177 Nations of Tasmania

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.

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.

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
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