Mother Shadow, Cynthia Banham's discovery journey towards a new motherhood

While going through her Italian great-grandmother’s papers, Banham came across a word she didn’t recognise: brefotrofio. Its meaning shook her to the core, prompting her to embark on a lengthy investigation, which forms the basis of her new book.

Her name might not give it away, but former journalist, author and plane-crash survivor Cynthia Banham is of Italian descent on her mother’s side. Her mother arrived in Australia in the 1950s, still a child, travelling from Trieste with her parents.

Growing up in close contact with her maternal grandparents, Cynthia always knew that her maternal great-grandmother Natalina, known as Lina, was an orphan. But it was only as an adult that she came across a series of documents inherited from a family member, including Lina’s birth certificate, and found out a different reality through the Italian word brefotrofio.

"This is the Book of Secret Baptisms, where the baptisms of illegitimate babies were recorded in the 19th century, where I found Natalina's mother's name, at the parish archives in San Giovanni in Persiceto." Credit: courtesy of Cynthia Banham

"It was a foundling home where illegitimate babies, unwed mothers were taken, and this was in the late 19th century", Banham explains.

"A whole new side of our family and story opened up because I realised that her parents weren't dead as I'd thought, that she did have a mother, a mother who was compelled for some unknown reason to give her up to a family home".

Cynthia Banham’s new book, Mother Shadow: A Meditation on Maternal Inheritance, recounts the author’s research into her ancestor's life story, but ultimately serves as a reflection on the many forms motherhood can take.

The contrast between an ‘illegitimate’ and likely hidden motherhood in late 19th-century Italy and Banham’s deeply sought-after and desired motherhood in 2000s Australia, eventually leads the author to develop a different perspective and greater compassion for herself and for other mothers.

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A close-up of the author of "Mother Shadow". Credit: courtesy of Cynthia Banham

For further info, visit Cynthia Banham's website.

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