Last night we came together in a ‘healing circle’ around a fire at Addi Road. Our event was called Shifa-Kanyini… in Arabic the word ‘shifa’ means healing; in Pitjantjatjara the word ‘kanyini’ evokes a concept of responsibility and unconditional love for all creation.

A new report from Food Bank Australia reveals that 3.7 million households (36%) experienced moderate to severe food insecurity in the last year. The report also reveals that almost half of Australia’s population is feeling anxious about being able to consistently afford or access adequate food.

Carlos isn’t here anymore. We miss him and we remember him. It’s a terribly sad thing when someone dies. Partly because they have never entirely left us. The larger their lives, the longer they live on through our memories and all they have done for us. Carlos Femenias was one of those giants in the heart. And Addi Road acknowledges his passing as something very significant and important today.

Fragments and tears; big feelings in each silence that falls between the words. Maria Fotiadis has had a long history with Addi Road, going back to the early 1970s when the Greek community began gathering here in Marrickville, bringing to life what would be formally established as the Addison Road Community Centre in 1976. She remembers the other communities that allied with them, the Turkish and Yugoslav and Italian people in particular, the nights they’d organise to sing, play music and dance and celebrate each nation’s unique culture and history...

‘Here Comes the Night’ sings out over the road out front of the Addi Road Food Pantry in Marrickville. A low-flying plane is coming in to land, adding to the Inner West soundtrack. The old Them song is a 1960s classic, with Van Morrison’s voice exultant and oddly melancholy, as if all of us somehow got lost in an old radio for a little while.