BeanScene Magazine

Community hubs

Currently showing at the Immigration Museum in Melbourne, the exhibition ‘Open for (more than) business’ explores the way in which local businesses offer more than just goods or services.

The new exhibition, which began in August and will run through to 27 May next year, looks at seven local businesses established by people from migrant and refugee communities. Photographs, a documentary and their stories are all on display for visitors. Businesses showcased range from those that are long-running to those that have been established more recently by newer migrant communities. The exhibition acknowledges that such businesses provide links to a homeland, and at the same time, assist recently arrived immigrants to establish a connection with their newfound home
in Australia.

‘Open for (more than) business’ was developed by Italian immigrant Dr Erminia Colucci and Indian immigrant Shweta Kishore, who have both worked extensively in film and photography and are Chairs of Multicultural Women in Arts.

Hailing from Martina Franca in Puglia, Erminia also lived in Veneto, before travelling to Brisbane eight years ago after receiving an academic scholarship. For the past four years, Erminia has lived in Melbourne and she now works at the University of Melbourne as a Research Fellow. Erminia has a Diploma in Education, an honours degree in Clinical Psychology from the University of Padua in Italy, and has trained as a researcher at The Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention (AISRAP) at Griffith University in Brisbane. In 2003, she was awarded Australian international post-graduate research scholarships, UQIPRS and IPRS, which supported her PhD project, ‘The cultural meaning of suicide: A comparison between Italian, Indian and Australian students’ at the University of Queensland. This project resulted in Erminia receiving the 2004 UQ Travel Award and the 2005 Dr Helen Row–Zonta Memorial Prize.

However, it was a chance encounter with a man named Vittorio Garfi that sparked the beginning of this latest project. His business, Vittorio’s Barbershop, has been servicing the local community for more than 50 years.

Vittorio left Sicily in 1959 with his mother, at the tender age of 16, to join his father in Australia and begin a new life in a country far from his own. Upon arriving in Melbourne, he pursued his passion for hairdressing and obtained a barber’s license. Two years later, with the help of a good friend, he opened Vittorio’s Barbershop in the suburb of Brunswick.

“What makes me happy is that clients return to me. It’s been 50 years and they come back,” he says. “It must mean that I make them happy and that makes me happy.”

In fact, Vittorio’s list of long-time clients goes on and on. His oldest client, Francesco, also an Italian immigrant, passed away last year at the age of 104. Francesco had been a client of Vittorio’s for 48 years.

Whilst in Brunswick, Erminia stumbled across Vittorio’s Barbershop. “I saw the shop and it looked very interesting,” she says. “At first I didn’t realise what it was, but all the photos and images inside intrigued me. I asked Vittorio about his story. He told me he has been running his shop for 50 years and showed me a photo of his oldest customer Francesco.”

And, it was through this meeting with Vittorio that Erminia saw the value of the business to the local Italian community. “Vittorio’s business is more than a business, it provides a connection with the community,” she says.

From here, Erminia got in contact with other businesses in the area that have had a similar impact on their ethnic community.

Like Vittorio’s Barbershop, Casa di Perla has been operating for over 50 years. The bomboniere shop was established by the Yiannopoulos family, trading under the name Yiannopoulos Emporium. Maria Yiannopoulos migrated to Australia from Greece with her two year old son Tasos and her husband George, following World War II. The couple established a newsagency, but as more and more Italian and Greek immigrants moved to Melbourne, they recognised the need for a bomboniere shop to cater to the many special occasions held by people in these communities. In 1993, Maria’s daughter Olga took over the business and renamed it Casa di Perla.

Also featured in the exhibition is Insegna in Brunswick, a multi-lingual bookshop set up by Italian immigrants in 1975; Café Scheherazade in St Kilda which was run by a Jewish family and served Eastern European food from 1958 to 2008; an Indian grocery store called Truspice which is celebrated as the first Indian shop in Melbourne; a family run Afghan restaurant called Rezah Afghan Kebab; and the new African restaurant Lalumba African Restaurant and Café.

“These businesses are not only about making profit,” says Erminia. “Each of these businesses play a role in society and really do make a difference to other people’s lives. They offer a window to their own culture and encourage reciprocal cultural understanding for the wider community.”

As part of ‘Open for (more than) business’, the Immigration Museum is inviting people to share stories, images and videos of their favourite Melbourne-based businesses on Facebook. Visit www.facebook.com/immigrationmuseum to take part.

Further information
Immigration Museum
400 Flinders Street, Melbourne
Information and bookings: 13 11 02

Admission
Adults: $10
Children and concession: free