Found Between Cultures

This story begins with eight-year-old Mila and her three brothers, being taken from Croatia on a journey by their parents, with no explanation of where they were going and why. The fear, confusion and adventure she experienced as a child developed in her a curiosity of watching, learning, and wondering. Later, as an adult with a desire to write, she was surprised at how easily she could recall events of her life story of a journey across cultures. The key to this memoir lies in a promise her parents made the moment they had stepped safely into Austria after a lonely and fearsome escape from Croatia hiking across a mountain through a long night of cold, hunger, fear and unsettlement. The promise, "All will be well when we settle in our new country!" reassured Mila, despite the mystery, secrecy, and danger of their situation at the time. Two years in refugee camps in Austria and a new language pass before they travel to, Australia, the new country that was to become their home. When they arrive by boat in Melbourne in 1959, Mila, then ten, is very excited. The family had finally arrived in their new home country, where she can start school and begin to learn its language and ways. The reassuring words of her parents on the mountain come back to her and stay with her. The family, however, spends two further years in three migrant camps. The children were well occupied in making friends, some basic schooling and learning the new language. The parents were preoccupied in looking for ways to leave the camps and acquire a home. They learned little of the new language. When the family eventually find a way to settle in a country town near the large Snowy Mountains Scheme of New South Wales, Mila, then twelve, is surprised that they show no interest in wanting to learn the language or ways of Australia. When Mila asked why, they, who could get by in several languages, were evasive, saying that caring for a family and working left no time. Somehow, this was not convincing for her. Her parents begin to encourage the children not to forget their own native language or the country of their origin. Before long they begin to teach the history of their old country and celebrate its culture as if they had left a wonderful life, which was far from the truth. Gradually a conundrum develops for the young girl. During those early years, she wanted to follow the ways of her parents to avoid difficulty in the family, only to find that she couldn't do so. It was as if some mystery pushed her forwards, while some other mystery pushed her parents backwards. Thus, a confusing atmosphere develops in the family, opposite to the promise given her. While the hope expressed on the mountain remained with her, and at times was hardly perceptible, gradually a keen desire grew within her to understand the confusion between herself and her parents and people of her own culture, who she found were reacting to the new country in much the same way as her parents. This curiosity takes her on an interesting life journey through her own career, study and family - including romance and adventure - and travel across many countries and cultures - and with a surprising ending.