“If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it” -Toni Morrison
If we cannot find artistic works that reflect us, it is our responsibility to create them and create opportunities for others to do the same. Growing up in Sudan and in the Sudanese diaspora I saw a myriad of artistic works being used as tools for commentary and resistance, and cannot overstate how integral it has been to my survival and the survival of many other young people. It is only recently in Australia that I have found works of literature and other forms of art that centre people of colour. That is not to say those works did not exist before, but that we are finally on the precipice of something great, to be in a time where we can celebrate the vivid diversity of the world we live in; a world where young people of diasporic heritage can finally find characters that look like them, sound like them and go through similar experiences to their own. It is a powerful and life-altering experience.