In December, I started a collaboration with Hobart photographer Andrew Wilson and with the help of a grant from the City of Hobart, to photograph portraits of as many of the participants of 177 Nations of Tasmania as we could.

We started in December by doing a couple of trial photo sessions with five of our participants, and in this video they recount a bit of their experience of the photo shoot.

We will be doing further photo shoots at the Henry Jones Art Hotel from February 3 to March 7 and displaying the photos on the walls of the Packing Room Gallery.

Ingrid hails from the tiny island nation of Saint Lucia, a lush Caribbean island known for its volcanic peaks, vibrant Creole culture, and status as the only country named after a woman. With a population of around 180,000, Saint Lucia blends African, French, and British influences, and though its official language is English, many speak Saint Lucian Creole.

Ingrid trained as a physician in Cuba on a Saint Lucian government scholarship, worked in pediatrics, and later took on various public health roles across the Caribbean. She made a big move  to study  Master’s degree in Adelaide, where she met herpartner—but it was the appeal of small-city life that drew her to Hobart for her Ph.D.

Now based at the Menzies Institute, she’s deep into health economics research and has found a second home in Tasmania—one that, surprisingly, shares much with her island roots.

Lobelia’s story begins in the Solomon Islands, a Pacific nation comprising over a thousand islands scattered southeast of New Guinea.

Growing up in a small, remote village on one of the six main islands, she experienced a simple and traditional village lifestyle, with no technology and few of the modern convenience we take for granted now.

At the end of her high school, life in the Solomons took a dramatic turn when the country was gripped by significant ethnic conflict and social unrest. This period of instability was so severe that it required intervention from theinternational community, including Australian police forces, to help restore peace and order. For three years Lobelia stayed at home with her family in their village, not quite sure where her life was going to go.

Once stability was re-established, Lobelia’s decided join the local police force. She later advanced her career by working in the Maritime Division, where she got to see life on some of the remote islands. She also had the opportunity for further training at Australian Maritime College in Launceston, and it was here she first met Craig, who would become her future husband.

After marrying Craig, Lobelia made the big move to Launceston, Tasmania in 2017. Like many migrants to the region, she faced the challenge of starting over professionally and just building a social circle. She decided to do a course in Horticulture at Tafe Tasmania, and now runs her own gardening business.

Laos, a Southeast Asian country of about 7 million people,is known for its Buddhist traditions and vibrant food culture. Outhay grew up in the capital, Vientiane, helping her family run a 24-hour convenience store where everyone pitched in. Memories of both the abundance and scarcity of food shaped her childhood.

After studying English at university, Outhay worked in government administration, where she met Roger, a Tasmanian geologist working in Laos. Romance developed gradually, and laws in Laos had significant penalties for Lao women having relationships with foreign men, meaning they had to bite the bullet and they got married in 2005.

In 2006, Outhay moved to a farm in Wilmot, north-west Tasmania. She connected with the local community through playgroups with her children and became known for her spring rolls. Later, she retrained by studying cooking at TAFE, worked at a café, and completed a chef’s apprenticeship—earning Tasmania’s Apprentice of the Year in 2016.

Yemen is a country that gets little attention despite being at the centre of one of the greatest humanitarian crises in the world, as declared by the UNHCR in 2025.

There is not space enough here to describe all the events that have led to such a crisis, including civil war, an overthrow of the government and in 2015 a Saudi-led mass bombing of the country, but the results have seen a catastrophic collapse in living standards, large-scale hunger and instability.

In other words, not the kind of environment parents would want their children to grow up in.

This was the view of Khaled's parents in 2015, as missiles rained down in their neighbourhood, destroying many buildings around them, and this was the first step to Khaled coming to Tasmania.

Coming to Hobart to study a Business and Finance degree, Khaled could scarcely have come to a more contrasting environment. A place that was peaceful and quiet, even a bit too quiet, and it took Khaled a while also to adjust to western culture. Despite this, he has truly made a lot of his opportunity to develop his skills, creative pursuits and character. This included completing a novel during the pandemic while he was struggling to find work after graduating.

Of course, it goes without saying, that the situation in Yemen is still very unstable, and in this episode, Khaled speaks of the fears for family still living back home.

The Isle of Man, or Manx, is a self-governing dependency of the United Kingdom, located between Great Britain and Ireland, and has been influenced by the cultures of both. It's known for being an offshore tax haven and a centre for gambling companies. It also has the oldest continuously-running parliament, the Tynwald, which is claimed to be over 1000 years old. There is also the Manx tongue, a Celtic language spoken by little over 2000 people, but which has undergone a recent revival.

With a population of around 80,000, it is perhaps a surprise to find a Manxer on another island on the other side of the world.

It was Ellie's love of boats and sailing that drew her away from the Isle of Man, first with a a sailing adventure across the Atlantic, then 6 months sailing around the Pacific. Her first contact with Tasmania though came through a circumnavigation of Australia on the tall ship the Endeavour .

It wasn't until years later, when Ellie became pregnant with her second child, that her and her Australian partner, made the decision that Tasmania would be the place they would settle and raise their children, and it's been a decision that Ellie hasn't regretted.

Music used in this episode is in the Manx language and is used under Creative Commons from Culture Vannin -

https://culturevannin.im/manxfolklore... . Culture Vannin exists to promote, supportand celebrate the culture of the Isle of Man.

John's story begins in an undistinguished town in the South-East of war-torn Germany, where as a child he remembers sheltering under a blanket in a cellar as Lancaster bombers roared overhead.  As a young boy he experienced the deprivation of the post-war era and then the emergence of the Germany Democratic Republic and its sophisticated surveillance society. Even after escaping across the border to West Germany on his brother's motorbike, the East German Secret Service tried to recruit him while he was working at Mercedes in Stuttgart.  The fear of the East German secret service was just one of several reasons that a 20-year old John decided to migrate to Australia as a "10-pound Kraut" in 1960, and this would ultimately lead to employment at the Hydro in Tasmania and a new life.

Sadly, John passed away on 18 April 2025. RIP John Keller. I am glad to have been privileged enough to hear your story and preserve it for the future.

Rose's story begins in the throes of World War 2, in one of the darkest moments in Maltese history, as the island was laid siege by the axis powers and would become the most bombed territory in all of the war.

Rose came from a big family, and their fate reflected the wider human cost of the war on the population, having their house destroyed and family members killed. Rose was born after the Siege of Malta was lifted, but life was difficult in the post-war period and many Maltese would seek to emigrate.

Like tens of thousands of others, Rose's family would migrate to Australia in the 1950s. She grew up in Melbourne in a big family. Melbourne was not the multicultural melting pot it is today, and Rose recalls the family being targets of some unwelcoming insults, but her memories of growing up there were mostly positive ones.

It was many years later that she moved with her then husband to Launceston, where she still resides today. While living in Tasmania, she also bought the old bank building in Campbelltown in Tasmania's Northern Midlands, which she ran as a gallery and antique store for many years.

Although she has lived in Australia along time now, and Tasmania is for her the best place in the world, she still cherishes parts of her Maltese heritage such as the language, the food and some of them unspoken values from her mother such as caring for others and making no one goes without.

Today there are around 40,000 Maltese-born living in Australia, a big number for such a small islands nation, but which demonstrates the special historical connection between Malta and Australia.

Lili grew up in the southernmost region of China, in a neighbourhood where there were strong community connections.

Her parents were perhaps not typical for Chinese parents in that they were not focused on grades, but more than Lili was doing what made her happy and they encouraged her to beat her own path.

This perhaps contributed to her decision to go to Australia to study after she finished school. She studied Psychology, and after she graduated she returned to her hometown with the idea to start a counselling service. The time wasn't quite right yet for such an enterprise, but while back in China she met her future Australian husband.

They would eventually come down to the Huon Valley to pursue their dream to live a more green lifestyle and grow their own vegetables. Lilli's first job was at MONA, but after some time she decided to do further studies in the field of social work, and she now works within the area of mental health and counselling.