Stories
My husband and I both came to Australia as teenagers and we joke about how the only time we feel like we belong somewhere is when we fly over an ocean, because although we belong in two worlds – Zimbabwe and Australia, we also feel we don’t belong to either. My last visit to Zimbabwe,
When I was 7 years old, we had to leave Bhutan because the government kicked out all the people of Nepalese origin. But in Nepal we were not considered citizens either so we had to live in a refugee camp. I lived there for 20 years. It was a very hard life. Nothing was good.
One day, when I was 8 years old, we heard gunshots down the street, which meant that soldiers were killing innocent civilians. Dad rushed in and said, ‘We need to leave right now’ and my parents ran around grabbing food and whatever they could lay their hands on. Of course I didn’t understand what was
In Punjab, it was normal for girls to be married at 18, but I wasn’t ready for it. One day, I came home from college at noon, and by 5 o’clock the same day I was married. That was a huge shock for me. I don’t know why my parents gave me away. It was
My husband and I moved here from Nigeria for greener pastures. It was a massive decision for us, because our son was only 11 months old at that time. Also, although I am a lawyer, my qualifications weren’t immediately recognised here, so I had to repeat part of my undergraduate degree, and redo the entire
I was already a bit of a rebel in East Germany when I was young, but I became a bigger rebel later after the wall came down, and I went to study in Berlin. That’s where I met my ex-husband, an Australian musician in a band. I didn’t speak much English in those days and
When the war broke out, we stayed in Aleppo as we thought it was safe. But one day, suddenly bombing and terrorist attacks started to happen nearby where we lived. After that, we moved to Damascus, where we were in the worst situation ever as my father was called up to the military, which meant
My family is originally from Afghanistan, but when the Taliban took over, they started the genocide of the Hazara people there. Unfortunately, we are very easy to identify because we have distinctive facial features so it wasn’t safe for us to live there anymore. As a result, just before I was born, my family fled
I was born in a little Turkish town on the coast of the Black Sea but I took my first baby steps here in Australia, and grew up in Sunshine. Growing up was hard for me. Although I was surrounded by Greeks and Maltese and Italians and many other nationalities, ours was the only Turkish
I had a baby daughter in my 30s, but it didn’t work out with the dad so I suddenly found myself a single parent. Luckily, I had a lot of support. At that time, I was living at home with my younger sister, my mum and my aunt, so my daughter ended up having two