This interview was conducted in December 2020. We are republishing this article as Anthony Albanese, who at the time of the interview was Leader of the Opposition, has become Prime Minister of Australia and the Labor Party has won the 2022 Federal Election.
Having a complex cultural identity is a common experience for many Australians, whether they are born here or overseas and regardless of the languages they speak or their cultural background.
This is an experience that's also shared by Australia's federal opposition leader Anthony Albanese.
I felt that connection. And genes are quite complex things. That sense of identity, I think it's quite important.
We met him at an iconic coffee shop in Sydney's Little Italy, Leichhardt. The meeting happened exactly one year after our last encounter, which occurred ahead of the annual Norton Street Italian Festa, one of the most significant events celebrating Italian-Australian culture. Like many other events, it was cancelled due to the pandemic this year.
We continued the conversation started one year ago on what it means to be Australian while also belonging to a multicultural society – a society that is evolving in the way it addresses complex identities.
"I was called 'Italian' and not always pleasant names at school, growing up. So I identified... I always went for Italy in the World Cup," he said, reminiscing about his childhood spent in the inner-Sydney suburb of Camperdown.
The story of his Italian heritage and finding his father has been told in the past, including through a book on his life. Nonetheless, it is a story Mr Albanese told SBS Italian once again, as a way to celebrate the Australian-Italian culture this year, at a time when the usual ways to celebrate it – the festivals, conferences and traditional gatherings – have been disrupted by COVID-19.
Anthony Albanese with his father Carlo in Italy. Source: Anthony Albanese
His Italian identity, he explains, was clear to him through the surname of his father. His mother Maryanne had always told him the story of her late husband she met on a ship while travelling overseas.
"On that ship, she met a young man, Carlo Albanese. She was a young Catholic woman, and to preserve the honour of the family, I was told - and people were told, that my father had died," he says.
Mr Albanese grew up thinking his father had passed away in a car accident before he was born. This until his mother decided to reveal to him that the two of them never got married and simply parted ways after their brief relationship. She told Mr Albanese that she did not know what happened to his father since the two parted ways.
"My mother passed away in 2002, and my son was born in 2000. And there was a particular day when we were at her grave, and my son was asking me, a little boy (was) asking me, 'where is your father?'" he told SBS Italian.
And that is how the search for his biological father started.
"Due to luck, we found his details. We then met, and I discovered I had a brother, a sister, nieces and nephews."
The chance to meet his father in person came about when Mr Albanese was on an official visit to Italy in 2009. He was 46 when he met his father for the first time.
"They were very surprised that a deputy Prime Minister from the other side of the world was his son," he recalls.
He was very welcoming, and he, of course, remembered my mother; he had the same photo that I had.
And while Carlo Albanese died in 2014, Mr Albanese's connection with his new-found Italian family is thriving through the new generation.
"My son turns 20 next month. He has a cousin who when they first met when we first went over, they were nine and you could tell they were from the same stock, they looked like a boy and girl twins."
