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What’s one memory in your life you hope you never forget?
‘Leaving my abusive relationship.’

How have you felt since?
‘I’m free and a survivor!’

What was the hardest part about leaving?
‘Fear of being violated by him and fear for my life. I’m safe now.’

What advice would you give to other people that are in the same position?
‘Leave. Don’t take it. Be strong.’

 

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‘We met at a hoop class about a year ago and have been coming to the park to practice our moves and learn a few new ones. I’m now going to help her with the Sunday Streets project.’

‘Sunday Streets is a little plan that some colleagues and I are hatching to close down parts of Enmore Road to recreation on a Sunday morning every couple of months. I’ve asked her if she’d like to be involved and maybe run a hoop workshop.

‘The biggest part of it is about transforming the roads that are usually for cars and making sure that it’s a community space for a while we’re people can come out and meet each other and transform the space. It’s got so many benefits – health, environmental, economic and for the community. The businesses do really well out of it too. It gets people out on the streets alfresco shopping.

‘It’s something that happens in 100 capital cities around the world including Chicago, New York, Cape Town and Jakarta. Los Angeles closes off 25km of roads every couple of months. It’s an international movement but it’s not happening in Australia yet.

‘We plan to connect up some existing cycle routes so cyclists can get a good ride in with activity stations along the way. So it’s very safe for families as well as rollerbladers and skateboarders.

‘The plan is to bring people together from different communities and interest groups. It’s about celebrating diversity and subcultures.’

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‘I want to go to England and open a gallery in London with the world’s largest painting. It’s a magical portal between the worlds with a very magical subject.’

How big is the painting?

‘About six storeys. We’ll paint it on canvas in Dublin and offer it to the English as a peace offering. I can’t say right now which building we plan to put it on but it’s an old power station. …

‘We’re going to bring some of Princess Diana’s energy back to a world that needs it.

‘The whole ethos behind the gallery is to take art away from the elitist club and to celebrate and promote art of ordinary people. Such as exhibitions of portraits painted with materials of canvas provided by the gallery to the disabled, the homeless, elderly, people with terminal illness – anyone you can think of who Diana supported during her time here.

“’he idea is to bring art to the public through the people who popular culture likes to sweep under the rug and pretend that they’re not there. The gallery is more about infusing our culture with a sense of self-worth based upon what we can create within ourselves as an individual but also as a collective.

‘It will be called the Princess of Whales Gallery (as in dolphins and whales). If Sea Shepherd or anyone else wants to come along and offer their support and be supported in return then they’re welcome to approach us.’

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‘I want to see a space that encourages people to learn from each other. These days everything is a money spinner around formalising education and getting qualifications but we’ve forgotten about just doing for the sake of and learning through doing. We want to get people talking again.

‘That’s what I did with my bikes. I learnt from my father in law who used to live in a village in Greece and he didn’t have access to tools so they used what they could get their hands on. And my next door neighbour is a retired mechanic so, through the act of doing, I learnt.

Do you think that an initiative like this fills a void where traditionally it would have been passed down from generation to generation?

I think that’s a really interesting way to look at it that we need to create these community opportunities that previously organically created themselves.

So far we have about 170-180 members. Interest keeps growing before we’ve even opened the doors of the workshop. There are a lot of people owning motorcycles now. Deus Ex Machina has done a great job over the last ten years to raise the profile of the customised motorcycle making it accessible to everyone.

We have a few female members but not enough. We definitely want to raise the profile of women motorcyclists as well because they’re just as capable and as confident on the tools as they are behind bars out on the road.

Our challenge though with Council is that in the old model, businesses have their own zones. We’re a hybrid business so we’re not just the one thing. We’re using both the ramen bar/café and workshop to feed each other. There isn’t a box for Council to tick for us.

If you read what the LEP environmental concerns are, they just don’t exist for us. We’re not disposing huge quantities of oil. We’re not parking bikes or cars out on the street. We’re not painting. We’re not emitting fumes. We’re not running our bikes. We’re not doing any of those things. It’s the same as what somebody would be doing in their own garage at home.’

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‘Unfortunately there is a lack of respect for this kind of art in Australia compared to other countries in the world. I’ve been doing this for 25 years now and if I’d been doing it overseas – somewhere like in Europe – I’d probably be famous by now.’

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‘I miss the openness of people in Ecuador – the warmth. They have less money but they have big hearts and big souls and are ready to take you in at any moment. Here it’s a bit colder. This is why I lived in Newtown for so long because it kind of reminded me of that open attitude that South America has.’

What advice would you give Australians about how to improve their lifestyle based on life in Ecuador?

‘Know your neighbour and look at people in the eyes. Give people real hugs. Feel them – don’t just do it because it’s a social courtesy to do it. And just relax a little bit. Stop thinking so much about money and travel as much as you can.’

Do you know your neighbours?

‘I try to but they won’t even look at me in the eyes so I can’t! They won’t even look at me so it’s really hard to even crack a smile.

‘If you just smile at one person they might be having a crappy day and might not smile back. You might feel a little bit sensitive about it but they feel the warmth and they’re probably more likely to smile at the next person they meet. It’s about making a difference in the world step by step. You don’t have to do huge amazing things.’