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Materials, a pair of hands and, between them, just the tools needed
to facilitate the work, without removing the human being from the
picture. When you have that, work becomes
a trade,
an encounter and a dialogue through which ideas are formed,
solutions emerge, skills are developed, and techniques are refined
and perfected. The materials become an object; the person, an
artisan.
And it is impossible to tell from which of the two the work emerges.
Many of the Italians who came to Canada practised one of the trades
that were characteristic of their native peasant society. They were
masons, mosaicists, shoemakers, lacemakers, blacksmiths, cabinetmakers,
bakers . . . and few of them were able to earn a living
from these trades in an industrialized labour market. Like many of us,
they reaped the benefits of industrialized work, which offered greater
stability and higher wages. But a number of them also experienced the
disadvantages of work that was often automated, and divided into simple
and repetitive tasks - work that too often did not allow workers to
reach their full potential.
Whether they earned a living from their trade, transformed it into
a hobby or retained it only in memory, Italian-Canadian immigrants clearly
loved
what they did. They show us that work can also be a source of vitality
and creativity.
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