being out of your home country changes you until you go back.
I felt a bit lost after being there – I thought, “Where do I belong?”
I realised I belong to a ‘third space’ between the two cultures,
where you can take advantage of both worlds.
I wish other people felt more secure about living in the third
space. It comes with a sense of belonging and being accepted
for who you are. It can be hard if you’re an Australian, but you’re
not seen as a ‘true’ Australian. But if you take that as a point
of weakness, your life will go down the drain and you will never
move past it. If I understand it from the perspective of being
different, I’m going to have a much greater impact. I wish more
people would see it as an opportunity to be proud of having a
different perspective to others. I’m writing a book about my
journey – about what it’s like to be in that third space. I’m hoping
it will be finished next year.
I left Tasmania a year ago. I felt like I had become a big fish in a
small pond, and I needed to be somewhere bigger. So far, so good.
Now I work in a multicultural services centre in Perth and run
my own consultancy business. I think it has been harder here for
my parents than it has been for me and my brothers. My parents
are doing it a bit tough, actually. They’re only approaching 60, but
it’s much harder for people of their age to adapt. I really want to
acknowledge them for what they have done for us by coming here.To make Australia more welcoming, we need to go back to the
start and show more respect to the Indigenous population.
Australia needs to have a more human approach to people
who come from other countries, especially those who come for
humanitarian reasons. I would love to live in a society that offers
a helping hand to the poor; a society that is able to reach out to
others. At the moment, Australia is doing the exact opposite. We
also need to play a bigger role in the Asia-Pacific region, and in
other regions of the world. In Asia-Pacific, it is unacceptable that a
powerhouse like Australia would turn a blind eye to neighbouring
countries where children don’t have water to drink.
Overall, we need to look at our government policies. Some things
have changed in a positive way, but we still have a way to go
compared to other countries like New Zealand and Canada. We
should be creating a society that accepts everyone – no matter
their sexual orientation, or disability, or race, or faith – and where
everyone feels safe. We need to embrace diversity – everybody
should feel at home in Australia.
To do this, our political leaders need to lead by example. We still have
politicians making extremely racist and unacceptable comments in
the public arena. There are some very conservative views expressed
that make me want to bury my head in my hands. But ultimately,
I have ended up loving this country, and I call it home.Photo
Thom Perry
pieces of me