S2 Ep 24 - The Art of Belonging

Australian Farmers: Telling Our Story

An epic quest to learn about her own origins has lead my guest today to pursue an intriguing career that combines art and agriculture. As a young Chinese-Indonesian refugee, whose family started a new life in the Northern Territory, Tisha Tejaya initially wanted to ignore her past but as she’s come into adulthood, burning questions developed. Incredibly, many of the answers lead her to migrant farmers in Darwin, who took her family in. Now, she’s helping other migrants break down language barriers and cut through some of the world’s toughest bio-security laws. Author, artist and bio-security officer Tisha Tejaya joins me now to discuss:

• Her favourite job in the variety of places she’s worked.
• Tisha was born in Jakarta Indonesia, in 1996 to Chineese-Indonesian parents.
• In 1998 her parents made the brave decision to move their family to the Northern Territory as a safer place to call home.
• Tisha’s family was welcomed with open arms by the multicultural growers in the Northern Territory.
• Tisha shares that growing up, there were many multicultural kids and it wasn’t until recently that she started to look at what her parents did – at the same age she is now.
• The story of The Rapid Creek Markets and coming full circle to support those who helped her family 20 years ago.
• Finding common ground through food and recipes.
• An average day for Tisha in her current role of Biosecurity Officer.
• She is also a lawyer, an author and an artist and, most recently, having written and illustrated a book about exotic produce sold at Darwin’s weekend markets!
• What Tisha loves most about life in regional Australia.
• The common misconceptions around Biosecurity and how she counteracts this.
• The most unexpected thing to happen since she began this journey.
• Tisha shares news about her new book and her ultimate dream for the future.

We hope to see you back on the road soon, to learn more about how Australia grows on the next episode of Australian Farmers with Angie Asimus.

Links:

Angie Asimus

Connect with @angieasimus on Instagram

Partnered with Australian Farmers

Follow @australianfarmers on Instagram

Tisha Tejaya

Tisha’s Book

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