Inclusion isn’t a checkbox.

“There is no way to inclusion, inclusion is the way.” 

It’s my personal motto, why?

Because I grew up hearing half of my family demonised for their religion and Country.

Because the grandmother who adored me also held racist beliefs against people like me.

Because when I came home from summer holidays, sun-tanned and smiling, people asked my mother if I was adopted.

Because my mother made prejudiced remarks about the very people she had married into; “she heard it on the news.”

Because my father dissociated from controls and regimes, only to replicate forms of it over his own daughter.

Because I had to choose between being “on the side” of art or science, as if I could not contain them both as equals.

Because I’ve spent over 25 years living abroad trying to make sense of cultures, differences, and belonging, constantly navigating the minefield of bias, assumptions, and exclusion.

And, when I finally turned all that pain into purpose, working to create inclusive spaces, I was asked: “What qualifies you to do this work?”

I could go on.

I didn’t come to this work by reading the right books or attending the right conferences.

I came to it by immersing myself deep into what people prefer not to talk about.

By holding both love and betrayal in the same hands.

By witnessing how prejudice can live inside the same people who “love” us.

By refusing to become bitter, even when the world tried to split me in two. Still does!

This isn’t theoretical for me. It’s lived.

It’s in my body. In my silence. In the years I tried to earn belonging by merely fitting in, which I could never anyway.

Inclusion isn’t a checkbox. It’s not a training module. It’s not a marketing tagline.

It’s the choice to see what we’re taught not to see.

To question what we inherited.

To hold complexity without collapsing into shame or superiority.

To make space (again and again) especially for what is unknown, uncomfortable, or inconvenient.

There is no path that leads to inclusion. Inclusion is the path.

It’s not a destination. It’s a way of walking, with care, courage, and contradiction.

I wish we all come to know what true inclusion feels like.

Not just in policy,

But in presence.

Not just in language,

But in lineage.

Not just in strategy,

But in soul.

If this resonates with you, you can find a selection of my reflections and essays on inclusion here. Or reach out directly if you’d like to connect and share your path to inclusion.

Inclusion begins in relationship. Let’s begin there.

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