177 Nations of Tasmania - Last highlights of 2025 - Lebanon and Slovenia

There were no new podcast interviews in the last month, and certainly it's getting more difficult both to find people and then to find a time that they're available to be interviewed - especially at this time of year. I will put a list of some of the countries I'm still looking for at the end of this blog post.

In the meantime, the photography project has been continuing slowly but surely, and we had an unexpected opportunity to photograph a Slovenian participant, who just happened to be doing a musical tour of Tasmania. We were extremely grateful that Rebeka was able to find time in her busy schedule to have a portrait session, and I've posted a few photos of it below.

Rebeka is an opera singer by training, but the musical tour just did of Tasmania with the Van Diemen's Band consisted of folk songs in Slovenian and her reading extracts from her grandmother's diary. The diary had only recently been found as it was hidden, and for good reason, as it contains an account of how the Partisans ( who later took power in Yugoslavia under President Tito) took her husband into the woods and executed him. His body was never found. So it's both a personal narrative of the history of part of Rebeka's family through some dark moments.

War was also a major topic in our other recent photo shoot, this time it was with Ali, who talked a bit about his memories as a child of playing in bombed out buildings in Beirut during the era of the civil war.

Unfortunately, Ali's big Lebanese flag went missing just before he came to the shoot, so he had to make do with a small wooden plaque, which has the image of an ancient Phoenician ship with the Lebanese flag on the sail. This is meant to represent the fact that the Lebanese are great travellers, who have migrated to all corners of the globe. Also the cedar tree has particular significance in Lebanese tradition, as it was said to be the wood that the cross of Jesus was made from and the wood that the old Phoenicians used to build their boats. It is meant to symbolise resilience and strength - traits the Lebanese people have had to show a lot of in recent history.

There isn't a lot more time to see the photo exhibition in its current location - it's on Level 2 of the Hobart Library until the end of January. However, there's a strong possibility that it will be display at other libraries around the state in 2026, though not necessarily in full. So please come and check it out !

In the meantime, here is a list of some of the nationalities I'm still looking for. I am also looking for someone from England and India, but in both cases, as they are very large groups I'm really looking for someone with a quite unique or unusual story.

Here is the current list of nationalities I'm still looking for, for both the podcast and the photo project. If you can help, contact me 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 ?