Lella Cariddi

You'd say this is a pencil and this is a ruler, or this is a saucer, or this is a cup.

She is committed to the advancement of literatures and the arts as a vehicle for intergenerational social inclusion between mainstream, Australian society and immigrants and refugees.

Having said that I was blessed to be born in a family of creative women, part out or necessity, but part out of a personal desire to do things, to create things, for example, During the war, there was very little of anything and it was through my grandmothers, through my aunties, through my mother's creative thinking that we didn't go hungry because.

We didn't cook to a recipe, whatever there, you know, you put things together as, as a season came around or whatever was available in season in terms of clothing, we made all our clothes, but not just sewing. That'd be whole. Bundle of raw wool from, from a sheep, just been shorn. And we go through the entire process, which would include, you know, drenching the wool to clean it. Cutting, spinning it.

And then turned into garment and my mother and my aunties, you know, whenever they stepped out, looked as if they'd just been to the most fashionable shop. You could imagine because those garments were created with love, you know, for beauty, for, you know, for comfort, but also for beauty. I think that engaging in an intergenerational way enables me to think forward rather to think towards getting old or towards ageing, or towards death. So in a way I think it keeps my thinking young and.

I'm the beneficiary of that, you know, I hope that the young, younger people also gain something from it, apart from embroidery, knitting and sewing, those things, which I did out of necessity, and really. didn't appreciate what I was leaving behind. In all my public work, I work creatively. For example, in 1990, I was working in a women's education program at Footscray women's learning center. And. Devised a way of teaching English through doing things.

So instead of, um, the women sitting in the room, you know, and the teacher sitting up there, everyone became a teacher and they would teach each other, the cooking of their traditional life or their traditional land. And we got a government grant and they became a catering group and that did well for a number of years.

And then from Footscray women's learning center, I went to Collingwood college of TAFE where I established an immigrant women's learning center, which was the first in Australia at the time. And again, looked at why. Teaching English in an engaged and creative way and got a grant from the Australia council and women from six different heritage create images, which were evocative of, of the culture, their culture, and their heritage. And those panels. Now reside with museum Victoria. From there.

I went to mercy hospital for women and they wanted me to set up a department for interpreting service, which I did. But at the same time I was saying, well, this is not going anywhere. Nothing will change if we don't also educate the health professionals, the doctors and nurses, the midwives. And that became a very broad community engagement.

We got a grant from the federal government and we undertook research and we published that research and it was in 2004 that I actually left, paid employment. My mother had died. And, for some reason, which I still can't explain because it wasn't, it wasn't as if my mother and I never had difference of opinions we were both strong women. And so we did have difference of opinion, but when my mother died, it left a huge vacuum in my life and I didn't know what to do or how to deal with it.

So. In speaking with a friend of mine who also an immigrant, she came from Amsterdam. We put our money, uh, uh, what I inherited from my mother, we put our money and we developed, a festival for literatures in translation. And we brought people together at the VCA held in Federation hall. This international poetry festival called In Other Words. And we had poets from China, from Japan, from all over Australia that shared the platform and contributed over three days.

Unfortunately, the Australian media didn't appreciate and lack of interest by the media in multicultural affairs has never waned. Really. You know, if, if truth be known. On the strength of that, then I was approached if I wanted to present a monthly program of poetry reading at Federation square and like a hole in the head, I said, yes, now all this was all unpaid. As I say, for the festival, we're putting their own money.

And between 2006 and 2013, I curated this monthly program of poetry reading at Federation square and brought poets together from all over Melbourne, all over Australia. So the world poetry festival was auspiced by multicultural arts, Victoria, so multicultural arts Victoria got to know about my work, our work. And on the strength of that, then in 2014, they invited me to explore the possibility of stories for the pier festival. So it was an experiment they didn't know.

I didn't know whether anyone was interested in participating. The Pier Festival used to be presented on Australia day 26th of January. And I was approached late February the year before was, uh, a Chinese new year's dinner that we were at. And then they said, and if you get any response, then we can feature them at next year's Piers Festival. Using the process. Again, I use a process of community development. You start from the bottom up. I don't impose things on, on participants.

There was such a, uh, an avalanche of interest. That by August, we had so many stories and so many objects and so , so many mementos that people sort of brought forward, that we were able to Mount a number of little exhibitions. And at this juncture I need to say how fundamental libraries have been in my creative life. Always within the library set up that I was able to develop things. So that was the beginning of what happened at the pier.

And then other elements developed from that instead of me going out, people are contacting me. Also developed storytelling at the diamond valley regional library, which is in the Northeast, of Melbourne. And we did a little publication, we did a booklet with those stories. We held an all day event where there was speakers and readers and the authors actually told their story to the audience.

And it just grew from that I was contacted by the, the project officer at wellsprings for women who said, we're thinking of applying for a grant to do a project with immigrant women. Would you be interested? And I said, well, yes, see, see what happens and let me know. And later in the year, last year they contacted me and said, we got the grant. Are you still interested and I said yes. By then COVID interfered.

So we're running behind, but we're really ready to go in 2022 to develop individual storytelling and to capture those unique experiences. It's about highlighting the contribution that migrant women have made to Dandenong right across the sphere. It's not just a single single approach. For example, some, someone is an artist, but she also coordinates a community art center. Someone else is a counselor with refugees. And she's been doing that for many, many years.

Someone else whose name was Joyce Rebeiro. Soon as you mention her everybody knows who she was because she was an activist for the trafficking of women and other community development. She'd be the only one at this stage because she died. So she'd be the only one who would be represented posthumously by friends and family. That's just an example. The area that women engage in. So it would be absolutely, um, cross-cultural and multidimensional. Yeah. In, in a creative and representative way.

So we plan to record their stories and, and if we can find some money, also publish them, uh, both, um, in print form, as a book. But also as a podcast. My first public job again, was unpaid. I responded to a call that was in the local paper. It was in the local Footscray paper they we're looking for honorary probation, officers to work the children's court. So I saw that and I thought this is, this is appealing. This is interesting. So I applied and they interviewed me and I was successful.

And from that, then I got a job as a youth worker at COASIT, the Italian welfare agency. And I realized that I really need some professional training because you know, working through the children's court was an incredible experience, but I needed broader understanding, you know, of youth work and what it would entail and that sort of thing. So I went and did a certificate in youth work.

And then I transitioned to adult women's education and I felt that there were gaps that really I need pick up on. So I was fortunate to be able to do a graduate diploma in community development. That took me through quite a number of years. And then because of all these different aspects of creativity that I also introduced in the work that I was doing, I felt that I really need again, to validate what I was doing, but to learn more about the intricacies of curating.

So again I was very fortunate that I was able to do a master's in curatorial studies at the university of Tasmania. So it started off, I suppose you could say feeding my own ego, but eventually, um, I was able to validate those, those experience, you know, through skills and studies and so forth. Yeah. I think if I was to say the most significant thing that I did in public life, it would be difficult for me to single one project.

I suppose it would have to be, which I didn't talk about would have to be a project called 'Reciproco' reciprocal, which brought together contemporary Italian artists from Italy to collaborate with contemporary Australian artists of Italian heritage. And that was a rich collaborative project. Um, I've worked with luminaries like the Domenico Declario, Wilma Tabacco, uh, a number in a well-known Australian, Australian artists.

I suppose in terms of my own culture and heritage, there would have been most significant, but what I have not managed as yet to do. And there's a lot of pressure on me to do something, is document anything about my own family or my own social history. So I'm not sure where that will take me, but it needs to. It would be remiss of me, not to acknowledge, the people that really inspired me along the way.

Um, and starting off with when I first arrived in Australia, because I spoke no English, none whatsoever, and my family thought it would be good to go to school for a little while just to pick up some English. So I could work in a factory and I was sent to the local school where they put me in a class of girls who are four years younger than me.

And there, there was a woman, a little woman in the shape of a nun who had the wisdom, because in those days there weren't English language classes, she would fill up blackboards for the 50 students in the class that there was a size of the class in the mid 50s. She would fill the blackboards up with work for the class to work on and take me on the veranda and she'd use simple objects to teach me English, she's say this is a pencil and this is a ruler, or this is a saucer, or this was a cup.

Without her, I would simply would not have got anywhere. So there've been women along the way. And then the woman who was recruiting her name was Mary. I forgot her surname who was recruiting honorary probation officers. You know, if she hadn't put herhand up and say, look, get in touch with me. Who knows what would have happened? The senior social worker at COASIT who took me on, you know, going through life and engaging diverse experience.

There are always people you know that really prop you up and support you, encourage you and inspire you. And, and most recently, um, that person has been Jill Morgan, who was the CEO and multicultural arts Victoria. When we set about, um, to develop the festival poetry and translation, and then who invited me to experiment with, uh, what happened at the Pier and who, who continues to support and encouraged me in, in creative ways.