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Ivana | Balkan Sis Podcast

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Healing•Identity•Belonging
🌏 Bridging stories, cultures & generations
🎙 Host @ivanastrbacalfonso
🤍 Community•Events•Coaching
👇 Pour a kava. Join us.

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📖✨ A little update from At Baba and Dido’s House…

What started as a story scribbled down from memories of my childhood village in Bosnia and Herzegovina is slowly becoming a real book.

This journey has been far bigger than writing words on a page. It’s been a chance to revisit family stories, old photographs, traditions, food, laughter, and the people who shaped me.

For anyone who grew up between cultures, languages, countries, or generations, I hope this book feels like coming home.

A story about family, belonging, identity, and the special bond between grandparents and grandchildren.

Thank you to everyone who has encouraged me, shared memories, offered feedback, and followed along behind the scenes. Your support means more than you know.

I still have a few finishing touches to complete, but we’re getting closer every day.

✨ A multilingual children’s book in Croatian and English.
✨ Inspired by real memories.
✨ Created with love.

Coming soon.

With love,

Ivana 🤍

#AtBabaAndDidosHouse #ChildrensBook #CroatianAustralian #BosnianCroat #DiasporaStories MultilingualBooks CroatianLanguage BooksForChildren FamilyStories Storytelling AuthorLife ComingSoon BalkanRoots CroatianDiaspora BosniaAndHerzegovina AustralianAuthor taken in Gold Coast, Queensland by @balkansispodcast

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PART TWO with Verone Percuku is LIVE 🎙️💭

“We’ll talk about our dreams… but never our feelings.”

And if you grew up Balkan, you already know how much truth sits inside that sentence. 😅

In Part Two, Verone and I go deeper into her research on the psychological and cultural dimensions of dreams in the Balkans and what our dreams may reveal about the environments, experiences and cultures that shape us.

We talk about her thesis, her Kosovo-based research, and some of the themes that emerged around control, helplessness and social disorder. We also unpack why research like this needs nuance, especially when working with a smaller sample, and why we should be careful not to make sweeping conclusions about an entire region.

But this conversation goes beyond dreams.

We get into sleep hygiene, psychology, mental health, generational attitudes and therapy — including that very Balkan tendency to tell everyone about the dream you had last night while keeping your actual feelings locked away. 😂

Why are so many of us comfortable discussing dreams, signs and meanings, but still uncomfortable saying, “I need help”?

And are those attitudes beginning to change with our generation?

This was such an interesting conversation about the intersection of culture, psychology, identity and the subconscious — and exactly the kind of conversation I love bringing to Balkan Sis.

🎧 Part Two with Verone Percuku is out now.

Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and wherever you get your podcasts.

Pull up a chair. Pour a kava. Join us. ☕️

#BalkanSis #BalkanDiaspora #BalkanCulture @verone.percuku by @balkansispodcast

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How to show up when you’ve been invited to share your story 🎙️✨

Dress up. Wear something you feel GOOD in.
Hype yourself up. Play the music loud.
Receive the love from your family and the people who remind you who you are.

And when you’re showing up somewhere new for the first time, never arrive empty-handed. We were raised like that, od malih nogu. ❤️

And apparently, bring a shot of rakija to start the interview too. 😂🥃

Bring your energy. Bring your good vibes. But most importantly, bring yourself.

Don’t be afraid to tell your story.

The messy parts. The beautiful parts. The parts you once thought you had to hide.

Being raw, open and honest is your superpower.

Then actually soak it all in. Look around. Take the photos. Hug the people. Go out for dinner afterwards. Pop the champagne. 🍾 Celebrate yourself.

And give yourself that little pat on the back because the younger version of you would be so proud of where you are today.

This day also reminded me how much more alike we are than different. I don’t have an ounce of Latina in me, but Laura… I’m still convinced you could be Balkan. We could definitely pass as cousins. 🤣❤️

And a little appreciation for all the creatives putting themselves and their work out into the world — authors, podcasters, filmmakers, photographers, artists and content creators.

It takes guts to create something.

It takes even more courage to put your name, face, voice and story behind it and say, this is mine.

So keep creating. Keep sharing. Keep showing up.

Thank you Laura for inviting me to share my story on Salto al Vacío. 🎙️

Živjeli. 🥂❤️ @rollingstudio.au @lauracontentcreator taken in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia by @balkansispodcast

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One thing I’ll always be passionate about is supporting women, families and small businesses in our community. ❤️

Balkan Sis is about more than sharing stories. It’s about connection, community and backing the people who are putting their heart into creating something of their own.

So I’m very proud to support Juliana Stojanovska and her Sydney-based family business, Nature Knead 🥖✨

There’s something special about seeing a woman build a business around family, tradition, food and something made by hand. These are the businesses I want to see thrive, and the ones we can all help grow simply by sharing, following, ordering and spreading the word.

Sydney friends, go show Juliana some Balkan Sis love and reach out to her over on @natureknead. ❤️

And apparently I’m FINALLY getting to try some of her famous TV bread when I’m in Sydney this October…

OPA! 😂🥖🙌🏼

#BalkanSis #NatureKnead #SupportSmallBusiness @natureknead taken in Sydney by @balkansispodcast

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Sarma at mama’s.

This is why I’m writing At Baba & Dido’s House. A book so my kids know this feeling even if we’re not living it every day. Some love just gets cooked, not spoken.

What’s yours?

#AtBabaAndDidosHouse #diaspora #generations #foodislove taken in Gold Coast, Queensland by @balkansispodcast

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part 1 is now LIVE 🤍
“i dreamt a war i never lived”
this week i sat down with verone percuku, a clinical and community psychology graduate from the university of prishtina, born in kosovo just after the war ended. she used to dream about soldiers fighting in her backyard, a war she has no memory of actually living through
we talk about what it means to inherit emotion without inheriting memory, what it was actually like growing up in post-war kosovo, and why in our culture the only dreams anyone feels safe sharing are about death or teeth falling out, never the beautiful ones
this one made me think so differently about what we carry without even realising it
have you ever had a dream about something you never actually lived through? drop it in the comments, i wanna hear them 👇
part 2 drops soon, going even deeper into the research and the science of dreaming itself
listen now, link in bio 🕯️
love, ivana
#balkansis #kosovo #diaspora #dreams #mentalhealth balkanwomen
@verone.percuku by @balkansispodcast

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🎙️ This is one of the most personal conversations I’ve shared.

From my childhood in Bosnia, to war and displacement, becoming a refugee in Germany, and eventually rebuilding a life on the other side of the world in Australia.

We talk about the parts in between too.

Adolescence. Identity. Belonging. Loss. Reinvention. The downfalls and the transformations. Growing up between cultures and learning to become a chameleon depending on which world I was standing in.

What it means to be a third culture kid who spends years trying to figure out where she fits.

And now, raising my own children between worlds and asking myself: What do I preserve? What do I pass on? And how do I give them roots while also giving them the freedom to become who they are?

We also talk about what happens when you take everything you’ve lived through and create something outside of yourself. A podcast. A community. A book. A body of work. Something that turns lived experience into meaning and hopefully makes someone else feel less alone.

I’m incredibly grateful to Drita for creating such a safe space for me to share this story on Realno.

After having Drita on Balkan Sis to share her extraordinary story, it feels incredibly special to now cross over and sit on the other side of the microphone with her. ❤️

Drita is a seasoned journalist with decades of experience, and you can feel that in the way she listens, asks questions and holds a conversation. It was a privilege to have her on Balkan Sis and an equal privilege to be a guest on her show.

This is an episode you don’t want to miss. There is so much in this one.

Please support Drita and Realno Podcast. Search “Realno sa Dritom Haziraj” on YouTube or head to the link in @realnopodcast’s bio.

And please keep supporting independent creatives, women and mothers building in the digital world. 🎙️❤️

We have stories to tell.
We have wisdom to share.
And this work matters.

I can’t wait to hear what resonates with you most. ✨

#RealnoPodcast #BalkanSis #ThirdCultureKid #RefugeeStories #BalkanDiaspora taken in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia by @balkansispodcast

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Thank you so much @dritadidahaziraj for having me on @realnopodcast it was a true honour and privilege to be asked to come on and speak on all things third culture kid growing up in Bosnia Germany and Australia going down memory lane is always emotional and enlightening at the same time I’m so glad there’s more then one me out there who understands these complex yet layered feelings of identity belonging and community. Proud to have you in my circle my village my tribe ! Find our talk wherever you get your podcasts from including for the visual on YouTube ! Can’t wait to share more 🥰 @ivanastrbacalfonso #diaspora #community #balkansisters taken in United States America by @balkansispodcast

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Ako si rodjen u jednoj zemlji, odrastao u drugoj, a zivot izgradio u trecoj – gdje je zapravo tvoj dom?

Ivana Strbac Alfonso je imigrantica, izbjeglica, Hrvatica, Bosanka, Australka, majka, poduzetnica i storytellerica.

U ovoj epizodi razgovaramo o tome sta rat ostavi u covjeku koji je bio dijete, kako izgleda odrastati izmedju razlicitih kultura i jezika i sta se dogadja kada se nakon mnogo godina vratis u mjesto koje si nekada zvao domom.

Pricamo i o majcinstvu, prenosenju balkanskog identiteta na djecu rodjenu u Australiji, njenom podcastu Balkan Sis, te o tome kako je nakon poslovnog kraha tokom pandemije pronasla novi put kroz poduzetnistvo.

#realnopodcast #balkansis #dijaspora #Bosna #Australija by @balkansispodcast

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Human Design meets quantum physics meets an actual Balkan sister blowing my mind for an hour.
This is exactly why I love doing this podcast getting to sit down with women from all over the diaspora doing things I didn’t even know were possible.

One of my favorite conversations was with Petra Bezic, a Human Design and Feng Shui expert, breaking down how this “system” is actually a blend of ancient wisdoms astrology, the I Ching, Kabbalah, the Hindu chakra system all comprising one unique energetic blueprint that maps you back to your true self and your purpose.

We are so much more than the wars we’ve survived. We are healers, teachers, founders, mystics building things our grandmothers never got the chance to. Every Balkan sister I bring on this show proves that a little more.
Episode’s live now — link in bio. 🎧
@petra_humandesign taken in Gold Coast, Queensland by @balkansispodcast

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