My family came from India when I was three, and settled in Niddrie in Melbourne, where we were the first Asians on our street. But we were soon welcomed by our neighbour, Max, and his wife, Pat. Max loved to talk to Dad over the fence. Apparently, he thought it was...

I spent the first 20 years of my life in a refugee camp in Sudan. My parents are from Eritrea, but had to flee before I was born. Although my father was in the army, he was also a politician, and after he expressed political views that were different to the...

My husband and I are from Delhi. But we chose to come to Wagga Wagga to do our PhDs, as we thought it would be a good place to raise our two-year-old daughter. At first, I felt homesick and experienced a little culture shock – everything was so quiet! But I soon...

I was in prison for 17 years, 6 months and 16 days. At university, I started reading underground communist propaganda, which was dangerous. At that time in Burma, there was a one-party military dictatorship, and if you were caught with a communist paper, it was a 10...

When the 1993 civil war went through Burundi, my father was in Geneva studying Environmental Studies on a workplace scholarship. At that time, the soldiers were targeting educated men and they came to our house one evening to find my father. When they couldn’t find...

I was always a rebel. I always believed in myself, and wanted the best. If someone told me I couldn’t do it, I questioned why not? I have the same two hands, two legs, two eyes, the same 24 hours in one day. So even though we weren’t well off, I decided I wanted to...