DescriptionThis interview consists of one video recording. June Ishtar Jako was interviewed on 25 June 2019 at Studio 2166 in the Whitlam Library, Cabramatta by Alinde Bierhuizen.Interview SummaryJune left her hometown of Baghdad in 1981 to travel to France and reunite with her fiancé who had left the country after the start of the Iran-Iraq War. The war between the two bordering countries, battling over dominance in the region, lasted from 1980 until 1988.
Despite the war, June says she had a good life in Baghdad when she decided to leave university to be with her fiancé: ‘It is like a dream now... I remember I was overwhelmed, but I was happy to go and start a new life.’ Before she left she put together this photo album with pictures of her family and friends. She cherishes the images and memories of her childhood.
In 1984, the couple found out they could not stay in France permanently and decided to migrate to Australia. They, like many other Assyrians, settled in Fairfield. This was no coincidence; in the 1960s a small number of Assyrian families who had migrated to Sydney collectively decided to settle in Fairfield and establish their community. They formed the Assyrian Australian Association and encouraged other Assyrians to escape persecution and war in the Middle East and move to Fairfield. Over the next twenty years the community grew rapidly and Fairfield City now has the largest population of Assyrians in Australia.
June remembers what she thought when she first arrived: ‘We got to central Fairfield and I saw all these shops back then which to me looked like the Wild West. I said to my husband: ‘We came to the Cowboy Town!’ However, it did not take long for June to feel at home in Fairfield, especially when her sister and later the rest of her family migrated here too.Date25/06/2019IntervieweeJune Ishtar JakoInterviewerAlinde BierhuizenDuration00:07:58Transcripts availableNoRightsFairfield City CouncilAccess conditionsAccess open for research, written permission required for personal copies and public useNotesThis interview forms part of the exhibition 'Treasures from Home' which was on display at Fairfield City Museum & Gallery from 24 August 2019 to 15 February 2020.
June Ishtar Jako Oral History (25/06/2019). Fairfield City Heritage Collection, accessed 15/01/2026, https://heritagecollection.fairfieldcity.nsw.gov.au/nodes/view/894
