Hello there poppets! / L Plate Mama

I listen to Radio Melbourne, I've never rung in but my other half says if I did I'd be "Angry of Aspendale".  Usually I would say I'm not angry, I'm passionate. But at the moment I am angry, angry and disappointed, angry and sad. I feel the world we've been chipping away at has slipped away from us, so much further out of reach.  I was full of hope that the Australian public would recognise the wounds of our colonial past, would see the need for change, would heed the call made in the Statement from the Heart, and vote yes to a constitutional voice for our First Nations people.  I sat on the couch on that Saturday night, and wept for our lost opportunity, for First Nations people who had worked so hard and held such open hearts for reconciliation to have the door slammed in their face. For our Nation beholden to fear, to the status quo, to the deeply held and mostly unacknowledged discrimination and racism.  I wept, and my 10 year old held me, and I felt b...

The workers in Warpole Park unpacking a truck were speaking Italian, calling back and forth instructions. When people ask them where they are from, do they say the region of Italy, the town where their parents where born, christened and wed? What if their mum is from a region far from their dad's birthplace that whispers stories that are vastly different; of mountains and snow, rather than seaside? What if they've never been to these towns? What if it's only these stories? Are they still from Italy? Do they FEEL they are from Italy? Does it matter to them?  I've always been from at least two places. And I write about this more than anything else. Wales, England. Australia.  Tomorrow I fly home to Melbourne, from my home in London. From my Dad, step-mum and brothers to my husband, to my children.  What makes a home? Is it the knowing of a place in all its seasons? The calls of the birds and insects? The scurry of the mammals in the night. Is it the scent in the morning? ...

  When I was growing up I didn’t really understand the relevance of International Women’s Day. In my family, my brothers and I were encouraged to believe we could be anything we wanted to be. I didn’t see the structural inequities until later. Not so for my children, in the run up to IWD I was talking to my 9-year-old about the patriarchy, as you do. I told him the world was made for men, and he said “No it’s not”. I said “The Prime Minister is a man, the Premier is a man, most of the Premiers are men. We’ve had one woman PM – one. Most big bosses are men. Cars have been designed for me, air-conditioning has been designed for men. The world has been designed for men, and it is invisible – it’s called the patriarchy.” He said “That’s not fair.” And it isn’t – it isn’t fair. This year’s theme for International Women’s Day was Embracing Equity – equity meaning fairness and justice. We are still so far from equity, and the invisible cultural norms and societal structures still hold and...