Picturing Cosmopolitism : Identity and quality of life among older Italo-Australians

Abstract

This paper describes the results of a pilot project that uses photo-documentary in conjunction with participant interviews to map concepts of identity and quality of life among a group of older Italo-Australians resident in Brisbane. Australia's post-war European immigration has been acknowledged as a major force in forging an Australian cosmopolitan identity. Less attention has been paid to the self-image of Italian immigrants (and their children) in negotiating an identity that usually embraces 'Australian' values of material wealth and social mobility while retaining a 'cultural' identification with Italy, or in some cases, with specific Italian regions.

The researchers - a photo-documentist and visual arts academic and an anthropologist and health academic - asked participants to take photographs of objects and people identified as important to their sense of well-being - quality of life. Subsequent interviews focussed on classifying the participant-generated photographic images into categories such as 'home', 'family', 'community', 'pride' and 'achievement'. Finally, the researchers and participants collaborated in producing a photographic 'portrait' that captures the identity of each participant and their relation to their subjective and objective environment. The combination of visual images and verbal data provides a powerful insight into the self-identity of this group, and in particular the way in which details of everyday culture such as cooking, interior decoration, beliefs and gardening reflect the way in which this generation of Italo-Australians have constructed their own version of cosmopolitanism.