As a child, I witnessed all the chaos that came with the war in Iraq – civil unrest, people going missing, people dying. Also, as Christian Assyrians, we experienced religious persecution, where the militia would come to your door and tell you either to convert,...
(1/2) In 1974, I came straight from Mexico City – one of the biggest metropolis in the world – to literally the back of Bourke! At my interview with the Australian embassy, the Consul asked me where I was going, and I said, ‘Oh, Bourke.’ I remember he stopped writing,...
(2/2) Over time, we became really good friends, but he was so consumed with work that I thought that nothing was ever going to happen. So after a year, I decided to go to uni. The week I got accepted, I told him, ‘I'm going to Mitchell College in Bathurst.’ But...
We had expectations of Canberra being a pretty city by a lake, but when we were taken to Civic in the centre of town, there was nothing much there, and we all said, ‘Where is Canberra?’ I was one of 150 German carpenters and joiners chosen to come out to Australia to...
One day, when I was 12 years old, I had just finished making lunch when suddenly we heard bombs falling in our suburb. Outside, we saw houses being destroyed around us and people being killed so everyone just started running. I lost my family in the chaos, but I ran...
