An International Women’s Day symposium with stories and testimonials of war around the world
Curated by Lella Cariddi
Friday 8 March, 6.30–9pm. Free RVSV event

Friday 8 March 2019, 6.30-9pm
CO.AS.IT., 199 Faraday Street, Carlton (view Google map)

Booking: This is a free event however RSVP/registration is required. Click on the REGISTER button at the bottom of the page.

An International Women’s Day Symposium with stories and testimonials of war from Hiroshima, Holland, Italy, Malta, Poland and Ukraine

Curated by Lella Cariddi with assistance by Caitlin Ewart Cassidy

We invite women and men to join us in this intergenerational program of readings, visual representations and audience participation, to communally give voice to remembrances of women who couldn’t forget the unimaginable horror unleashed by war on the innocent.

Presentations

by Carmen Borg, Anne Cocks, Josie Composto-Eberhard, Janna Hilbrink, Natalie Senjov-Makohon, Jemana Pledger-Stellato, Judy Pile, Taka Takiguchi

On 4 September 1944 Dutch Prime Minister in exile Pieter Gerbrandy broadcast the news that Breda, a town in the southern Netherlands, had been liberated. However, the second world war in Holland, namely the German occupation, did not end there.
What was it like for single mother Emma Hilbrink to raise her children during this period of ongoing hostilities and famine? (Janna Hilbrink)

The Dutch famine of 1944–45, known in the Netherlands as the Hongerwinter (hunger winter), took place in the German-occupied Netherlands. A German blockade cut off food and fuel shipments from farm towns. Some 4.5 million were affected and survived thanks to soup kitchens. It is estimated that at least 22,000 people died due to the famine.
How did Elisabeth Huisman with a bag of wheat straddled on her bicycle, and a coffee grinder, feed her family? (Anne Cocks)

Where tears once touched the land
The journey of Elisabetta Passarelli Stellato, from the Calabrian hills assisting her husband’s escape from fascist Italy to her journey to Australia as an activist, mother, wife and business woman. (Dr. Jemana Stellato -Pledger)

According to Gatrell 'the magnitude of displacement in 1945 beggared belief. Some 23 million people were uprooted in the final stages of the Second World War … as a result of reparations, territorial readjustments and the transfers of populations'. Many of these 'displaced persons' found themselves in Germany, Austria and Italy.
I will present the experience and resilience of these 'displaced persons', and in particular Katerina Senjov, who celebrated her 90th birthday in 2018. (Dr Natalie Senjov-Makohon)
How did the young war widow, Giuseppina, manage to raise her three children after her husband, Antonino, who had volunteered for Mussolini’s Libyan Campaign in 1942, never returned home? (Josie Eberhard-Composto)

Between 1940 and 1942 the British colony of Malta faced relentless aerial attacks by the Luftwaffe (German bombers) and Italian Air Force, targeting towns and supply convoys leading to a shortage of food. This left Malta economically and physically devastated.
What would Ernest Borg do for his young pregnant wife ’Tessie’ who craved for oranges? (Carmen Borg)

World War II was the deadliest war in history, involving more than 30 countries. The war lasted for six years, ending in 1945. On 6 August 1945, the American bomber Enola Gay dropped a five-ton bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
Chizuko Shigeta’s husband was one of the 80,000 people that perished that day in Hiroshima. Now at the age of 100, Chizuko Shigeta continues to capture the memory of Hiroshima in her ‘diary’ titled The Flow of Time. An excerpt from the diary will be read by her grandson, Takashi (Taka) Takiguchi. (TakaTakiguchi)

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