Italian immigrants honoured

| Gail Sedorkin

A NEW book, La Storia – The Faces of Italian Immigrants commemorates the stories of Italian immigrants, their struggles and their resilience while building new lives in the tropics.

As noted in the book’s foreword, La Storia is a “compelling collection of stories, showcasing the resilience and cultural heritage of Italian families who built new lives in Australia”.

Dedicated to telling the stories of local Italian immigrants La Storia can be ordered at the 2023 Cairns Italian Festival at La Festa on Saturday, July 29 and online.

Cairns Italian Festival president Steve Cordenos said families from Cairns and surrounds, and the Tablelands had the stories of their parents, grandparents and great grandparents in La Storia.

“This hardcover book published by Cairns Italian Festival Inc. is dedicated to the stories of local Italian immigrants and how we started here in the north.”

These stories (storia), with photos, follow the lives of 37 Italian families as they integrated “into Australian society while maintaining a strong connection to their Italian roots through ‘La Famiglia’; the most important aspect of their lives”.

While the first half of the 110page book commemorates these resilient Italian immigrants, the remainder is dedicated to last year’s inaugural Cairns Italian Festival.

“The book covers how the festival started and every event that we hosted last year, including stories of the founder and photos and stories from every event from the 2022 Cairns