Stories from la Terra

Stories from La Terra is an anthology of stories, poems, photos and artwork from 23 intergeneration Italian Australian women from across Australia. La terra can be translated to mean soil, dirt, earth, land, Earth, country. Its multiple meanings stretch to embrace both a sense of belonging and longing captured in the one phrase la terra mia - my land or my homeland. La terra can also be used to claim a place as many migrants to Australia have done through making homes and through...
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Stories from La Terra is an anthology of stories, poems, photos and artwork from 23 intergeneration Italian Australian women from across Australia. La terra can be translated to mean soil, dirt, earth, land, Earth, country. Its multiple meanings stretch to embrace both a sense of belonging and longing captured in the one phrase la terra mia - my land or my homeland. La terra can also be used to claim a place as many migrants to Australia have done through making homes and through zappare la terra - to till the soil to grow food, plants and trees that nurture our bodies and souls, and grounds us to place by putting down literal and metaphoric roots in a new land. La terra is ubiquitous, it gets under your nails, under your feet, and under your skin. It fosters meaning, tranquillity and restoration. But the loss of la terra can also break one's heart, as has been the case for many migrant and diasporic communities forced to leave their home. The politics of la terra can fuel wars, dispossession, genocide, and denial of sovereignty. Colonisers of many lands have constructed the means for forced possession of la terra. Climatic changes are threatening the viability of la terra, the Earth. Throughout the anthology we show our multifarious belongings to multiple terre and our ongoing and enduring connections to nature by evoking nature imagery, memories, symbols, and metaphors as a means of making sense of the great and the senselessness of the world - birth, family, death, war, suffering. We try to understand infinite beauty, tragedy, grief, and wonder - by turning to nature to express frightening, unfathomable or awe inspiring emotions. Through la terra we explore our existential connection to nature, others, and ourselves.