When I was only six months old, we fled Burma to Bangladesh because of the violence towards the Rohingyans, crossing the border through the jungles along with 280 000 other people. At first, we had to take shelter under a tree in the open sky. There were thousands and...
(3/3) When my dad was released from the detention centre to mainland Australia, he sent us this photo of himself in JB HiFi. He was always trying to keep us connected to his life, so he used to send us photos of really simple things. It has a message scrawled on the...
(2/3) My dad came here by boat in 1999 as an asylum seeker. He was detained on Christmas Island for a few months, but back then the policies were much better for people seeking asylum, so he was able to file for a Family Reunion visa four years later, and my mother,...
(1/3) I was six years old when the war broke out in Iraq, so my memories of events are very fragmented. I do remember being in an underground part of my grandparents’ house during what I now know were airstrikes. For a six-year old, not knowing what was really...
I met Rod ten years ago via one of the dating sites, when he was on a round the world tour. After the first time we met, he left his hostel in Manchester and came to stay with me for three days. Rod was so different from anyone else I’d ever met. Like most Aussies, he...
My marriage unraveled when I was seven months pregnant. I think I had a nervous breakdown at that time. It’s hard for someone to go through a betrayal, but for a pregnant woman, it’s devastating. That was the defining moment in my life which led me to who I am now,...
