Community Groups

Mr TARZIA (Hartley) (15:29): I rise today to speak about two community groups in South Australia that held functions on the weekend. The first is the Federation of Calabresi of South Australia, which recently organised and presented the second edition of 'Photographic Exhibition and Stories of Calabresi' in SA. After the significant success of their first edition, it was the community's desire to continue this important initiative as a dutiful homage to some of our most prominent pioneers in the community. The exhibition has also been enriched with posters, where you can actually look at some of the most beautiful localities and scenery of Italy, particularly Calabria.

At the present time, the Federation of Calabresi of South Australia is made up of the Calabria Association Inc., Associazione Saint Hilarion Inc., Associazione Madonna di tutte le Grazie di Sinopoli, Associazione Maria Santissima di Crochi, Associazione Madonna delle Grazie di Panduri and also the Associazione Beneficenza Calabrese. Its purpose is to promote a unified image, cooperating and combining many resources in an effort to recover, through stories of pioneers in the community in South Australia, the documentation necessary to create work collecting our ancestors' life memories and also to preserve it for present and future generations.

The federation unites under the same banner the associations mentioned and, through scheduled meetings, allows many of us here in South Australia to keep in touch with our heritage both in Australia and also overseas. I recently attended this function with several members of parliament and it was quite touching. We all know that many migrants in South Australia have enriched every single aspect of South Australian life, ranging from food to sport to arts, and also, I would like to say, to politics, on both sides of the chamber.

I would like to pay special tribute to members of the 2016 federation committee who have done a fantastic job promoting their culture and also putting on this exhibition recently: President, Martino Princi; Vice-President, John Bergamin; Secretary, Domenica Bergamin; Treasurer, Cosmo Monterosso; Public Officer, Vince Muscara; and the Consiglieri, Vince Zito and Jim Circosta. I also pay tribute to the Federation Youth Calabrese, its coordinator, Rosemary Verlardo, its members, Emma Galimi, Peter de Marco, Pat Vozzo, William Galimi, Cosimo Puccini, Peter Peluso, Lorenza Velardo and Rocco Carpentieri and, finally, the array of sponsors who helped on the night.

Seeing some of the stories and photos that were on display was quite a powerful experience. We all know that many migrants have made extreme sacrifices to come to Australia and we are extremely grateful for that. We are also grateful to the federation, which continues to do the great work of highlighting the stories of success through this exhibition. I especially pay tribute to Giuseppe Panuccio, Francesco Alvaro, Alfredo Castafaro, Ilario Mazza, Vincenzo Franze, Ilario Lamberto, Cav. Vincenzo Papandrea, John Anthony Costa and Pino Galimi who made their personal records available so that we could witness those stories.

I would also like to pay tribute to the Dante Alighieri Society of SA which recently held its Renaissance Banquet Dinner 2016 at the Carrington Function Centre. It was certainly an evening of fun. We were treated to a wonderful atmosphere with great food and company and fantastic music as well. They always do a great job. The Dante Alighieri Society is a worldwide not-for-profit organisation with its headquarters in Rome and is strongly supported by voluntary work. Its aim in our state is to provide a gateway to advance the interests, knowledge and appreciation of Italian language and culture, food, wine, history, art, opera, music, cinema, etc.

I know that other members on this side of the chamber attended and I pay tribute to them, as well as to the committee members for the wonderful work that they do: Beatrice Barbieri, Stefano Bona, Luciana d'Arcangeli, Silvia De Cesare, Natasha Marona, Luigi Masciantonio, Anna Mazzone, Giuliana Otmarich, Ciro Pipolo and Maria Russo. I thank them for all their wonderful work.