Journeys of faith, strength and persistence: Stories of new arrival Afghan mothers — Fariba Drokhshan Ahmadi

This paper describes the development of a collective document: ‘Journeys of faith, strength and persistence: Stories of new arrival Afghan mothers’. Over six meetings, the migration stories of a group of newly arrived Afghan mothers were recorded in the Dari language and translated into English. The collective document we produced from these stories was presented to the staff of the school the women’s children attended. The presentation included not only the document, but treasured expressions of culture that had sustained the women and that they were proud to share, including music, food and embroidery. After the presentation, outsider-witness responses were gathered from the staff members. These responses were recorded and became part of the evolving collective document, which will become a resource for other families making a new home in Australia.