At primary school, I was always trying to fit in, but I stood out for a number of reasons, and was often teased. First, I was the only Greek kid in my mostly Anglo Australian class. Whenever my parents came to school, I was very embarrassed because they spoke Greek....
I came to Australia by boat when I was 9 years old. Our family had to leave Iraq when their lives were put in danger by Saddam Hussein for political reasons, and we heard that this was the only immediate option for us to get away. At that time, we’d never heard of...
When I was a child in El Salvador, there were often helicopters firing bullets from the sky. I remember sometimes my parents would make us get up in the middle of the night, crawl on the floor and put mattresses up against the walls. Then we had to try to sleep under...
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...
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...
