An all-digital photographic exhibition dedicated to the Italian community will feature at this year’s Norton Street Italian Festa. The 2022 edition of the event will be held on October 30 (from 10am to 5pm) in Leichhardt, Sydney’s “Little Italy”.
There will be a range of photos featured, spanning from images of the pioneer migrants of the last century to community events from the late 1990s.
It will be a trip down memory lane, among the faces, customs and characters that have made the Italian community of New South Wales so great.
The images have been sourced from a large archive of over five thousand photographs, an important community resource that the Inner West Council inherited from the State Library of New South Wales, which in turn, received the images from the archive of this very newspaper.
La Fiamma has helped to provide all of this material, first to the State Library, then to the Inner West Historical Office, so that the Italian community would have a documented history, ready to hand down to future generations.
The idea of creating an exhibition dedicated to our community came from Mayor Darcy Byrne who, with the support of the head of the Coordinator of Community History and Heritage at Inner West Council, Amie Zar, decided to digitise all of the shots ― some in colour, others in black and white - in order to be able to catalogue them in the near future.
For now, the exhibition will consist of about three hundred images that will run seamlessly on digital screens set up near the Town Hall in Leichhardt where the main stage, run by Co.As.It., is located. This charitable organisation has committed itself to supporting the Council in this phase of archiving the material.
And on this very stage the event’s most important guests, including Joe Avati and Cosima De Vito, will take turns in the spotlight. There will also be a second screen, on which images of our community will scroll.
“The Festa could be the best opportunity to show the general public this immense historical heritage, which showcases the story of the Italian community in Sydney,” said Mayor Byrne when announcing the idea for the exhibition.
“Thanks to these images we have filled a great void ― the absence of material that spoke of the Italian migrant communities that developed right here in Leichhardt. We want this archive to be preserved for posterity as an important part of our history.”
The Inner West Council’s project is set to continue well beyond the festival, but for now, the main objective is to showcase Italian history at one of Australia’s most popular festivals.
The organisers are expecting to welcome a crowd of over 100,000 attendees; there’s even talk of 150,000 attending the event! After two years of Covid and the halting of festivities, this will mark a return to the streets of the Italian Festa, with its entourage of exhibitors, food vendors and the many artists who’ll be performing on the various stages. And let’s not forget the great exhibition of vintage Italian cars that will be set up at Pioneer Memorial Park on Norton Street.
