Fishing Fleet Festival Queen

Date2000

Object number00033573

NameSash

MediumSatin, cotton

DimensionsOverall: 80 x 2040 mm, 5 mm, 0.08 kg

ClassificationsCommemorative artefacts

Credit LineANMM Collection

Terms

DescriptionA white satin sah with yellow stiching reading 'Fishing Fleet Festival Queen 2000'. The sash was awarded to Jessica Allegretta in October 2000 when she was crowned Fremantle Fishing Fleet Festival Queen at the 52nd Anniversary Ball held at the Cockburn Civic Centre, Spearwood.HistoryThe Western Australian port of Fremantle attracted Italian fishermen from the villages of Molfetta and Capo d'Orlando in the late 1800s. Some three generations on, their families revived the Italian tradition of blessing their fleets in the late 1940s. The local Portuguese merged their ceremony with the Italians in 1973. What began as a small fishermen's festa soon evolved into a multicultural festival involving all the community. The Blessing of the Fleet has become an Italo-Australian tradition in fishing ports all around Australia's coastline. The blessing implores Madonna Stella Maris, the star of the sea, to protect the fleet and bestow a plentiful harvest. The patron saint of Molfetta on southern Italy's Adriatic coast has protected the town's fishing fleet for centuries. When the Fremantle Molfettese initiated their fleet blessing in 1948, they had a replica of their saint made by Perth carver Con Samson. The townspeople of Capo d'Orlando on the north-eastern coast of Sicily gave their Fremantle emigres a statue of their town's patron saint in 1952. She has been carried in procession since 1954.SignificanceThe Anniversary Ball is a major part of the Fremantle Fishing Fleet Festival's celebrations. The presentation of debutantes and the crowning of the Queen of the Festival is actively encouraged by the Festival committee as a way to introduce young people to the Festival traditions.