Page 3 - Comites Aboriginal Italian People in SA

Foreword by Edoardo Crismani
Those that never venture out only know the shore – from my song, Alright Alright – echoes our story.
But what of those who are the shore? My Wiradjuri mother, Barbara Crismani, was born of this land. Her roots ran deep in Australian soil long before my father’s ship appeared.
Her father, Joe Murray – Wiradjuri boxer and vaudeville
star – taught her to stand unbroken when racists threw stones at their Ballarat home, and vicious slurs like "black b------" scarred her childhood. She carried her father Joe Murray’s Wiradjuri strength:
I taste the pain, blood in vain, whipped across my back but until the last adventure, I sail, I sail for more
Her shore was resilience itself. My mum had followed her mother to Coober Pedy as her mother wanted a dry climate to help alleviate her asthma, and one of her oldest friends, Edna, and her husband ran the general store there. It was there that my mum and dad met and romance blossomed.
My father, Matteo Crismani, sailed through war’s tempest: a prisoner in a German POW camp in Poland. His broken Russian – "Stratsviche Torvarich!" (hello friend!) to oncoming troops – became an oar cutting through despair. They lowered their guns and led the POWs toward freedom. Later, in Coober Pedy’s dust, he anchored to her strength:
For who knows the boat’s safety until the boat’s ashore?
Their union was two weathered vessels merging – his refugee sorrows meetingher Indigenous fortitude. In pasta feasts and Grandpop Joe’s boxing tales, they built a harbour where "wog" and "blackfella" defiance breathed.
Now I tend these waters. Since Dad sailed on in 2014, and dementia clouds Mum’s memories, I guard their stories through song. Soon, I’ll release my debut album, weaving these journeys – including Alright Alright.
The Census shows most Aboriginal-Italians are under 40 – younger boats on calmer seas? Yet colonial currents linger:
Don’t put upon my reason, don’t put upon my hope for the fires of jealousy burn a penance with a rope