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 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...
