The poetry in Dalmatia

Press, 23 January 1988, Page 25

The poetry in Dalmatia

Sing Villa in the Mountain. By Amelia Batistich. Hodder and Stoughton, 1987. 160 pp. $19.95 (paperback). (Reviewed by Diane Prout)

“How could I tell anyone how I loved Dalmatia? Dalmatia was a beautiful word, a poetry word. Why didn’t we learn about it at school?”

Through the perceptions of 12-year-old Stella, Amelia Batistich evokes a New Zealand childhood in a small immigrant community in North Auckland during the 19205. Her memories of a happy-go-lucky, generous father, a beautiful but determined mother, and family friends are recreated in a prism of loving recollection. Events are strung together like nuggets of kauri gum — warm, glowing and burnished with the patina of nostalgia. Most of the stories of the old country come from her mother, Milka Fillipova, in their boarding house kitchen when “the dandelion time stood still.”

“In my familiar world of the gaslight kitchen, with ... Mama sitting at

the table darning socks ... I absorbed the pictures she made for me— : the village climbing from the sea to its stark backdrop of mountains, the terraced vineyard ... the villas, fairywomen, singing locked in the mountains.” The Balkan wars from which her parents escaped, the heritage of folklore and tradition they brought with them, are realistically brought to life through Stella’s eyes and ears. The St Patrick’s Day concert, arrival of cousins from Zaostrog, sale day, picnic day, and the death of a beloved little sister are the warp and weft of the book’s bright tapestry.

Amelia Batistich has written two other books about her struggle of the Dalmatians to integrate with colonial society. Her writing is rich, fresh and humorous. She deserves to be read widely in schools where her insights into problems of cultural and national identity of people other than Polynesian would give a richer dimension to what it means to be a New Zealander.