I am Brazilian, raised in a family that fights for social justice, and I cannot stop following the paths where people reclaim their dignity, transform their streets, and resist the forces that try to silence them. For more than ten years, I have lived across Australia and New Zealand, carrying this drive with me everywhere, letting it shape the way I move, see, and act in the world.

Travelling through Eastern Europe and Italy, I walked streets that whispered histories of pain and resilience. Budapest revealed its beauty and abandonment in the same breath. A young, politicised tour guide taught me how to speak carefully of belief systems, whether Nazism, Communism, or the dream of equality. And then, the striking contrast of Capitalism: a colourful McDonald’s, smiling people amid the collective memory of suffering is not mere coincidence.

In Hungary, in Auschwitz, the chill of war pressed against me, yet I saw people remaking themselves, scars held quietly beneath resilience. Walls carved with paintings whispered that art, indeed, saves. Greece followed, stubbornly fighting to reclaim its treasures despite economic hardship. These experiences layered themselves onto the foundation in my blood: a family who, even without knowing, shaped my vision of justice and care. It is where my heart and eyes are catching.

Back home in Brazil, my practice began before university. I joined college groups, created movements against what I believed was wrong, and worked with communities to understand how urban space can embrace or repel, empower or dislocate. From a young age, walking with my niece through favelas, I witnessed people reconstructing lives from fragments of survival. The legacies of slavery and Indigenous and African peoples persisted through dance, music, food, and spiritual power, resisting erasure and reclaiming rights through art and belief.

My first work was with people experiencing homelessness, learning to see the streets through their eyes. I organised my first festival, bringing arts, culinary culture, and music to the community. Despite obstacles and people who tried to stop me, I chose this path. Exploitation is constant, but the majority, if awakened, can resist.

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In Christchurch, I found kindred work with Gap Filler NGO. After a devastating earthquake, they organised communities to rebuild the city with their own hands. I joined them, sharing in creation and collective healing. Cambodia offered another lesson: at Phare, The Cambodian Circus, teenagers transformed scrap into scenography that became an orchestra, and I wept at the beauty born from post-war suffering.

This path, where work, passion, and research merge, defines me. I strive to relate action to belief, to leave tools for those who follow, and to sleep knowing that one day the world might understand injustice more clearly. As Foucault reminds us, capitalism dominates, yet human resilience always finds a way.

University gifted me mentors and authors who became my guides. I found a space where streets became the focus of conversation, where people understood my drive. The university became my safe harbour, research a companion wherever I go, shaped by a methodology I developed. My thesis builds on authors I admire, a reflection of observation, care, and lived practice.

I will always remain open to listening, because through listening, the world continues to teach me. I need you to join me to make our voice louder. Together we can rebuild resilience and fight for what is right; it is your fight too.

Carolina Nery

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