A family’s journey from conflict to community in the Southern Wheatbelt

Anna Prysiazhna and Mykola Kozin had just arrived in Narrogin from Sydney when news of the Russian invasion of Ukraine broke. “It was midday that we got the news, it was shocking,” Mykola said. Having spent the past six years living in NSW, the Ukrainian couple had moved to the southern Wheatbelt town after Mykola found work with a local telecommunications company. A day spent exploring their new home was abandoned as thoughts immediately turned to family. “Our home town Chernihiv, 80km from the Belarus border, is where the invasion began,” Anna said. “We were one of the towns to suffer the most, especially during the first months.” Anna and Mykola were living in Crimea when it was annexed by Russia in 2014. Though they had witnessed Russian aggression before, last year’s February 24 invasion still came as a shock. “Everyone expected that there would be war one day, but no one expected it to be tomorrow,” Anna said. “The narrative from Russia was that we were brothers, one nation — we’re not.” Six months ago, Anna’s mother Tetiana Prysiazhna and sister-in-law Tetiana Kuziura, along with Mykola’s parents Halyna Kozina and Serhii Kozin, managed to flee the country and arrive in Australia after enduring a harrowing six months. “On the first day of the war, my Mum said she couldn’t believe it,” Anna said. “She went to work, there was nothing happening where she lived at the time.” Further to the north, where Mykola’s parents lived, the Russian invaders rapidly overwhelmed the city. “They were not bombing the military structures, they were bombing the houses, erasing the whole town,” Anna’s mother said. “They don’t care, they just want to banish everything.” Other targets of the Russians were power plants, hospitals and schools. “When we first saw the damage and bomb shelling, we realised what was happening,” Tetiana Kuziura said. Tetiana was volunteering at a school when it was shelled by the Russians. “She was very lucky — the people she was working with died,” Anna said. “She ran away and started filming herself, because we all have relatives in Russia, and she wanted to prove to people that it was real, that it isn’t true that the Russians came to liberate us.” The video taken by Tetiana went viral. “She was covered in blood,” Anna said. “She was attacked on social media, they said so many fake things, they said it was fake blood, she has the scars.” As the situation deteriorated, the families took shelter in the workplace of Anna’s father, Yurii. “They had a pet dog, and the dog felt something,” Anna said. “It started wanting to go inside. It was pulling and pulling, so everyone started getting inside, and that’s when the bomb landed.” The bomb struck just outside the entrance, Anna’s father was sprayed with shrapnel but survived. It was then that the family made the difficult decision to evacuate. Anna’s father and her brother Roman stayed. The dog was rehoused. “Now our dog is Polish,” Halyna joked. It was in Yurii’s workplace that the family took photos of their passports on their laps to send to Anna and Mykola to assist with their relocation to Australia. A slow and dangerous trek followed the decision, through forests and winding back roads, until Tetiana, Halyna, Serhii and Tetiana made it across the border and into Poland. After a long flight from Warsaw, members of Mykola and Anna’s family began to arrive in Perth. “Thankfully my sister-in-law was able to travel with my mother,” Anna said. “It was hard for my mother to understand where to go. The body was just doing what it had to do to survive, without thinking.” Following the arrival of Anna’s mother and sister-in-law were Halyna Kozina and Serhii Kozin. “Halyna said that when you are in Perth, it is nice and bushy, everything is green,” Anna said. “Then as soon as you get into the land near Narrogin, the trees stop being so green, very dry — she thought we were going to the desert.” Though around 12,000km away from Ukraine, the family have found similarities between Narrogin and their home. “It is quite similar to the south part of Ukraine,” Halyna said. The most striking similarity is agricultural. “It is very funny that the Ukraine is the breadbasket of Europe, and now we are living in the Wheatbelt area, so we feel a bit like we are not so far away,” Anna said. “Our flag is blue, the sky, and yellow the wheat, so when it is time for the wheat to grow here we see the flag everywhere in the Wheatbelt, a very interesting coincidence.” Anna, a community development support officer with the Shire of Narrogin, has encouraged her family to explore the community since their arrival. “I told them they can join the art group, they became members there and everyone was really helping them,”she said. “They suggested that they volunteer for the museum, so they did that, and they are learning English when on duty, learning stories about Narrogin.” Tetiana Prysiazhna has been inspired to create through her friendship with Narrogin artist Ross Storey and exposure to Aboriginal art. “We are lucky to have these connections, to feel if not at home, very comfortable,” Anna said. “It can be hard for refugees to find themselves, it can be hard for them to get out and meet people. Socialising is very important for healing trauma.” Both Tetiana Prysiazhna and Halyna Kozina are undertaking courses in English online. “English has a stronger system in syntax,” Halyna said, “It is different than Ukrainian, Russian and Hebrew, where you can order words in any place.” Tetiana, Halyna, Serhii and Tetiana lived with Anna and Mykola when they first arrived in Narrogin. “We had six people in the one house, every room had two people in it, it was quite hard for three months. When you are overcoming trauma, you need your own space,” Anna said. “We found the person who owned the empty house next to ours and approached them, and he did some refurbishments and they moved in in August. The oldies live in one house and the youngsters live in the other.” In their new house, Tetiana, Halyna and Serhii have a vegetable garden full of tomatoes, like they did in the Ukraine. The family also had sunflowers, the symbol of Ukraine, growing out the front until parrots found them. Though far from home, home is never far from thought. “They would like to thank everyone in the community, the president of the Shire, Leigh Ballard, the community itself did an amazing job to make sure we are settled,” Anna said. “We hope people will not forget what is happening in the Ukraine, it is still there, still as bad.” On Saturday February 25, cities across Australia will host rallies and vigils marking a year of Russian aggression in Ukraine, including a march through Perth starting at 11.30am in Forrest Place.