DONNE E BUOI DAI PAESI TUOI (CHOOSE WOMEN AND OXEN FROM YOUR HOME VILLAGE): ITALIAN PROXY MARRIAGES IN POST‐WAR AUSTRALIA

Abstract

In the nineteen fifties and sixties, many single male Italian immigrants to Australia entered into marriages by proxy with Italian women. Such marriages were performed in Italy when the physical absence of either the bride or groom made it necessary for a stand in or ‘proxy’ to register consent to the marriage on behalf of the missing partner. This paper explores the reasons why Italian nationals and halo‐Australian immigrants contracted such unions and argues that proxy marriages reflected and perpetuated parochial loyalty or ‘campanilismo’ amongst Italian settlers in post‐war Australia. By granting proxy marriages tacit approval, the Federal Government (and the Catholic Church) in effect helped facilitate and strengthen home‐town allegiances within Italian communities, despite official assimilationist rhetoric which discouraged the formation of tight knit ethnic groups. These marriages were condoned in order to help contain the alleged ‘rampant sexual proclivities’ of single Italian bachelors and to promote stable, family oriented Italian immigrant communities in Australia which would contribute to the goal of population building.