177 Nations of Tasmania

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...

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...

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 af...

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 c...

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...

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...

Ayman's first experience of Australia was arriving at Sydney Airport with no English or knowledge of his new country, getting very lost and missing his connecting flight to Hobart. 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 Ayman took advantage of. Ayman...

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 the much larger Kingdom of Dahomey and was also one of the centres of the Atlantic...

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 actual use of violence, and forced to live in refugee camps in Nepal. For many years they lived in limbo in...

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...

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 was no exception. Armenians...

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...

There could hardly be two more contrasting places than Singapore and Tasmania - one is a busy, crowded and cosmopolitan metropolis located in the tropics, the other a quiet, laid-back sort of place with a more homogeneous population and far more variable climate ! Joanna originally left the hustle and bustle of Singapore to take a restful break in Tasmania on the recommendation of a friend. She wa...

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 b...

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 refu...

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...

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 deci...

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...

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 si...

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...

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,...

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...

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 univ...

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 recently, economic developments have impacted the island, and has resulted in quite larg...

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 c...