Memories That Make Us

"MEMORIES THAT MAKE US: stories of post world war two Italian migration to Australia" is a feature length ethnographic documentary film that draws on the individual and collective memories of ordinary Italian migrants who made Victoria, Australia their home after the end of the second world war.

From the ruins of post-world war two Italy, hundreds of thousands of people migrated to Australia, part of the largest documented migration in history. "Memories That Make Us" shines a light on some of the cultural and social stories these post-war Italian migrants came with and how these stories transformed over time, offering a profound reminiscence and ensuring a generation of stories are not lost. This is also a documentary that probes how we construct out cultural identity and how our identities evolve over time. It is a film about traces and layers - about the human as a palimpsest. Like a palimpsest, we are written on by the memories we share, and by those shared with and about us. Through a series of chapters, individual and collective ‘memory keepers’ reflect on their own memories and how their journeys have intersected with the memories and journeys of others. These memory keepers talk, and walk, us through their memories and the moments, objects and spaces that contain those memories. Memories form and float like traceable contours across time and space. Each story told is a bright star - personal but connected, revealing a lived, shared history, belonging to a generation of Italians who made Australia, Victoria, Melbourne, their new home.

This film has emerged from a long-term research project conducted at Deakin University with the support of the Italian Assistance Association CO.AS.IT and led by Professor Sean Redmond in collaboration with Dr. Toija Cinque, Fotis Kapetopolous and senior researcher and Il Globo journalist Riccardo Schirru.