TRAVEL REPORT The Hon. Michael Atkinson MP Attorney-General ...

1998-1999 Deputy Representative of the Republic of Slovenia to the UnitedNations Security Council, New York .2004 Head of Task Force for the Republic of Slovenia OSCEPresidency 2005Dr. Zvone ZigonBachelor in journalism at the Faculty for Social Sciences in Ljubljana,Master in anthropology and PhD in political anthropology .Since 1990, Dr. Zvone Zigon has studied the ethnic identity of (Slovenian)emigrants, its duality, processes of assimilation and ways of preserving"primary" ethnic identity . He wrote 3 books on this matter (all in Slovenian),"The Children of two Homelands - Slovenians of second generation in SouthAmerica" (1998), "From the Memory to the Future - Slovenian politicalemigration in Argentina" (2001) and "Challenges of Diversity - Slovenians inAfrica and Arabic Peninsula" (2003) .At the Office for Slovenians Abroad, Dr. Zvone Zigon deals with Slovenians inall countries in the world except in neighbouring countries, organize seminarsfor teachers of Slovenian language in Diaspora, journalists of Slovenian mediain Diaspora, cultural animators, archivists etc .As a complementary job he works as a scientific researcher at the Institute forSlovenian Emigration Studies at the Slovenian Academy of Sciences andArts, at the moment finishing an individual project on the personal identity ofSlovenian missionaries .He visited Australia in 2002 to participate at the World Congress of Sociologyin Brisbane and he also visited Slovenians in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne,Sydney, Wollongong, Canberra, Gold Coast and Brisbane .Meeting SummaryMr . Samuel Zbogar and Zvone Zigon told the delegation that Slovenes livingabroad are principally post WWII migrants and an ageing community . TheOffice of Slovenes Abroad (OSA) is trying to encourage younger generationsto keep the Slovenian language and culture alive . This problem not onlyapplies to Slovenes who live in Australia, but also to those immigrated to othercountries . OSA is concerned that the strategies and policies used for the oldergeneration cannot be used to achieve the same objectives for the youngerSlovenes .The Office of Slovenians Abroad organises a lot of activities and otherSlovenian organisations are also directly supported . One such activity is theannual Summer School of Slovene language in Ljubljana, which in recentyears, has been attended by teachers from Australia and which also offersscholarships .Many cultural exchanges are organized which include but are not confined toSlovenian clubs abroad hosting singers from Slovenia . Touring art and touringTravel Report, Hon . Michael Atkinson, MP. and Ms. Vini Ciccarello M.P., August, 2004 14