January 26 is a day I anticipate in equal parts rage and thrill. The pre-emptive rage is for the immeasurable ill-informed hot takes that will be shared; regardless of platform, the perspective will be the same. Why can’t we all just get along? We are stronger together! This is a time for unity.

Susannah Day is a Martu woman, and her mob is from central WA. Her grandmother was a stolen generation woman, brought up just near Wiluna, and then taken to Sister Kate's orphanage in Queen's Park, Perth. Susannah grew up in Perth, and moved to Melbourne four years ago. She’s been the program manager at The Torch for just under two years.

Monica is a 16-year-old student living in Sunshine trying to get through VCE. Home is where she feels comfortable and surrounded by love. She has vivid memories of her childhood home and loves being content in moments of happiness with her friends.

Xinhui is a 20 year old arts student living in Melbourne. Home has at times had no fixed location having lived & travelled around the world from a young age. She’s looking forward to seeing her family again in Shanghai & planning her next adventures post Covid.

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.

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.