From Nonna with Love: Stories of Tradition and Triumph was a Western Australian Museum exhibition about Italian migrant women and the family and cultural traditions they carried into life in Western Australia. It ran at the WA Maritime Museum in Fremantle / Walyalup from 27 September 2025 to 20 April 2026 and is now closed.
What was From Nonna with Love?
The exhibition celebrated Italian migrant women, affectionately known as nonnas, and their influence on Western Australia’s cultural identity. The museum presented their stories as part of a wider history of women who left Italy seeking a better future and helped shape the state’s culinary landscape, arts scene and community life. Western Australian Museum exhibition listing
Rather than treating heritage as an abstract idea, the exhibition approached it through personal experience: migration journeys, making a home, community connections, faith, music and food. Photographs, treasured objects and memories made family life part of the public record.
How did the exhibition tell these stories?
Nonna’s Table
At the centre was Nonna’s Table, an immersive installation arranged around a traditional kitchen table. Short films projected onto its surface shared the voices and stories of featured nonnas, making the table a setting for listening as well as a symbol of family life.
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Objects, photographs and descendants’ reflections
Personal belongings and photographs situated the stories in everyday lives, while reflections from descendants showed how heritage is remembered and honoured by a later generation. Together, these elements connected the women’s experiences to the family histories that continue beyond their own lifetimes. WA Museum opening article, 1 October 2025
Food as cultural memory
Food was one of the exhibition’s explicit themes: recipes and cooking traditions can carry memory, identity and family practice across generations. The official exhibition page links to a collection of 25 recipes. That count describes the museum’s recipe collection, not a measure of Italian migration or community demographics.
Rank #2
Where was it, and why did Fremantle matter?
The exhibition was held at the WA Maritime Museum on Victoria Quay Road in Fremantle / Walyalup. Its setting placed stories of migration near the Fremantle Passenger Terminal and the Welcome Walls, landmarks with meaning for many migrant families. The museum also connected the subject to Fremantle’s role as a place where many arrivals disembarked. WA Museum Year 6 migration program
Local guest curator Nella Fitzgerald developed the exhibition with the museum. It followed Fitzgerald’s earlier Nonna Project: Journey to a New Life, which presented Italian migration stories; the museum’s 2024–25 annual report records that planning was underway for this follow-up at the Maritime Museum. Western Australian Museum Annual Report 2024–25
Rank #3
- By Photography by Daria Reina; illustrations by Andrea Ferolla
- 264 Pages
- Over 200 Illustrations
- Hardcover
- Imported
What else was part of the program?
Related public programming included cooking demonstrations, storytelling and cultural celebrations. These activities extended the exhibition’s focus beyond display objects, making food and shared stories part of the visitor experience. The associated Year 6 education program linked migration history with Fremantle’s role in arrivals; the museum marks that program as finished.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.When did the exhibition close?
From Nonna with Love: Stories of Tradition and Triumph ran from 27 September 2025 through 20 April 2026. It has finished and is not currently open. While it ran, entry was included with general admission, according to the museum’s exhibition listing.
Quick Recap
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Rank #4
- 160 Pages
- Book 1
- Editor: Alessandro Parisotti
- Composer: Various
- Dimensions 10.75 x 7.5
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