The WRAP #89: 60 seconds with Lucia Li

Lucia Li is a Board Member at mcwh

What are you enjoying doing at the moment?
I am enjoying getting to know me and learning to practice gratitude especially during this time (when everything can become stressful).

Name a book or a film that changed your life
I am still trying to finish reading “The education of an idealist” by Samantha Power. My 2020 goal was to read 1 book a month – I am still stuck on book 1!

Can you describe a time where you felt discriminated against as a woman from an immigrant background?
I like to think we live in a multicultural country. I have always prided myself that I sound Australian (I was raised in Australia) and always felt that I was nothing less than Australian. However, a few years ago in a corporate workplace, my manager asked me if I thought in Chinese and translated into English. This really affected me (my knowledge of Chinese is very basic). I became very conscious about it and even took private speech lessons. I hope that there will be a time when this type of subtle racism doesn’t exist.

What’s a challenge that you think migrant woman are facing today?
When I heard that MCWH was supporting the delivery of COVID-19 information in public housing flats, I thought about the memories of growing up in one during the early 1990s. Although it has changed, the type of people haven’t. They still have dreams and goals and they are all working towards a better future. With the recent outbreaks in the Flemington & North Melbourne flats, there was some prejudice and judgement on the kind of people that lived there and unfortunately it was mostly negative. I hope that we can change that perception and show that they are the kind of people that we want in Australia

Tell us about an amazing woman you know.
The most amazing women are the ones who made the difficult decision to come to Australia and then to thrive in this new country. I look at my mum, aunties, relatives and friends and seeing the life they have created for themselves and their children.


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