1995.
I don’t remember Fiji much. We migrated to Australia when I was 4. But I do remember where we first moved…
‘Where are you from bro?‘
In the nineties, in Dandenong, that question meant everything.
Where we were from brought us together. We were all here in a foreign country that we we’re trying to understand. No matter where we came from, we knew we all had the same mountains to climb.
Our parents came from nothing, they couldn’t really speak English and most of them were factory workers. They wanted to make a better life for us.
Sadly we were growing up during a heroin epidemic – many of my school friends suffered. Our teachers didn’t understand us and our families were poor.
Though we had many differences and and struggles, the one thing that brought us all together was food; every immigrant family in my community cooked often and shared what they made.
The weekends all together were amazing. My folk’s factory friends would come together to party, eat and drink. It united us, it broke down barriers, it was the best way to answer the question… ‘Where are you from?’
For me it’s a love language. It’s an honest moment. Taste where I’m from and you will understand my life.