The Moreland Quilt was a community arts and storytelling project curated by Tamara Russell, a textile artist specialising in free machine embroidery and hand stitching.
The panels in the quilt record local stories, culture and history though imagery, colour and fabric.
I came here from Morocco when I was very young. We were very poor there and ate lots of pulses. It was so lovely to come to Australia and eat meat. When we first came to Australia there were not many Muslims. We settled in Coburg and were able to worship with other Muslim people.
I met my husband – he is now dead – here. We had 3 children, a girl and two boys. They all live nearby and have families of their own now. I have made lots of friends here both Muslim and Christian. I love to cook for everyone.
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I go to school at East Brunswick Primary School. I like my teacher and we do lots of good things there. We live near CERES and Merri Creek. I love CERES we go there all the time and have hot chocolate. Sometimes we help to pick up rubbish at the creek. It is not good that people leave so much rubbish about.
We are starting a garden at home. Mum and Dad built beds out of old pallets and we are growing things. This summer we had tomatoes, beans, eggplant, cucumber and red peppers. They taste better when you grow them yourself. We have put in silver beet for winter.
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I come to Oxygen after school. I like it here as they have food to cook and I can hang out with my friends. I’m supposed to do my homework but don’t always! We can play games which is much more fun.
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We have the best shop in Australia in Brunswick (Mediterranean Wholesaler). I can buy all my pasta and cheese and bread there and make proper Italian food. We could never move away or how would I cook? I can buy so many of the things from there that I used to buy in Italy before we moved to Australia. I love Melbourne but I do miss Italy sometimes. We have only been back a few times in the past 56 years. We don’t really know anyone there anymore. Our children are all very Australian, they were all born here so don’t know anywhere else. I made sure they all spoke Italian as my English is not so very good. My grandchildren should be learning too but aren’t really. Such a shame.
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When we were young we painted the house and put in a lovely new kitchen back in the 1970’s. We planted a garden to grow herbs and vegetables. My husband would grow everything from seeds and always had things at all stages so we always had fresh food from the garden. Since my husband passed away I have not grown quite so much. We have a lovely lemon tree and a fig tree.