ASSISI CENTRE RECOGNISES THE SCA & SARDINIAN PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION INAUGURATED

PRESS RELEASE 20TH AUGUST, 2019

The afternoon of Tuesday 20 August 2019 was one of acknowledgement and celebration at the Assisi Aged Care Centre in Rosanna and for the Sardinian Cultural Association (SCA), who was also celebrating their 32nd. Anniversary. The proceedings were double barrelled.  To get thing underway the Assisi Centre honoured the SCA by naming the library at the Rosanna centre after the SCA.  This was followed by the opening of the exhibition “Fototeca di Sardegna / Album di Sardegna”. 

The afternoon began with the Chairman of the Assisi Centre, Don Smarrelli OAM, addressing an audience of approximately 100 plus people (including SCA members, Assisi board members, staff, volunteers and residents).  Don acknowledged the long association of the SCA with the Assisi Centre, including the much valued financial support that the SCA has provided over many years. In recognition of this strength and duration of the relationship Don announced that the Assisi Centre is to name its library after the SCA. Before handing over the microphone to Paul Lostia (President of the SCA and a Board member of the Assisi Centre) Don also acknowledged the SCA's contribution to the Italo-Australian Community in general through various Projects over many years.

In his role as President of the SCA Paul Lostia thanked Don for his kind words and thanked the Assisi Centre for the honour being extended to the SCA and in turn the  Sardinian community  it represents, in particular with the with the naming of the library after the SCA.  He also handed over a book on Sardinians in Victoria, for inclusion in the library.

Paul commenced by acknowledging that that the Assisi Centre resided in the land of which the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation who were the traditional custodians. He then welcomed the attendance from Marcellin College of Alfio Camarda - Teacher and Mathew Broggian and Alessandro Corda - Two students who are part of a student exchange initiated by the SCA and being undertaken with Marcellin in Melbourne and the "Convitto Nazionale" in Cagliari, the capital of Sardinia.  Paul noted that Alessandro was approaching the end of his six week stay in Australia (including a visit to Canberra) and that Matthew would be heading to Sardegna in November (including a visit to Rome) of this year to complete the exchange.

On behalf of the SCA Paul acknowledged the donors, volunteers, staff and Board members of the Assisi Centre. He noted that throughout the period since 2002 that SCA club rooms have been located at Assisi, the Association has thought it important to act as contributors to Assisi and the important task of caring for the elderly. Paul spoke how so many of the residents at Assisi are examples of the waves of Italian migrants who came to Australia in the 1940s, 50s and 60s who had shown great courage and perseverance in travelling to this far away country with unfamiliar language, culture and landscapes.

Paul noted that the SCA is in the process of finishing "Terra Sarda": a non-traditional cook book which includes recipes cooked by Sardinians in Australia and importantly includes the stories of contributors themselves.  Paul advised that "Terra Sarda" should be available for purchase for Christmas this year.

Paul reaffirmed that the SCA is committed to and looks forward to continuing to connect and support the Assisi Centre.  He then invited all present to view the photographic exhibition that the SCA has on display at the Assisi Centre.  He advised that the exhibition from and made possible by the "Biblioteca di Sardegna" in Sassari had been displayed elsewhere in Europe and South America, before being brought here to Melbourne.  The exhibition includes an array of black and white photos of Sardinians from the 1940s to the 1970s and is supplemented by panels provided by the SCA on Sardinian history and its culture past and present. Most pointed was the Poem written by Grazia Deledda- Noble Prize for Literature 1926, called "Noi Siamo Sardi / We are Sardinians" and the quote with which the exhibition ends, which seemed particularly fitting to the afternoon’s celebrations, "This land resembles no other place. Sardinia is something else. Enchanting spaces and distances to travel – nothing finished, nothing definitive.  It is like freedom itself" -  D H Lawrence 1921

The following is a congratulatory message from those who have made the abovementioned Exhibition possible, which is the "Bibliotheca Della Sardegna" http://bibliotecadisardegna.it/avviso_fototecadisardegna

PHOTOS FROM THE THIS EVENT