While preparing to capture his likeness for a collage, a photographer converses with Antonio Azzopardi, the first Maltese migrant to Australia.
Based upon historical events, this book recalls an era of change which led one man willing to embrace adventure down a path to success in a faraway land.
#142 in the Bilingual Legends series is in both English and Malti-Awstraljan (Maltralian), a curious dialect of Maltese which developed in parts of Australia.
About the author
Born in Sliema Malta, Mark Caruana migrated to Australia in January 1973 and has been an active member of the Sydney Maltese community since 1975.He has written articles on the oral history of migrants in Australia. Mark has recorded on cassette and video, in both English and Maltese, over 120 oral history interviews, primarily with early settlers (1912-40) from the Maltese Islands who settled in Australia. He now records oral history interviews with post-war migrants using a digital video recorder or via ZOOM. For several years, he developed a close teamwork approach with the late George H. Griffiths, a 1948 immigrant who had similar interests and together they published several awareness-raising articles in The Maltese Herald, a national ethnic newspaper based in Sydney. This team-work approach was further strengthened when contact was made with Dr Barry York, from the Australian National Library Canberra, whose formal training in history and his greater opportunities of recording early Maltese settlers, as part of his academic studies towards a Ph D in Maltese Migration History, opened up new horizons in expanding the then limited knowledge of the Maltese presence in Australia. They published Oral History, A Practical Guide a joint publication by the Centre for Immigration & Multicultural Studies, ANU Canberra 1996. In the same year, he assisted Prof Helen Armstrong in her publication Migrant Heritage Places in Australia, a handbook for Group Co-ordinators, a project of the Australian Heritage Commission, aimed at developing a manual to assist migrant communities identify their own heritage places. More recently he has done some research on Maltese-Australian ANZACs jointly with Carmen Baxter nee Bonello and has assisted the Maltese RSL NSW Sub-branch in identifying the names of Maltese ANZACS in Australia and NZ. He currently is co-researching with Marianne Potts nee Vidal in a forthcoming book on a biography of Maltese ANZACS who joined the Australian and NZ Army. For many years, Mark was involved on a committee level with the Maltese Welfare NSW, the Maltese Cultural Association of NSW and the Salesian Past Pupils & Friends of Don Bosco NSW as a co-founder and member. He currently is the President of the Don Bosco Association, which meets regularly for fellowship and raising funds for Salesian missions. Mark was also the Vice-President of the Maltese Community Council of NSW (2016-2019) and was responsible for building up a resource library and archives centre where historical material on Maltese associations and migrants is kept for future researchers. His current project is completing a database of all passports issued from Malta from 1900-1939 as a research tool which assists in migration studies, as well as completing a database of all Maltese who went to Canada and the USA from the early 1800s, a joint project with Dan Brock from Toronto Canada. On Australia Day 2020, Mark was awarded the Order of Australia Merit (OAM) for his services to the Maltese community. Mark is married to Antoinette Caruana and they have three children and six grandchildren.
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