Casa Italia: a place for Italians in New Farm

Brisbane as many other cities of Australia is really cosmopolitan....even here there is a big Italian community, nevertheless New Farm is still considered the Little Italy, confirmed by the people I meet everyday and speak to me in Italian....here there is a place called Casa Italia, that unfortunately has closed last year and was the subject of my speech for the following events:

‘150 YEARS OF ITALIANS IN QUEENSLAND’ SYMPOSIUM

Dante Alighieri Society

23 Foster Street Newmarket, Brisbane

Saturday, 17 October, 2009

Symposium co-convenors

Catherine Dewhirst, Lecturer in History, University of Southern Queensland

Claire Kennedy, Cassamarca Senior Lecturer in Italian Studies, Griffith University

Francesco Ricatti, Cassamarca Lecturer in Italian Studies, University of the Sunshine Coast

PROGRAMME

8.30am – 9.00am            Arrival; coffee/tea available

9.00am – 9.10am            Introductory greeting

9.10am – 9.25am          Dante Alighieri Society Welcome: Don Dignan

9.25am-9.30am               Housekeeping

9.30am – 11.00am

Session 1: Historiography and Legacies of Migration

Chair: Jonathan Richards

Catherine Dewhirst: ‘Reflections on the Historiography of Italians in Queensland’

Ian Bonaccorso: ‘Stanthorpe Italian Pioneers: Their impact on Queensland history’

11.00am – 11.30am         Morning Tea

11.30am – 1.00pm

Session 2: Wartime Conflicts and Ideologies

Chair: Francesco Ricatti

Karen Agutter: ‘The Italians in Queensland during World War One’

Ilma Martinuzzi O’Brien: ‘Italians in Ingham and Innisfail in WWII: selective and not mass internment?’

David Brown: ‘The Case of the Brisbane Fascio: The Transnational Politics of the Italian Fascist Party’

1.00pm – 1.45pm            Lunch

1.45pm – 3.15pm

Session 3: Community building

Chair: Karen Agutter

Simona Albanese: ‘Casa Italia: a place for Italians in New Farm’

Stefano Girola: ‘The role of the Catholic Church in the migration experience of an Italian association in Queensland: the Italian Catholic Federation’

Silvia Polo and Claire Kennedy: ‘The Trilingualism of Friulians in Brisbane’

3.15pm – 3.30pm            Afternoon Tea

3.30pm – 5.00pm          Session 4: Voices from Lived Experience and the Records

Chair: Claire Kennedy

Franco Arcidiacono: ‘Italians on the Granite Belt – Some Recent Research Findings’

Francesco Ricatti: ‘Hope and fear: oral (hi)stories of Italians in South-East Queensland’

Jonathan Richards: ‘True Italian Crime’

5.00pm – 6.00pm            Closing Drinks

a plaque outside the entrance

a plaque with the name of all the members

Who knows?...probably they will reopen.....