177 Nations of Tasmania

Lili gre up in the southernmost region of China, in a neighbourhood where there were strong community connections.Her parents were perhaps not typical for Chinese parents in that they were not focused on grades, but more than Lili was doing what made her happy and they encouraged her to beat her own path.This perhaps contributed to her decision to go to Australia to study after she finished school. She studied Psychology, and after she graduated she returned to her hometown with the idea to start a counselling service. The time wasn't quite right yet for such an enterprise, but while back in China she met her future Australian husband. They would eventual come down to the Huon Valley to pursue their dream to live a more green lifestyle and grow their own vegetables. Lilli's first job was at MONA, but she would eventually do further studies in social work, and she now works within the area of mental health and counselling.

All that most Australians know about Panama are the Panama hats and the Panama Canal, and probably some have a vague idea that they speak Spanish.Ana grew up in the heart of Panama City, which lies on the Pacific coast of the country, the most southerly nation in Central America.Ana started dancing ballet when she was 5. She had bad as asthma as a child and she found it was one type of exercise she could do without issues. She continued dancing almost every day through her childhood and teens. She'd eventually go to study dance in Cuba, where she was for 5 years, and it there that in 2012 she met Elias, her future husband, who lived in Tasmania. But romance was to come much much later, as they started as friends, he went back to Australia and they stayed predominantly long-distance friends for years after. When things got serious between them, so did the state of the world, with the world-wide pandemic throwing some serious obstacles on Elias's route to get to Panama to propose, and then even further, after they married when Ana had to make an epically long journey to get to Australia.Ana also talks about getting pregnant not long after arriving in Tasmania and dealing with being a new mother in a new country and it's rewards and challenges.

In December, I started a collaboration with Hobart photographer Andrew Wilson and with the help of a grant from the City of Hobart, to photograph portraits of as many of the participants of 177 Nations of Tasmania as we could. We started in December by doing a couple of trial photo sessions with five of our participants, and in this video they recount a bit of their experience of the photo shoot. We will be doing further photo shoots at the Henry Jones Art Hotel from February 3 to March 7 and displaying the photos on the walls of the Packing Room Gallery.

Cambodia is a country with a dark recent past, with the the brutality of the Khmer Rouge regime leading to millions of deaths and large numbers of refugees. A large portion of those refugees came to Australia in the late 70s and early 80s, often on boats. However, in more recent times, Cambodia has enjoyed a sustained period of relative stability and prosperity, and Cambodians are more likely to come to Australia as students than as refugees. Pul ( aka Pulsokunreangsy ) arrived in Melbourne at 18 years of age to study IT. This was not something he had planned, it was an idea of his mother and cousin, who told him after they had already applied for him that he had better study for the English test ( IELTS) ! As Pul realised from his experiences in Australia, one of the biggest cultural differences is that in Australia, you are expected to be a lot more independent, while in Cambodia, even as an adult, the family is very much part of your decision-making. Pul came to Hobart to do post-graduate studies in a quieter and more relaxed environment and he managed to get a graduate position in his field in Hobart after graduating.

Niall grew up in Belfast in the 90s when the bloody sectarian conflict between Protestants and Catholics still permeated almost every aspect of Northern Ireland society. His family didn't belong to either faction and never bought into the toxicity created by the historical sectarian biases. Living in such atmosphere, Niall always thought to get out, and in his early 20s moved across to Brighton in the UK. With a passion for music, the strong artistic community, Brighton was really appealing, but also expensive. That love of music and the arts would also be what eventually attracted him to come and live in Hobart, after a visit during Dark Mofo, which was part of a break to recover from burnout. Niall was eventually move to Hobart with his partner and get a job at the Museum of New and Old Art, before a recent career change. Music credit - "Flux and Form" by Northern Irish band Tracer AMC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouXm_Pa5Its

Ben was born into a Berber family in a small town in Morocco, the youngest of 11 children. While, for various reasons, some older siblings had to drop out of school early, Ben was an enthusiastic student. A teacher at high school inspired him to take an interest in some of the social issues he noticed around him and this lead him to studying a degree in Sociology. Ben followed the academic path after graduating, first doing a Masters in Malaysia and then coming to Tasmania to do his Phd and eventually becoming a lecturer. The main focus of his research has been housing, from the slums of Casablanca to the housing crisis in Tasmania and its various causes and consequences.

Aymen's first experience of Australia was arriving at Sydney Airport with no English or knowledge of his new country and getting very lost and missing his connecting flight. His lack of English was a problem at first, but his soccer skills helped him get involved with the local soccer community and this opened up social networks and job opportunities that Aymen took advantage of. Aymen grew up in Khartoum, but at around the age of 18, the threat of enforced military service became very real and he decided to escape to Egypt, and after two years, he was able to join his brother in Tasmania.

Since arriving in Tasmania about a year ago, Michael has got somewhat accustomed to people questioning whether Benin is a real country - an indication of how little known his homeland is in Australia. Benin is a small country in West Africa, squeezed between the much larger Nigeria and Togo. It was formerly part of a much larger Kingdom of Dahomey and was also one of the centres of the Atlantic slave trade. A legacy of this is seen in places like Haiti, Cuba, Brazil and New Orleans, where Voodoo is still practised, a belief system originating in Benin. In western culture this has become associated with pushing pins into dolls, but in Benin it is still a very much accepted bona fide religion. Michael's story is remarkable other ways though. From a tough time as a child at a boarding school in Nigeria, to University studies in Ghana, where he'd secretly hoped to further his soccer career, he eventually got a scholarship to study agriculture in Israel. During his year in Israel he fell in love with a Filipina, and she was the eventual inspiration for him to come to Tasmania. He arrived in Tasmania to study but with no contacts, little money, no secured accommodation and no partner ( her visa was rejected). His strategy for dealing with this situation and getting on his feet in Hobart was pretty unique and a really great story, which I'm not going to spoil here.

Oren was living in the middle of Melbourne with his partner during the COVID pandemic, when the city was put into regular lockdowns. This heightened the feeling of being stuck in a concrete jungle, and though not the only reason, it got Oren thinking about making a change. In 2021 he followed his partner down to Tassie, where she did a permaculture course and they did a farmstay down at Cygnet for 8 months...and the rest is history, as they say. Oren originally came to Australia to study Audio Engineering, and music and sound have been very much a part of his life. Indeed, some of his teenage musical influences lead him to questioning some of the aspects of Israeli society. This questioning came to a head when he left school and faced the obligatory 3 years' military service. Through a mixture of protest and negotiation, he ended up spending his time in a desk job in the Air Force. By the end of it, he was ready to jump back into the world of music and entertainment, and 18 months later he made the life-changing decision to move to Melbourne. Original music produced and composed by Oren Gerassi. https://borcho.com/ear-stimulants/

To mark Refugee Week 2024, here's a compilation of stories from five of the interviews I've done in the last 12 months that reflect different aspects of the refugee experience from Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. There's Ieva's story of her whole family walking 200km to get to the port of Riga to escape the oncoming Soviet Army, Sandra's tale of when a to-close-for-comfort missile attack was the final straw for her family to leave Damascus. Khadga explains how ethnic Nepalis were brutally imprisoned, threatened and expelled from Bhutan and Lawrence describes his memories of life of being a South Sudanese refugee in a camp in Uganda. Finally, Aubert explains part of the legacy for genocide survivors from Rwanda and the long-lasting effect it has. Image attribution under Creative Commons 2.0 Creator: Mirek Pruchnicki  Copyright: Mirek Pruchnicki | Flickr

Tunisia is a small northern African country, majority Muslim and Arabic-speaking, but also strongly connected with other cultures of the Mediterranean and North Africa. Akram is, at least at the time of recording, the only Tunisian in Tasmania. Yet Tasmania was an intentional choice by Akram, who arrived here in 2023 with his Filippino wife and two young children. Previously they had been living in Qatar, where Akram had worked for around 10 years. He had originally moved there to take a job at the Sheraton Hotel. Despite having done thorough research before arriving, there were some shocks. The first six months was quite a struggle but as Akram puts it, he learnt to be patient and accept new situations and now life is looking up for him and his family. Music credit : "Sidi Mansour" - Ahmed Alshaiba ft Ahmed Mounib, Mazin Samih.

Malawi is a small country that fits like a thin sliver between the Zambia, Tanzania, Mozambique. It's become known as the "beating heart of Africa" for being a sanctuary for people from some of the war-torn and troubled nations nearby. With a population of around 19 million, it's also one of the continent's most densely populated. Mwase's story begins by the shore of Lake Malawi, Africa's third largest lake and a feature of huge importance to the life and economy of the country. Although Mwase grew up in a small town, he was curious about the world and a backbacking trip around southern Africa opened his eyes to other cultures and lifestyles. When he returned to Malawi, he met an Australian volunteer, who he eventually married, and cutting a long story short. lead to his big move to Tasmania in the early 2000s. Tasmania in the early 2000s was only just starting to see a few faces from Africa on the streets, and discrimination and finding a sense of community were just some of the challenges Mwase had to deal with. He became involved with community care work and incorporated his passion and skills in music into this, and has been involved in numerous musical projects in his time in Tasmania.

Bhutanese now make up Tasmania's largest refugee community, and also on of the major migrant populations living in the state. Yet many Tasmanians know little about them and their story. In the early 90s many Bhutanese of Nepali ethnicity, were expelled from country, often with threats or actually use of violence, and forced to live in refugee camps in Nepal. For many years they lived in limbo in these camps, hoping to one day return to their former homeland. In Khadga's case, he and his family lived in the camp for 19 years before being accepted for settlement in Australia. Through the research he had been able to do at the time, Khadga had come to the conclusion that Tasmania would be the best place for them to settle given it's similar climate and topography to Nepal. Initial adjustments were tough but Khadga succeeded in getting first a qualification in Child Care, and then Nursing and Paramedics. He currently works as an Aged Care Nurse, but also is a co-owner of a business providing disability care.

Bosnia Herzegovina is perhaps sadly best known for the brutal war waged there in the 1990s between Serbs, Croats and Muslims. An estimated 100,000 were killed and millions became war refugees. Mia, as a 4 year old , was one of those many that fled the war, and her family took refugee in Croatia, where she would grow up and receive her schooling. At 18 years, Mia received a funny message on MySpace from some random Aussie guy. He was thinking to come to Croatia. They seemed to click and when they met Mia quickly felt she'd met the man she wanted to be with. A few years later she had moved to Launceston, Tasmania and got married. The first few years would prove to be a steep learning curve, both experiencing married life and a new culture. In Croatia, she had studied Architecture, and though she would complete further studies to become qualified, her first job in Tasmania was actually in a surf shop.

Although Estonia is a small country far away on the other side of the world, there has been a long-standing, though small Estonian community since the aftermath of WW2, when many migrants from the Baltics settled in Tasmania. Triin is a more recent arrival, having settled in Tasmania a bit over 10 years ago after a career in professional volleyball in Europe. In fact, volleyball is the main sport for women in Estonia, and was through this that she met her Tasmanian husband, who was also playing volleyball in Europe. When they both reach the stage in the careers when retirement was looming, they had to make a decision as to where to live together, and Tasmanian seemed to be the most viable option. Though in some ways, settling down in Tasmania was a relatively smooth process for Triin - she got work quickly and the language was never a problem, but there were some cultural differences that were a challenge to adapt to, not least the very different style of communication and social relations compared with the norm in Estonia. Triin continues to play volleyball in Tasmania and help develop local players with the skills and knowledge that she brings from Europe. We also discuss the Estonia love of foraging and choral singing, a strong feature of other Baltic cultures also.

Nubar was born in Egypt to Armenian parents, and grew up speaking Armenian, English and French rather than the majority language of the country, Arabic. After the revolution in Egypt in the 1950s and the rise of Arab nationalism in the region, many Armenians perceived they were going to be worse off and chose the emigrate to places like Australia, and Nubar's family were no exception. Armenians have a long and rich history that goes back thousands of years, of migrating from their homeland in the Caucasus and settling in forming communities in many different parts of the world, but particularly the Middle East and Asia. It's a history well beyond the limits of this podcast, but Nubar's accounts of some of his family's history will perhaps give a taste of that history. Nubar arrived in Melbourne with his family when was still school age and ended up initially having a career as a drama teacher, before pursuing and interest in filmmaking, which would ultimately lead to work as a lecturer at the Swinburne Film School in Melbourne. He currently lives on King Island, where his wife was born, a fairly remote island to the north-west of the Tasmanian mainland.

Although Papua New Guinea is one of Australia's closest neighbours, it's a place and a people that the average Australian is fairly ignorant of. It's probably not well known, but Papua New Guineans make up the largest of the Pasifika communities in Tasmania. Anne is a PNG born and bred, but now works at the Devonport Library, absolutely miles away both physically and culturally , from her early years in different parts of Papua New Guinea. As her father was an Anglican Minister, and later a Bishop, her family moved around PNG every few years, and so she talks about her memories in a small town in the PNG Highlands, contrasted with the city of Lae, the second largest city in PNG. Like many other Pacific Island countries, the concept of family is very different to that in Australia, with family extending to a much wider community and the bonds being much stronger. Once Anne finished school, she came to Australia to study at Uni. She spent her first few years in Ballarat, but after graduating came to the NW of Tasmania, and after further study and some volunteering, ended up working as a librarian in Devonport.

There could hardly be two more contrasting places than Singapore and Tasmania. Joanna originally left the hustle and bustle of Singapore to take a restful break in Tasmania on the recommendation of a friend. She was shown around Hobart by a man she later decided she would spend the rest of her life with. Joanna had studied Design in Singapore, and later Psychology, but she ended up studying Nursing in Tasmania and working in the Aged Care sector. She would eventually combine these experiences to pursue her current career as an environmental gerontologist. Her experience of Aged Care in Tasmania also proved invaluable when she returned to work in Singapore with her husband and did pioneering work in helping make changes in the way aged care services were delivered in Singapore.

Florian grew up in a the picturesque alpine region of the Austrian Tirol, in a small village near Innsbruck. For many, life in the Austrian alps might be considered quite idyllic, and possibly because of this, locals tended not to stray too far out of their local district. Therefore, when Florian sat down and told his parents he was going to Australia with his Brisbane-born wife, it was a really big deal. The original plan had been to stay for 2 years, but it ended up getting extended, and after a stint in South Australia, Florian discovered the green hills of northern Tasmania were more to his liking and the connection he felt with the Tasmania landscape eventually lead to staying long term. Despite some reservations by his parents initially, the long distance from home has actually helped Florian bond more strongly with his family and value some of the traditions of his homeland more than he did in the Tirol.

Ieva's family left Latvia as the German army was retreating in the face of the surging Red Army forces, in what proved to be a dramatic journey. They would eventually land in a refugee camp in Germany, and then it was a 6 year wait before they were accepted as migrants to Australia. It was not their first choice as they had wanted to follow other family members to USA or Canada. Like many war refugees, family members became separated across the globe. Between 1947 and 1952 around 20,000 Latvians would migrate to Australia, making them amongst some of the earliest new post-war migrants to settle from post-war Europe. Like many Latvians, Ieva's family would eventually settle in Adelaide, and later she would marry a fellow Latvian living in Tasmania, and she has lived in Hobart for the last 60 years. Ieva only returned to Latvia for the first time in 1990, as a part of an Australian Latvian choir invited to a cultural festival, at a time when the country was on the verge of independence. She was also the President of the Tasmanian Latvian Association for 35 years and has actively tried to maintain some Latvian traditions and language. Like many Latvian migrant communities around the world, traditions of Latvian choral singing have been kept alive, though maintaining many traditions with a small community is a big challenge.

The Netherlands and Tasmania have many ties . From the name of our island through to the development of burgeoning agricultural exports such as onions and tulips, the Dutch have really left their mark on life in Tasmania. Even today, they represent Tasmania's 6th largest migrant group and are the only migrant group which is overrepresented in Tasmania compared to the rest of Australia. In the past few decades the Dutch population has experienced a fairly significant decline, but migration from the Netherlands hasn't completely dried up, and Nico represents on of those more recent arrivals, arriving 13 years ago. Initially she came over with intention of picking cherries for a short time but ended up staying longer and meeting the man who was eventually to become her life partner. After a few travel adventures and time living with her partner abroad, they decided to come back to Tasmania and now Nico works as Multicultural Community Development Officer for the Multicultural Council of Tasmania. In this role she has drawn on her experience both as a migrant and working across cultures around the world and while her Dutch directness seemed to be a bit of a problem initially, she's found that it can have its place in her role.

Ross grew up in Northern Ayrshire and in a town north of Glasgow. He developed a strong interest in aquaculture at high school, with one of the primary attractions being that it would allow him to travel for work. In his early 20s he came to Australia on a working holiday and found work on a fish farm in Tasmania. His employer wanted him to stay longer and it meant that Ross had to make a big decision, a decision that meant he would still be in Tasmania 20 years later and still working in aquaculture. We also discuss a bit about some of the small Scottish traditions he maintains and how his kids have become interested in Scotland and their extended family in Scotland.

When I was a kid , "Made in Taiwan" was where every kids' toy seemed to be made, from Matchbox cars to the early electronic games. None of us knew anything about it except that it was a distant land full of gigantic toy-making facilities. In fact, Taiwan is a small country, half the size of Tasmania, but with almost the same population as the whole of Australia. Aki was born in the busy capital of Taiwan, Taipei, and followed her sister to Tasmania as a working holiday maker around 10 years ago. After various jobs, she decided to stay in Cygnet, a small town south of Hobart with a minimal Asian population. It was a real move out of her comfort zone but helped her improve her English and get to know locals, especially when she got a job at the local pub. Aki would eventually get longer- term employment at one of Tasmania's largest salmon producers, Tassal, and it was through this work that she would eventually meet her partner , ultimately leading to settling more permanently in Tasmania.

Paraguay is a small land-locked country in the heart of South America, which still retains a rich indigenous heritage, in particular the Guarani language, which along with Spanish, is the official language of the country. Patricia's story begins in the capital city of Asuncion, where she grew up in a close-knit neighbourhood surrounded by family. When she was 11, she moved to Chile with her sister, due to a change in family circumstances. Although Chile was a neighbouring country, there were many aspects of life and culture there that Patricia struggled with. However, it was here, while at school, that she started earning money selling homemade ice cream and other similar enterprises, and that is something she would return to in a different way in Tasmania. She would eventually meet her future Australian husband in Chile and she moved with him for several years in Canberra before coming down to Tasmania. After initially working in logistics, as she had in Chile, Patricia decided to take a chance and purchased a food truck from a placed called Triabunna, and now sells empanadas under the name Salsa Sol at different locations around Hobart. Photo Credit : Alex Florez Photo

Rwanda is a small nation of 13 million people in the centre of Africa, and the setting for one of the worst atrocities of the late 20th century. During the Rwandan Genocide in 1994 an estimated 500,000-800,000 people of the Tutsi minority were killed by members of the Hutu majority Tasmania may seem a million miles away from such horrors, but the small Rwandan community here has continued to commemorate the event in Hobart in April for the past 20 years. Aubert has been one of the key organisers of the commemoration event, an event which includes commemoration of all genocides, in the hope that humanity can learn from history and avoid dehumanisation of others and the violence that brings. But in this interview Aubert also discusses the positives of growing up in Rwanda - family and community playing a big role in Rwanda society and a happy childhood for Aubert. After arriving in Hobart in the early 2000s, Aubert also did a number of different jobs, including teaching French privately and even an interesting stint as an assistant at the Body Shop. He's also been involved in helping new arrivals adapt to the new culture here through both his work and also as a some time coach at mentor at Hobart's most multicultural soccer club, Hobart United.

South Sudanese represented the first significant group of Africans to settle in Tasmania, starting from the early 2000s. Lawrence and his siblings arrived from a refugee camp in Uganda in 2003 when he was 14. School was challenging as there was no one that spoke his language and his prior education had been disrupted by regular moves from camps to camp to Uganda. His father had been killed during the civil war in his country and the family had fled to Uganda as refugees to find safety, as many hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese have over the course of the ongoing conflict in Sudan. Despite many challenges in adjusting to a new life in Tasmania in the early years, Lawrence was able to get work while still studying and eventually even ran his own shop. He now works in transport doing deliveries all around Tasmania, which gives me an opportunity to see all the parts of the island. He also sings and writes his own songs, which is his avenue to express his feelings and thoughts about things. We also talked about the importance of family in South Sudanese culture and how the concept of family differs markedly from ours in Australia.

Cecilia grew up in the old Swedish university town of Uppsala. As a child she had an interest in art and textiles, but would eventually go on to study chemistry and liminology - the study of rivers. Her studies would eventually lead her to work for the Swedish Polar Secretariat and work at the Swedish scientific base in the Antarctic. This connection also lead to her meeting her Tasmanian husband, Harry and ultimately coming to Tasmania in 1998. Although Swedes like Cecilia invariably speak excellent English, adjusting to a new life so far away from family was not without its challenges, and in this episode we discuss a few of them, and also a few of the ways Cecilia tries to maintain connection with some of her Swedish roots, especially finding regular opportunities to speak Swedish with other Swedes in Tasmania. We also talk about a few very distinctive Swedish things such as the concept of "lagom" and the notorious and very much acquired taste of "surströmming", a kind of fermented herring eaten mainly in the north of Sweden ( Look it up on YouTube and you will get a sense of the strong reactions that it evokes from foreigners ! ).

Denmark has been raised higher in the minds of Tasmanians ever since the Crown Prince of Denmark married a Tassie girl, sometimes affectionately referred to as "Our Princess Mary". Lisbeth's story has some parallels - she's a Dane who meet someone special in Tasmania. In her case, it was towards the end of a two-year Working Holiday in which she'd worked as a jillaroo in Northern Queensland and as an accountant for Australia's biggest mining company. Her romance with Adam in Tasmania was something of a whirlwind one by today's standards - they married within 6 months, and they are still going strong over a decade later. Lisbeth has two young boys, who have shown interest in their Danish heritage and are both learning Danish through Zoom from a teacher in Denmark. Lisbeth is also passionate about mental health, and is in the later stages of studying a Psychology major and has been trying to raise awareness of mental health in her local area. In this conversation we touch on family issues, including a childhood stay in her mother's birthplace of Greenland, and dealing with her father's cancer diagnosis. And like many other countries, Denmark has some of its own traditions and customs, especially around Christmas. Music credit : "Skye Cuillin" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Although Spain may be associated with sunshine and hot weather, it's actually a country of significant regional and linguistic diversity. The region of Galicia, in the north-west corner of Spain actually has a temperate, wet climate, as well as its own officially recognised language. This is the region where Carmen grew up, in the moderately-sized city of Ferrol. She studied Marine Ecology at university, and after completing her studies in Spain, she had the oportunity to do some postgraduate research overseas, and that brought her to Launceston, Tasmania. 15 years on, she is still there, but now working in the role of sustainability officer at the University of Tasmania's northern campus.

Cyprus has a rich history stretching back to the Bronze Age, and it's strategic importance on trade routes between East and West has meant that many peoples have left their mark there from the Ancient Minoans to the British. It's a culture steeped in tradition and history, but first poverty and wars and more recent economic development and changed have impacted the island, and has resulted in quite large scale emigration to places like Australia. These days, Cyprus is quite a prosperous and stable place, and so it quite unusual to meet a recent Cypriot arrival in Tasmania. Markelos caught the travel bug young. He didn't feel suited to the classroom environment at school and decided that he wanted to see the world rather than pursue university study. He came to Australia as a working holidaymaker, but covid prolonged his stay and he ended up coming to Tasmania to study to be a commercial diver. In doing so, he found Tasmania felt more like home than anywhere else he's been and hopes to stay longer term.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine caused one of the greatest increases in displaced persons since WWII. The repercussions of this war have been felt across the world, both in terms of economic and human cost. Tasmania, though extremely distant from the events, has since last year, become host to a small group of Ukrainian arrivals. They have been supported by the small, but long-standing Ukrainian community of Tasmania, who have kept many cultural traditions alive. Anna was one of these arrivals in early 2021. Her husband Oleh had observed the Russian build up of forces on the border and recommended that they go with their infant son to Portugal for a while. However, they had never anticipated the full extent of what was to come. They chose Tasmania because it was far away, and they had a connection in Hobart. When they arrived they were also pleased to find there was a existing Ukrainian community here. In Tasmania, Anna has continued to pursue her passion for Ukrainian folk art and sells some of her art work at Hobart's Salamanca Market, and uses the funds to support her family and Ukraine in this incredibly challenging moment in its history. Music : ''Хай живе, вільна Україна'' (Long live, free Ukraine!), composed by Petro Prosko.

The civil war in Syria has raged for over a decade and displaced millions from their homes. Millions still remain in the countries surrounding Syria while hundreds of thousands of others have sought refuge in western countries such as Australia. Sandra and her family tried for seven years to try and life a normal life as civil war raged on and car bombings or missiles could arrive at any time. It took two shocking events to make them finally decide to make the move out of Syria, and the family fled to Lebanon before being accepted as refugees to Australia. Discovering they were to be settled in an island off the Australian mainland, Sandra had the impression that they were going to some sort tropical island paradise, so arriving on a rainy March day at Hobart airport was quite a shock. No one in the family spoke English on arrival, and Sandra had to repeat some years at school before getting into Uni to follow her dream to become a teacher, a dream which is now coming close to reality.

Ali spent his childhood in Beirut, a city then torn apart by violent civil conflict, and where any minute the family may have to run down to the basement for safety. Yet once Lebanon had been something of pearl of the Middle East, and was a desirable place to visit for people from other Arab countries, and was known for its free and liberal society. In some respects, the story of Ali's family is a microcosm of the history of modern Lebanon, or at least offers a window into it. However, it was not the war that caused Ali to leave Lebanon. In the early 90s tragedy hit the family when Ali's father was involved in a serious car accident and spent 3 years in a coma. After he died, Ali felt he had to leave Lebanon. Through a family connection and an encounter at his aunt's funeral, he got an opportunity to go to London to work for a foundation. Things didn't quite work out as planned, but while he was there he met his future wife, who happened to be from Tasmania, and eventually he made the decision to travel to the other side of the world to live with her and raise a family. Although he got off to a rough start in a city with very little to offer in the way of Middle Eastern culture or community, he's been here some 16 years now and well and truly adapted to life in Hobart.

Italians have a rich migrant history in Australia, as in other parts of the "new world" , enriching the cultural life of cities from Buenos Aires to New York and from Toronto to Melbourne. Indeed, they were from a long time, Australia's largest non-English-speaking migrant group. Their role has been no less in Tasmania's migrant history, and that legacy can still be seen in parts of Hobart and Launceston. However, in the last 20-30 years the number of Italians migrating to Tasmania has been relatively small. With Italy changing both economically and socially since the post-war days, fewer Italians have had the need to emigrate and those that have come for very different reasons to the past. Therefore, it was very interesting to speak with Dante, who arrived in Tasmania in 2007 as a skilled migrant. Dante's reasons were perhaps more personal than economic, but he did migrate at a time of worsening conditions in Southern Europe in particular, which would be a prelude to the Global Economic Crisis of 2008. Dante was a self-employed IT professional in Ravenna, in Emilia Romagna, and had been struggling to maintain a healthy work-life balance for some time and on top of other pressures, he felt it was time for an "escape". His eventual escape destination of Tasmania was a matter of several happy coincidences, or perhaps it was just always meant to be ? As things turned out, Dante has never regretted his decision and has fully adapted to life in Tasmania. Music Credit : "Bushwick Tarantella" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Myanmar, known also by some as Burma, is a nation that has spent decades under military rule. Minority groups have been persecuted, mistreated, driven from their land and even killed. One such group is the Karen people, who live predominantly in the south-east area of Myanmar bordering Thailand. It is estimated that around a million Karen are living as refugees in Thailand, but in recent years many have been accepted into countries such as Australia, Canada and the US. Tasmania also now hosts a sizable Karen community, who make up the overwhelming majority of Myanmarese living here. Gay Nay left her homeland as an infant. Her parents were farmers who were forced to flee with little more than the clothes on their backs and then spent over a decade in a refugee camp in Thailand before finding that they were going to Tasmania. Like many others, they faced the challenges of the cold, the language and finding work but over time they overcame these and now both Gay Nay and her parents are in employment. Many Karen have, however, left Tasmania for the bigger mainland cities where they have more community support and employment opportunities. Gay Nay also followed this path, moving to Perth for 3 years, but eventually returned to Tasmania, where she feels now is very much her home.

Macau could perhaps be considered as Hong Kong's smaller and overlooked little brother. It is similar in that its a small ex-European colonial enclave on the south coast of China and it is also administered under the "Two systems, one nation" policy. However, it is much smaller in size and population and its main industry is tourism, primarily based around the casino and gambling business. As you will hear in Ariana's story, this does limit the scope of opprtunities for young Macinese and leads to many leaving Macau for pursue their aspirations elsewhere. Before 1999, Macau was a colony of Portugal, and though the influence of Portuguese language and culture has been waning, it still makes up a part of Macau's unique and distinctive identity, in particular in its cuisine and architecture. However, in many other areas it is the Cantonese Chinese culture that predominates. Ariana originally came to Australia to pursue her studies in Translating and Interpreting, and she completed a Masters in Brisbane. After graduating, she struggled for a while to gain secure employment and fell out of love with the interpreting business somewhat. Like many, she was drawn to Tasmania by the Australian Government's Regional Migration scheme, which gives preference to visa applications from those residing in regional areas such as Tasmania. This also prompted a change of career direction for Ariana. At first she worked in childcare before eventually securing her current job in events management, which has been a breakthrough for Ariana both in terms of securing a long-term visa, but also job satisfaction and personal confidence.

In modern history, the Irish have been one of the great migratory peoples, with millions seeking better opportunities in Britain, the Americas and Australasia and elsewhere over nearly two centuries. Irish migrants have been a part of Australia's history since the arrival of Europeans and a large percentage of the population still claims some Irish heritage. These days, Irish migration to Australia is more of trickle, with the country enjoying an economic transformation over the last 30 years. John grew up in Limerick in the 1940s and 50s, in a time when the Catholic church was still a very strong influence and opportunities for young people were much more limited. After getting a taste for travel after hitchhiking around France at 19 years, John would first move to London to try and get into the travel industry as an accountant. This would be the first step in a life of travelling and transitioning into new careers. His wanderings would take him to Montreal, Bermuda, Uganda and eventually, Hobart. Although his first career was chartered accountancy, he would have several career changes and in Australia he came to coach writing skills for professionals in various organisations. Music credit : "Achaidh Cheide" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ "Fiddles McGinty" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

John's story begins in an undistinguished town in the South-East of war-torn Germany, where as a child he remembers sheltering under a blanket in a cellar as Lancaster bombers roared overhead.  As a young boy he experienced the deprivation of the post-war era and then the emergence of the Germany Democratic Republic and its sophisticated surveillance society.  Even after escaping across the border to West Germany on his brother's motorbike, the East German Secret Service tried to recruit him while he was working at Mercedes in Stuttgart.  The fear of the East German secret service was just one of several reasons that a 20-year old John decided to migrate to Australia as a "10-pound Kraut" in 1960, and this would ultimately lead to employment at the Hydro in Tasmania and a new life.

Barbados is a former British island colony, but , on the surface at least, that's about its only similarity with Tasmania. For many it's a dream holiday paradise of luxuriant sandy beaches and lush tropical vegetation. Who would exchange such a place for the capricious climes of Tasmania ? In Donna's case, her purpose was to do further study abroad, and she was looking for a smaller place, yet with decent infrastructure, that would be an easier transition for her young son than the fast-paced big city life of Sydney or Melbourne. Although the plan was to just stay for 2 years to study her Masters of Psychology, Donna is still her 18 years' later and has even found a small number of other Caribbean islanders in Tasmania. As well as the distance from home and the colder climate, one unexpected challenge was skin care in the much drier climate of Tasmania. As a result of this, Donna learnt to make her own soaps and now has a small side business making skin care products for people with darker skin ( On Instagram as bajanaussie246 ).

The Republic of North Macedonia, as it is officially known, is a small country in the Balkans wedged between Greece, Serbia, Albania and Bulgaria. Generally, it's name will draw blank stares from many Australians, and yet Macedonians have been coming to Australia, at one time in big numbers, since the 1930s and have made a significant contribution to our migration history.  However, at the current time, you could probably count the number of Macedonian migrants in Tasmania on your fingers. Seven years ago that number was bolstered by the arrival of Blagoja, a native of Skopje, and his wife.  He works as a technician for electronic security systems,  and from a young age he was a hands-on problem-solver, something he acquired from both his family and the community he lived in. He was never a fan of school or book learning but was a kid who had to be active, and for 15 years he practised Parkour, and was even a Parkour trainer in Sydney for a time, which also lead to a role in the stunt department of the Mad Max movie. Initially he came to Tasmania as a kid with his family, who were looking to escape the unsettled times in the early days of Macedonian independence, but they returned after a few years and Blagoja would grow up in Macedonia, before returning many years later as an adult.  

Timor Leste or East Timor is one of Australia's youngest near neighbours, gaining independence from Indonesia in 1999 after a referendum. But it was a difficult birth of a nation, with violence and instability marring the transition to independence. This context is relevant to Elvira's story, who was school age at the time of independence and in this episode you'll hear a little bit about her memories of that time and how her mother managed to anticipate the troubles ahead and send her to a safe place. Elvira, with many other East Timorese, came to Tasmania under the seasonal worker's visa program in 2017, to pick berries on a farm near Launceston i. Normally, she would stay for 6 months and go back, but of course, 2020 was not a normal year and a 6 month stay turned into 2 ½ years, 2 years separated from her daughter in East Timor. Fortunately things have worked and Elvira's daughter joined her last year and has settled into school in Launceston and she and most of the East Timorese were able to work on other farms around Australia throughout the period of border closures.

When Jon's parents arrived in Australia from Serbia ( then Yugoslavia) in the late 1950s, they were very disappointed. A Serbian acquaintance had sent misleading photos and exaggerated stories of his life in Australia, and Jon's parents had been one of several families who had been attracted to Australia on this basis only to be let down by the reality. Jon's father had had a jewellery business in Belgrade, which was repeatedly closed down by the authorities, and led him to getting the family out of the country. In this episode, Jon talks about some of his family, who had roles of some note in both pre-war Yugoslavia and the post-war Tito regime, including a decorated General and one who was referred to as "Auntie Hitler", who was high up in the government. Jon would move to Hobart in the early 70s to study at university , and met his current wife there. After being active in student politics, Jon took up a role as an industrial advocate for nurses after graduating. He eventually started an import-export business which he still operates today. In the photo, Jon is holding the rather impressive plumbing trade certificate of his grandfather from 1921

Kyrgyzstan is not a country many Tasmanians would know much about, and probably most would be surprised to know that there are Kyrgyz living on this island so far from their homeland.  Kyrgyzstan is a small country in Central Asia, a mountainous land of some 7 million inhabitants nestled between giant neighbours, China and Kazakhstan.  It gained independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991,  though it has followed a somewhat different path to it's neighbouring countries and look to tourism as its future, being to blessed with energy and mineral resources that its neighbours possess. Cholpona comes from a region called Issyk-Kul, a centre for skiing and winter activities and an area of tremendous natural beauty.  Kyrgyzstan is also a country of many tribes, where your name and ancestry count for something and family includes virtually everyone in your village.  Cholpona's journey to Tasmania involved a chance meeting with a Tasmanian man, Luke, on a plane, and a long long wait to get a visa while in Dubai, where she also worked for many years.

Listening to Mohammad's story, it feels very much a journey of going with the flow through a series of unplanned events. For instance, he'd never seriously thought or about or planned to come to Australia to study, and ultimately to live, but a conversation with a cousin lead to a half-serious idea to go to Australia for a holiday that would eventually lead Mohammed to do his Master's in Brisbane. But that was never really the plan and at the end of his study after a bit of an unsatisfactory search for jobs in Brisbane, he got offered a position as a front-of-house manager at Strahan Village, on the remote West Coast of Tasmania, where he would stay for 4 years. Outside the tourist season, the town of Strahan is not exactly full of foreigners, certainly not ones from the Middle East, and this episode Mohammed recounts some unique experiences and opportunities he had there, including his involvement in organising a major fun run event to raise money for the local primary school. Mohammad now works as the CEO of the charity Variety, which supports children in need in Tasmania. It's a role that he's passionate about and one which connects with many of the values and aspirations that he formed growing up in Jordan, and in this episode you can hear a bit more about that.

The only association most Australians will have with Kazakhstan is the fictional character, Borat. And while the small number of Kazakhs living in Australia may explain this lack of knowledge, Kazakhstan is a huge country which should be hard to ignore. With this in mind, it was an unexpected pleasure to talk with Kazakh, Diana, living in Tasmania, and hear about her experiences growing up in Almaty and then living in Tasmania for the last 3 years. Diana's father was a former weightlifter and encouraged physical activity and Diana started going to a special sports school at a young age, where she trained to become professional swimmer. However, after leaving school, she would pursue a career in Hospitality, first with study in Spain, and then in Sydney, before moving to Hobart, where her first job was at an Italian restaurant.

Ghana is a country rich in resources - it's the world's 9th largest producer of gold and producer a big proportion of the world's cocoa beans. But as with some other similar African countries, the wealth from these resources, has been slow to trickle down to the people.   In this episode, Desmond talks about what it was like in growing up in a rural area in northern Ghana.  Although his village has better facilities than many others, school was not well-resourced as might expect in the developed world. Despite the challenges, Desmond was able to become the first from his school to gain entrance into university in Ghana, and this would lead him on the path to come to Australia, first to do his Ph.D, and then to take up a lecturer position in the School of Management at the University of Tasmania. In this episode we also talk about a number of interesting aspects of Ghanaian culture, most notably the unique way the funerals are celebrated, not mourned.

The Republic of Congo is not to be confused with the Democratic Republic of Congo, it's much larger Francophone neighbour. But like it's neighbour, it is rich in valuable minerals, particularly oil and timber. So perhaps it makes sense that Charles, who, with his wife is the only Republic of Congo-born residents of Tasmania, should be a geologist. As you will hear in this episode, it has been an interesting life path to get here. We talk about several life changing moments - his father going blind, the culture shock of moving from an inland rural area to a large coastal city for education, and then an academic journey to Malaysia and finally to Tasmania, where he currently works at the University of Tasmania's School of Earth Sciences. He also does voluntary work advocating for the local African and other diverse communities, and we also discuss his faith and how he reconciles that with being a scientist - an interesting conversation.

Adely has followed an interesting path, from studying music and being a in a popular rock band, graduating in Arabic language to eventually settling on Accounting, which was part of her reason for coming to Tasmania to study. Since she's come here, she's also managed to start a small but successful business using her training and skills as a Nail Technician, but provide a different type of service to what's generally available locally. Adely also arrived in Tasmania at what turned out to be a particularly challenging time - just before covid-19 caused international border closures, and this meant that she wasn't able to see her husband in Uzbekistan for 2 years, and contributed to feelings of homesickness. There have also been a few interesting cultural differences that she's had to adapt to, especially the different way people communicate here, about which Adely has a few funny stories ! Uzbekistan is the most populated of the four Central Asian republics that gained independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, and though there is a strong Russian influence, there are things unique to their country which are causes of national pride. As you will here more in this episode, one of them is the Uzbek cuisine which takes advantage of the region's abundant fresh fruits and vegetables.

The Maldives is so often seen as a fashionable and unique travel destination in online travel sites and images of bikini-wearing influencers swanning around atolls of glittering white sand or bathing in azure waters are common place. But what is life like for everyday people in this small island nation ? And why would a Maldivian want to leave this seemingly idyllic life, for a life in the much colder and temperamental climate of Tasmania ? Ahsan migrated from The Maldives and has lived in Tasmania for around 15 years now, and has three children here, and loves life here. He originally moved to complete a Ph.D, but ended up working as an electrical engineer for an arm of Hydro Tasmania. In this episode we discussed life in The Maldives and how it has changed since he was young, and how precarious life can be there at times. To get a bit of perspective, it's useful to know a few key facts about The Maldives. The archipelago of some 26 coral islands is scattered over an area of 90,000 square kilometres, of which 298 km2 is land. In this conversation we discuss how this effects life on the islands and creates a culture of interdependence and communitarianism. It's also the flattest country on earth, with an average natural elevation of 1.5 metres, making it extremely vulnerable to rising sea levels and natural disasters. The 2004 tsunami had a particularly devastating impact, as you will hear.

This is a collection of clips from existing episodes, all relating to the topic of "food and hospitality". It features clips of Peter and Rebeka discussing some differences between aspects of hospitality in Slovenia and Australia, Sergio reminiscing about childhood experiences of festivities in his Portuguese village involving roasting a pig, Ariana explaining the importance of coffee drinking to Brazilian social life, and Manu recalls picking tropical fruits on the tiny Tongan island where he grew up.

This is a compilation of three stories told by very different women of their experiences of escaping their homelands : a political refusnik from Russia ( in the former USSR ), a young Eritrean who fled political persecution and the threat of compulsory and indefinite military conscription, and the story of an epic escape from behind the Iron Curtain in the then Republic of Czechoslovakia ( today's Czechia )