One of the Lithuanians in the First Transport group sent to Goliath Cement at Railton, Tasmania, was a Doctor of Veterinary Science. Vytautas Stasiukynas had given his intended occupation in Australia as farmer, possibly to fit in with the known occupational shortages in Australia. He was 27 years old on arrival, having been born in Peršėkininkai village, in the south of Lithuania, on 14 February 1920.
He had found himself on a farm two months after arrival in Australia, but it was to pick fruit in the Ardmona area for nearly 6 weeks. Returning to the Bonegilla camp, he was employed there for one week as a casual labourer. Probably it was more labouring with Goliath – until he left early, after less than 10 months, in February 1949. |
| A youthful Vytautas Stasiukynas, photographed for his Bonegilla card in 1947 Source: NAA: A2571, STASIUKYNAS VYTAUTAS |
A list probably compiled by Ramunas Tarvydas, the author of From Amber Coast to Apple Isle, shows that another 6 of the men left during February or March, well before their 2 years of employment in Australia was up. The work must have been extremely hard indeed.
This does not include Endrius Jankus who, we know from his own account, stayed for maybe another month but he too decided that he could do better working in Melbourne instead. We know that Endrius was contacted by the Commonwealth Employment Service (CES) to be told that it was not up to him to decide where he could work: he had to be willing to go where the CES said that workers were needed. Perhaps, one way or another, the CES located the other 6 and found them different work still in an area of national need. Or perhaps they had gone directly to the CES, asking for a change of employment. These individual employment records are unlikely to have survived for us to check them.
As for Vytautas Stasiukynas, his friend, Juozas Peciulis, also on the First Transport, wrote his story for the 14 June 1950 edition of Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven), the new Australian-Lithuanian newspaper. He based his account on the time they had spent together during the first two years, and a letter received from Colombia. Yes, Vytautas had found a happier life in South America.
Juozas Peciulis reported that Vytautas had tried every possible way to get a job in his profession. His efforts were in vain. He enrolled in a veterinary course at Sydney University, in case Australian qualifications would help him, but had to stop when his finances ran out.
While living as a refugee in Germany, Peciulus wrote, Stasiukynas had received from Lithuanian Salesian priest, Father Mykolas Tamošiūnas, a visa for emigration to Columbia. Father Tamošiūnas worked with a Lithuanian diplomat and journalist, Stasys Sirutis, to form the Lithuanian Catholic Committee for the Collection of War Victims. Sirutis would contact Lithuanians in refugee camps in postwar Europe, taking care of their visas and permits so they could freely migrate to Columbia. The new arrivals would be assisted in finding work and housing, contributing to the Lithuanian colony in Columbia.
By 1948, Colombia had become one of the main places of migration for Lithuanians. The first Lithuanians settled in the city of Bogotá, but eventually spread to other cities: Medellín, Barranquilla, Cali, Bucaramanga, Villavicencio. They were mainly farmers or hired workers. It is believed that around 850 Lithuanians came to Colombia after the Second World War.
Frozen out of his preferred career in Australia, Vytautas turned again Father Mykolas and received another Colombian migration visa. On 17 March 1950, he boarded a ship from the United States, the American Leader, to cross the Pacific. The Brisbane Courier-Mail says that ship was bound for Boston, leaving Brisbane at 6 am on 18 March. Juozas Peciulis reports that Vytautas paid £200 for the trip to Panama, while a flight from Panama to Medellin cost an additional $60 (US dollars, presumably).
This is a rare, if not unique, instance where we have the name of the ship of departure from Australia because it was recorded as a Change of Abode on his Aliens Registration Certificate. This was retained by the Department of Immigration and subsequently by the National Archives of Australia. We therefore have the date of departure also.
On arrival in Colombia, Vytautas immediately received a job as a vet on a farm owned by the brother of the nations’s President. The farm was about 130 km from Medellin, 100 square kilometers in size with 1200 cows. The area was very mountainous, with no roads, only riding tracks. Vytautas lived on the farm, travelling around it by horse to inspect the animals.
He did not regret leaving Australia. He wrote back to Juozas Peciulis that Columbia “is truly the land of opportunity and freedom exists in the full sense of the word.”
Vytautas remained in Colombia, where he married another Lithuanian and had 4 children. Evidence comes from V. Rociūnas in the August 1971 issue of Draugas (Friend), who reports that “Veterinarian Vytautas Stasiukynas has a wonderful family of four children and his excellent wife Nijole, a sincere supporter of Lithuanian activities. Stasiukynas has a large practice and a good reputation in the area.”*
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| Vytautas' wife, Nijole, is first on the left in this photo of the board members of the Bogotá Lithuanian women's club Source: Moteris Lithuanian Women’s Magazine. 1966. No. 6 (54) |
An August 1972 issue of Musu Lietuva (Our Lithuania), published in São Paolo, Brazil, advises that Vytautas Stasiukynas from Bogotá was one the judges of an Inter-American Philatelic Exhibition which had opened in Rio de Janeiro. He had won all sorts of medals at these exhibitions and was visiting Rio with his wife, Nijole. They had promised to visit São Paolo as well.
In February 1981, Vienybė, (Unity, from Brooklyn, NY) had the larger part of a page devoted to Vytautas’ philately. It featured an article he wrote about the Buenos Aires '80 International Stamp Exhibition, a ten-day long activity to celebrate 400 years since the permanent settlement of Buenos Aires. He brought back a second prize, a gold-plated silver medal, from this Exhibition. Below that article, another records his own philatelic interests.
In a December 1982 issue of Mūsų Lietuva, on a page headed Greetings from Venezuela and Colombia, Vytautas and Nijole Stasiukynas “from Bogota remembered and congratulated their compatriots in Rio de Janeiro and São Paolo”.
In June 1983, Vienybė ran a full page article about the Lithuanian community in Colombia. One of the illustrations shows Vytautas and his wife, Nijole, with another Lithuanian couple in a cacao plantation.
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| The photograph from Vienybė showing, from left to right in a cacao plantation, a Colombian, Laima and Algis Didžiulis, Dr Vytautas Stasiukynas, the Colombian plantation manager and Nijolė Stasiukynas. The caption further adds that, "The Didžiulises are big industrialists, with one company in Bogotá, another in Caracas, Venezuela, a representative office in Fort Lauderdale, warehouses in Woodside, NY. They also have a nice dairy farm near Bogotá." |
Someone has started a family tree for Vytautas on Ancestry.com, but only got as far as noting that he died in Bogotá on an unknown date and adding one son. This son, José Vytenis Stasiukynas Hosie, is said to have been born in 1960 and to have died in 2006, at the early age of 46. This early death raises the possibility of an interaction with FARC, the Marxist-Leninist guerrilla group which has operated in Colombia since 1966, or with other armed left-wing and right-wing groups.
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| Nijole (front row, third from left with a red handbag) attending a church service in Lithuania in 2012 as a representative of Bogotá's Lithuanian community Source: XXI amžius (21st Century), 13 February 2015 |
While Vytautas saw Colombia as, “truly a land of opportunity (where) freedom exists in the full sense of the word”, a civil war was being fought there even as he arrived. The violence has waxed and waned, mainly in the countryside, in the more than 70 years since.
We believe that another member of the family is now activity in the field of caring for animals. Diana Stasiukynas is very likely to be a granddaughter of Vytautas. Panthera.org, a New York based charity, says that Diana is “a biologist with a master's degree in biodiversity management and conservation. She works with camera traps, in-situ genetic sampling, statistical analysis and other survey techniques in various wildlife conservation and management projects involving local communities, farmers and governmental and non-governmental organizations throughout Colombia. In addition to conservation science, her professional interests include wildlife photography and community participation.”
It looks like not just Vytautas, but his whole subsequent family, was a loss to Australia. Two other vets who arrived here on the General Stuart Heintzelman in 1947 were lost to Australia also. Lithuanian Anicetas Grigaliunas left for the United States in the 1950s. An as yet unnamed Estonian left for Venezuela, where he supposedly became veterinarian to the country’s then President. Ann remembers adding Venezuelan stamps to the collection she was given when aged 6.
SOURCES
Courier Mail (1950) ‘Weather’ (including ‘Shipping’), Brisbane, Qld, 18 March, p 10, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article49697105, accessed 9 November 2023.
Gavenas, P (1982) ‘Sveikinimai iš Venezuelos ir Kolumbijos’ (‘Greetings from Venezuela and Colombia’) Mūsu Lietuva (Our Lithuania), São Paulo, Brazil, 2 December, p 6, https://www.spauda2.org/musu_lietuva/archive/1982/1982-nr47-MUSU-LIETUVA.pdf, accessed 18 November 2023.
Matuzas, K (1983) ‘Kaip Gyvena ir Dirba Lietuviai Kolumbijoje’ ('How Lithuanians Live and Work in Colombia'), Vienybe (Unity), Brooklyn, New York, 15 June, p 7, https://spauda2.org/vienybe/archive/1983/1983-06-15-VIENYBE.pdf, accessed 18 November 2023.
Moteris (Woman), Lithuanian Women's Magazine (1966) 'Bogotas, Kolumbijoje, LMF Klubo Valdybos Narės' (Bogotá, Colombia, LMF Club Board Members), Toronto, Canada, 6 (54) p 18, https://www.spauda.org/moteris/archive/1966/1966-nr06-MOTERIS.pdf, accessed 18 December 2023.
Mūsu Lietuva (Our Lithuania) (1972) ‘Svečiai iš Kolumbijos’ (‘Guests from Colombia’), São Paolo, Brazil, 31 August, p 10, https://spauda2.org/musu_lietuva/archive/1972/1972-nr35-MUSU-LIETUVA.pdf, accessed 18 November 2023.
National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla]; STASIUKYNAS, Vytautas : Year of Birth - 1920 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 684, 1947 – 1956, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203905639, accessed 10 November 2023.
National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A12508, Department of Immigration, Central Office; 37/541, STASIUKYNAS Vytautas born 14 February 1920; nationality Lithuanian; travelled per GENERAL HEINTZELMAN arriving in Fremantle on 28 November 1947, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7272994, accessed 10 November 2023.
National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Victorian Branch; B78, Alien registration documents; LITHUANIAN/STASIUKYNAS VYTAUTAS, STASIUKYNAS Vytautas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947 Departed Commonwealth on 19 March 1950, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5926058, accessed 10 November 2023.
Peciulis, J (1950) ‘Iš Viktorijos — Laimēs pēdomis Kolumbijon…’ (From Victoria — Finding Happiness in Colombia) Mūsu Pastogė (Our Haven), Sydney, NSW, 14 June, p 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article259362958, accessed 9 November 2023.
Rociūnas, V (1971) ‘Čiurlioniečiai P. Amerikoje’ (‘Ciurlionis in S America’ — Ciurlionis was a music ensemble formed in Vilnius in 1940 but based in Cleveland, Ohio, in exile until it disbanded in 1992) Draugas (Friend), the Lithuanian World-Wide Daily, Chicago, Illinois, 23 August, p 2, https://www.draugas.org/archive/1971_reg/1971-08-23-DRAU GAS-i7-8.pdf, accessed 18 November 2023.
Stasiukynas, V (1981) ‘Vienybėje Pagamintas Leidinys Argentinoje Susilaukė Medalio’ (‘A Publication Produced by Unity Received a Medal in Argentina’), Vienybe (Unity), Brooklyn, New York, 13 February, p 5, https://spauda2.org/vienybe/archive/1981/1981-02-13-VIENYBE.pdf, accessed 18 November 2023.
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Wikipedia (2023) ‘La Violencia’, last edited 17 September, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Violencia, accessed 24 November 2023.
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Žukauskienė, Deimantė (2020) ‘Kolumbijos lietuviai tiki, kad lietuviškumas bendruomenėje atgims’ (‘Lithuanians in Colombia believe that Lithuanianness will be revived in the community’), 8 August, Pasaulio Lietuvis (World Lithuanian), https://pasauliolietuvis.lt/kolumbijos-lietuviai-tiki-kad-lietuviskumas-bendruomeneje-atgims/, viewed 9 November 2023.
