Jadwiga “Yaya” Hadryś was born in Pionki in 1954. After she graduated from secondary school, a group of friends she had met in Poland invited her to come to Australia. A holiday which was supposed to last a couple months turned into an entire life spent in that country.
After graduating with a degree in graphic design from the Sydney College of The Arts, Jadwiga Hadryś took up work at Special Broadcasting, a TV station. There, she soon became their graphic design lead. Her long years working in the media brought her to Ramingining, where she first discovered, and became fascinated by, Aboriginal culture, something she decided to devote her life and work to. She has done film projects, published an album on pearl farms in the town of Broome. Her photos have been shown in exhibitions in Poland, Germany and other countries. She has worked in art galleries, tried her hand at jewellery production and screen printing.
Since 2010, she has been working as an art curator at the Bula’bula Centre in Ramingining.
She was interviewed by Edi Pyrek in 2011 in Sydney.
I came to Australia shortly after graduating from secondary school, in 1975. I came to Sydney, on holiday actually. But it just so happened that I stayed a little bit longer. All in all, I’ve lived in Australia longer than I have in Poland. When I was on the flight to Sydney and the plane was about to land, the view from above impressed me a great deal. I mean the large number of red and blue rectangles and squares. The buildings in Sydney were mostly low-rise back then, many houses with mostly red roofs. So those rectangles were house roofs. And next to those houses were pools with blue or turquoise water. So it was a kind of a turquoise-blue-red mosaic. Later, when I got off the plane, the colour of the sky made a strong impression on me. The beautiful, clear blue colour, the light. And that light somehow seemed kind of delicate. And the smell. It was summer, the month was December. There were many blooming trees around so it was the smell of summer in Sydney. And I remember it to this day.
To be honest, I came to Australia, to Sydney, for only a short period of time. I was supposed to stay for 3 months at maximum, but I’ve stayed for a few more decades. I was supposed to go back to Poland. I had already bought a ticket. And I remember that it was Friday. I was on my way to the travel agency to get my ticket and I was supposed to board a flight to Warsaw on Sunday that week. I remember meeting a young man on my way there, he was Yugoslavian. And he said to me: "What are you doing?" – I am going back to Poland. "Didn’t you hear what happened today?" – No, I haven’t heard anything. It was 1976 and the then Prime Minister of Australia Whiplam proclaimed amnesty for all immigrants, both legal and illegal. I was here legally, but it was a one of a kind chance to stay in this country and get permanent residency. This would allow me to, for example, study English at a university. And the government would subsidise such students, they were paid like the unemployed. So it was a really great time for those who wanted to stay here to take advantage of the opportunity. I did not want to stay here for so long, but I did want to extend my stay. I wanted to learn English. And it seemed to me that I had not been able to do it as well as I wanted in those three months. But again, it so happened that I stayed for longer and longer, and here I am, still in Australia to this day.
A difficult question, what is emigration really. Actually, I don’t feel like an emigrant anywhere. I feel good wherever I go. There was a period in my life when I went to Poland. I hiked in the Bieszczady Mountains, marvelling at the beautiful birch trees, gorgeous mountains and trees. I remember sitting down on the ground, touching the dirt with my hands, saying – this is my homeland, this is my country. And then I spent all day crying, trying to find my answer to the question. Where is my home? Because back then, I felt just like an emigrant. And for some reason, it wasn’t easy to find the answer. But then I remembered, I was hiking in the Blue Mountains near Sydney when I saw some gorgeous eucalyptus trees and then I also burst into tears. The sight of those wonderful trees made a huge impression on me. And that is when I realised that my home is wherever I am. I knew the answer. It gave me peace of mind and wherever I am, I am at home. There are memories everywhere from different places that always travel with us. But every single one of those places has so much charm, so many great people. I simply feel a kind of unity with the people, the place. So my home simply expands. It becomes bigger and bigger, but it is still home.
While living in Ramingining and observing the life of the Aboriginals and seeing how important their heritage and culture was to them, I realised the importance of our roots. The importance of where we come from. The importance of the culture we were born in. I had never felt as Polish as I did at that moment when I was surrounded by Aboriginals. And when I came back to Sydney, I felt this urgent need to return to Poland and find my roots. To go back to the forest I grew up in. To walk the same paths I used to walk with my dear granddad. As if I had to replay those moments of my life, like I said, they are still within me, they are always with me. I had to find my roots to find my inner peace somehow.
That is when I realised that I had actually been brought up as a Pole. I am and always will be a Pole. It does not matter where I move my home. That it is that something within us that we were raised with, and it is actually our skeleton. And later we experience different things, meet different cultures. It is like applying various layers onto that skeleton. But the base is the culture we grew up in. Everything else is great additions that enrich us. And I also realised that in fact, there are no differences between cultures. Of course differences do exist, but people everywhere are the same. No matter the culture they were raised in. They experience the same emotions, the same problems, and these cultural differences are actually caused by misunderstandings. And a great many people refuse to open themselves up for meeting others, for becoming close with other people. The reason for this might be fear. We fear the unknown, we do not want to get to know it. Some do, we fear new things. It creates distance and rifts between people, if you open up to others, if you are interested in other people, you see that we are so similar and there are no significant differences between us, all things considered.
That is when I realised that I had actually been brought up as a Pole. I am and always will be a Pole. It does not matter where I move my home. That it is that something within us that we were raised with, and it is actually our skeleton. And later we experience different things, meet different cultures. It is like applying various layers onto that skeleton. But the base is the culture we grew up in. Everything else is great additions that enrich us. And I also realised that in fact, there are no differences between cultures. Of course differences do exist, but people everywhere are the same. No matter the culture they were raised in. They experience the same emotions, the same problems, and these cultural differences are actually caused by misunderstandings. And a great many people refuse to open themselves up for meeting others, for becoming close with other people. The reason for this might be fear. We fear the unknown, we do not want to get to know it. Some do, we fear new things. It creates distance and rifts between people, if you open up to others, if you are interested in other people, you see that we are so similar and there are no significant differences between us, all things considered.
Emigration certainly isn’t easy, and I can’t stress this enough, if you leave once, you will always be an emigrant. My home is here in Australia, but Poland is also my home. In each of these homes, when I am in Poland, I miss something Australian. When I am in Australia, I miss something Polish. So there is no one set place, but at the same time, you feel at home. However, everywhere you go you are an emigrant. I don’t know if others feel the same about this. I would like to hear what others have to say about this. Those who left Poland. About how they emigrated. And I think that for those in Poland that never left it will be very interesting to find out what experiences their countrymen have had abroad. If it was easy or not.
