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a man whom they fondly referred to as 'old Shepherd'. Shepardson was a clever man
who, besides his skills as a teacher, also designed the bluestone building for St Joseph's
Church in Blampied. Since the region possessed no Catholic school the Presentation
Sisters, who came to Holy Cross Convent in Daylesford in 1891 (ref figure 9), sent
two nuns across to Eganstown and Blampied each day to educate the children. The
Morganti offspring remained, however, at the govemment school, some Italian
speakers finding the Irish-dominated Catholic Church alienating and unattractive. The
sight of Mother Margaret Cowly and Mother Alphonsus Southwell being driven from
Daylesford each day in an enclosed phaeton with their black curtains well drawn and
praying all the way presented a much more severe view of religion than that to which
the Ticinesi were accustomed. At Eganstown the children were taught in the church in
the cemetery grounds (sometimes receiving the condenmation of their teachers when
they ran all over the graves at recess).'*^
An incident which occurred during this period highlights, at the personal level,
the strong will and determination of Maddalena, and, at a more abstract level, the
multi-layered and muUi-directional nature of identity.""^ At the Department school,
under the guidance of'old Shepherd', the Morganti children had all achieved excellent
resuhs. When it came time for their Confirmation, a ritual within the Catholic
tradition, the Irish parish priest refused to accept the children because they had not
attended the CathoUc school. He demanded that the children change schools
immediately. Maddalena, who thought it most unfair to remove her children from a
school where they had been achieving well, especially as the request coincided with the
expected arrival of the District Inspector, refused to co-operate. She felt that the
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