Josanne Cassar

in Melbourne

Our whirlwind visit to Australia with its packed programme of functions organised by the innumerable associations which make up the local Maltese community, has not given us much of a chance to actually see a lot of the country itself. However, by speaking to various people, one gets a chance to understand their way of life.

Surprisingly, most shops in Melbourne close around 5.30pm or 6pm and they only open until 9pm on Thursdays and Fridays. Australians tend to eat dinner as early as 5.30pm and on Friday night, people like to go straight from work to a pub for drinks. Weekends are usually spent at home, recovering from a hectic working week and all the hours on the road travelling to and from work. People socialise by going to each other’s houses, and summers especially are spent having BBQs or “barbies” as they are called.

Here they are passionate about their cricket and (Australian) football, but minus the hooliganism one finds in England. Saturdays and Sundays are spent watching their favourite team playing at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). This stadium, which seats around 90,000 people, is where the Olympic Games were held in 1956, and the site of the Commonwealth Games last year. It is also the venue for big concerts, such as the upcoming concert by The Police.

On Sunday morning, the Maltese delegation headed by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and his wife Catherine were given a tour of the MCG which includes a museum that traces the origins of cricket and houses memorabilia from the more famous matches. We also learned why the game is called “The Ashes”, the result of a tongue-in-cheek “obituary” written by a journalist after Australia defeated England on English soil in 1882.

Considered to be a very prestigious club, sports fanatics sign up their children to become members of the MCG as soon as they are born because of the long waiting list. With its formal dining area and pristinely-kept conditions, Australians are justly proud of this venue.

The next item on the programme was Mass at the Blessed Mary MacKillop Church in Keilor Downs, which was held to coincide with Lija’s Festa tas-Salvatur being celebrated in Malta on the same day. The Mass was celebrated by parish priest Fr Charles Portelli and Mrs Gonzi read out one of the readings. There is actually an association here called Minn Hal-Lija u Kburi (as one can gather from the name, its members are migrants who all come from Lija) and it is this association which organised the Mass.

Meanwhile, at the Klabb Ghannejja Maltin, yet another crowd was waiting to meet Dr and Mrs Gonzi, which they did with the by-now-predictable fanfare. At each function we are regaled with the playing of the Maltese anthem followed by the Australian one, with varying degrees of musicality.

In the evening it was time for the Prime Minister to meet with members of the Maltese clergy, including Fr Denis Carabott, MSSP Provincial, Fr Noel Bianco MSSP and Bishop Mario Grech. One person even travelled from Queensland, 150km away, just to meet Dr Gonzi.

There was also a very familiar face, psychologist Dr Victor Shields who used to live in Melbourne and who has been coming back and forth for the last 40 years. “I spend every (Maltese) summer here in order to escape the heat!” he said. In 2005, Dr Shields delivered a paper at Victoria University on The psycho-social and religious situation of Maltese migrants in Australia in which he traces the importance which the Catholic faith held for those first migrant and how it helped them to retain their identity. As was also pointed out by Bishop Grech, “among those first migrants there were also Maltese priests, who would go with them to the doctor or lawyer in order to act as interpreters, and to help them find employment.”

A wreath-laying ceremony was then held in front of the George Cross Monument at the Maltese Community Council of Victoria, as war veterans and ex-servicemen stood proudly to attention with impressive rows of medals pinned to their chest. The reception which followed this ceremony introduced us to more Maltese-Australians, but for the first time, we came across a different type of migrant. This was a more urbane crowd made up of members of the business community, the Maltese Historical Association, ex-servicemen and the Maltese Community Council.

Here too, we came across those known as second-generation Maltese, people in their early 40s whose idea of Malta is seen through more realistic eyes than the rose-tinted glasses of their parents.

Angela Portelli (nee Zammit) was only nine years old when her parents moved to Australia. Her father Esprit Zammit, used to be a sports journalist with The Times.

Now 41 years old, she has spent 32 years in Melbourne and has never visited Malta.

“I was raised in St Julian’s, near Balluta Bay, and I’m almost afraid to visit because I know I will be shocked by all the changes. When we came here I was teased a lot at school because I was different – I was even teased by the Maltese who were born here! As a reaction to that I rebelled completely against everything Maltese, because I just wanted to fit in. As I was growing up I never knew where I belonged; a part of me was Maltese but I was also becoming very Australian. It was like I was confused about my identity and I think this is common among children who are uprooted to a new country at a young age. Then about five years ago I discovered that I did want to know more about my cultural heritage, and I joined the Maltese Historical Association.”

Angela’s husband Charlie is an electrical plant engineer, who was born in Australia of Maltese parents. Unlike Angela, he never suffered from any identity crisis. “I’ve been coming to the Maltese Community Council since I was 10 years old, and I never had any problem about my roots. I’ve always accepted my Maltese heritage and am proud of it.”