Poetry
Natalie Damjanovich Napoleon
THE PARTIZANKA AND THE RADNIK
Overview
In what was viewed as “an exodus without parallel in Australian migration history”, over 750 Slavs left Western Australia between 1948-49 on the SS Partizanka and SS Radnik to return to Yugoslavia (Fitzgerald, 2018, p. 4). Most were buoyed by socialist fervour, some were motivated by guilt in considering their return home to Yugoslavia, while others recalled the rampant racism of the Goldfields during the 1934 race riots where their homes were looted and burnt down by an angry mob. However, within 5 years almost 95% of the povratnici (“returnees”) returned to Australia, the deprivations caused by the wake of WWII in Yugoslavia, lack of democratic freedom and reduced economic opportunities driving their return to Australia.
The following poems are excerpts from The Commonwealth of Amnesia: A collection of erasure and cut-up poems exploring the forgotten histories of Croatian and Yugoslav peoples in Australia
References
Damjanovich-Napoleon, N. (2024). The Commonwealth of Amnesia: A collection of erasure and cut-up poems
exploring the forgotten histories of Croatian and Yugoslav peoples in Australia and an exegesis
Obliteration Creates More: examining the wreck of history through whiteout, blackout and cut-up
erasure poetry. Edith Cowan University. https://doi.org/10.25958/2vm9-za23
The Partizanka And The Radnik – Overview
Fitzgerald, C. (2018). Shattered ideals and fractured identities: Western Australia to Yugoslavia and back 1948-
1955. Dr Criena Fitzgerald.
I Gave My Best Years To Australia
I gave my best years to Australia. (1947, November 9). Sunday Times (Perth, WA: 1902 – 1954), p. 1
(Supplement to the Sunday Times). http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59468973
Red Lessons
300 Slavs will get red lessons. (1948, February 4). The Daily News (Perth, WA: 1882 – 1955), p. 7 (Home
Edition). http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article79677872
Slavs Sing
Departing Slavs give red salute. (1948, January 20). The Daily News (Perth, WA: 1882 – 1955), p. 1 (City Final).
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article79671432
Bands to welcome Slav ship. (1948, January 21). The Daily News (Perth, WA: 1882 – 1955), p. 4 (Home Edition).
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article79683372
Yugoslav Liner
Communists and migrants [text]. (1948, January 7). The West Australian (Perth, WA: 1879 – 1954), p. 9.
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article46882248
Yugoslav liner [text]. (1948, January 8). The West Australian (Perth, WA: 1879 – 1954), p. 9.
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article46882471
Fitzgerald, C. (2018). Shattered ideals and fractured identities: Western Australia to Yugoslavia and back 1948-
1955 [cover image]. Dr Criena Fitzgerald.
Natalie Damjanovich-Napoleon is a writer, songwriter and educator who was raised on a farm by her Croatian-immigrant parents. Her poetry and creative nonfiction has appeared in Meanjin, Cordite, Australian Book Review and APJ. She has won the Bruce Dawe and KSP Poetry Prizes; and has been shortlisted for the Peter Porter Poetry Prize. In 2024 she was awarded a Red Room Poetry Fellowship and a DLGSC grant to complete her third poetry book. Her sophomore poetry book, If There Is a Butterfly That Drinks Tears, was recently released by Life Before Man/Gazebo Books. In 2024 Natalie completed a PhD at ECU on erasure poetry and cultural amnesia.