Sawsan Alfayadh is currently completing a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in History and Political and International Studies.

Growing up as a visibly Muslim woman in Melbourne, I was very conscious of being perceived as “different”. I always felt that my high school education was quite narrow, and I was only exposed to a very European history that focused a lot on wars and revolutions. When I came to the University of Melbourne, I deliberately chose subjects in both my History and Politics majors that challenged the narratives I have been exposed to and have felt alienated by, and it has been great to see how these narratives can be reinterpreted and reshaped to be more inclusive of different people.

I’ve discovered some really interesting aspects of Australia’s migrant history in my Bachelor of Arts. For instance, I knew from primary school history about the gold rush and the migration of Chinese merchants and labourers to Australia, but I always thought of them as living on the periphery of Australian society, in their own distinct communities. But in a subject called Migrant Nation, we looked at a pamphlet produced by Chinese-Melburnian merchants which was an assertion of Chinese people’s rights in Australia, and a scathing criticism of the White Australia Policy.

It was striking to me to see such an early example of resistance to racism in Australia and to see the participation of people of colour in the political process. It made me wonder not only about the stories we aren’t told, but the perspectives we don’t see on histories that we are taught time and time again. It made me relate to Australian society in a completely different way, and I finally felt like I, as a person of colour, was connected to a longer history in Australia. I am not a “new person” – I have been part of this society’s story for centuries.