Australian Alex Sawka didn’t sleep well in his hotel room in the center of Kyiv.
At the crack of dawn in July 1981, he rushed to the window to see the capital of his parents’ home country for the first time ever. The view of the onion-shaped church cupolas glistening in the sun left a lasting impression he would seek again and again in the years ahead.
The story of his parents’ immigration goes back to the World War II. Released from the Nazi labor camps in Germany, Evhenia and Hryhoriy left Europe on the International Refugee Organization program, sponsored by Australia, along with some other 10,000 Ukrainians. Escaping the uncertainty of going back to the Josef Stalin-governed homeland in 1948, they set out on a long sea journey to discover the Down Under and eventually each other.
(Photo: Australian of Ukrainian heritage Alex Sawka)
Without an Australian embassy or even a consulate in Kyiv, it’s hard to estimate how many Ukrainians relocated to Australia over the last 60 years and how many of them ventured back. Only a dozen or so free-spirited Aussies roam snow-paved streets of Kyiv, either working on a short-term business contract or discovering their heritage like Sawka.
Sawka’s parents met on a suburban beach in Adelaide – where locals love to hang out, when Hryhoriy noticed a pair of unmistakably European high-heeled leather sandals on a young girl’s feet. One year later the couple was married.
A farmer from Volyn Oblast in western Ukraine, Hryhoriy had heated discussions about language and history with his wife Evhenia, who was from the eastern city of Kharkiv.
“My father was a hard-line nationalist and always spoke Ukrainian out of principle. My mother had Russians in her family so they often fought about Russia’s role in the history of Ukraine,” said Sawka, 54.
So when Sawka actually moved to the former Soviet Union in the 1990s, the East-West divide came as no surprise to him. His first job was in Russia with an Australian express post and parcels transportation company, TNT.
As country manager for the whole of the Soviet Union, he said it was a disaster to find common ground with customs employees who hardly understood the meaning of the word “fast.” Yet he kept at it for a decade until the opportunity presented itself for him to move to Ukraine.
“Don’t get me wrong, I have good friends in Russia. I also speak the language fluently. My mixed background qualifies me as “a moderate Ukrainian,” but it makes my blood boil when Russians say that Ukraine belongs to them or that Ukrainians are second-class Russians.”
In 2000, he saw the golden cupolas of St. Sophia Cathedral again, yet this time not as a tourist but as the chief financial officer of an American investment fund.
Six decades on, the political and economic climate in Ukraine has warmed up a bit, yet some Ukrainians still choose to cross 15,000 kilometers for a better future.
My father was a hard-line nationalist and always spoke Ukrainian out of principle. My mother had Russians in her family so they often fought about Russia’s role in the history of Ukraine.”
– Australian Alex Sawka, 54.
The 1996 Census mentions 13,460 Ukraine-born people living in Australia. Taking advantage of skilled migration programs, tradesmen and computer specialists braved the move.
Iryna Nisina, 51, a librarian from Vinnytsia, booked her journey on the invitation of her aunt in Melbourne in 1994. Together with her husband, they planned to cross the Pacific after Nisina gave birth to a child.
“But I have developed a condition when I needed a blood transfusion after delivery. When a special medical institution in Vinnytsia suddenly closed, it was the last straw,” said Nisina, risking to board the plane during the ninth month of pregnancy.
Her daughter was born safely in Australia. Since then, Nisina learned English and started teaching Information Technology in a middle school. Her husband is an electrician. Living in the city of Gold Coast, which looks exactly as it’s called; they enjoy the popular Australian hobbies of hiking and barbecuing on the beach year round when native Vinnytsia is soaking in rain and snow for half a year.
To teach her children about their heritage, Nisina wrote a story about their family in Ukraine and even got another story on modern Australian immigration published.
I got to know many people in their 30s who are not crazy about money and career. They choose to travel the world while they are young. For Ukrainians, it’s hard to imagine.”
– Roman Zakharchenko, 35, a mechanical engineer
Roman Zakharchenko, 35, a mechanical engineer from Kharkiv moved to Australia for similar reasons as Nisina. After visiting his relatives there twice, he decided to swap Kharkiv for Melbourne. “I chose Australia for their transparent skilled migration program that makes citizenship possible in three years, stable political system and the ease of finding a job in your field,” explained Zakharchenko, now the proud owner of a car repair business.
Apart from economic security, he picked up new hobbies like yachting and taking road trips. He also took a liking to the Australian laid back attitude and zest for life rather than work.
“I got to know many people in their 30s who are not crazy about money and career. They choose to travel the world while they are young. For Ukrainians, it’s hard to imagine,” he said.
Be it safely delivering a child like Nisina, looking for a job like Zakharchenko or tracing back heritage like Sawka, Ukrainians and Australians exchange continents to fulfill their life dreams.
It takes guts to cross the distance they covered but it’s the quality of life they’ve encountered that made the move worthwhile.
Australia at a glance
Location: Oceania, continent between the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific Ocean
Government type: federal parliamentary democracy and a Commonwealth realm
Population: 21.5 million Religions: Catholic 25.8%, Anglican 18.7%, Uniting Church 5.7%, Presbyterian and Reformed 3%, Eastern Orthodox 2.7%, other Christian 7.9%, Buddhist 2.1%, Muslim 1.7%
GDP: $1.22 trillion (2009 est.)
Exports: $210.7 billion (2010 est.)
Export commodities: coal, iron ore, gold, meat, wool, alumina, wheat, machinery and transport equipment
Exports – partners: China, Japan, South Korea, India, US, UK, New Zealand Imports: $200.4 billion (2010 est.)
Imports commodities: machinery and transport equipment, computers and office machines, telecommunication equipment and parts; crude oil and petroleum products
Australia covers an area of 7,686,900 square kilometres, which is slightly smaller than the United States mainland (excluding Hawaii and Alaska).
Sources: CIA World Fact book
Australia Day
Australia Day is celebrated on Jan. 26. It marks the landing of the First Fleet on Jan. 26, 1788 at Sydney Cove under Captain Arthur Phillip. On that day the British flag was hoisted, and British sovereignty was proclaimed over the eastern seaboard of Australia.
Australia Day is a national public holiday in all states and territories and is known to be the country’s biggest day of celebration. However, the date is seen as controversial by some Australians, particularly indigenous ones, who see commemorating the arrival of the First Fleet as celebrating the destruction of their native aboriginal culture by British colonists.
Some members of the indigenous Australian community mark Jan. 26 as Invasion Day.
Ukraine-Australia economic markers
Bilateral trade turnover: $38.5 million in 2009 (Australia and Oceania)
Major commodities exported from Ukraine to Australia: minerals, woodwork, canned vegetables
Major commodities imported from Australia to Ukraine: wool products, wine, meat, cosmetics
Sources: State Statistics Committee, Ukrainian-Australian House
Interesting facts about Australia:
– Australia is the largest inhabited island as well as the smallest and the least populated continent of the world
– There are more than 150 million sheep in Australia and only around 20 million people
– Australia is home to the world’s largest crocodile, the salt water crocodile. Males can occasionally grow to lengths of over six meters
– Australia has the lowest precipitation of any of the world’s inhabited continents
– 21 percent of Australians are smokers
– Australia is the world’s largest exporter of coal, wool, alumina, diamonds, sheep, lead, refined zinc ores and mineral sands
– Australia is the only continent without an active volcano
Sources: www.australiafacts.org/, Outback Australia travel guide
Useful Contacts:
Ukrainian-Australian House (promotes economic and cultural ties) www.uah.org.ua
Australian Council www.australiancouncil.org
Education in Australia: International Marketing and Admissions in Eastern Europe, Veronika Kustenko: [email protected], www.griffith.edu.au
Kyiv Post staff writer Katya Grushenko can be reached at [email protected]
