Maltese Australian Ghana Performance and Debates of Home

Escaping unemployment the majority of first-generation Maltese Australians arrived post Second World War as economic migrants. Government policies of assimilation in place during this period and continuing social inequities have resulted in a lack of a ‘lived’ connection or sense of belonging for contemporary Maltese Australians. This paper uses Anne Marie Fortier's (2000 Fortier A-M Migrant Belongings: Memory, Space, Identity Oxford Berg 2000 [Google Scholar]) concept of re-membering, which draws out the importance of nostalgic remembrance to migrant community spaces and bonds, together with Kelly Oliver's (2001 Oliver K Witnessing: Beyond Recognition Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 2001 [Google Scholar]) framework of subjectivity as witnessing. These concepts highlight how the Maltese Australian community re-constitutes itself through actively negotiated cultural performances of Maltese folk music known as ghana.