Description

The Migration Museum holds over 60 items, mostly documents, relating to the personal life, internment, career and community works of Antonio Giordano. The collection includes a copy of Giordano’s birth certificate, the original issued in Naples, Italy, 1907.

Antonio Giordano arrived in Australia in 1924. Documents and identity cards in the collection record his early career as a journalist. While living in Sydney in 1940 Giordano was interned as a prisoner of war, first in NSW at Hay and Orange and then at Loveday in South Australia. Several documents in the collection relate to Giordano’s internment, including caricatures drawn by Giordano and by his friend Yonny. Also in the collection is a notice of discharge from the Civil Aliens’ Corps, marking Giordano’s release in 1945.

Antonio Giordano married Lucy Truman in August 1945 in Adelaide. Many of the items in the collection not donated by Antonio himself were donated to the Migration Museum by Lucy. One example of this is Antonio Giordano’s certificate of naturalisation, dated 6 November 1946. Giordano moved to Adelaide permanently in 1952. Many of the other documents in the collection are from the years after he settled in South Australia and demonstrate Giordano’s active involvement in the Italian community and his role in the establishment of various organisations.

Significance

Antonio Giordano was a well respected leader in the Italian community, and was recognised, not only for his contribution within the Italian community, but to the broader South Australian and Australian community. The collection held by the Migration Museum demonstrates his achievements, as well as documenting his resilience in the face of hardships as an enemy alien during the Second World War, and his persistent campaign against negative attitudes towards migrants. He maintained a strong love of his Italian culture and was involved in the formation of a number of community organisations, including the Roma Amateur Sports Club, the Italian Information Service, the National Association of Emigrant Families (ANFE) and the South Australian Soccer Federation. He was also actively involved in the Adelaide Juventus Sports and Social Club and the Good Neighbour Council.