Marta Mikey
“It was difficult at first but so are all new things and, in the end, I was able to share my culture and expand my knowledge”
Marta Mikey
Country of origin: Argentina
Occupation: Researcher, psychotherapist and owner of one of the first Latin American homeware and giftware shops
State of Residency: Victoria
Favourite place in Australia: The Mandoline Cafe in Elsternwick
Upon arrival: Amazed by the barren landscape and the lack of cultural vibrancy
Photo by Jytte Holmqvist (July 2024)
Story edited by Natalia Serrano, Lucy Coulson and Dr Jytte Holmqvist (JH)
A force to be reckoned with, Argentina-born Marta Mikey is joyous, warm and highly energetic. Small in stature and with an impressive cascade of blonde hair, she is a woman larger than life and lights up the room with her electrifying presence. Very close to her family and an arts aficionado, she speaks highly and fondly of her sister Fanny Mikey who rose to fame as a theatrical producer, actress and member of the Teatro Experimental de Cali and mingled with Pavarotti and others. Marta’s appealing home is a museum come alive, abundant with photos, memories and memorabilia that bring the past back to life and reflect her family’s artistic streak. Newspaper clippings, excerpts and promotional materials relating to Fanny are everywhere. Combining brains with commercial insights, Marta gained her PhD from La Trobe University and is a retired psychotherapist and artisanal crafts vendor. She has received various awards and accolades in the field of psychology and has appeared in numerous scientific journals. A bold visionary ahead of her time, she was instrumental in impacting the Australian government’s decision to introduce psychological consultation rebates; something novel at the time. Marta’s articles in scientific journals have helped bring Australian research into the global spotlight. She has raised awareness of menopausal disorders by publishing key findings on treating depression and anxiety in women with related symptoms. She made it big in Australia and abroad when she decided to open an Australia-based imports and exports company supplying homewares, giftware and craft products – with a focus on Latin American clothes and artefacts which was a welcomed international twist!
TELL US YOUR STORY
Marta Mikey's store circa 1990. Photo of photo by JH (Elsternwick 3 July 2024)
I was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, into a huge family where love was abundant. I met my Australian husband when I visited Israel. He convinced me to come and live in Melbourne. However, when I arrived here in 1960, I was affected by how isolated the place felt – and was. It was different back then; you didn’t see anyone walking down the street and if you did, they wouldn’t speak to you. The land seemed barren and there was a very cold atmosphere overall. The only one I knew here in Australia was my husband and my parents-in-law and so during those first years, I felt terribly alone. Having left behind such a lively culture I found it hard to adapt to Melbourne at the time and I faced additional language barriers as I did not understand English and there were very few English learning centres or resources available for migrants. And so, 6 months later I decided to leave; I went back to Israel and had my first child while I was living in a Kibbutz community.
When I eventually returned to Melbourne to join my husband, I was determined to learn English and make something of my new life. Despite being called “indio” many times in a xenophobic community reluctant to embrace strangers, I persisted. I slowly began to learn English in an autodidact fashion and as a stay-at-home mum caring for my children. When my second child was born in Melbourne in 1963, I began attending Melbourne University as a part-time student. Back then, there weren’t that many child-care centres but I was intent and highly motivated to gain an education and so I joined classes pushing a pram with my baby.
I successfully completed a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology in 1973 and took a huge interest in this field, particularly the psychology relating to menopause as a transitional period affecting women to varying degrees. Thanks to the advice, initiative and encouragement of my academic advisors, I was able to secure a spot at La Trobe University to continue my education and pursue a PhD degree. Researching and writing my dissertation nearly killed me. Having to request scientific journals from all over the world, attaining participants for my study and just writing everything in English as a second language made those years extremely difficult. That isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy the process, but it demonstrates how hard it was to assimilate to higher academia in an Australian context. Eventually, after years of hard work, blood, sweat and tears, I was awarded my PhD in 1981 – my dissertation dealing with menopausal depression among women and how it can be alleviated. My research findings appeared in a number of local Melbourne newspapers, and then all over the world! I began to receive postcards from various professors, researchers and scientific journals, all requesting a copy of my research. It was astounding.
Newspaper cover story. Article provided by Marta. Photo of art by JH (July 2024)
After completing my PhD, I started practising as a psychotherapist and remained in this profession for 30 years. It was a job that I truly loved because it gave me the opportunity to help people and give them skills and knowledge they had not had before. However, during those years we were struggling financially so I decided to take out a business loan to open a shop with Latin American imports. I never imagined the success of importing LATAM products. It made me extremely happy to be able to embark on this project and ripe the fruits of my interconnecting cross-cultural labour. I was able to display my culture, and it made me very happy to see how well my business was received by Australians loving my products. Over the years, the business gained international interest and recognition, and we ventured further afield by exporting to Singapore, India, and other countries in Asia; markets whose interest in my products came as a pleasant surprise.
Overall, Melbourne has given me a wonderful life filled with learning and beautiful experiences including my favourite spot: The Mandoline café and restaurant in Elsternwick, run by owner and chef Thierry Lelievre. Migrating was difficult at first but so are all new things and, in the end, I was able to share my culture and expand my knowledge.
CHALLENGES
Community - There were no Latinos when I arrived in Melbourne and Australia. Having grown up in a culture with just Latinos and then moving to a place with none was very different and hard to get used to at first. But I gradually adapted and expanded my network as I made my new home here. Politically, Victoria also experienced a wave of immigration from especially Chileans and Argentinians in the 1970s and 80s who faced political unrest in their home countries and sought refuge here, particularly under the Whitlam government. Fast-forward to today and thanks partly to new cross-cultural initiatives and agreements in place, Melbourne is seeing an increase in people from other Latin American nations who make this their home away from home.
Interpersonal relations - One of the most difficult things to adapt to, coming from a very community-orientated culture where the collective is very much in focus, was the lack of interpersonal relations. Australians at the time were mainly of Anglo-Saxon descent and there were very few people from Latin America. With time, Australia and particularly Melbourne has become more multicultural and is now accommodating of South Americans and others – the Victorian community is opening up to the world and we are all learning from this regular interaction that bridges cultural barriers. And, speaking of Melbourne, Elsternwick is still a unique hub where cultures meet and converge in the most interesting way.
English language - There were no schools that offered newly arrived migrants the opportunity to learn English. And with English not being a phonetic language, I found it difficult to teach myself how to pronounce English words correctly.
CONTRASTS AND SIMILARITIES
Marta displaying vest from Guatemala. Photo by JH (Elsternwick 3 July 2024).
Family dynamics - I came from a family of six children and 48 cousins; we were extremely close and loving. My husband in Australia was a single child with six cousins he seldom saw. I found this strange and unusual – it was a big difference that I had to get used to.
Assimilation - Initially, all ways of life were alien to me and there was no native folklore to immerse myself in either. Everything was different! It took time but eventually I got used to the Australian way of life.
Lack of historical knowledge - Many Australians were very xenophobic back when I first arrived and had no pride nor knowledge of their historical background. They weren’t aware of their culture or history the way I was in Argentina, and I found it odd that they didn’t care to learn either. Both nations affected by European influences, their histories have not always developed in parallel which is why, I guess, they show different attitudes to their own past.
PIECES OF ADVICE
Embrace new ways of doing things - Be ready to assimilate to new customs and habits and accommodate your culture to encompass cultures other than your own. Many Argentinians have Italian ancestry and are used to the saying “[w]hen in Rome, do as the Romans do”. This is applicable also in an Australian context. And when you start to see the potential of a new place, you realise the move might have been a blessing in disguise.
Don’t fear failure - Don’t give in to the fear of failing. Learn from the child who learned to walk in spite of falling. Once you do, a new life begins at the end of your comfort zone.
See mistakes as lessons to learn from - Don’t let past mistakes define your present choices and ways of facing and tackling new challenges. Bless your mistakes as lessons to learn from and that open prospects for future fulfillments and a potential for growth.
Marta standing outside her beautifully decorated house. Photo by JH July 2024
IN THE NEXT FEW YEARS…
Marta intends to keep engaging in a continuous learning process, where she will study and grow as a member of a tight-knit Elsternwick community that is becoming ever more vibrant and multicultural, with a large Eastern European and Jewish diaspora, in addition to people from English-speaking backgrounds as well as more and more Italians and Hispanics drawn to this unique part of Melbourne. She wants to keep expanding her knowledge in the hope of better understanding the world and peoples’ motives and behaviours. Therein lies her ongoing fascination with psychology!
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With love and gratitude - Latin Stories Australia team