This essay analyses specific aspects of the Istro-Dalmatian exile towards Australia in the years after WWII. After providing a brief historical outline, this paper aims at investigating the repercussions of these events on the sense of identity of the people directly involved in this experience. Identity is here understood, following Adriana Cavarero's interpretation, as figurai unity of the picture left behind by life-stories. Accounts as well as literary texts written by Istro-Dalmatian women are taken into exam. The first section of the paper is focused on stories and memories of the refugees collected by Viviana Facchinetti and published in Storie fuori dalla storia (2001). The second part of this article concentrates on the analysis of literary texts written by Silvana Gardner, Australian author born in Zara (Zadar). The common thread bringing together this analysis and the selected texts is the necessity to provide a space of exposure that can make the existence of these stories visible. In this perspective, women's narrations are privileged because of the low degree of public exposure they suffered until recently.

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literature review post-war refugee Australia memory Adriana cultural identity