MARCHE CLUB

Mr PICCOLO (Light) (16:00): As part of the adjournment debate today, I would like to speak about an event I attended on Saturday at the Marche Club in the north-eastern suburbs. I attended an exhibition of the history of Italian migrants from the Marche region in Italy to South Australia. The exhibition, which was opened by the Hon. Grace Portolesi, was sponsored by the Marche Club and comprises photographs, artefacts and documents of a group of people who left their place of birth to build a new and better life in South Australia from the early 1920s and also the 1950s and 1960s.

The collection includes copies of many personal letters that record the lives of the Marchigiani (people from the Marche region) immigrants in South Australia. The exhibition represents a historic and cultural record of the experiences of these immigrants as they built new lives in South Australia, and importantly how they adapted and flourished in their new home.

The exhibition panels display photos and a brief history of the experiences of various families who migrated to South Australia from the Marche region. Some panels also document the history of the Marche Club itself and the service that it has provided to people from that region. The exhibition enables the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the Marchigiani to explore the history of this community in South Australia.

As the minister said in her opening speech, the exhibition, which coincides with a day of celebration of all things Marchigiani, is about the parents and grandparents who sacrificed much to create a new life here in South Australia. The exhibition is also the story of the contribution that migrants have made to the development of South Australia and, in fact, Australia as a whole.

I wish to congratulate all the members of the Marche Club and all other volunteers who have worked very hard to put this collection together and to display this wonderful exhibition totalling over 800 individual items. Certainly, the exhibition is one which the club can be proud of and one which actually portrays a very positive image of the contribution that migrants have made to this country. As I said, on the day this exhibition was a major event, but it was also a daily celebration of everything which is important to the people of the Marche region. There was a whole range of foods available on the day. There was a lot of music, etc.

Mr Bignell: Dancing?

Mr PICCOLO: I am not sure about the dancing—not one of my strong points, but certainly there were many other events. A whole range of people attended on the day. One really important thing which occurred on the day was that letters were read out which mothers had written to their daughters, etc.

At 16:05 the house adjourned until Thursday 20 September 2012 at 10:30.