The Blue Blanket | A Bosnian Refugee’s Journey to Australia

An Englishman in the Balkans is a weekly podcast about the people, places and everyday life of Bosnia and Herzegovina, told by David Bailey, who has lived here for more than 25 years. New episodes arrive every Tuesday.

What does home mean when you were forced to leave it as a child?

In this deeply personal episode, I speak with Ivana Strbac Alfonso, who was six years old when conflict reached her village of Stranjani, near Zenica in central Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Before the war, Ivana remembers a simple but loving rural childhood: a multigenerational family home, grandparents drinking coffee with sugar cubes, flower crowns, home-cooked meals and a community in which people helped one another.

Then everything changed.

Ivana remembers wooden boards covering the windows, being told to stay inside and the morning her mother woke the children so that they could flee. She remembers the smell of freshly baked bread and desperately trying to take her large blue comfort blanket with her as the family escaped through the forest.

What followed was a long and painful journey through displacement, refugee accommodation and a difficult new life in Germany. Although the family had reached safety, Ivana experienced bullying, poverty, language barriers and the feeling of being regarded as an outsider.

After four and a half years in Germany, the family was told they could no longer remain. With very little waiting for them in Bosnia, they eventually received permission to begin another new life on Australia’s Gold Coast.

Ivana speaks openly about arriving in Australia without English, trying to become a cultural “chameleon” and growing up between several different worlds. Inside the family home were Balkan language, food and traditions. Outside, she tried to sound and behave like an Australian child.

We also talk about:

• The difference between choosing to migrate and being forced to flee
• Her complicated relationship with Australia
• Returning to Bosnia as an adult
• Feeling both connected to and separated from the country of her birth
• Preserving language and culture for the next generation
• The creation of her Balkan Sis podcast
• Why sharing difficult stories can make their burden easier to carry

This is an emotional conversation, but also one filled with humour, honesty and resilience.

Ivana’s story reminds us that reaching a safe country does not necessarily bring a refugee’s journey to an end. The questions of identity, belonging and home can remain for a lifetime.

Content note: This episode includes discussion of war, forced displacement, childhood trauma, bullying and the long-term effects of becoming a refugee.

You can follow Ivana here 👇

Instagram (Balkan Sis) https://www.instagram.com/balkansispodcast

Facebook 1 https://www.facebook.com/share/192a6DyTHo/

Facebook 2 https://www.facebook.com/share/19UrPbcj7f/

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivanaalfonso

Linktree https://linktr.ee/ivanaalfonso

Email ivana.alfonso@hotmail.com

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