Shocked by age discrimination and intimidation after returning to the Sunshine Coast, Isabella Dusi has rejected any possibility she was an old mare put out to paddock and is bent on changing ageist attitudes.
“I’m an edgy septuagenarian and reject branding as an older Australian with nothing to offer,“ she said. “Refusing to let others diminish my value I am fighting back.“
Moving back to the coast a few years ago, Isabella never imagined she would be faced with discrimination and subject to “saccharin branding“.
“After a career in business I was told by a financial advisor to slip into oblivion, take the pension and keep my head down; ignoring my achievements and skills, he relegated me of no value to anyone in my elder years,“ she said.
“I am patronisingly called honeybun, dearie, sweetie and my love by strangers who seem to think that as I have reached a certain age they can safely assume I am brain-dead. Not only shop assistants, but professionals diminish me with thoughtless branding and words.“
Isabella said her treatment did not reflect on her extensive international career across London, America, Italy and Australia.
“To claim my value, I decided to be courageous and step out boldly, using my lifetime of accomplishments and skill to educate and inspire. Taking a good long look at the skills garnered over a lifetime, more than three score and 10, I realised that I had the opportunity to retool skills.
“Everyone has personal skills which can be retooled, and mine provide me with credibility, which I am determined to use in a later-in-life career.“
Isabella studied art and history in Italy and, with that knowledge, led hundreds of cultural and lifestyle tours across Italy and France, as well as Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica, and Morocco and Croatia that led her to become a recognised storyteller and an international speaker. To do that she learnt the language and read Italian history. Having lived 24 years in Europe, she is retooling her skills.
“I see an opportunity for action on two fronts. I have opened an Italian Language Conversation group, retooling my language skill, and every second week I provide a venue to practice and speak the Italian language,“ she said.
“With a repertoire of 20-plus art, history and political stories spanning a couple of thousand years, travel stories from my career as a cultural leader, I asked myself, are there not people wanting to keep learning? I can tell the story of a Sputnik in Paradise and the Myth of the Sicilian Mafia. I’ll challenge people to ask where the Longbeards came from, and where the Etruscans went! I have so many stories; What was the Renaissance really all about? Is Venice even real? and I take people on an investigation of Eroticism in Art of the 1500’s – and how to read the message in a work of art.
“How about finding out how to buy a house in Italy? I bought and restored two of them.“
Isabella’s Italian Language Conversation group meets every second week in Noosaville, and this month begins storytelling and illustrated presentations to be held at the Noosa Surf Museum, 3 Hilton Terrace, Tewantin.For more information email isabelladusi039@gmail.com or visit italydreaming.com.au
