Daniel | Ellerslie
“I was thinking about the people. So first of all, I was shocked.
I had seen the footage and I had seen the manifesto, and working in this sort of social space that I do, I was, I was horrified but not shocked, I think is the right word, is the right way of putting it. I immediately sent an email to people I know down there, to try and just check if they were okay. I contacted a refugee group down there, and see if they were doing okay, and how they’re holding up. So, that was my initial reaction. After that of course, many things happened, right?
Well haven’t prepared anything, right? So, I would say that we’re here. We’re here. We’re standing with you. We understand the things that you’re going through. As a migrant, as a person who’s experienced the issues in our system here today, we understand. We’re here for you. That’s what I can say at this point.
It’s kind of a tough one. In my line of work, I’m already crossing a number of boundaries between you know, different social and ethnic groups. I’m already quite involved with that. I guess the things that we’d be doing differently is involving more people, you know, gaining awareness of ourselves together I guess, and noting our differences as well, understanding our differences and where they come from, but also crafting a way of moving forward together. So that’s probably, that’s probably I’d say the effort, the main effort.
I was born in Hong Kong, and I immigrated here when I was seven, and I currently work in the social regeneration space. So a play space, initiatives around helping those in less opportunistic and less favourable situations to thrive within the community. So that’s my core job. My background is in engineering and social sciences, so, it’s somewhat different I guess in some aspects.”
