Clip description
Over a campfire near his home in Broken Hill, German migrant Werner Hollmayer explains to filmmaker Juergen Corleis his feelings for his adopted country and how migrating here has changed him.
Curator’s notes
Hollymayer is one of the most interesting of Corleis’s subjects. Having lived in Australia for twenty-five years, he no longer speaks German. Prior to this scene at the campfire, Corleis interviews Hollymayer in German, but struggling to reply in a mother tongue, Hollymayer asks if he can speak in English. This may seem strange to Australians listening to his German-accented English, but it is an aspect of his new life that highlights how at home he feels in Australia and how much he has flourished in his adopted home. He sums it up beautifully: ‘Australia is just me and I am Australia I suppose. So what more is there to say?’
