» Read the Maltese version of this story

Author: Anna Xuereb
Storyteller: Maria Xuereb
Community Language School: Maltese Language School of NSW
Main School: Cerdon College

A interview in which my grandmother describes her life.

1)Where is your place of origin?
I came from Xaghra, Gozo

2) Tell me about your village.
Our village was large. We lived near the sea and had over half an hour to walk to the village square. In the village square there was the School, the Church, and the Police station. All that we would ever need could be found in the village square, including shops.

3) Describe the house you lived in.
Our house was divided into three rooms. We had a large room where my mother and father slept. There was an even larger room in which eleven children slept, six boys and five girls. I remember how my mother had huge beds which she put us to sleep in. Three of us were placed on each bed and my mother separated the beds with curtains. We did not have electricity, and therefore my mother would put a candle or a lamp in the middle of the table. We had a dining room. Our table was rather large and reminded me of the apostles’ table. It used to be one of my father’s old fashioned sofas.He had transformed it into a table so that we could all sit and eat our meals together as a family.

There were thirteen of us altogether, including my mother and father. We had a tiny kitchen under the staircase. The stairs went all the way up to the roof. This meant that we did not have rooms upstairs, everything was downstairs. We had a good life, together as a family. We played and slept together.It was a great life for us all.

4) Tell me how you spent your days as a family in Malta.
I remember the first thing we did after waking up was we all went to Church. At three o’clock in the morning my mother and father would call us to go to Church. Afterwards, we would go back to the house and go and fetch water. We needed to get enough water for washing. As there were many of us, we were able to fill many buckets for my mother. We walked about ten minutes to reach the water tap in the street, where we got our water. We always made sure that my mother had enough water everyday to do the laundry. When it rained we would collect the water from the down pipes. We used this for our bathwater, which saved us from some walking. This water was good for washing. At times we went to the tunnel to do our washing, which meant we had to walk even further, for about fifteen minutes.

In the morning, we carried the clothes for my mother, and prepared them next to the water to make it easier for her to start the washing. We helped her take the clothes home and put them on the roof so that she could start hanging them on the line. All this happened before we went to school!

Later, we would make the sandwiches and feed the chickens and the rabbits.Some of us fed the sheep while others went to milk them. We all would contribute. Then we went to school. Back in those days we did not stay at school for lunch at noon. Instead we went home. We walked for half an hour to reach our house and of course half an hour back to school, so it was a long walk each way. We did not think it was far as we were used to it. In those days we did not have school buses, so we travelled everywhere on foot.

Sometimes we would meet up with someone with a horse or a donkey, and we would jump on the back of their cart. Sometimes they would get angry and and hit us with their whip. Thankfully, sometimes we would find a kind person who would feel sorry for us and offer us a ride. Sometimes someone would have a cart full of straw and they would stop to let us ride on it. We had a lot fun.

We kneaded bread dough three times a week, because my grandmother was a baker and she lived near the village square. I remember when I was eleven years old, I began helping my grandmother with kneading the bread.

5) What was your father’s occupation?
My father worked for the government fixing the roads. Sometimes he fixed the roads of the schools from a variety of villages, not just Xaghra. He started work at seven in the morning and finished at five in the afternoon. After he returned home he would go to the field to harvest and sow potatoes. On Saturdays and Sundays he passed his time working in the field.

The produce from our field was always enough food to feed us, so we never bought anything. At times we even sold vegetables, and it earned my father some money. My father always kept himself busy and we helped him.

6) What work did your mother do?
My mother did everything. Firstly, my mother had eleven children to take care of. Secondly, she had to do every other aspect of housework including the washing, cooking, sewing etc. Sometimes she gathered wool; rolled it into balls wool and then weaved it. She took care of the family. My mother worked a little in the field close to our house, picking vegetables for cooking. She slaughtered animals like rabbits and chickens and prepared them for eating.

7) What type of foods did you consume?
I ate everything that my mother cooked. She made a huge pot as we were thirteen people. But she always cooked minestra (vegetable soup), ravioli, pies, honey rings, cheese or fish pizza, stews, broth, and my father’s catch – rabbits or pigeons – all healthy and fresh food.

8) Did you go to school?
Yes I did go to school.

9) For how many years did you attend school?
I remember that my mother sent me to school for one year with the nuns, and afterwards, from stage one to stage six. So that would be six years.
I wish I could have gone for longer but my mother had no money to spend on tutoring. I asked her to let me continue but she said “no” straight away. So I had to stop going.

10) What kind of work did you do before you came to Australia?
Four months later I met someone who asked me “Would you like to take over my job?” She said, ” I am going to Australia”. I told her, “My mother does not let me work, as I am still very young”. I was fourteen years old; I had just finished school but she still told me to ask my mother.
Later on this woman spoke to her boss and mentioned that she knew of someone who could take her place, but that she still had to ask her mother. This lady came to speak with my mother and that is how I started working for her.

This lady was like my mother. She cared for me like her own daughter. I looked after her children, fixed the beds, and helped them prepare breakfast, wash floors and so on. I worked there for four years.

11) Why did you stop working there?
I stopped working there because I wanted to come to Australia.

12) Do you still remember a legend, a story, a song, a poem, a meal or recipe that you liked when you were young?
I have a poem that I liked from that time and still like it to this day. It is called “Ic-Cirasa” (The Cherry)

(The following is a literal English translation of the Maltese rhythmic poem)

All fruit is sweet and beautiful Both the small and the large Whether on a table or in a tree How lovely it is when it is ripe
But of all the fruit the cherry Is the one we all like to see Like a lamp, a flicker lighted Near the green paths in the garden

Like tiny red balloons All shiny and bright Or like earrings on angel’s ears Worn on the feast day

Dun Karm

I remember I was in my second year of school when I learnt Ic-Cirasa. The following is a child’s nursery rhyme:

I have a very beautiful doll
Her cheeks are as red as poppies
A pair of eyes the colour of the sky
You’ll never find any as sweet
13) Why did you leave Malta?
I left Malta because I had the desire to come to Australia. Firstly, I remember when I was four years old, my family was going to emigrate to Australia. But about a week before we were to leave, my father was informed that he was not able to go to Australia. I think we underwent an examination. After that, I always had the desire to come to Australia. My father also had his own father here in Australia. My brothers and sisters gradually left for Australia.so eventually I had four brothers and sisters in Australia. So as soon as I turned eighteen I told my mother that I was planning to come to Australia as well.

14) How old were you when you left Malta? I was 18 years old. I arrived here in February and turned 19 in April.

15) Why did you choose to emigrate to Australia and not another country? I was always attracted to Australia. I did not wish to go to Canada or to England as I thought it would be too cold there.

16) How did you travel here?
I came by aeroplane, by Alitalia. I remember I left on the 23rd February 1966 and we arrived here on the 26th February.

17) How was the trip?
I had never boarded an aeroplane before. I didn’t realize how long it was going to take and I was bored, but the trip was good. We passed through Singapore.

18) Where did you live when you first arrived in Australia? What was your experience?
The first place I lived in was a shed with my brothers and sisters.It was situated on five acres in Beresford Road, Pendle Hill.

19) What were your first impressions of Australia?
My first impression of Australia was when I looked out of the aeroplane as it was landing. Everything that I saw looked red in colour. These were the roof tops but I thought they were huts. And I thought to myself “What a lot of huts there are in Australia!” And when we landed in Sydney I was thinking it was impossible for huts to be that huge!

20) Did these impressions change since you were here?
Yes, they have. I was more encouraged and got accustomed to this lifestyle.

21) What was your experience in learning English?
I caught on to the English language pretty quickly because we had learnt some English at school. Although, when we learned a new word in English, the teacher would never explain the meaning. Then when I came here, I heard the same words here and there and got used to translating them myself. I learnt English fast. My boss would ask me to help people who came from other non-English speaking countries to learn English.

22) Have you ever been back to Malta?
Yes. I have been back three times. I went back with my family after my first ten years here. I had a four-year-old son. We went back again ten years later when I also then had my seven month old daughter. We went at Christmas time. The last time we went was about five years ago. I went together with my husband and my daughter.

23) Have you seen any changes in Malta? How has it changed?
Yes, there has been a lot of change in Malta. The roads are different; there are many new road rules and many new buildings. The people have changed as well. There are many people there that are not Maltese, for example Germans. Now, the ferries between Malta and Gozo travel from Cirkewwa and leave every half an hour. When I was there they only worked three times a day. Now, everyone has his or her own car. There are many tourist activities such as the “Xlendi Pleasure Cruise”, or one can go on a group tour of Sicily.

24) What things are the similarities between Australia and Malta?
There are many things in Malta that are similar to Australia. This is because the lifestyle is the same and Malta has changed. There is a great improvement in transport, telephone, new roads, electricity and everything else, just as we find here.

25) What is the difference between Malta and Australia?
The people there have a nap in the afternoon, and that is what makes the lifestyle different from that of Australia.

26) What do you miss most from Malta?
Malta is our birthplace. I missed my parents, my parents-in-law, our brothers, sisters and friends. I miss also going to Church in Malta. Malta is my nation and I will always love it.

Thank you