Paola Totaro, an Italian expatriate who moved to Australia as a child, has shared her experiences of feeling like an outsider in her adopted country. In a personal essay, she recounts the daily ordeal of being teased by a teacher who called her 'Potato Tomato' instead of her real name during roll call at her Sydney primary school in the early 1970s. The laughter from classmates, she says, was a constant source of anxiety.
Totaro describes a childhood filled with both joy and trepidation. While she enjoyed the freedom of playing in nature reserves and swimming in the sunshine, school often brought dread. On the last day of primary school, she broke her arm during a game, but a teacher dismissed her tears as those of a 'hysterical Italian' and made her wait until 3pm for her mother. An X-ray later confirmed the fracture.
High school brought further challenges, with a group of boys calling her 'Greasy Wog' and one classmate repeatedly insulting her. Totaro says this sense of otherness—never feeling fully Australian or Italian—shaped her perspective as a journalist, giving her a natural empathy for outsiders and a sensitivity to injustice.
Despite the teasing, Totaro insists she adored Australia, with its outdoor lifestyle and sense of liberty. She says the taunts hurt but were downplayed to avoid accusations of exaggeration. A recent visit from a childhood friend, who apologised for the bullying, confirmed that the memories were real. Totaro now believes the 'hysterical Italian' label became deeply embedded in her psyche, but she remains grateful for the idyllic aspects of her upbringing.
