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When she was fifteen years old and had completed her schooling Giuseppina
found work in a local watch factory, her job being to punch holes into watch cases for
the insertion of jewels. Her grandmother and family did not approve of this factory job
~ perhaps thinking she ought to contribute more to the farm ~ but, as Giuseppina
wanted to be with her school friends, nothing could be said to discourage her. The
experience of growdng up in AustraUa, and seeing other young people find work
outside the home, had perhaps provided her with the courage to resist family pressure.
At the same time, on the other side of the globe, many Italian-speaking immigrants
were cUnging to a view of their former society which no longer existed in quite the
same form;'*^ they lamented the loss of their children to an outside workforce, unaware
that similar changes had also occurred in Ticino. This view of the homeland as
unchanging caused many immigrants to complain about life in Australia and to long to
retum to their viUages. Around 1910 a family relative suggested that it was time that
the girls retumed home and arrangements were made for their passage. Reluctantly
they bid fareweU to their friends, including one peasant Milla Moretti who presented
them with a smaU wall plaque as a momento: a simple folk handcraft, it depicted a
picture of the Mana del Sasso pasted on to a sUce from a tree tmnk. SymboUc of the
townsfolk's devotion to the saints, it remained one of Giuseppina's most treasured
reUcs of her years in Ticino. She was also given a fan decorated with the national dress
of the Swiss cantons, Ticino's costume being a simple white shirt with blue trim, a
green skirt trimmed in blue, a red apron, orange scarf and red hat. With these few
precious items, the giris arrived back in Australia. Years later, Giuseppa's descendants
would continue to draw from this artefact, with its romanticised portrayal of 'peasant'
popular culture,'* a sense of ethnic origin and cultural continuity.
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