Miki Bratanić: A 30-year contribution to Croatian culture

by croatiaweek
October 26, 2023
in News

Miki Bratanić (Photo credit: Mladen Scerbe)

Miki Bratanić, Croatia Week contributor, celebrates 30 years of his professional and artistic work.

It was in 1993 when he got a job in one of the largest IT corporations in the world, which was the beginning of his professional work. Almost at the same time he wrote his first song, which is the beginning of his artistic creative work.

In couple of occasions during this year he shared this beautiful anniversary with his close friends and colleagues, along with many supporters who support him during his creative life.

In his thirty years of creativity, he wrote a total of 20 book titles and created the valuable project “Priča o konobi” (“Story of the konoba”) by which he became recognizable to the general public.

(Photo credit: Mladen Scerbe)

Bratanić published his first collection of poetry in 2000, which received a valuable review from the famous critic Anatoli Kudrjavcev. Other collections followed, and many good reviews written by well-known persons such as academicians Tonko Maroević, Zvonimir Mrkonjić, Tomislav Raukar, and everyone’s favorite Ljubo Stipišić Delmata, with whom Bratanić collaborated on several projects.

(Photo credit: Mladen Scerbe)

He was expressing his feelings thru many different forms from haiku to novel, from funny books for kids to serious history books, and in different languages/dialects from local from hos born place Vrbanj on island Hvar to standard Croatian language.

(Photo credit: Nikola Radovanić)

There is 8 books, poetry collections, in total he published so far.

His project “Priča o konobi” brought together respectable colleagues who supported him in the project, among them: academics Nenad Cambj, Tomislav Raukar and Jakša Fiamengo, then Joško Božanić, Silivo Braica, Joško Ćaleta, Veljko Barbieri, Rene Bakalović, Ivan Urlić, Neven Ljubičić, Joško Belamarić, Rade Bužančić, and Ljubo Stipišić Delmata, who set his song “U konobi moga dida” to music.

Academician Tomislav Raukar, whose grandfather was a cooper, wrote one of the best reviews for Bratanić’s book KONOBA.

(Photo credit: Mladen Scerbe)

There is 4 books in total published on konoba topic: KONOBA translated in English and Italian language, “Priča o konobi”, translated in English, “Priče iz konobe za djecu” educative dialogue for kids, and “Priče iz konobe za starije” collection of short stories.

He is performer and lyrics author for song “Konoba blues”, which was composed by Želimir Škarpona. Song is a part of his project “Priča o konobi” and have very strong messages about life values.

Miki Bratanić, among other activities, researched our recent history with an emphasis on the relations between Croatia and Yugoslavia. His focus was on the Yugoslav aggression and crimes against humanity, but specially against Croatia and Croatian people.

With his experience, he published a total of 4 books on these difficult topics: a collection of poetry and reflections “Ruzarij za Hrvatski križni put”, the novel “Korijeni”, the book “Otok u plamenu”, and the collection of articles “Priručnik za život u Hrvatskoj” and there followed the support of professional and public figures such as: Stjepan Šterc, Zlatko Miliša, Vlatka Vukelić, Mateo Bratanić, Tomislav Đonlić, Joško Bracanović, Tihomir Dujmović, Đura Vidmarović, Mladen Vuković, Josip Sinjeri and others.

Book covers

Sensing the value and richness of folk church singing, he decided to record the chants of his native Vrbanj, so together with the folk singers, he published a total of 4 sound carriers as a producer and publisher: “Obredi Velike sedmice i procesija Za križen”, “Kroz godine – Kroz godine” (double album ), and “Kralju kojemu sve živi”” which was nominated for the Porin discography award in the “Best Spiritual Music Album” category.

(Photo credit: Ognjen Karabegović)

He is the winner of the prestigious Marko Polo medal for achievements in the promotion of Croatia in tourism, which was awarded to him in the organization of the world international institution Fédération Internationale des Journalistes et Ecrivains du Tourisme for his long-term continuous contribution to the promotion and preservation of cultural heritage and traditional features of Croatian tourism through the project “The Story of the konoba”.

For his many years of continuous contribution to the promotion and preservation of cultural heritage through his author’s creativity and professional work, he was awarded the Personal Award of the City of Stari Grad.

(Photo credit: Ognjen Karabegović)

The international organization that operates under the UN – the Croatian World Congress (USA) awarded him recognition for his contribution to the connection between the expatriate and homeland Croatia.

Thru this way, Miki Bratanić thanks everyone who followed him on his creative journey, the media, institutions, his family, and most of all his loyal audience.