Bendigo Writers Festival, Victoria

After being spellbound by a Conversation with Richard Fidler on ABC radio we were influenced to venture again to Bendigo and to the Bendigo Writers' Festival. Lemn Sissay is a remarkable person who experienced an incredible childhood. Born in the UK in the late 1960's to a young Ethiopian woman who was raped by her escort whilst relocating to the UK to further her education, Lemn was placed in foster care and has gone on to write incredible poetry, exposing horrific conditions living as a 'child of the state'.

We spent about an hour and a half in an intimate setting with Lemn Sissay who delivered a moving sermon, detailing his story, in a room within the Ulumbarra Theatre. The theatre precinct has given a second life to the former Bendigo (Sandhurst) Gaol. The layout of the Gaol is very close in aesthetic to that of the Geelong Gaol, both being built in the 1860's in a crucifix form. It was the intention of Lemn's mother for him to remain in foster care for a few years whilst she completed her studies, she would then return to Ethiopia with Lemn. Ethiopia during this time was affluent and economically viable. Unfortunately however an evil social worker renamed Lemn, "Norman" and gave him to a Christian family by the name of Greenwood, under the provision it was a 'permanent adoption.' Lemn Sissay grew up believing his name was Norman Greenwood. It was not until he was discharged by the state as a young adult that an empathetic social worker gave him his birth certificate. There on the certificate was the name, Lemn Sissay. Lemn's mother returned to Ethiopia without Lemn as she was unable to locate him and was told by the evil social worker that he was doing well with the new family. Lemn wasn't doing well with this new family, as their own family grew they began to look for reasons to remove Lemn from their family and when he was 12 years old was taken from the Greenwood family, the only family he had ever known and placed into state facilities. He was effectively made to feel like a nobody, with no family and nobody to love, but he wasn't a nobody, he was Lemn Sissay. 

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We visited the Bendigo Art Gallery viewing the fascinating exhibition by Myuran Sukumaran called 'Another Day in Paradise'. Myuran a member of what the media dubbed, the 'Bail Nine' was executed in 2015 in Indonesia after being found guilty of drug trafficking. We ate dinner at the Rifle Brigade Hotel and jogged through Rosalind Park early the next morning wearing gloves and beanies in sub zero temperatures.