ON November 21, 1962, Sister Cecilia Salvadori (right) moved into a small property on Attfield Street. More than 50 years later, she’s still there.
This weekend, Sister Cecilia and four Ursuline sisters will celebrate their 50th anniversary of teaching at Maristella in Fremantle. The small school of just three classes,is located on a small plot on Hampton Road, next to the same convent used in the early ‘60s.
The school was built as a safe haven for migrant workers’ children, most of whom were Italian. Portuguese and Yugoslavian children also attended in the early stages.
“The Italians were not looked upon wel l in Australia,” Sr Cecilia recalls. “They felt that they couldn’t even mention Italy to their children. They were a bit ashamed.”
She and five other nuns helped create a place that served to educate children, but also somewhere families could seek help.
“It’s not only to take the children off their hands so they could go work, but it was also a relationship with the parents,” Sr Clara Pollrsi, who has been at the convent for around 40 years, says.
“It was for counselling, for guidance, to have a person to come to to tell the problems.”
Following WWII, Italy was riddled with poverty and its war-weary citizens began searching for better lives elsewhere. Some found them in Australia.
“Because we came from the same country, there’s more understanding, there’s more feelings,” Sr Cecilia says.
“Who can understand better than our own people? They felt that we were here just for them. And we were here just for them.”
Now, Maristella is a collection of second- and third-generation immigrants and the attitude towards the old country is much different.
“Now, they’re proud to be Italian, it’s all different now,” Sr Cecilia says.
The school is roughly the same size as it was in the beginning—around 30 children per grade—but the facilities have improved. Sr Cecilia says the school started with just tables and chairs but has now blossomed into much more.
The five Ursuline sisters are the only ones in the area but they have others in Italy, Japan, China, Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines.
A mass will be held today, Saturday April 13 at St Patrick’s Basilica at 10am to celebrate the 50th anniversary.
by MATTHEW DeFRANKS