Together, choir members create moments of connection, shared culture and joy.
The Seconda Gioventù (Second Youth) InCasa Community Choir brings together around 50 older Italian migrants, many of whom arrived in Australia in the 1950s to 1970s. Singing in Italian and regional dialects, members create moments of connection, shared culture and joy, reliving life history and reviving old memories.
The upcoming choir performance is led by Dr Simone Marino, an anthropologist by training, who is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the School of Education, and Research Fellow at the SAGE Futures Lab. The choir forms a part of Dr Marino's research work, under the Citizen Wellbeing project, which explores everyday self-care through multi-modal community engagement.
Dr Marino has co-designed "Comusichiamo – Let's make music together," a music and narrative engagement program that highlights the role of home music, first language, and storytelling in supporting migrant populations living in aged care facilities and their family caregivers.
Dr Marino plays the guitar, lira calabrese (Calabrian lyre) and zampogna (Italian bagpipe).
His research shows that even those with dementia benefit from the familiarity of the songs. One case study Dr Marino has researched, together with a colleague, with an Italian migrant in a care home living with dementia, found that his communication abilities improved after listening to music from his homeland. His mood improved and he showed increased engagement with those around him, and more emotions, including joking and expressing humour, which he had not done for some time.
In fact, all choir members showed improvement in communication and social engagement. Singing in their home language reinforced their social identity and social connectedness in a very direct way.
Dr Marino was born in Italy and was a professional musician before studying anthropology and ethnomusicology in Rome. He plays the guitar, lira calabrese (Calabrian lyre) and zampogna (Italian bagpipe). He researched the role and relevance of music and first language among Italian-Australian communities in South Australia for almost 15 years before moving to Western Australia and expanding this work at ECU.
"The concert is particularly meaningful to me because it represents the growing public and community impact of my research, which explores how music, storytelling and culturally meaningful engagement can support wellbeing, identity, dignity and social connection among older migrants, including people living with dementia.
"I am very grateful to the City of Fremantle for supporting my research and the choir, and opening the Town Hall to our community. I'm also grateful to InCasa, the choir members, families and everyone who continues to make this work possible."
The Seconda Gioventù Community Choir is performing at Fremantle Town Hall on Friday, 6 November from 12:30pm. Bookings are essential.
