Izzy is 23 years old and lives in Carlton in Melbourne’s inner north. After growing up in seven different cities around the world, Melbourne is the place where she feels most at home. Izzy loves the city but, most of all, she loves her friends – they’re what really represents home to her.

Margot is a 25 year old actor, writer and multi-disciplinary artist. She lives with her family in an ex-display home in Dandenong in Melbourne’s suburbs. A spirit lives in the tree in her front yard, and she’s looking forward to a time when she can return to her other homes in the city – theatres, cafes, rehearsal rooms and shops.

Kate Fielding is a cultural strategist who is also Program Director of A New Approach, an independent think-tank championing effective investment and return in Australian arts and culture. Kate co-wrote Transformative: Impacts of Culture and Creativity, the organisation’s recent report on the powerful impact arts and culture can have on health and wellbeing.

At QVWC we also believe that arts and culture can be a tool for social cohesion, health, and happiness – we spoke to Kate about her work ahead of Women’s Health Week.

Sarah is a 20-year-old Melburnian whose relationship to home has solidified during the pandemic. No longer moving between the houses of her mother and father, home is now located in one place which, despite the chaos of the world around her, provides a sense of peace and calm.

Evangeline is a Melbourne-based artist who lives in an apartment with her parents and her blue heeler, Foosher. She’s longing for a time when visits to an art gallery and days at the beach with friends are back on the cards, and maybe a time when she and Foosher can live out of the city and in nature.

Niamh is a seventeen year-old School Strike 4 Climate activist living in Dja Dja Wurrung country, Castlemaine. While lockdown has given her time to read and to walk in the bush, she misses the community connection and sense of empowerment provided by her passion – collective protest and political activism.

Amarachi is a Nigerian born actress and spoken word poet. Having lived in Nigeria, New Zealand and now Melbourne, for Amarachi home isn’t one single country or location. Rather, home represents a process of becoming – a place of growth centred around the people she loves.

Rana Hussain is writer, broadcaster with the Outer Sanctum podcast and a diversity and inclusion specialist. She’s also a footy fan who has worked most recently with Richmond on connecting them with their diverse community.

Maddison Connaughton is the editor of The Saturday Paper, a leading independent weekly newspaper dedicated to narrative journalism. Throughout her career she’s broken major stories, including traveling to the Syrian refugee camps to interview teenagers and young people impacted by the civil war.

Marianne is an Alphington local who considers home to be a state of mind, a place that moves with you – from a summer house in The Netherlands to an apartment overlooking the Seine, and even a Catholic boarding school! It’s with you wherever you go and can always been found if you look hard enough.

Indira, 72, from Melbourne, discusses the challenges of moving to Melbourne 40 years ago, far away from her Indian home. Over the years, however, Indira has discovered that so much of what she thought of as home – Indian music, culture, dance, food, and community – has followed her here.

Katie Sfetkidis is a multi-talented contemporary artist and lighting designer. Her art is politically charged and doesn’t simply imitate life but makes it happen, as her run for Lord Mayor of Melbourne reveals. Katie has also recently been appointed Ambassador for the Queen Victoria Women’s Centre.

Lella left the rubble of post-war Italy to a home beside Melbourne’s bubbling Darebin Creek, and discusses what really makes a house a casa.

Nazli has travelled from Sri Lanka, to India, to New York and Adelaide, and now calls a Melbourne filled with children and grandchildren home.

Aunty Zeta is a 74 year old Aboriginal elder who is Wurundjeri through her father and Yorta Yorta through her mother; she lives on Wurundjeri land.

Ally Watson is the Scottish-born, Melbourne based CEO of Code Like a Girl – a social enterprise that empowers and supports girls to enter and flourish in the world of tech.

Lesley is a 73-year old Melburnian by way of Canberra and Colombo, who discusses how friendship, a good book (or two) and chillies all make her feel at home.

Annika Kristensen is a leader in Australia’s contemporary art scene. As the Senior Curator at ACCA (Australian Centre for Contemporary Art) she works with some of the field’s best and brightest artistic talents.

Created for a time when we’re all spending much more of it at home, Home Truths is an interview and illustration project that explores the meaning of ‘home’ from the perspective of eight different women over 70.