177 Nations of Tasmania

Feb 24 2025 118 ep. 36 mins 19

177 Nations of Tasmania Podcast artwork

There are 177 different nationalities represented in Tasmania's population and in this podcast we try to talk with one person from each one, and find out about why they came to Tasmania, what they brought with them ( experiences, culture, traditions, skills, ideas etc), and their experiences of settling on a small and fairly isolated island state not known for being very multicultural. These are authentic stories from people from all corners of the globe who have made Tasmania their home and cover the full gamut of the migrant experience.

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Ana from Panama : Ballet dancing, long-distance romance and an epic journey to Tasmania

Feb 24 2025 45 mins

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 typ

Pul : "In Cambodia, if you fail, your whole family fails"

Jan 12 2025 31 mins

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

Niall from Northern Ireland : Sitting on the fence in a divided community

Dec 09 2024 45 mins

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 ac

Ben from Morocco : Studying housing issues both near and far

Nov 03 2024 34 mins

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

Aymen from Sudan : Overcoming language barriers through soccer

Jul 10 2024 39 mins

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

Micheal from Benin: The original home of Voodoo

Jun 26 2024 43 mins

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 o

Oren from Israel : Being able to turn down the volume

Jun 24 2024 45 mins

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 do

Refugee stories compilation 2024

Jun 21 2024 27 mins

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-comfor

Akram from Tunisia : Learning to be patient and trusting in destiny

Jun 06 2024 40 mins

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

Mwase from Malawi : From the Beating Heart of Africa

May 13 2024 37 mins

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