from the war, so she feels like she’s in an enclave... She does, and it’s only once she reaches years 11 and 12 that she starts to question it, she sees racism out there in society, she sees stereotypes – stereotypes are a very big thing for her: the fact that in her own community people are stereotyping others, and other people in the wider world are stereotyping her own community
really bothered by growing up in south-western Sydney. You turned it into a Master’s thesis, didn’t you?
I did.
Looking at the way in which gang culture was portrayed in the Australian media...
Yes, I looked at moral panics, and the moral panic And what are those stereotypes? The big one is that Lebanese are criminals – she’s really bothered about that, and that’s where I drew a lot of inspiration because that’s something that I was Her story, and your life to a great extent, is set against the backdrop of the Cronulla riots... What created around the Middle Eastern communities, for my Masters dissertation.