In 2022, Neos Kosmos put out a story highlighting Silvana Tsipiras (nee Molinaro) and how she is writing a book about immigrants who left their country and settled in Australia.
She is once again putting the word out there that she is looking for as many migrant stories to help complete her work that will record the memories of migrants in Australia and honour the impact of diversity.
Silvana’s book will be dedicated to her parents, Angelo and Marrietta Molinaro, who migrated to Australia from Catanzaro, Calabria in the early 1960’s.
They did so in search for a better life for their children, like many others, including her Greek in-laws, who, from the outskirts of Kalamata, Greece, left their homeland and found a new life in Fitzroy, opening a milk bar around the same time.
She has collected between 70 to 80 different migrant stories from not just Greeks and Italians, but also many Asian, Middle Eastern, other parts of Europe and even English and Irish.
“It was just something that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time and a couple of years back now, probably during COVID, I started to collate stories about everyday migrants,” she told Neos Kosmos.
“Just so people don’t lose these stories, and these people that travelled here so many years ago aren’t forgotten.”
She says the story of her own parents and her husband’s parents are very important to her family and has made sure her Greek-Italian kids know this.
Stories in her book will range from 60 to 70 years ago, but also as recent as 20 years ago, if there’s a migrant story to be told, Silvana wants to share it.
“Everyone knows about the famous ones, but not the everyday ones who came out and started businesses and sacrificed a lot and left their land to start a new life for their families and future generations.”
“They sacrificed a great deal and gave up a great deal to come to another land where they didn’t know the language, they didn’t know anything at all and to start afresh.”
Having lost her parents, her father in-law and many aunties and uncles, Silvana realises that we are losing that generation and would hate to see their lives and journeys forgotten.
If you have a story to share with Silvana you can email her at: silvanat@collingwood.vic.edu.au
