In classic my family fashion we were late to the mosque for the two minutes of silence, the roads were blocked, there were no parks. We pulled over, on to yellow lines, and my mother leapt from the car as the two minutes started.
I stayed in the car, listening to the static from the radio, the birdsong outside, and cried quietly. My mother joined me when the two minutes finished and we listened in silence to our national anthem. As we drove away Welcome Home by Dave Dobbyn played.
It was a “wake up call” and an “insult to our way of life” my mother said as we drove home. But shortly after she told me about a man she visits who complained about his “brown” carers. She hadn’t called out his casual racism, if this can even be labelled casual.
It’s uncomfortable, but we get to choose “our way of life”. Choose.