'Maltese – Aussie realities'

Charles Flores writes that there are 'two facades of the Maltese in Australia':

..There are those rare – and rarer – species that still go about in the city centres wearing cloth caps and checked flannel shirts. They survive in the community that protects them from their obvious linguistic limitations, but it also tries to moth-ball them in cotton wool by organising those very same activities they miss so much when they left the island – the band marches, the festas, the fireworks, the anthems, the statue replicas, the pastizzi, the odd Kinnie and so on.

But is it fair on these people to lead to them believe that they really have not missed anything – or are they being convinced they have never really left, instead of being encouraged to integrate into the more cosmopolitan climate of the big Australian cities? This is no condemnation. There are Maltese Aussies who are doing a sterling job in that same community and should be commended for their efforts. The purpose of this short piece is merely to delve into the realities that exist, this juxtaposition that sometimes perplexes as much as it reflects on the character of a nation on the go, a people who are always ready to face new challenges without losing touch with their origins.

The second façade is that of the Maltese who simply prefer to switch off, cut the national umbilical cord and throw themselves into the new and exciting society that characterises modern Australia. Some of them quickly merge into it and never reappear anywhere near any red-and-white hues, while others maintain a distant, if prudent, link with the past, refusing to mix genesis with opportunity, nostalgia with present-day scenarios and socialising in half-baked parodies of old village xalati.

There must be a compromise somewhere and indeed there are numerous living examples, as can be seen in the book Maltese Achievers in Australia, a recent publication by Maurice N. Cauchi. Cauchi, a world-renowned pathologist and author, was born in Gharb, Gozo, and spent several years in the UK prior to migrating to Australia in 1969. He was very much involved in migrant issues as chairman of the Education committee, and subsequently as president of the Maltese Community Council of Australia, so he certainly knows what he’s talking about.

Four hundred and thirty-eight packed pages are no joke. Cauchi manages to project a completely different image of the Maltese to that provoked by festa processions and statues carried on the sagging shoulders of Ku Klux Klan look-alikes on the wide pavement of a six-lane boulevard, fireworks let off in the restricted air space between sky-scrapers and band music that sounds so foreign when not played against the quaint and beautiful background of Maltese village cores...