The Maltese Cultural Identity

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Creative Maltese in Parallel » Part 1

Part 1: The Maltese Cultural Identity

What constitutes the Maltese cultural identity? Identity is typically associated with language, culture, beliefs, traditions and lifestyle. Our identity is who we are, but an identity can also be fluid, and this fluidity is particularly prominent when we move to live in a different country. Here we’re often faced with a different culture and beliefsystem. We no longer have our families and closest friends with us, and often we find ourselves questioning our identity.

I started the proposal for this study when I moved to Edinburgh, Scotland just a few days after The United Kingdom voted to leave the EU in a referendum. Most of the UK was and still is, almost two years later, deeply divided over whether it wants to be in the EU or not. The discussion surrounding this scenario largely has to do with identity. Being a recent immigrant in the midst of perhaps the climax of this discussion, I questioned my own identity, and as so often happens this swiftly made its way into my sketchbook, and later became a research question. I thought that the most honest way to find answers to my question was to talk to other creative Maltese nationals to see how or whether their identity had also been affected by their move from Malta to another country.

5Creative Maltese in Parallel » Part 1

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Creative Maltese in Parallel » Part 1

What is the Maltese identity to you?

These answers were collected from an online survey of 43 largely Maltese respondents who live or have lived abroad and who work in the creative sector. Upon looking at this cloud, one quickly understands how much the Maltese identity varies. Although the Maltese person is often stereotyped, we find that the Maltese are quite a diverse culture. Having said that, there were some descriptions that were mentioned more than others. The most popular definition of a Maltese identity were (in order of popularity):

Hardworking (7), Loud (7), Traditional (5), Friendly (4), Welcoming (4) Family oriented (4) Mediterranean (3) food lovers (3) Helpful (3) Social (3) Culture-rich (3) Angry (3) Island mentality (3).

Interview participants’ answers were quite similar, with hard-working being a popular description in most cases. One participant who wishes to remain anonymous, mentioned that in the past we were more likely to say “Catholic upbringing”, “Mediterranean identity” and “Southern-European”. She also expressed that because we live in a small country, we are likely to be more “hard-working” and “competitive”, although our culture and identity tend to be a bit “provincial”. “Extremely European, which is quite a misnomer especially with young people. They strongly identify as European. I can see that there is a large difference between the Maltese way of doing things and Northern Europeans.” (Participant wishes to remain anonymous, Video-call Interview, 2018). “An Inescapable part of being Maltese is our history and the fact that our whole identity is built on bits and pieces of other cultures and identities, and merged into this new and special thing.” (Alexandra Aquilina, Videocall Interview, 2018). Alexandra, a Berlin-based Artist and Screen Printer, explains how she finds it fascinating how easy it is for her to connect with people from different cultures through shared elements. She also mentions that she finds it sad how the Maltese tend to refute and ignore the crucial and beautiful part of our identity that is Arabic, that is found in our language, architecture and physical traits. “I’ve never met a Maltese abroad who has introduced himself as Maltese very similar to Arabic or Arab / North African or Southern European, and if you press the Maltese, when they say we have a Mediterranean culture – ask what a Mediterranean culture is. To me it sounds like Greek, Italian, Spanish, but not Tunisian, Libyan or Egyptian.” (Participant wishes to remain anonymous, Video-call Interview, 2018). This participant continues to say that she doesn’t think that Arab culture is a part of the Maltese identity largely because there is a repudiation of any Arab links or similarities in Malta. She states that this can be seen very clearly when people are asked to describe the Maltese language. The majority of Maltese typically avoid saying Arabic, but instead refer to “Semitic” and over-emphasise the fact that Maltese is very similar to Italian.

What defines a Maltese person?

Michael Quinton, an Edinburgh-based Sound-Design Academic and Musician, describes Malta as a “Melting pot of cultures that have come together”. He goes on to say that Malta is a very concentrated society because it’s small so it’s easy to meet different types of people. “There’s quite a wide spectrum of Maltese people... Malta is a multilingual culture and if you look at the roots of where families come from, it’s a multinational culture and sometimes you can see that. Some families are more Italian, some families are more exotic, more Arabic, more British.” (Michael Quinton, Video-call Interview, 2018). Michael explains that Maltese society can also be quite bipolar, and this is evident when it comes to football, politics and village feasts. He expresses that the fact that Maltese people support the Italians and the English in football reflects the history of Malta and that they identify with different cultures. “From my perspective, my Maltese identity is the hybridity of it. When someone asks me about Malta, I’m very quick to get to the Arabic part. I think the language is so interesting. I understand Arabic because of Maltese… Then there’s the Italian and French influences as well.” (Claudia Baldacchino, an Edinburgh-based Graphic Design student, Video-call Interview, 2018). Some interview participants were harsher in their responses. Nicole Sciberras Debono, a student based in Ferrara, expresses that Maltese are typically loud, annoying and patriotic but only when it suits them. She goes on to say that most Maltese are egocentric and racist, generous but selfish. Alexandra admits that the stereotype of Maltese people isn’t often positive because of how things are marketed towards the Maltese. “There’s no investment in arts or culture. When something is for the public, it’s very loud and tacky.”

Daniela Attard, a London-based Designer and Illustrator, describes the Maltese as “Contradictory”. “We tend to be judgemental but we’re helpful. If I had to pick one word, I’d pick contradiction. We have contradictory values. Small place, small island. It’s a comfortable life there but you’re restricted to what you can do and what you can become.” (Daniela Attard, Video-call Interview, 2018).

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Creative Maltese in Parallel » Part 1

Do you feel Maltese?

One of my initial questions to interview participants was ‘Do you feel Maltese?’ Due to the fact that the interview participants are either immigrants or had been immigrants at one point in their lives, it is understandable how this question was a tough one to answer. Indeed in the research article A Third Individuation – Immigration, Identity and the Psychoanalytical Process, Akhar(1995) explains that immigration is a complex process that has lasting effects on a person’s identity.

The participants’ answers to my question were quite mixed, with some being a definite “No, I do not feel Maltese”, others saying “Yes, I do feel Maltese”, and the rest feeling conflicted. Interestingly, I found that participants who lived abroad for a longer time, have a foreign parent, or who were born abroad, were more likely to say that they feel Maltese. In Maltese in London, a book looking at Maltese Immigration in London during the 60s, Geoff Dench(1975) quotes research findings that showed 35 percent of Maltese living in London in the 60s felt English, 35 percent identified as Maltese, with the remainder being unsure. The author calls this a “low level of ethnic consciousness” where at the time it seems that association among Maltese in Britain was quite limited.

In my interviews with creative Maltese who have lived abroad, or are still living abroad, I’ve had several interesting responses to ‘Do you feel Maltese?’ Here I’ve listed some of them:

“If I’m entirety honest, I have been partial to a slight identity crisis; I was born in the UK, I was adopted at birth, I wouldn’t say that my family is very traditional. I attended an international school from the age of 7 till 18, then left the country at 19 to study, and my ‘Malteseness’ has been questioned by multiple strangers saying I do not look Maltese. But having said all that, I would still say I do feel Maltese, and with time this sentiment seems to get stronger.” (Louise Aquilina, Designer and Fashion Design Lecturer currently based in Malta, Email interview, 2018).

“No, I don’t, I don’t really think I ever have. I guess that is one of the reasons I was so eager to leave the first chance I got. Growing up I didn’t really feel like I ‘fit’ into this society and its collective mindset. I never really associated myself and properly integrated.” (Stephanie Scicluna, Photographer and Photography Lecturer currently based in Malta, Email interview, 2018).

“I don’t feel Maltese. There is a stereotype about Maltese people that I don’t want to associate with. Most of the time I feel like an outsider and made to feel different.” (Nicole Sciberras Debono, A Ferrara-based student, Email Interview, 2018).

“No, I’ve always chosen to take the ‘outsider’ role living here, it just came natural to me. Maybe it was one way of coping with the environment – a.k.a – thinking of yourself as a tourist of some sort in your own country, makes everything seem much more interesting. (Participant wishes to remain anonymous, Email Interview, 2018).

“Yes I feel pretty Maltese, now that I’ve left the country! When I was living in Malta, I would always be stereotyped as ‘not Maltese’ just based on the way that I look (also because I am half Norwegian, but was born and raised in the South of Malta), so I constantly felt the need to respond to people in Maltese to kind of validate that fact I guess.” (Inez Baldacchino, Animation Student based in Denmark, Email Interview, 2018).

“Part of the reason why I live abroad is that.. the biggest reason in fact, is that I don’t really feel I have many things in common with Maltese people in general. This is excluding my own social circle of people who are in the same cultural profession. So no, not very much.” (Fabrizio Mifsud Soler, Art Curator Based in Budapest, Video-call Interview, 2018).

“Yes I do feel Maltese but I’m conflicted about it. It’s something that I struggle with on a daily basis. The longer I’ve been here, the worse it keeps getting to the point whether I’m not sure if I’m more English or Maltese at this point.” (Daniela Attard, Designer and Illustrator based in London, Video-call Interview, 2018).

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Creative Maltese in Parallel » Part 1

The Maltese creative identity

“Yes I do feel Maltese, which is strange because I wasn’t born in Malta. I’m half Maltese and I learned how to speak Maltese when I moved to Malta. Even though I could speak Maltese, I spoke it with an accent, and that sometimes caused a bit of discrimination in certain instances. So those were the moments where I didn’t feel Maltese. So I’ve got this thing where I do associate with my Maltese identity because of my heritage and because I’ve contributed to the society. I lived there for 27 years, I call myself Maltese, but at the same time I always was an outsider. Even when I was back in England, the fact that I had a Maltese mother, that always meant that I wasn’t fully English as well. So when it comes with identifying with who I am, I think nowadays I’ve reached a point where I don’t really identify with any of the cultures.” (Michael Quinton, Sound-Designer and Academic based in Edinburgh, Video-call Interview, 2018).

“Yes I’ve always felt Maltese. It’s the one constant identity that I’ve felt. I’ve definitely tried to renounce parts of my identity but never the Maltese. My family is Maltese, so I think that especially living here in Edinburgh, I feel the most Maltese. In America, I used to say I’m English because they don’t know what Malta is. When I moved back here, I started saying I’m from Malta. It explains how I look and my accent. It’s the most exotic, exciting part of my identity as well.” (Claudia Baldacchino, Graphic Design student based in Edinburgh, Videocall Interview, 2018).

“After we got our independence, we wanted to find out what Malta was, what it is.” (Lisa Gwen Baldacchino, Video-call Interview, 2018). In a Video-call Interview with Lisa Gwen Baldacchino, Director of Creative Europe Desk Malta and founder of MaltaDoors – a popular Instagram page that documents traditional Maltese facades and architecture, we discussed the many definitions of Maltese identity and how it is still evolving.

Lisa feels that the Maltese are still trying to discover who they are, but that we still haven’t accepted where we’re coming from. She expresses that the Maltese don’t tend to embrace their multiculturalism, the peoples who have conquered the islands and who in turn formed part of our heritage and genetic make-up. Lisa continues to say that this contributes to Malta’s diversity, and that “Malteseness” cannot exist without referring back to our history and multicultural roots. “Living in Malta, speaking Maltese, is as Maltese as you’re going to get, but it doesn’t mean that you’re just the product of this little island and your parents. It’s so much more complex than this.” (Lisa Gwen Baldacchino, Video-call Interview, 2018). Lisa agrees that the Maltese identity is in itself a topic of various creative projects in Malta because Maltese artists are realising that things are shifting and changing at an alarming rate around them, and this tends to result in an “immediate sense of loss”. Lisa describes her own project, MaltaDoors as a way of documenting and preserving something that is being taken away from the Maltese before our own eyes, and she understands that many other Maltese creatives who are using Maltese traditions and identity as influences or the subject of their projects, have this same purpose in mind. “I think a lot of people know what Maltese traditions are, or what informs our identity, and yet there was a lack of appreciation for it, so I think whether we set out to do that [documenting Maltese traditions] from the onset or not, that’s what it became about. Once you start looking at architecture and details, at apertures, colours, textures and then you start realising that it’s disappearing, you try to fight against time a little bit, and you try to document as much as possible.” (Lisa Gwen Baldacchino, Video-call Interview, 2018).

Malta’s present cultural background

What is Malta’s present cultural landscape like, and how has the Maltese art scene evolved? As someone who actively attends cultural events in Malta, Lisa explains that the Maltese contemporary art scene has evolved quite a bit and that this is largely due to Valletta being named the European Capital of Culture in 2018. She states that the now branded V18 brought with it various cultural flagship projects that amongst other things, resulted in new art galleries opening but other smaller ones, closing down. “We’re in a state of in-between I feel, where you have some things which are dying out, other things which are starting to flourish a little bit; always a lot of potential.” (Lisa Gwen Baldacchino, Video-call Interview, 2018). Lisa explains that the European Capital of Culture programme is what set the ball rolling for many events and projects in Malta’s contemporary culture scene. She says that the Maltese Arts Fund in 2008 was launched on the same year that V18 had acquired its first director. When there was the possibility of Malta becoming European Capital of Culture, things started moving, and Lisa expresses that this has affected a lot of different areas in Malta’s arts and culture sectors. “Less than 10 years later – we have a proliferation of funding towards the arts...So we have to understand that these funds are directly linked to Valletta being European Capital of Culture.” (Lisa Gwen Baldacchino, Video-call Interview, 2018). Despite the positives of the European Capital of Culture, Lisa says that, as a person who regularly attends cultural events, she feels lost at the present moment. She notices that there are too many things happening in a very small space. Lisa explains that most exhibitions in Malta only last two to three weeks, since the Maltese do not have the luxury of large exhibition spaces like the Tate and the V&A. Because of this, people need to make a bigger effort to visit exhibitions, because they are there very briefly. “I am seeing a change but at the moment it’s too much of an in-between state. I can’t tell where it is going precisely.” (Lisa Gwen Baldacchino, Video-call Interview, 2018).