Spying from the upstairs bedroom window, we watched as the axe came down, sharp and swift, taking off the chicken's head.
Being children in Cabramatta in the early 1990s, my older sister Jay and I were familiar with the neighbourhood backyards in our little cul-de-sac, filled with chickens and thriving vegetable patches.
We would play in and out of many of the homes, enjoying life in our diverse neighbourhood, and most of my memories of that time centre around food, either eating it or watching it be processed. I can still recall the sweetness of fresh corn, cooked in the rice cooker on a neighbour's kitchen bench, and the warmth of cheese and bacon rolls from the local French bakery, eaten on our way to school.
Years later, the opportunity to move out of public housing brought our family away from Cabramatta, to the region of Lake Macquarie. It was quieter there, I missed the rich and diverse sounds, smells and sights of Cabramatta, the range of food that surrounded us, and being close to the extended family we had grown up with. My new school was tiny, and the lead levels in the area from the local smelter were so high we were required to undertake annual blood tests at school.
We eventually adapted, as children do, and as I made friends and began to spend time in their homes, I realised that while ethnic diversity was less visible in our new town, each of the homes was still incredibly different to the others. Family structures, privilege, conflict resolution (or lack thereof), parenting styles and values all varied greatly within each home.
While we now lived in a less ethnically diverse region, our working-class, Indigenous Australian family grew increasingly diverse as time went on. I was 12 when my older sister Jay began to express an interest in Islam.
The closest our parents came to religion was worshiping at the altar of the National Rugby League, where the South Sydney Rabbitohs of course reign supreme. My parents supported our right to individual expression though, and my sister embracing faith was no different, so that Christmas it was decided that to be more inclusive of Jay and her faith, the leg of ham would be taken off of the lunch menu.
"I had feared loss, but our family becoming increasingly diverse has been a journey of gain."
I remember initially raging against this decision, despite the fact that I hated ham, and never