By volunteering at her school garden, Magdalena McGuire found something radical: the good in other people
If you came across our school garden, you might walk past without giving it much thought. On the surface, we don’t have anything that would warrant a visit from Gardening Australia: no kitchen garden or water feature or “reflection space”. But we do have something else you might not see at first glance – something I wasn’t expecting to find when I first came to this suburb.
I moved to Fawkner, Melbourne with my partner and kids about five years ago, in search of affordable housing. The suburb was nice enough but I felt unmoored. I didn’t know anyone here and much of community life seemed to revolve around structures such as the extended family, the church and the mosque. I could see how vital these were for people in our suburb; for my part, however, I’m not religious and my extended family live far away. I tried to find other ways to make connections: my kids and I went to Lego time at the library; we hung out at the local playground and chatted to people at the skate park. But none of it added up to a sense of belonging.
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