Kia ora koutou and welcome back!
Today Giuseppe Gallina, who himself immigrated to NZ from Italy in the early 1990s looks back at the intrepid travels to the Pacific of some of his compatriots including Venetian Antonio Ponto who sailed on the Endeavour’s first voyage.
He takes in the broader history of Italian migration and looks at why the country looked so far past its own borders when it came to settlement abroad.
Though immigration to NZ never developed into substantial numbers, Giuseppe argues those who did settle have made an impact, for example in diversification of our palette. He also looks at potential reasons behind an apparent upward trend in numbers since the turn of the century. Nevertheless if you thought your Friday night pizza was still lacking something, our speaker asks us to ponder what a large-scale Italian immigration might have meant for Aotearoa.
Enjoy the journey! Haramai tētahi ahua!
Recorded live at the Auckland Central Library on 28 August 2019.
