On Thursday 5 September, the Year 11 Italian ATAR students were lucky enough to delve into a unique experience where they were able to interview elderly Italian residents from Villa Terenzio Retirement Village in Marangaroo. This was an authentic way to cover part of the Year 11 Italian course’s Syllabus, exploring the context of ‘Destination Australia’ from the perspective of Italian-speaking communities.

Each of our students were able to pair up with one of the residents and talk to them in Italian about their lives and experiences in Italy before migrating to Australia and some of their challenges as an Italo-Australian. The students demonstrated connection and courage by conversing in Italian and flexibility when questions had to be reworded so that the residents and students understood each other! We provided Italian biscotti for morning tea with the Italian residents and the Retirement Village provided some savoury sandwiches and drinks. Both the residents and students gained extensively from this experience, as the residents felt valued and appreciated that they had something to share with our young people. Here is what some of our students had to say:

“It deepened my knowledge of my Italian cultural background and enriched my understanding of the challenges faced by migrating Italians in that period.” – Kayla 

“You don’t acknowledge the privileges in your life, until you have the opportunity to hear the hardships other people experienced firsthand. The flexibility the Italian residents developed while migrating into the unknown inspired me tremendously.” – Mambwe 

After our visit at the Retirement Village, we ventured to La Pagnotta Bakery where we enjoyed some Italian pizza and desserts. Our final stop was Mondo Nougat in the Swan Valley, where we explored different Italian nougat flavours and savoured an Italian gelato. Overall, it was an enjoyable and meaningful outing, and we thank Prof De Filippi for organising the Italian excursion and Ms Congdon for assisting us on the day.