Maltese Historical Association of Australia in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia | Community organisation

Maltese Historical Association of Australia

Locality: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Phone: +61 425 708 830

Address: 477 Royal Parade, Parkville 3052 Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Website: http://www.mha.org.au

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25.01.2022 https://issuu.com/thevoi//the_voice_of_the_maltese_no._234

24.01.2022 A Maltese folk song by Georgina Camenzuli and her husband Nazzareno (Is-Simenza), recorded for the National Library of Australia, in 1997 by Barry York and Kevin Bradley at the Camenzuli's home in Fairfield Heights, Sydney. The song is an example of 'ghana tal-fatt' or a 'fact based song'. Also performing are guitarists Joseph Mifsud (Il-Koko) and Vince Gauci (Tar-Rabat). The 'Skaubryn' was a migrant ship that caught fire and sank in the Indian Ocean en route to Austr...alia in 1958. No-one drowned but an elderly man died from a heart attack. It was a traumatic and extremely frightening and dangerous experience, needless to say, especially for those, like the Camenzuli's, who were travelling with their young children. They eventually made it to Sydney on the 'Roma'. The recording of the song is part of an oral history interview held and preserved at the National Library in Canberra, Australia. I am advised that Mr. and Mrs. Camenzuli are no longer alive but they indicated copyright ownership of the song when they completed the Rights Agreement for the Library. I wish to thank Mark Caruana, historian of Sydney, for making the session possible in 1997. The song is in the Maltese language. The Saga of the Skaubryn originally appeared on the twin-CD package 'Maltese Voices Down Under', produced in 1998 by Victoria University of Technology, Melbourne, and the National Library of Australia. (Photo taken by Barry York on 29 September 1997) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc5UlLkD3Uw

24.01.2022 Sixty-six years ago today - June 30th, 1954 - my parents Olive (a Londoner) and Loreto (Maltese) and I, disembarked at Station Pier, Port Melbourne after the 19...,000 km voyage from England on the 'Himalaya'. It's a very special anniversary for me and, as with other migrants, marks a total life-changing event. Photos show parents and me in 1954 in Coburg, Melbourne, and then my parents 45 years later, holding a framed copy of the 1954 image. (So glad I took the second photo). Our first 22 months were spent in 'lodgings', usually boarding-houses (aka rooming houses). where we and our belongings lived in a single room. We were destined for Brunswick, as the boarding-houses were either in Coburg or Brunswick. It was a joyous occasion when we put a deposit on our first home in Shamrock Street, West Brunswick, in 1956. Every migrant's dream. And then it meant living frugally and putting every spare penny and cent into paying off the place. We never had a car and never went on a family holiday. My parents lived in Brunswick West for 40 years, while I moved out of home in the early 1980s (but regularly returned and I still call Brunswick my 'home'). See more

24.01.2022 Mdina Cathedral Chapter

22.01.2022 St Paul's Catacombs Rabat

22.01.2022 WW2 experiences: Victory Kitchens

21.01.2022 This happened more than a century ago. I started researching it in Australia, Malta and at the Public Record Office in London 35 years ago. You can hear the voice of one of the Maltese, Emmanuel Attard, in the excerpt with my article. I recorded him for the National Library of Australia's oral history collection in 1989. My thanks always goes to fellow historian Mark Caruana, without whose guidance and introductions to people I could never have undertaken the research so co...mprehensively. https://www.moadoph.gov.au//conscription-1916-who-were-th/

20.01.2022 Until around 150 years ago, wore the same style of clothes as worn during the Knights of St John! Did you know On a day-to-day basis, peasants were a...lways , except for special occasions. Likewise, they wore headgear all the time! to learn more about local peasant costumes: https://heritagemalta.org/kids/

20.01.2022 To all our Maltese / Australian community today we celebrate Maltas Independence Day. We would have hoped to be physically together celebrating but this year w...e cannot. So here is something you can enjoy online together. Regards Marlene Ebejer President MCCV

20.01.2022 Those of us who followed pro-wrestling on television in the 'golden age' of the 1960s and 1970s - be it in Australia or elsewhere - will appreciate that the American promoter, Jim Barnett, was acutely aware of the importance to the business of the ethnic markets. In the Land Down Under, the Italians had Dominic DeNucci and Mario Milano and the Greeks had Spiros Arion while the Lebanese cheered on Shiek Wadi Ayoub. The Maltese had 'Baron' Mikel Scicluna who had been very successful as a matman in Canada and the USA. Here is a promo from my files - from 'The Times of Malta and Australia' July 1968. "Il-Baruni" was born in Malta at Balzan in 1929 and passed away in Pennsylvania, USA, in 2010 aged 80.

20.01.2022 My Maltese father, Loreto, died in 2009, aged 90. His parents and siblings were all from Gozo but he was born in 1918 after the family moved (migrated?!) to Sliema. I recorded a very long oral history interview with him in 1989, in Melbourne, and he recalled life in Malta in the 1920s and 1930s, including the early Karnival back then. He also sings a song in Maltese that he thinks is an old Maltese folk song and also uses a humorous old Maltese saying.... Here is a seven minute excerpt... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2fSXgbaxJM

20.01.2022 I have scanned (as jpegs, so I can share on facebook) my 1989 biography of Josephine Zammit (1925-1988). It's about 140 pages - 76 scans. It's a story of her life in Malta, migration to Sydney in 1952, her tireless work for new arrivals, especially women, and her pioneering role in ethnic broadcasting in Australia, which she saw as a means to an end in terms of assisting migrants. Please share as you see fit.

19.01.2022 I wrote this article in 1998 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Malta-Australia Assisted Passage Agreement.

18.01.2022 Sharing this article today, Father's Day... 'Walt Whitman once said I am multitudes. That certainly applied to my father, Loreto Yorkso much so that I quoted the line in my eulogy at his funeral in 2009. He was aged 90 when he died. Twenty years earlier, in 1989, at my parents home in West Brunswick, Melbourne, I recorded a lengthy oral history interview with Loreto (better known as Larry) for the National Library. Over the many sessions I was mindful of the day my dad ...would be no more and that this would be an intimate record of his life'. He was born in Malta in 1918. https://www.nla.gov.au/unbound/interviewing-my-father

18.01.2022 Scenery from The Royal Opera House Valletta

15.01.2022 One of Sliema's finest: Manwel Nicholas Borg. I wrote this tribute to him in 1988 as part of my Community Profiles series in the Sydney-based Maltese Herald. I recorded an oral history interview with him for the National Library of Australia in 1991. He was born in Sliema in 1918 - like my dad - and also like my father joined the Royal Air Force in Malta during WW2. Manwel was a true gentleman, scholar and poet. I have been lucky to know and befriend such people who are now no longer with us. Manwel died in Melbourne in 1998.

14.01.2022 I wrote this in 1980 after visiting my dad's homeland of Malta for the first time. It was my first article for The Maltese Herald, the newspaper of the Maltese community in Australia. I located it among my folders of old articles.

14.01.2022 Maltese insurrection against the French

13.01.2022 Calling all athletes - perhaps someone you know spread the word. The Maltese Olympic Committee is the organisation responsible of sending athletes to the Olymp...ic Games, Commonwealth Games and other games such as the Games of the Small States of Europe. We help with technical funding to Malta's elite athletes and support them comprehensively with their technical needs such as anti-doping education, functional diagnostic laboratory (scientific) services, gym use, funds for training camps, etc... More information can be found here: www.nocmalta.org We are looking for athletes with Maltese Passport or who are eligible for a Maltese passport through ancestry who can make it in Team Malta. We are looking mainly at Athletics, Swimming, Sailing, Judo, Table-Tennis, Tennis, Basketball, 3x3 Basketball, Squash and Shooting (indoor & outdoor) for the time being.

12.01.2022 Some background about the Maltese Bagpipe.

11.01.2022 check out this interview with our president Joseph Borg.

11.01.2022 43 years of friendship, music and fun! We've loved seeing all the photos coming through and thought you might enjoy seeing them too. Every player, past and pres...ent, is a piece of the jigsaw puzzle that makes up our history. Please keep sharing your photos with us! We LOVE hearing from you all!

10.01.2022 The latest issue of the MHA Newsletter is out now. https://1drv.ms/b/s!AnyGsLJLZ_iKmVu2G2QX7GqA4Fti

10.01.2022 Interesting topic about the Maltese language through an old dictionary (in Maltese)

09.01.2022 The Inquisition in Malta

05.01.2022 Wrote this one in 1993 - based on interviews with Maltese-Australian poets.

05.01.2022 WHERE ARE MY MALTESE PEOPLE AT?? People are always asking me What is that tattoo on your back?.... My tattoo features two hands with wraps around it, two boxing gloves hanging down with my initials J C, and a big red Maltese cross. I was born in Australia but am very proud of my Maltese heritage. My dad was born in Malta and moved here as a kid, while my mum was born in Australia but both of her parents were also born in Malta. It would be an honour to one day headline a fight show in Malta and fight in front of the Maltese people #camako #camilleri #malteseheritage #malta #australianborn #fighter

04.01.2022 'The Land of the Dancing Water Jug', published in 1991, based on my oral history interview with Josephine Cauchi, who migrated from Bormla, Malta, to Adelaide in 1922. It was published in the National Library of Australia News magazine in February 1991. I recorded the interview in Adelaide in 1989.

03.01.2022 The 8th September is one of the most important national holidays in Malta. The day Victory Day or Il-Vitoria commemorates several different important events... from Maltas history. The Victory of the Great Siege of Malta (1565) Victory against the Italians in the Second World War (1943) There is also a religious significance to the 8th September as it is the Nativity of Mary which is a day that is universally celebrated by the Catholic Church. Churches all over the islands are elegantly decorated for this event with beautifully garlands and flowers inside, and magnificent light displays outside. Enjoy the day, stay safe and well.

03.01.2022 12th July FEAST DAY OF BLESSED DAVID GONSON (GUNSTON) Martyr of the Order of Malta...Continue reading

02.01.2022 Historic photo - two Maltese 'firsts' - John J Cole, first Emigration Minister, and Loreto J York, first Maltese mayor of an Australian city. Mr Cole later migrated to Melbourne with his family. Just had this published in the latest edition of 'The Voice of the Maltese'. (I recommend 'The Voice of the Maltese' as a bilingual on-line newspaper linking Maltese and their descendants across the globe - good too for anyone just with an interest in Malta and the Maltese).

01.01.2022 How the bagpipe came to Malta!

01.01.2022 Here's an intriguing tidbit... Going through my old papers, I came across a note to myself (probably 30 or more years ago) about Antonio Vella, who had fought with the Australian forces in the Boer War which went from 1899 to 1902. He may have migrated to Woolloomooloo in 1870. He worked as a fisherman at Woolloomooloo and died in Sydney in 1907. His descendants included a real estate agent in Rockdale, Sydney. ... That is all my note says. Anyone know anything about this man or his descendants?