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2 - Wine, Cannabis and Ancestors: Rural Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 October 2022

Anna Sergi
Affiliation:
University of Essex
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Summary

Viva la Madonna!

Object Name: Lady of Loreto statue.

Collection: Griffith Italian Museum – Pioneer Park Museum, Griffith, Australia.

‘Calabrian painted plaster statue of the Lady of Loreto mounted on a carved wooden stand with concealed wheels, topped with an arch of electric light bulbs, decorated with plastic flowers. Holy card depicting the original statue in Plati Catholic community.’

‘Where is this statue again?’, I asked my friend Marie, with whom I was sharing the trip from Sydney to Griffith. ‘The Italian Museum, we’ll get there tomorrow, right after you finish your meeting.’

One of my first times driving in Australia, and I am not a confident driver.

‘This is going to be interesting’, I had told myself that morning; it was 6 August 2017. I was nervous, I recall. I don’t know how to easily do some things many people do, like rent a car and drive. I always feel slightly anxious. I had to take lessons back in London because I hadn’t driven for a long time and the idea of going cross-country down under for a good six-or sevenhour drive was not a comfortable thought. We had taken Marie’s car; we were going to split the driving time. And we had booked a room for two nights, which had not been an easy thing, either.

‘Your surname, you know, your surname here in Australia … you know, right?’

I had been asked that question by an agent of the Australian Federal Police (AFP), in Melbourne, in 2015, my first trip down under.

‘It might be better if you don’t book under your own name, and even better if you book somewhere at the edge of the city, a chain hotel, maybe, the Quest?’ – had been the comment of another AFP agent prior to my trip in 2017. We booked under Marie’s name.

‘Why don’t you take the plane to Griffith?’ was another question/suggestion.

No, I had to get there by driving. And with my surname concealed.

The drive to Griffith became pretty two hours in, after getting out of Sydney and many miles of cars and clouds.

Type
Chapter
Information
Chasing the Mafia
'Ndrangheta, Memories and Journeys
, pp. 20 - 45
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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