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A dark chapter in Australia's wartime history has often been minimised or overlooked in mainstream history books. This collection of five scholarly essays, and 15 testimonials, offers new insights into the deeply personal experiences of Italian Australians whose families experienced World War II on the home front. It is the first such compilation by authors originating from northern, central, and southern Italian provinces, and from five Australian States. Although each story is unique, the authors share many Italian cultural values, language, history, and a profound sense of Italianness, as well as a connection to their Australian selves. These essays and narratives consider the often-unintended negative consequences of war, describing our commonalities through their personal struggles and a fundamental human resilience.
Mia Spizzica has completed a PhD dissertation at Monash University in the School of Literary and Cultural Studies. Her career as an educator includes teaching at the university of Siena in Italy, Monash University, University of Melbourne, and RMIT University in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Mia is a Research Associate at Museum Victoria and the Italian Historical Society in Melbourne. Her research interests include transgenerational memory, post-colonial interpretations of dominant histories, recovering memory and storytelling through first person narrative and subaltern interpretation, archival sciences, action research with participant collaborators. Her curated collection of 15 interviews and five scholarly essays Hidden Lives: War, Internment, and Australian Italians is the first in a series of planned publications on subaltern experiences, especially during wartime in Australia and elsewhere.
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