L'Ottava Isola

This work is the result of a field research on music, migration and cultural identity conducted between Italy (Sicily) and Sydney (Australia) between 2004 and 2009. Introducing the reader to the history of Sicilian (and more broadly, Italian) migration to Australia, it delivers both a broad picture and a series of miniature portraits of migrant-musicians who have been the entertainers of a culturally-hybrid people. The Sicilian-Australians, whose identity and community was forged between the early 1900s and the 1970s, today represent one of the largest regional sub-groups of Italian migrants to Australia. This work showcases the spectrum of adherence to southern Italian musical tradition across several generations of performers. It analyses the way Sicilian (and other Italian) migrants have thrived and negotiated their soul in a new land. It shows the ways in which they socialized, how/when they played music and their complex ties to Catholic and other (non-religious) organizations. While traditional Sicilian music has been the focus of the study, the research also examines a series of non-traditional music genres which have become "folklorized" in time and through distance.