When Ian Swart was invited to speak at his son’s Entrepreneurs Organisation chapter in 2023, he had no idea that sharing stories of his hippie days would spark a two-year journey into memoir writing.
Now, at 75, the Melbourne businessman has penned a remarkable account of how a Jewish boy from Elwood became Australia’s first retailer to import handmade rugs from India.
“They loved listening to my speech and thought that I had lived in a fascinating time and that my life journey was a story to be told,” Ian recalled to The AJN. “I started writing, kept writing and realised that I did have a story to tell.”
That story is Life’s Journey on a Magic Carpet.
Swart’s connection to Jewish life runs deep, shaped by both celebration and tragedy. His parents, who came from Dutch backgrounds, were fortunate to leave Europe before World War II – his mother arriving in Australia at 18 with her parents, while his father came alone at 29. They met and married in Melbourne at Temple Beth Israel, but the Holocaust cast a long shadow over the family.
“Sadly, my father lost his entire family in the Holocaust,” Ian shares, a loss that profoundly influenced his commitment to Jewish community life. “I have always been a proud member of the Jewish Community. I am not religious but feel strongly drawn to Jewish life and traditions.”
The memoir – which Swart described as “not a memoir in the traditional sense” – is written in two parts, chronicling a life that spans Melbourne’s Jewish suburbs to the remote villages of India.
Part One follows Ian’s hippie years in the late 1960s and early ’70s, his time at Monash University, and a transformative two-year overseas journey in 1974 that took him overland from Istanbul through Asia to Australia.
“Today you cannot travel overland through Asia like I did in the ’70s,” Ian reflects. “My experiences in India, especially in my early days of establishing contacts in the rug industry, are not possible due to the changes that have emanated.”
Part Two details Swart’s return to Australia and entry into the fashion industry, before a family tragedy redirected his path toward handmade rugs. This pivot drew him back to India, a country he’d fallen in love with during his overland travels, ultimately leading to the establishment of Hali Handmade Carpets in 1979.
The writing process proved unexpectedly cathartic. “The writing process has been wonderful, the most cathartic experience I have ever encountered. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine that I would write a book,” Ian admited. “For nearly two years I lived through this book. I went on several private so-called writers’ retreats where I would spend entire days sitting at my computer, remembering details of my overseas life and trying to place them chronologically.”
A treasure trove of aerograms he’d sent his parents during his two-year journey – carefully preserved by his mother and discovered after her passing – helped reconstruct the fascinating details of his travels.
“Most nights on my writing retreat I would wake up at about 2.30am and jot down memories that had come into my head and whilst noting them more and more would come to the surface,” he recalled.
What began as a family document quickly grew into something more ambitious. After writing 18,000 words, Swart shared the manuscript with family and friends, who were amazed by experiences they’d never known about.
“They were in awe of it, found it to be a fascinating story as they were unaware of the many experiences I had encountered throughout my life,” Swart explained. His loved ones encouraged him to keep writing.
An editor’s enthusiastic response convinced him the story had broader appeal.
“She felt that I had experienced an amazing journey through a very changing time in the world and that it ‘had legs’ possibly appealing to a wider audience,” Swart recalled
To Swart’s delight, the book’s reception has exceeded all expectations.
Since his book launch a couple of months ago, Swart has received numerous messages from people who have thoroughly enjoyed reading the book and learning things they never knew. As Swart writes in the preface,
“This memoir is about my other life. The one my family and friends do not really know about or have only heard fragments.”
“The best feeling for me has been receiving positive feedback from people that don’t know me,” he said.
Now semi-retired and happily married to wife Gina, Ian takes pride in his four adult children and seven grandchildren. His son Dan has taken over as managing director of Hali Handmade Carpets, continuing the business his father built after those pivotal experiences on the hippie trail.
The memoir captures what Ian describes as “two sliding door moments” that paved the way for his business success – moments readers will have to discover for themselves within the pages of his remarkable journey from the Jewish suburbs of Melbourne to the rug-weaving villages of India.
Life’s Journey on a Magic Carpet is published by Busybird Publishing.
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