177 Nations of Tasmania

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 License
http://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 License
http://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 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

"Fiddles McGinty" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://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 ).

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

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 )

Mereani grew up in a village on the main island of Fiji. It was much less isolated from the capital than other Fijian villages, but when Mereani was growing up, there wasn't much of the technology and mod cons we might expect today and her family mainly lived from farming.

After finishing school, Mereani got a job in a traditional Fijian dancing group at a tourist hotel, and it was through this that she would eventually meet her future Tasmanian husband and eventually move to a climate that was quite a bit colder than she had expected.  Although she's more or less adapted to the cold and Aussie English, she stills holds on to some of her Fijian values including those around family and the collective mentality that people have in Fijian villages.   

At 15 years Gediminas was selected to attend the National Academy of Sport in Vilnius, which precipitated a great change in lifestyle , with training becoming part of his daily routine. He played as a professional footballer in several countries before reaching a crossroads in his career in his late 20s and thinking about the next step in his life. That next step turned out to be a journey to the other side of the world to play football (soccer) for Devonport in 2018. Although this contract was just for a year, he would return to live in Launceston, after romance with a Tasmanian girl and they now live together in Launceston with a baby daughter.  In the meantime, Gedi was drawn in the direction of coaching, and now he is passing on the skills he learnt as a pro in Lithuania to kids in Launceston.

Manu grew up on a small island in Tonga, a small nation in itself, in a time where they had no electricity or technologies that we would take for granted today, like TV or cars.  Later he would move to the main island to attend high school and start playing rugby, a sport that is dear to the hearts of many Tongans.  But his rugby ability would prove to be an asset later, when as a 25-year old he moved to Tasmania and rugby proved an outlet to make friends, build his networks and connect with others in the small Pacific Islander community in Tasmania.

Manu now works in the community care sector, assisting young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, and according to Manu, caring for others in the community is very much a part of the Tongan ethos, where family is central to community life.   But getting to where he is now has been a rough road at times and he talks about discrimination, trouble with the law, losing his job and turning things around through education and how his upbringing instilled his with the qualities of adaptability and resilience. 

Samoa is a small island nation in the South Pacific which may appear to many of us as a tropical island paradise. The truth is, as Loni describes in this episode, is daily life for many islanders is quite tough. Samoa is not a wealthy country and many people live in small communities, living from small-scale agriculture, and the islands have been hit by power cyclones in the past.

Many Samoans migrate to New Zealand, and increasingly in the past 20 years, to Australia, where the population has increased exponentially. Yet despite the geographical proximity and the growing Samoan community, it's a culture that few of know much about, apart from that the produce a lot of good rugby players and a disproportionate number of night club bouncers. Yet, as Loni describes in her own story, it's a culture with strong traditions and norms that bond the community tightly together. Family bonds go well beyond just the nuclear family and singing is a huge part of community life.

Loni was one of those Samoans who migrated first to New Zealand and worked there for a number of years before moving to Sydney, where she'd eventually meet her Tasmanian husband, Peter, who you will also hear in this episode. Moving to the eastern side of Hobart in the early 90s, there were few non-white migrants around and Loni's description of the initial feelings of isolation and homesickness will probably resonate with other migrants.    

Madagascar is a unique and fascinating island nation off the east coast of Africa ,well-known for its incredible biodiversity, especially its famous lemurs. Less well known is its human and cultural diversity, with strong influences coming from Asia, Africa and Europe. 

Michaela has lived in different places in Madagascar and is familiar with the different regional dialects and traditions of the country, and her own family background reflects a lot of the fascinating cultural diversity of this large island.  She met her Tasmania husband online, and in her 40s, she came with her daughter to Tasmania to be with him.  Like many new migrants, finding employment in Tasmania was not easy, and she found her 17 years' work experience in Madagascar working at various NGOs was not really regarded at all. However, she was eventually able to make the most of another talent - her "healing hands" , and now runs her own massage business in Hobart. 

Music : "Energizing" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Amr was born in Egypt but received his early education in Saudi Arabia before moving to Malaysia, then Queensland and Melbourne, and more recently, Tasmania.  However, he still remains rooted in his Egyptian identity and during school times in Saudi Arabia, he would frequently return to family in Egypt in school holidays.

As a result of his education and upbringing in a progressive Egyptian family living abroad, Amr sees himself largely as a "global citizen", but it wasn't until he arrived in Tasmania that he felt that he really found a place that truly felt like home, and he was especially drawn to the sense of community that he connected with aspects of Egyptian life.

Food is also a big part of Amr's life and he has just recently left his job in advertising to embark on a new passion running a food business.

Music : "Desert City" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In the Australian census, Hong Kong is listed as a separate "Country of Birth" to the People's Republic of China, acknowledging the different history of the two and the status of Hong Kong as a British colony for some 150 years. As a result Hong Kong and its people have their own distinct culture and outlook.  Many have also found their way to Tasmania. In Anthony's case, it was his family's choice to come here, to learn from a Buddhist spiritual leader here who hade made his home in Tasmania in the 1980s. 

Anthony got to experience high school in Tasmania in the 90s, a time when there were far less Chinese here than there are now, and the Chinese community looked very different.  He continues to be heavily involved with the activities of the Chinese Buddhist Community, particularly with performances of the traditional Lion Dance.  So although Anthony has spent much of his life living like a local, he still maintains many aspects of his Hong Kong heritage.  It was interesting to here his perspectives as someone who has a foot in both cultural worlds.

Kenya is probably best known in Australia for its long distance runners and safari parks, and it's not generally been a big source of migrants here, so it's perhaps why our knowledge of its people and culture are limited.

Cecilia currently lives in Launceston, working as a project manager in the health sector.  As is very common in much of sub-Saharan African, she grew up on a small farm in a rural town amongst vegetable gardens and animals.  In common with other Africans I've interviewed, Cecilia was surrounded by extended family, something that is of much greater importance than it is here, and we talk more about that in this episode. She also came from a family that valued and pushed the importance of education, and it is perhaps this that provided the starting impetus for Cecilia to eventually decide to do her Masters in Melbourne, and after that eventually find a job in Launceston. 

The Seychelles is a small collection of islands in the Indian Ocean, a nation of a little less than 100,000 inhabitants. It's the home of coral reefs, rocky forested islands, sandy beaches and green turtles, and Anna, who moved to Launceston to be with her partner , Marcus, around 4 years ago. 

Anna used to work in the tourist industry but Tasmania has helped consolidate a new career path she'd already started moving on, and has given her a bit work-life balance. 

In this episode, we talk about some of the unique aspects of living in the Seychelles, both the natural environment and the close-knit community where everyone knows each other...this may even sound a bit familiar to people in some parts of Tasmania.

Sergio moved to Burnie from Northern Queensland several years ago where he works as a child psychologist.   

He grew up in a remote village in Central Portugal, and describes a style of traditional village living which is increasingly disappearing as young people leave for opportunities in the bigger cities.  So listening to his stories of village life as a boy will take you back in time a bit, but also give you an insight into some of Portuguese rural life and traditions.