of forewords and commentaries it only runs to little more than 100 pages, but it is a story that carries a significance far weightier than its slender text.
It is first and foremost a personal story, but the details are the flesh and blood of much more than Osvaldo Bonutto's life. Reading his story we are offered insights into at least four themes of importance. These include insights into the migration process, into aspects of Australian history, into the management and mismanagement of intercultural community relations, and into the development of an Italo-Australian cultural identity.' (Introduction)
'A Migrant's Story by Osvaldo Bonutto is a thin volume. Even with the addition of forewords and commentaries it only runs to little more than 100 pages, but it is a story that carries a significance far weightier than its slender text.
It is first and foremost a personal story, but the details are the flesh and blood of much more than Osvaldo Bonutto's life. Reading his story we are offered insights into at least four themes of importance. These include insights into the migration process, into aspects of Australian history, into the management and mismanagement of intercultural community relations, and into the development of an Italo-Australian cultural identity.' (Introduction)
'Almost 5,000 Italians were interned in Australia during World War II, a high proportion of them Queensland residents. Internment was a pivotal experience for the Italian community, both locally and nationally, complicating Italian Australians’ sense of belonging to their adopted country. Through an examination of two migrant autobiographical narratives of internment, Osvaldo Bonutto's A Migrant's Story and Peter Dalseno's Sugar, Tears and Eyeties, this article explores the impact of internment on the experience and articulation of cultural and civic belonging to Australian society. It finds that internment was a ‘trial’ or ‘transitional’ phase for these internees’ personal and civic identities, and that the articulation of these identities and sense of belonging is historically contingent, influenced by the shift from assimilation to multiculturalism in settlement ideology, as well as Italian Australians’ changing place in Australian society throughout the twentieth century.' (Publication abstract)