177 Nations of Tasmania - September highlights - Vibrance and colour from the South Seas

In the last month we have had some great photo shoots with several people who were obviously really proud to share and display their culture, but who also interesting personal stories involving overcoming some pretty tough life challenges.

Interestingly enough, they were from all from just two regions - the South Pacific and Central America. For the podcast, I also interviewed Roque from El Salvador, and Olive, a Māori woman from New Zealand.

ROQUE ( EL SALVADOR)

It was pretty clear from the get-go what a smiley, positive guy Roque ( aka Rocky) was, and his life story seemed to imbue that, always looking to stay positive even through some very difficult and sad situations. He grew up in a middle-class family, but surrounded by poverty, and he recounts sharing food with his friends as a kid, not really realising how badly they needed it.

OLIVE (NEW ZEALAND)

Obviously, New Zealanders are pretty common in Tasmania, so with the way I'm taking one person from each country. I wasn't quite sure what my approach should be for Aotearoa, but I was hoping the right person or right story would emerge, and when Olive contacted me, it sounded like a great opportunity to learn more about the native culture of New Zealand, and even more interestingly, how she still practices that in Tasmania, including sharing her Māori language with local school children.

Visually, all our participants in the photo part of the project have brought something really quite striking that makes you want to know more about their story and the story behind their object or culture, whether it was a Frida Kahlo doll, a magical Tongan fish hook, A Māori feather cloak or a native Salvadorean parrot on a t-shirt, vibrance and colour were very much the themes for this last month.

Hopefully the pictures below will give a bit of a sense of this. To get the full effect though, you can see the images for yourselves on Level 2 of the Hobart Library. The exhibition should be continuing until the end of the year.

I am still looking for plenty more nationalities for the podcast ( and we will try and combined that with portrait sessions if we can ).

I am ideally looking for people who are living in Tasmania as their main place of residence ( so not students or working holiday makers), left their country as adults or at least in their teens, and, of course, can speak English, but don't have to be perfect by any means !

Here is a list of some of the nationalities I'm still looking for...

If you know someone who might fit these categories from one of the countries below ( or if you are from one of them yourself), please get in touch at marktmigration@gmail.com

EUROPE

Albania

Belarus

Guernsey

Jersey

Iceland

Kosovo

Moldova

Montenegro

( A couple of long shots also - Luxembourg and Faroe Islands ?)

ASIA

Azerbaijan

Bahrain

Brunei

Georgia

Kuwait

Mongolia

Oman

Saudi Arabia

Tajikistan

UAE

( Long shot - Turkmenistan?)

AFRICA

Algeria

Botswana

Burkina Faso

Burundi

Cameroon

Gambia

Guinea

Liberia

Namibia

Somalia

Zambia

( There are a few not listed, but if anyone knows of anyone from Angola, Mozambique, Lesotho, eSwatini, Cabo Verde, Mali, Chad, Djibouti, Sao Tome , Togo, Cote D'Ivoire or Senegal, I'm still interested)

AMERICAS

Bermuda

Bahamas

Jamaica ( may have found someone, but not confirmed)

Uruguay

( Not listed, but if there is anyone from Guyana, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Belize, Suriname, Haiti or Dominican Republic, I'd certainly be happy to hear from them)

OCEANIA

Cook Islands

Kiribati

Tuvalu

Vanuatu

Long shots - Micronesia ? Marshall Islands ? Palau ?