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What's up everybody, welcome back to the All Things Croatia podcast. I'm your host,
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Stanko Zovak, and I'm bringing you the best of Croatia from around the globe.
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eat a modalia and let's get started.
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Welcome back to the podcast everybody. On this week's episode we have special guest Peter
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Pecotic. Peter is an Australian Croat who decided to film a documentary called Countryman
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about retracing his father's journey in Australia after leaving the Dalmatian coast.
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The events take a turn when he meets an artist who believes he also has Croatian roots and
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the two attempt to reconnect with their heritage together. In this episode we're going to hear
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more about Countryman and the man behind it. Peter, thanks for coming on the podcast.
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Hey, it's Donko. Thanks so much for inviting me. Really good to be here.
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Yeah, I appreciate you coming on. And I have to say I really enjoyed the documentary. I thought
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it was really interesting. And especially since sort of events take a turn at a certain point in
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the documentary and it becomes something that you didn't even set out to film. And before we
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sort of get into that, can you talk a little bit about your heritage and background? You
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of course talk about a lot of that in the documentary. Your father was from Cortula.
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Yeah, yes. I'm an Australian born, first generation Australian born. I used to live in
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Shanghai for many years and I'd run into people that had called themselves ABCs or BBCs, American
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born Chinese or British born Chinese. And I'd say, oh yeah, I'm an ABC too. And they'd go,
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you know, I look like an ABC. And I'd say, actually I'm an ABCD, an Australian born Croatian Dalmatian.
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And I'd always get very confused reactions by that. I'm a product of two waves of migration. So
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my late father came from Cortula. After the Second World War, he studied in what was Czechoslovakia
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and Prague, studied engineering. And then all of a sudden had to get out of Czechoslovakia
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because of the Tito style and split or something. So overnight he was needing to get out and got
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back into that country. And they were wondering how did he get back in there? And so easily,
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but he managed to just talk his way out of two sort of awkward situations. And his elder sister
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had migrated to Sydney in the 30s. And so after he finished his degree and went back to Cortula,
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he decided to do his practical side instead of Prague in Sydney. And he came to Sydney in 1956,
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that was. So that's one migration role. And my mother is from Pelešac, which for those who
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don't know, the geography is basically right across the channel from Cortula. It's a peninsula.
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And of course, we all know that famous bridge that's just been opened up, the Peleški Morst,
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that is finally connected the whole of Croatia by land together. And she comes from there and she
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migrated to New Zealand. There was a large wave of specifically Dalmatian Croatians that
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went from the late 1800s or maybe even earlier towards the 1860s or something,
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all the way up until the First World War and just post First World War. So it's this large wave of
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migrants that came from there to New Zealand. My late grandfather was a very typical Dalmatian.
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He worked in the merchant navy back in those days in Pelešac and Cortula, like your career
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opportunities would be to be in the merchant navy, to be ultimately Kapitan, that would be the
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ultimate career. And so he was on those ships, traveling huge distance in today's terms, going
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from Pelešac all the way to New Zealand, the end of the earth practically. And he saw the
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opportunity of the communities that were building up there. And he eventually started
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working on the land there. It was called Kari Gum. It's this gum that comes from these trees called
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Kari trees. And there was an industry going on in the north part of the North Island of New Zealand
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where Dalmatian diggers were digging up this Kari gum and then it was being exported. And the New
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Zealand government were allowing people from what was then Austria, and they were very, very
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strongly saying that they're not Austrians, to come to New Zealand and to migrate. And my late
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grandfather was going backwards and forwards. He married in Pelešac and had kids. And eventually
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my mother, when she was three and her two older sisters and her mother, my late grandmother,
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did this epic trip in 1936, which was sort of like that puttbezpovratka, you know, like that trip of
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no return, where they said goodbye to their grandmother forever and came all the way to the
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end of the world to New Zealand. So she grew up on, eventually my late grandfather had a dairy farm
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with his capital. He purchased a dairy farm. There are creations in all industries in New Zealand
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and very famous in the wine and fishering industry and not so famous in dairy. And he had a dairy
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farm. I used to run around on it as a kid. I used to go there every year. And mum grew up there.
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And then she did the typical thing, which is sort of a birthright for both Australians and New
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Zealanders. And no matter what your cultural or ethnic background, after you graduate, you go to
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London. And so she was on her way to London back in the 1950s. And on the way, she stopped in Sydney
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and she went to some Croatian ball. And she met my dad. And I think they were so shocked that they
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came from literally next door to each other as far as heritage places are concerned. And anyway,
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my mother still went and did a year in London, but my dad waited. And when she came back to Sydney,
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they went back together to New Zealand and married. So there's this story of two sort of
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migration waves that came together. Yeah. Yeah, I know. I know. And so for me, I was born in
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Australia. I was born in Sydney, grew up there. And yeah, there's a large community of us more
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all over Australia. And I'm just just one of them, I suppose. Yeah.
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You know, you mentioned in the film that when your father had immigrated, he brought two things over
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with him. Can you tell us what those were? Yeah. So I think this is my first introduction to
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to country, what the concept of say country is in in in an Australian term as well. Country is something
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that's not not defined by a map or a border, but something that that's almost like a metaphysical
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rather than physical. And dad introduced that to me when I was a kid, he got out from the backshed
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these two jars. And one of the jars had this sort of red soil, very rich, plartinal looking soil.
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And the other one had some seawater in it. And he told me that these were the two jars that were
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given to him by his mum, my Baba, at the time of 1956, when he was leaving to come to Australia.
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And they were given to him so that he'd never forget the country, the land and the sea that he
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came from. And he introduced that to me when I was a little nipper with our young fella,
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to sort of introduce to me what country is and what ancestral country is. And he also said to me at
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that time, and I was way too young to think about real estate or commodity or anything like that.
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But he he said to me when I was that young, he said some seeing them when you grow up,
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and these lands, these bolea, the olive groves, the vineyards and little bit of little house here
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and there or not much, but you know, he said that that's something that I can never sell.
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And it never crossed my mind, of course, at that point. But before I even ask, he goes,
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I'll tell you why, those are ancestral lands, and they won't be yours to sell because they belong
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to the ancestors. And your job is to keep them for the Potompsi for the for the next generation.
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So he was basically teaching me custodianship of the land and instilling that into me at a very,
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very early age. Yeah. And you know, that sort of becomes a big theme as well in the documentary
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as it gets further on. And I want to talk about that. But, you know, it sort of turned into
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something you didn't expect. What was your at first main goal with the documentary?
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The main goal wasn't even a documentary. The main goal, okay, COVID had gone on. And I'm
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typical, I think we're all very typical us of Croatian heritage, where the more and more often
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we can, the more and more often we'll spend time on that country. You know, and so because of COVID,
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Australia was like a mini North Korea, you couldn't go in and you couldn't go out.
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And so we were stuck. And so what I decided to do was to get a camper van and just
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explore the country of my birth because I hadn't really done too much of that in recent years.
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As I mentioned before, I lived as an expatriate in Asia. And then I'd come back to Australia
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on business and to see family and friends. But I'd also take advantage of being much closer to
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Europe and often to Croatia and to Europe. And so that was my habit for years and years and years.
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And so suddenly I'm stuck and stationary. And this is not such a bad thing, actually. I think
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it's one of the positive things that came out of the catastrophe of COVID is for people not to,
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you know, there's that expression, that we're rushing and rushing around, but only rushing to
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the grave, you know, and we do that a lot with travel. So to a state in one country was actually
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not such a bad thing. So I got a camper van, I'm a surfer, so I put in the longboard and was planning
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to do the East Coast. And then I decided to reenact this road trip that my late father went on
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before he married just two years into his tenure of living in Australia, being a migrant. He decided
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after two years of working in an engineering company that he'd done his practical of his
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engineering degree, they were making mining equipment and all other sorts of things that
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someone had studied engineering could really get their teeth around because Australia was very much
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in a boom at that time. Still isn't some sort of ways. He decided in Promptu to go up north to Cairns,
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which is 2000 plus kilometres north, with a mate who had this Jaguar, like a 1956 Jaguar of all
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things. And he decided to do that trip and he told me about it numerous times and I was always
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infatuated by that trip because going up to Cairns back in those days would be like going to Papua
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New Guinea nowadays from Australia. It was very undeveloped, just tropical and not an easy place
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to be. But he had some mates from Smokvica, which is the village in on Kortichala and probably some
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relatives up there too. And he wanted to visit them. So I decided to reenact this road trip
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and I was having drinks with a couple of mates and one of them said, make a film about it.
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I went, oh, that's a really good idea. I could make an ethnographic film and none of those people
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unfortunately have survived, but I can go and meet the descendants of those migrants and interview
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them and find out what their lives are like after there. And we all know that so many of our grandparents
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had had such hardship in migration and also back in the old country. But to see what their lives
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like and also to explore what, if anything, informs them as an Australian, their cultural
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background, whether it be language, whether it be football, whether they be going to a church,
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whether they be having some mentality, whether it's fishing, whatever it might be, I just want to
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get an idea. And so the genesis of it was actually COVID and then wanting to do a road trip and then
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someone just gave me the idea and I thought it was a very good idea. Petbati's name is as well
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by the way. Yeah, so that was a genesis of the trip. And then you end up, how early on did you
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end up meeting Joseph? And then can you talk a little about who Joseph is and how everything
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happened after that? Yeah, so Joseph Williams actually met just before going before COVID actually.
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So I work professionally in exhibition and event production in the cultural world or in
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in B2B enterprise communications or even a little bit in political. And that's sort of a day job
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that I do. And so I've done a lot of art exhibitions as well in the past. But art exhibitions like
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when I was in China where the State Department would be putting on an exhibition of art covering
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the history of the US and they put it on at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing just to
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sort of try to create better friendship and understanding, which is what we need more than
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ever in these days, man, through art. And so I have an agency that facilitates that sort of
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process. Anyway, long story, but I'll tell you it there. So I also, I practice vipassana meditation
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which is a form of meditation where you just go silent and go into a temple and maybe for up to
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eight, 10 days, you're just observing consciousness. It's a bit out there. But I was doing that.
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And one of my colleagues who you don't talk to, but she's been going to this same place for a long
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time and and she's got a PhD in a colonial Australian woman in contact with indigenous
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communities. That's what her PhD was in. She's an artist herself, Dr. Erica Izet. And she was at the
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time the manager of a cultural center in the desert country in the Northern Territory,
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called Ninh Canuniu, where Yugi also worked. Now at that temple, I don't know, you heard about
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those big bushfires we had a couple of years ago? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So, so we're merrily having our
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silent meditation practice and then five days into a 10 day, the secretary of the temple says,
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we've got to evacuate. We've got a bushfire coming. So, all right, so we're going out of silence
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into talking. And Erica's just opposite me and she just looks at me and goes, oh, I think you can
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help me. It's like, okay, you know, like, let's evacuate and let's make the temple safe. But
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and she told me that she was working on the Sydney Biennale. It's a modern art exhibition
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happens every two years in Sydney. That theme of that Biennale was about, as called Niren, which is
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I think it's a a Dargol word. I'm not sure, but it's an indigenous Aboriginal word for living on
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the edge. And so the theme of this modern art exhibition was a First Nations people from all
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around the world to present their modern art based on this theme of living on the edge. And it's not
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only living on the edge of being a First Nations person in the colonial society that you find yourself
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to be born in, but it's also living on the edge of the First Nations culture that you're a product of.
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And you know, in some ways we have those parallels as we us Croatian diaspora where I felt it anyway
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growing up in Australia where, hang on, I'm not quite on the edge. I'm on the edge of this colonial
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colonial, which was far more Anglo-Saxon Australian when I was growing up in the 70s and 80s. But also
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when I went over Croatia, I was very much on the edge of the Croatian culture, like not really
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part of that. So where are you somewhere in between? Anyway, so that art exhibition that Erica was
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involved with, she asked me to help. And so it had a group of artists from Tenant Creek where
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Erica was based in at the time called the Tenant Creek Brio, a collective. And this body of work,
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I helped Erica to sort of journey map how that section would work within the Sydney
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Biennale exhibition at a place called Cockatoo Island, which features in the film by the way.
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But she had funding to fly me to Tenant Creek and I said, yeah, for sure, take me. I'll be there.
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I'll go now. I was very excited to go to remote community and to engage, not just as a tourist,
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but actually to engage in a project like that. It was really exciting. And she said,
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oh, by the way, one of the artists really wants to meet you. I said, why is that? She goes,
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I think his dad comes from the same part of Europe as your dad comes from, but I don't know because
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his dad left when he was young. I said, what's his name? She said, Joseph Williams. I went, oh,
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no, that's not that's not from the party Europe that my parents are from. And she said, yeah,
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but his nickname is Yugi. We went, oh, Yugi. Okay, no, that's possible. Then you know,
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there's got a pretty high possibility. So anyway, I met him in Tenant Creek and he gave me his surname
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and I looked up the surname and I wasn't quite sure exactly what part definitely from the region,
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but, but not exactly which part because it's a name that can be from any part of the region.
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But my mum straight away was saying, oh, no, he's definitely Dalmatians. She said,
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why is that? Because Dalmatians travel everywhere. But everyone travels everywhere. Anyway,
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so when I met him at that time, he was very interested because he's he's very with his
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mentality is very linked in with Waramongal culture and a very living culture where they
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still initiate and practice what they call business and ceremony and a very, very tied
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with country, the land and also ancestry, they call them skin tight, all sorts of complex and
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very living culture. And so with his prism of understanding of culture, he wanted me to explain
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this big gap in his life, which is from his paternal side. So I was just teaching him what I could
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while I was there. And then when they all came to Sydney for the Biennale, just before COVID came
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in, I had this sort of, I'm in a place in Sydney called Bondi Beach, maybe it's like Venice Beach
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in LA. And I had this sort of Balkan Bondi Beach bash. And I put it on for all the artists, but I
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had, you know, Oliver or whatever other music and Chevape and Burrek and and and and and
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brought around a few friends and and also took them surfing, which was a big deal for a lot of
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them because a lot of them had never seen the ocean before, let alone gone in the ocean. And
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I got them on surfboards, but just have this sort of induction into into our culture. And anyway,
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so that I developed that friendship, a professional relationship, but also friendship, which I surf
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before I went on that road trip. And then when I'm on that road trip, as he said, things took a turn.
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And I'm very much a believer in the the saying that a good traveler is not too fixed on the
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destination. And so when I was up in Far North Queensland, meeting with all that mob of descendants
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who are very kind and and let me into their homes and very trusting and generous that they would
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tell their stories that I recorded that you saw. But then the New South Wales Queensland border
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closed because of a wave of COVID. So I'm stuck up there. And then I checked online and the Northern
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Territory border was still open. So I contacted Joseph said, Hey, can I come back over there?
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Because I'm kind of stuck up here. And he said, Yeah, come. And so then I'm suddenly on country.
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But this time filming and and asking Joseph what informs him, his identity of his paternal
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background. And of course, he's got a gap there. So he ends up putting the camera on me and saying,
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Will you tell me, mate? You know, and so then begins this exploration. And then the film becomes
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Joseph's as well as mine, because it then it starts to grow into his story. And not only his story
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from his Croatian heritage, but his story also from his Waramungal heritage. And so as much as
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I'm teaching him about our, our culture and our practice and our ways and our struggle and our
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story, he's telling me is. And so now we're going in a real sincere cultural exchange, because I
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really want to know this as an Aussie, that's first generation to learn something about a 60,000 year
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odd culture that's continuous, that he's representing right in front of me. But he's really wanting to
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feel that what we call a break in the song line, there's a term song lines, which is just
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understanding the history or the or the physicality of a place through song, but through verse,
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but effectively through, through a lineage, through a line. And so that's where the film took a very
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different path, because we're, we're now exploring not only the European background, but also the
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very, very ancient Australian first nations of many cultures that exist in Australia. Like that.
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Yeah, it was a very, very much a film about identity and culture, as you said.
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And hence the name countrymen, you know, I think is that where you, is that where that comes from?
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And you were talking about the concept of country, you know, earlier on.
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Yeah, that came from Joseph, actually, because while I was spending time with Joseph on country
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in, in, in Tener Creek and Waramul country, and then we went down Alice Springs, because I had an
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art exhibition down there, it's called Desert Mob, which is a congregation of all desert artists
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that come together every year. And while I was down there and we'd party a little bit and have a bit
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of fun, and it started calling me, Hey, my countryman, where are you going, mate? And I'd be going,
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Hey, my countryman, mate, this, or he's just, we're kind of, that became a sort of nickname for
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each other. And, and, and so it was very natural that the film could be called countrymen, but also
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the idea of Zemniak as well, that word, which has got far more, I think, evocation of connection
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the country, of country, you know, so we, we kind of, it's called countrymen, but we also have,
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as you see, saw on the credit titles, we have after that Zemniak and Manawalji, which is the
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Waramul word also for countrymen. But yeah, that's how Joseph kind of pretty much
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it was inspired through Joseph that the name.
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Well, Joseph ends up meeting, meeting again with his dad, who he hasn't seen in how many years,
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I forget, maybe 40 plus years ever since he was a kid. And you were sort of a part of that, you know,
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helping set that up. And you were there for the meeting. What was that experience like? I mean,
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for Joseph and for you? Yeah, so, so after spending time on country, I came back to Sydney and I
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spoke to people in the Croatian community about Joseph and I spoke to a woman called Sonja Parlec,
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who's involved with the Chamber of Commerce. And then she, and also I mentioned it to her
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Excellency, Betty Pavlec, who's, she also, you know, word got around. And I got this call from a lady
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called Midiana Cestar, who's the president of an organization, a fantastic organization called
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Croatia House. It's kind of like an Allianz Francais or Goethe Institute, but for Croatian culture,
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that's pretty much volunteer base and a brilliant organization and a brilliant team. And she approached
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me and said, Hey, I understand you know, an artist from the desert who's part of original
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Park Croatian, and we're doing an art exhibition of Australian artists with Croatian heritage.
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And I went, I'm not 100% sure that he's actually Croatian, but I'm pretty sure.
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And she went, I don't know, we'll bring him in, you know. And so she and Croatia House
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brought Joseph in. And so he was one of five of these artists of this art exhibition, including
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a very esteemed Australian Croatian artist called Charles Billich. And Charles Billich
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has been commissioned by the Vatican to do a skyline, a cityscape of the Vatican. So
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for Joseph to come from the desert to be exhibiting at an art exhibition with an artist who's been
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commissioned by the Vatican, that's just awesome. So he came along, but through social media,
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without wanting to blow the story too much, but through social media, he ends up finding his
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family and ends up finding his dad. And that was just a beautiful and magical chain of events.
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And I'll never forget, you know, firstly, I called his cousin, his name was Yossip Topgai,
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and just said, hey, I'm Joseph's friend. And I'd love to talk and meet you, but I'd also
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love to know about his father. And he goes, yeah, no, he lives in Sydney, never married.
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He's living in Redfern. And this is where I got very sensitive because I don't need to explain
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that. So I just said, look, Yossip, please, can you call his father and ask him if it's okay
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that I call him? Because I would totally respect if any, you know, I just respect that. I just
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have to be so respectful in that circumstance. And anyway, the first thing I wanted to do
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for my father said it was okay. So I called him up, you know, hello, hello, I'm Yossip
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Topgai, and I just said, Yossip, I'm Yossip Williams. And I said, that's your son. Yeah,
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that's my son. So, yeah, we can meet in Ka'fu, we can. And then we have our first coffee of
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many. And then it culminated into Joseph coming to Sydney and being embraced so beautifully and
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warmly by his family, his father, the Croatian community, even the Republic of Croatia through
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her Excellency Betty Pavlic and Consul General Ivica Glacinovich, they also embraced him. It was
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just this incredible display of what I believe to be our warmth and hospitality and love that we
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have, you know, and that we're capable of. And I just think that story indicates that. So anyway,
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but let other people see and have their own opinion. I haven't blown the story too much,
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yeah, but anyway. Yeah, yeah, I won't put any more bloopers or any more, what do you call those,
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plot spoilers. Spoilers. Blanking on my English as I was trying to remember the Croatian you said,
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because I was going to say that sounds like the most Croatian way to, you know, go meet up for
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someone. That's classy. But you also met, you also meet a lot of other Croatians during the film.
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I thought it was funny at one point you even see a Croatian restaurant or a restaurant with
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the checkers and you go on in and you start talking with the guy and everyone's got their own sort of
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similar story of immigrating from Croatia. And I think a lot of not just to Australia, but sort
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of all over the world, definitely in my experience as well in the US, Croatians who immigrate
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from Croatia, a lot of them end up with nothing in the new country. Maybe they had nothing before
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or maybe they had something, but you know, in their new country where they immigrate to,
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they have nothing and they sort of make something out of nothing. And do you think that's something,
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is that something that you've also noticed in, you know, sort of the Croatian diaspora,
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the similar stories about that? Yeah, yeah, I think that's pretty universal and it was said by
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that gentleman in the interview about this work ethic that sometimes we go back to Croatia and go
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huh, hang on, a little work in as hard as, no, that's not everybody of course, I'll be very
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careful there. I think, but there's this sort of work ethic that does exist there. There's this,
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yeah, you know, word brings salvation sort of ethic and also there's this
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honour in work and honour in hard, honest work. You know, I don't, generally speaking, I don't
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think Croatians would be viewed as tricky that are trying to find a way to lazily defraud wealth
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from somewhere else or someone else. There's this real honesty and the golden word, you know,
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what you say you do or you don't say it. And there's, yeah, there's this strong integrity
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in that and it's very universal from my travels as well. And certainly it was on display in making
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the film and in meeting people quite by chance but also through by design, a common thread
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that exists there. And I hope that continues to exist by generation and generation, you know,
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the Chinese say the wealth only goes for three generations, you know, the ones that make it,
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the ones that maintain it, the ones that don't value it and spend it. And I don't think we're
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like that. I'm not sure but I hope not. I hope that we can maintain those qualities. And the film
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certainly highlights those qualities of the positive contribution, whether it's in more,
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you know, manual like farming. But even though the farmers that we meet, you can see how
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entrepreneurial they were just within a few generations to what sort of
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wealth that they created not only for themselves but for the economy that they're involved with,
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but also in academia and the arts we see that and in entrepreneurial as well. So there's all
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these different disciplines that are showcased in the film of the contribution of Australian
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migrants with origins from Croatia. And to ultimately, Joseph, we see as also a great
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example of what we've become and one of the sort of subheadings to the film
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to countrymen is that we are the living history, you know, we're a product of that
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Teshkoche, that hardship or that not only hardship but also that pioneering spirit of having the
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gumption to go to such a distant lands and also culturally so distant and take that risk
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and make something of it. And we are, you know, and you too, you know, we are this living history,
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the living result of that hard work and we better hold that mantle well, you know, we better
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value it. And I think we've all would have been victim maybe also of the older generations just
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shaking their heads at us going, ah, you don't know what it's like, you know, but we have to value
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that and live and celebrate and cherish that. And I think in some ways the film is a dedication to
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that as well, you know, to that hardship and courage to come to these distant lands, wherever
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they are, US, New Zealand or so many places and to make good and contribute, you know,
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we've even got people that are presidents now, I think, you know, in Latin America, you know,
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we've got people all over the place, it's great, you know.
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That's right, yeah, I think in Boric, in I think Chile or Argent, I think Chile, yeah,
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yeah. Peter, just a few more questions here as we're sort of winding down. I know you wanted
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me to ask about the soundtrack. You had an interesting story about, you know, some Australian band
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and then as well as one of the Croatian songs that as a continuous sort of theme in the film.
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Yeah, so the opening track is by Leibach, so I use a little bit of music by Leibach, which is
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they're a bit of a, they're a Slovenian band, they're an avant-garde band and they are artists
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that make music and they're very much exploring amongst many things identity and so the opening
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track is called Bratmoe, which if you look up the Slovenian verses actually are very, very
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indicative of what's about to happen throughout the film. Then while I was in Alice Springs,
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I met with this band that was some sort of a mix between Iggy Pop and the doors and the
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Stooges and the Dead Kennedys all mixed together. They're this incredible energetic band and I was
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blown away when I saw them in Alice Springs while on the road trip and I conducted an interview and
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I will publish that interview at some stage, but they absolutely acknowledge that they're a product,
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their sound is a product of the country that they're in. Alice Springs is right in the heart of
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Australia, just 500 kilometres, which isn't far from Uluru, the big rock in the centre, and they,
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yeah, they totally got the idea of relationship to country and being a product of country
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and so their music I put across a lot of the visuals, especially the desert visuals, because it is
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music of that land and so that was one element of music. I use a few of their tracks actually when
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the father meets the son also, I use one of their ballads, which is a really beautiful ballad.
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Then there's another track which is of a young kid singing and it's something like Plovice
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Leberdini Miesets or something like that. It's like based on the silvery moon and the verses are
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singing, singing to someone, singing to the moon, to tell the moon, to tell his mother many, many
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miles away back in the Rodney Kray to not be sad because Vratichusenna Rodney Kray. It's a beautiful
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song about someone looking at the moon and lamenting about their ancestral land. Now that song by that
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kid is a recording that my late father did in 1961 when he first went back to Kortula. He brought
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a magnetophone. He brought a reel to reel recorder, a great, great big deck and I think it was the first
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one ever to come to the village. At the big gathering of the whole family, his nephew Milosh,
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Mali Milosh, sung this song to him as a sort of song of greeting to the, you know, Barba is Australia,
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you know, the uncle who's come back from Australia to sing this greeting. So that song is literally
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my late father's nephew singing to him about returning to his Rodney Kray to his ancestral land.
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That's that song. That's awesome. Yeah, I thought the soundtrack incomplete was done really well. Like
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I said, I'm a big music guy. I was telling you earlier. Yeah, I thought it really added a lot to
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the film. Peter, I want to thank you so much for coming on the podcast and, you know, sort of final
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final thoughts here and questions. Where has the documentary been shown so far? You know, where can
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people watching or listening, you know, to us now watch it? Is it available? Yeah, we've done
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numerous cinema screenings around Australia. We've done about nine so far right around the country
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with Q&A screenings, which has been wonderful because people respond quite a lot to this film,
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not only with Creation Heritage. InfraJoseph and I to be present, to talk about it, has been very
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moving for us and very enjoyable as well. But we have had people wanting to see it and asking to
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see it, especially those that have missed the screenings in Australia. So we're now putting it
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onto a, it's called an OTT platform. And I can give you the link so that you can put that on for
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your viewers if they want to have a look at it. So then it can be viewed by anyone at home, which
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which is good because we've been wanting to get that out. The other screening that we're looking
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at having to be confirmed, we're looking at having a Zagreb screening in January. No. And it might
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be on Australia Day. Now I can't confirm it quite yet, but that will be very exciting. So that and
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if we're going to have a Zagreb screening, then we'll try and do a screening also somewhere where
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Joseph comes from, which I'm not going to say you've got to have something to look at in the film
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and also in Cortula where my origins are from. So we might do a little bit of a
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a roadshow of screen cinema screenings also in a similar format of a Q&A, especially in towns
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where there's a lot of, well most towns do have a lot of dear spores. So yeah, so the link will be
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available for you and your viewers and also hopefully we'll bring it to Croatia in a couple
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in a couple of months. Oh, awesome. Well, yeah, definitely I'll include the link in the podcast
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description. So anyone listening or watching now can go ahead and click on that. Yeah, if you guys
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come to Zagreb for that, I mean, I'll be here. So all for sure have to go and check that out.
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That'll be awesome. I'll get you a ticket. Awesome. Well, Peter, thank you so much again for coming on,
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taking the time to be on the podcast. I really enjoyed the film. I think it's great what you're
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doing and yeah, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you. I really appreciate it. I look forward
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to meeting you in person and yeah, it's been great to be here. Thank you.