Society of Saint Hilarion

The Hon. J.S. LEE (21:24): I move:

That this council—

1. Congratulates the Society of Saint Hilarion on their significant milestone, celebrating their 60^th anniversary in 2015;

2. Pays tribute to the Society of Saint Hilarion's service to Italian migrants and the wider community, especially through their aged care facilities which improves the lives of older people by providing high quality aged care facilities within a culturally diverse community; and

3. Acknowledges the importance of their establishment and the work they have done over the last 60 years in the promotion and preservation of Italian heritage and, in doing so, their contribution to enrich the multicultural landscape of South Australia.

Today it is with great pleasure that I rise to move this motion standing in my name to congratulate the Society of Saint Hilarion on celebrating their 60^th anniversary of the Saint Hilarion Feast in 2015. In moving this motion, I also take this opportunity to pay tribute to the Society of Saint Hilarion for their outstanding service to Italian migrants and the wider South Australian community, especially through their aged care facilities, which improves the lives of senior citizens by providing high-quality aged care facilities within a culturally diverse community. I would also like to acknowledge the importance of their establishment and the work they have done over the last 60 years in the promotion and preservation of Italian culture and, in doing so, their contribution has also enriched the multicultural landscape of South Australia.

In marriage, a 60^th anniversary is the diamond anniversary, and I know the Saint Hilarion community will be shining brightly with sparkles and adding their light and vibrancy to the festivities organised for the society's milestone anniversary. It is an amazing achievement for the community and the leaders and devotees of Saint Hilarion. Their contribution and service to the Italian and South Australian communities over the last 60 years have been outstanding. As the shadow parliamentary secretary for multicultural affairs, I am humbled to be invited to many events and I am deeply privileged to know so many inspiring leaders of Saint Hilarion and learn about their wonderful work and achievements.

The Society of Saint Hilarion was founded as a cultural and religious body in 1955, and 19 years later the society became incorporated, in 1974. The society is a strong advocate for family and community values, to ensure their members and aged care residents enjoy quality, compassionate care in a caring and supportive environment.

The Society of Saint Hilarion is named after the patron saint of Caulonia, a small town in the region of Calabria, Italy. The organisation was formed by migrants from the region who ventured to Australia by ship on either side of the Second World War. They brought with them their sense of belonging, cohesiveness, their culture of community and their desire for peace. Initially, their focus was to preserve the cultural and religious traditions that they grew up with in Italy and which were entrenched in their way of life, in particular, family, food and home-made vino.

Many Italian families, mainly from the Calabrian region, were in full support of the establishment of the Society of Saint Hilarion. I wish to put the names of the founding fathers on the public record. They are: Giuseppe Ciccarello, Ilario Fazzalari, Ilario Lamberto and John Anthony Costa OAM. The founding members and their families have made great contributions to so many Italian migrants living in South Australia. They were the key drivers and masterminds behind this community-minded society.

With a large influx of Italian migrants settling in South Australia in the 1950s, Saint Hilarion had the vision and motivation to build a culturally-specific aged care centre which would accommodate senior migrants in a supportive and welcoming facility. By working tirelessly, the Saint Hilarion dream came true in 1977. After decades of fundraising and account management, the society entered the aged care sector and purchased a nursing home at Lockleys in Adelaide's western suburbs.

The Lockleys facility received a renovation in 2010 and now is currently home to 109 residents in both low and high care. This specific facility was built and designed with the needs and expectations of the residents and their families in mind and the facilities were designed to incorporate and encourage participation from the broader community.

With the Lockleys aged care facility increasing in popularity with many migrants of European descent, it encouraged the decision-making team of Saint Hilarion to expand their facilities to a second premises in Fulham. The inviting villas in Fulham provide similar services for low care and respite services in a tranquil location surrounded by beautiful gardens. There are a total of 56 individual villas and residents are offered an ideal balance of individual care and independence.

Saint Hilarion's is a caring multicultural aged care facility. It is unique in the way that it truly cares for its residents by encouraging them to play an active part in the pre-organised social and physical activities. By providing a safe, pleasant home in a caring environment the society meets and exceeds its residents' physical, mental, spiritual and cultural needs. Through its service, the society has grown to become a leading multicultural aged care facilities provider in Adelaide. With more than half of its residents of Italian descent, its facilities are also open to seniors of all cultures and religious beliefs, as the main objective is for the in-house occupants to experience care, compassion and a feeling of community regardless of where they come from.

A special book was published with the title of The Feast of St Hilarion, Celebrating 60 Years, Personal stories of a migrant community in Adelaide, South Australia, 1955-2015. I have the book here with me; I am sure it will be available in the library. The author of the book is well known to many of us in parliament, particularly Hansard. Her name is Joycie Strangio. I would like to congratulate Joycie for her wonderful contribution in documenting the moving stories of migrants and their connections with Saint Hilarion. Mr Tony Paganoni, who wrote the foreword for the book, summarised the essence of the community and the book very well. I would like to quote a few paragraphs from the foreword. He said:

We speak of brain memory, computer memory, short and long-term memory and of tragic memory loss. And we speak of human memory and, most importantly, of collective memory, which is always the sum of individual and personal memories. Memory shapes us…Joycie Strangio's account is punctuated by allusions to the inspirational support of one of the earliest Saints in the life of the Catholic Church. Inspiration is something that makes a person want to do something or that gives someone an idea about what to do or create. It acts like an invisible springboard…Memories need to be recalled. They also need to be acted out: in rituals, in celebrations, in cooking skills, in research, in the collection of relevant materials, in visiting sites where St Hilarion lived, etc. Joycie Strangio's work is most commendable.

Like many other community hubs, fundraising is of vital importance to Saint Hilarion. Fundraising has helped the organisation develop into the leading aged care and cultural facility it is today. In Joycie's book, on page 129, the title of the page, 'In giving we receive,' captured the ethos of generosity through charity work. In the case of the Society of Saint Hilarion, charity certainly started at home. Joycie described how the founding fathers had delivered a much needed service in helping newly arrived and struggling migrants with practical, social and spiritual assistance. Having endured their own hardships, it became their unspoken mission to help others transition to new lives with less difficulty and more support. Their work, through the Feast of Saint Hilarion, was an extension of their selfless and compassionate charity. As a migrant myself, I have first-hand experience and knowledge of how important migrant services to new arrivals can be. These services help migrants settle into the Australian way of life while maintaining their important culture.

What amazed me even more about the Society of Saint Hilarion was to learn about its incredible philanthropic work to the wider community. At this point I would like to go to the book and read out the type of charitable works they do outside of Saint Hilarion. Feast members and volunteers continue their work by donating the net profits of each feast to various charities including the Goodwood Orphanage, Aboriginal missions, medical drugs to India and the Crippled Children's Association to name only a few. The society also often financially assisted families in the community who were struggling to make ends meet. It even helped to build a chapel for the Sisters of St Paul bookshop in Hindmarsh Square. After all, one of the strongest tenets of the Society of Saint Hilarion which comes from the prayer of St Francis is that it is in giving that we receive.

Without the concept of fundraising, Saint Hilarion would not have been able to build or operate two successful aged care facilities and a strong and supportive Italian multicultural association. Fundraising has enabled the society to build better facilities and provide a higher quality of service to their residents and the wider South Australian community.

Creating an active and social calendar has opened the society to the broader community and has encouraged strong collaborations among other Italian cultural associations. The 60^th anniversary of Saint Hilarion's feast day was held on Sunday 25 October and I am sure that many honourable members of parliament would have attended. It was certainly a day full of festivities with great food, music and entertainment.

I would like to extend my warmest thanks and congratulations to the wonderful work of Saint Hilarion's founding members, past and present committee members. Without the leadership and vision of the past and current committee members, the society would not have flourished and honoured the legacy of the founding fathers of the society. I would also like to pay tribute to a few individuals. I pay tribute to Rosemary Velardo who became in 2001 the first woman president of the executive committee. Rosemary steered the society in a new direction, wanting to encourage greater youth participation to ensure that people stay longer at the feast. She cited her biggest achievement as the recruitment of a new generation of members onto committees. With all these new members and energy, we allow many of the younger generation of Italian migrants to also participate in the society. I also pay tribute to Roy Fazzalari and quote from the speech where he paid tribute to the founding fathers, as follows:

...we wish to draw inspiration from the theme of Faith, Hope and Charity. These three virtues are just as applicable today in our community as they were in the days of our forefathers. Nearly a century ago our forefathers began leaving their families behind…for a better life here in Australia. Importantly they brought with them their Faith in God and their devotion to Saint Hilarion. They prayed that he would guide them on their journey to the new world and also they prayed to their patron Saint for a better life on arrival.

In their hearts and with their 'suitcases' they left with the Hope that they would travel well, arrive safely, find work and prosper in their chosen land where they survived by supporting each other with unconditional and spontaneous Charity. Many of our community were sponsored by one of our four Society founders; Ilario Fazzalari, Giuseppe Ciccarello, Giovanni Costa and Ilario Lamberto. These leaders of our community were all good, humble, honest and generous men.

There are so many pages of this book that are worth reading, but I think it is important to have some personal reflections from those individuals who contributed a lot to build the Society of Saint Hilarion. Another quote is from Joyce Costa. She thinks that the society is a marvellous organisation and community-oriented. She says:

The change has been like a coming of age: it has just grown and blossomed. Even now, with the trials and errors along the way, we are still growing and serving our community. It is like keeping in touch with our roots. My grandchildren still talk about the Society, and they love the Society. They are involved in the Feast. It's a change from small to more grand, but the fundamentals are still the same. Where we come from, our faith, the devotion of St Hilarion, that does not change; it just might have grown a bit.

Earlier, I talked about presidents and bringing younger people into the society. Jassmine Wood, the current president, is the youngest person and only the second woman to be elected to the society as president. She explains the personal significance of being involved with the feast and the Society of Saint Hilarion. She says:

My involvement with the Society makes my nonna incredibly proud and brings me closer to my nonno who has passed. I am privileged to be able to hear firsthand stories from people who spent time with my nonno when he first came to Australia from Italy and these stories are special because I learn things I never would have otherwise had the chance to know.

I thank her for her contribution, and would also like to quote from another really great friend of the Liberal Party, Cosi Costa. He said, in his own words:

I use St Hilarion as a medium between where we are and God above. Some people pray to St Anthony or St Christopher: I pray to St Hilarion. That is as significant now as it has ever been, that he's the patron Saint of our region, so he's the man who is going to help me for whatever reason. It was a good opportunity, using St Hilarion as a vehicle to understand our history, heritage and appreciate it, and as I learn more and more about him, I realise it's about keeping things in life simple but real. You need to be humble, and that's the most significant thing I've learnt from St Hilarion.

Last but not least, Pino Dichiera spoke about Saint Hilarion and his involvement, which spanned several decades. He served as a junior committee member and has carried the statue of Saint Hilarion in procession many, many times over. He was a member of the fundraising committee for the House of Saint Hilarion Building Appeal and is a member of the aged care management board. This is what he said:

My memories of the Feast of St Hilarion revolve around community, sacrifice and spirit. Community is the lifeblood of the Feast and represents the link with our families, our ancestry and our people. Sacrifice is a quality of our patron Saint and is reflected in the way the society members, with its families and volunteers, come together each year assisting selflessly with all Feast activities with no thought of reward. And spirit is that trait that keeps us all going, that smile on our faces, that brings us back every year, whilst keeping us linked with our beautiful past.

I have quoted so many memories of the individuals and have made reference to those who have contributed greatly to Saint Hilarion because this is an opportunity for me to put this on the public record and pay tribute to the work that they do.

With those words, once again congratulations on their 60^th anniversary. Their continued service and delegation will always be at the heart of celebration for us as proud South Australians. With those remarks, it is a great privilege to commend this motion to the council.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. T.T. Ngo.