$20.00
By the students of Carlton Primary School
Emily just moved to Australia, a little nervous. She finds someone who knows her language—Turkish. Kids are eating a variety of foods. She hears ‘Golden.’ She sees kids dancing and wants to join, they end up saying yes but on a trial basis. Will she get in the group?
Published 2025
ISBN: 978-1-7641650-9-9
This project was made possible through the generous support of the University of Melbourne and the David Nunan Philanthropic Fund.
Our Place, Your Place, Benim Place, Uri Place
My Place, Our Place/Benim Place, Uri Place was written and illustrated by students at Carlton Primary School. The title—which features English, Turkish, and Korean—reflects the way language showed up in the book-making workshops. The young authors utilised their languages from home, languages they learnt at school, and languages they learnt through popular media. The resulting narrative features English, Korean, Turkish, Somali, Arabic, Portuguese, Polish, and Amharic!
Seven book-making workshops were facilitated by Ethiopian-Norwegian artist Olana Janfa, and Somali poet Idil Ali along with University of Melbourne researchers Julie Choi and Rafaela Cleeve-Gerkens. As a result, My Place, Our Place/Benim Place, Uri Place is a colourful combination of pastels, poetry, and collage, perfect for primary school kids, K-Pop fans, and anyone who’s struggled to belong.
At the book launch, I watched a young girl flip through the pages, pointing out all of her illustrations that were in the book to her mother. She was just so proud of herself, and her mother was clearly joyfully surprised that her daughter’s work had actually been published. She said that the book was beautiful, and I certainly agree! But it’s the moments that come out of these book-making projects, between parents and their children, that are even more
beautiful.
Sadia—Intern
