Push & Pull Maltese-Australian Migration By the mid-1960s one-sixth of Malta's population had emigrated to Australia. Many have now returned. Of Maltese heritage himself, Barry York examines the reasons for Maltese migration and identifies important sources of research material The place: a dot on the world map known as Malta. The date: unknown, but sometime just before the Second World War. My paternal grandfather, Salvatore Meilak, has taken his son Loreto up a narrow winding staircase to the flat roof above the family home. The Mediterranean night sky is blacker than usual. Italy has invaded Abyssinia and Mussolini regards Malta as part of Italy. The people in the seaboard town of Sliema are experiencing blackout practice. All street lights are out. All windows covered. A trillion tiny stars provide the only source of light, as my grandfather nannu Salvu and his son stand together on the roof. Like all seamen, Salvu knows the sky well. He has a star for each place he's visited. Raising his pipe to his mouth, he tells young Loreto tales of other lands. He points his pipe to the (top) 'God Bless Australia' nameplate, together with religious icons, displayed on the home of a returned Maltese migrant in the village of Qala, Gozo Marr harbour, on the island of Gozo, Malta, the departure point for thousands of Maltese emigrants during the first half of this century SEPTEMBER 1996 17
heavens and says: 'You see that star over there? That's America; a fine place.' And later: 'See that star over there? That's England; the Mother Country.' Then, turning south, he points to the brightest of stars and says: 'But that star, that very special star, that star is Australia: 1-art fejn hemm futur [the land of the future].' One of my father's brothers, Joe, had already left Malta for 1-art fejn hemm futur in 1924 and, after many years in quarries and road gangs, found regular work on the Melbourne waterfront. After the Second World War, he would be the key link in a chain migration by most of the Meilak family, including Loreto (who changed his surname to York while stationed in London with the Royal Air Force). For most of this century Australia has been 'the land of the future' for a large proportion of the Maltese people. As a base for the Royal Navy guarding the approaches to the Suez Canal, Malta assumed an importance that it would otherwise not have had. The British presence brought prosperity and modernisation; and it 18 NATIONAL Library of Australia News
(above) Cover of Empire and Race: The Maltese in Australia 1881-1949 by Barry York Kensington: New South Wales University Press, 1990 Reproduced with the permission of the author (opposite) Michael Xerri, a returned migrant, outside 'Aussie', his home at Xewkija, Gozo, in Malta (opposite, top) Examples of passport applications by prospective Australian immigrants, Maltese Archives brought insecurity and periodic economic crises. After the First World War thousands of Maltese working people were thrown out of work by the winding down of the British naval presence. The dockyards were the hub of the economy and, when the same thing happened after the Second World War, the Maltese were again compelled to seek a future for themselves and their children abroad. Most chose Australia, which implemented an assisted passage scheme in 1949. By 1966, one-sixth of the total population of Malta- 55 000 out of a total population of around 315 000 had settled in Australia. During the 1970s, with factory labour no longer needed in large numbers by Australian industry and with significant improvements to Malta's standard of living and social services, Maltese immigration dwindled to a thousand or so per year. In the 1980s even fewer came. And by the 1990s Maltese emigration was negligible and there is now a notable return rate. Still, it remains very hard to find a Maltese in Malta who does not have a relative here, as I discovered during a research trip in November 1995. A considerable body of literature now exists on the Maltese in Australia their patterns of settlement, struggles and achievements. The National Library's holdings on Maltese migration are listed in Maltese Migration: An Annotated Guide to Research Sources (1993). Important non-book sources include periodicals such as the Maltese Herald, a bilingual weekly published in Sydney since 1961, and the Maltese Australian Studies Series published by the Australian National University since 1992. The Library's Oral History Collection includes interviews with 42 Maltese Australians; a list with synopses being available in Oral History: An Annotated Guide to Oral History Recordings of Relevance to the Maltese Experience in Australia (1995). The Pictorial Collection holds photographic portraits of Maltese Australians plus an album of fieldwork photographs taken in western Sydney for the Maltese Australian Folklife Project. In Manuscripts, there are collections of prominent Maltese Australian writers, such as Manwel Nicholas- Borg. My book Empire and Race: The Maltese in Australia 1881-1949 remains the definitive historical work. It approached the subject as a study of the 'push' and 'pull' factors influencing migration, using conventional historical sources combined with oral history interviews. `Oral history' allowed two important questions to be answered, namely, why did so many individuals decide to leave Malta, and what was the lure of Australia over other SEPTEMBER 1996 19
possible destinations? While these 'push' and `pull' questions could be answered through interviews, and by studying publications about the conditions in Malta and Australia at particular points in time, a complete answer necessitated a visit to the source of migration itself. Migration is, above all else, a deeply human phenomenon, one which provokes the extremes of human emotion: anguish, happiness, alienation, courage, regret, bitterness, optimism, disenchantment, faith. What was it that Maltese migrants left behind? Why was it that Josephine Cauchi, sitting outside her home in Port Adelaide 70 years after migrating, her trajbu on her lap making Maltese lace the way her mother and grandmother made it, could sadly tell me that 'the sky over Australia is, at least, the same sky that is over Malta'? To understand Maltese migration it is necessary to understand the way of life left behind physically, but retained as part of the migrant's invisible luggage. To capture the essential humanity of the migration/ settlement experience it is necessary to understand the place migrants came from. My month in Malta taught me about the differences between the two countries and the difficulties that many experienced in adjusting to Australia, especially the western suburbs of Melbourne and Sydney where most settled. Mixing with people in Malta who had never migrated and contrasting them with recent returnees helped to develop my views on the multifaceted character and psyche of the Maltese people. I learned of the differences within Maltese culture; differences between rural villagers and city dwellers, between Maltese on the main island of Malta and those on the sister island of Gozo, between the traditional Maltese and the modern Maltese, and between those who had never left Malta and those who were returning after three or four decades in Australia. On Gozo there is fascinating architectural evidence of the success of Maltese migration and the extent of return migration. Driving around the small island, whose shoreline is only 43 km (compared to Malta's 136 km), one frequently comes across large, recently built houses bearing Australian insignia and nameplates. Nomenclature tends to reflect Australian flora, fauna and landmarks, such as Koala Blue, Sydney Tower, Wombat Maison, Kangaroo, Villa Koala, Aussie Cottage, Yarra River, Waratah Lodge, Australian Beauty and Sydney Opera House. There were also several declaring 'God Bless Australia' and one, curiously, 'God Save Australia'. Other nameplates paid tribute to suburbs and regions where the Maltese settled: Altona, Blacktown, Glenroy, Girraween, West Sydney, Mackay. The Australian coat of arms was a common emblem, as were kangaroo statuettes on rooftops or silhouettes worked into the design of wrought-iron gates. The isolated, predominantly agricultural Gozitans saw little difference between migrating to the main island of Malta or to Australia; all that really mattered was that they were leaving Gozo. Such subtleties are learned best, most starkly and completely, at the source of the migration their homeland. I had read many reports of the wild, emotional scenes in Malta's harbour as emigrant ships departed for Australia and I had listened to the tear-filled reminiscences of people who experienced them. But there is something special, something inspirational from a writer's viewpoint, in actually visiting such sites and feeling or imagining what happened. At a more practical level, Malta also proved to be a good source of archival MALTASE CONNECTION MICHAEL DUGAN (above) Cover of The Maltese Connection: Australia and Malta A Bond of People by Michael Dugan Melbourne: Macmillan in association with Special Broadcasting Service, 1988 Reproduced with permission of the Special Broadcasting Service (top) An Australian coat of arms carved into the facade of the home of a returned migrant, Gozo, Malta 20 NATIONAL Library of Australia News
material. Modern technology, from microfilm to the Internet, tends to break down the geographical barriers to information sharing between countries but only to an extent. At the Malta Archives, I was shown thousands of recently uncovered passport applications dating back to the nineteenth century. Those since 1915 bear a photo of each prospective emigrant. The applications have been indexed and I quickly found my uncle Joe's Guiseppi Meilak's-1924 application. Malta's National Library is another excellent resource. Founded in 1776, the Library's holdings reflect the amazing cultural heritage of Malta. The Manuscripts Collection, for example, includes the Archives of the Order of St John. Printed collections of Melitensia are divided into items published before and after 1500. Researchers of migration will find materials published over the last two centuries of great use. Under a 'legal deposit' system similar to Australia's, the National Library of Malta receives copies of all Maltese publications. As Malta was a British colony between 1814 and 1964, many official records and publications were in English. My time in Malta convinced me of the importance of researching in both old and new homelands in order to understand more completely the migration and settlement experience. It taught me that Maltese culture is itself proof of 'unity through diversity'. And it taught me that to overlook the differences within ethnic cultures in Australia is to miss an essential part of our own nation's multiculturalism. BARRY YORK (pictured below) is a Research Fellow in the Centre for Immigration and Multicultural Studies Centre at the Australian National University CONSERVATION RESOURCES Affiliate Offices in Springfield VA USA, & Oxford, England A Division of HAXTON PTY LTD 187 Hyde Road, Yeronga Qld Australia PO Box 6184, FAIRFIELD GARDENS 4103 Fax 07 3848 5503 Phone 07 3848 0199 FREE CATALOGUE Mastercard accepted. Established 1977 SEPTEMBER 1996 21