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Many groups and individuals have contributed to the move away from a
monocultural defirution of Australian identity: Anglo-Celts, Italians, Swiss, Chinese,
Greeks, Vietnamese and other immigrant groups have all played a significant role in
the nation's immigration history. As this study has demonstrated, the Italian speakers
in colonial Daylesford ~ families like the Pozzis, Morgantis, Quanchis, Tomasettis,
Lafranchis, Perinis, Righettis, Milesis, Guscettis, Vaninas, Gervasonis, Caligaris,
Graggionis, Vanzettas and Rodonis ~ have played their own vhal role in helping to
shape the values and attitudes of a nation which embraces multiculturalism as it moves
towards a post-European future.
The post-European context is radically new but the reshaping of values and
attitudes builds on earlier phases of Australia's history. As this study has demonstrated
in relation to the Italian-speaking settlers of nineteenth century Daylesford,
accommodating to new cultural frameworks implies a 'rewriting' of even the most
firmly held 'traditional' values and attitudes in the light of the new contexts in which
they function. As Homi Bhabha has observed, cultural engagements should not be
'hastily read as the reflection of pre-given ethruc or cultural traits set in the fixed tablet
of tradition.'"^ As this study of fifteen ItaUan-speaking famiUes has suggested, such
engagements ~ especially in a cross-cultural setting ~ represent a dynamic process of
negotiations between various cross-cutting identhies: 'Italian-speaking',
'GiumagUesi', 'peasant', 'man', 'woman', 'doctor', 'British', 'Victorian' et al. As
Stuart HaU has observed,
every identity is placed, poshioned, in a culture, a language, a history.
Every statement comes from somewhere, from somebody in particular.
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