Punky's story

 

"It's the first time that we have been able to make a home - with all the little bohemian and bespoke pieces we adore. Our home gives us the space and safety we need to create art and music."

 

Black and white photograph of a man playing the guitar in front of a window
This photo was taken when we had just recently moved into our new place and started decorating it. My partner was happy with his newly purchased guitar, and in the background is our favourite view from our apartment.

 

Punky is a young photographer originally from Adelaide but now living in Sydney with their partner. Punky has moved around a lot over the years, between different rental homes, boarding houses and periods of homelessness.

Two years ago, myself and my partner finally got our own place. Now we have room to paint, create our own clothing, play music together and express our love of art. It's the first time really for both of us that we have been able to make a home - with all the little bohemian and bespoke pieces we adore.

There are quite a few problems with public housing, like a lack of maintenance or trouble with other tenants, but these are minor in comparison to the bigger worries in the world. We recently lost our newborn son and this devastated us, but now we're learning to live again for him and do all the wonderful things he was never able to do.

Art has been wonderful therapy for our loss, and capturing our grief on film, paper, canvas or in music are some of the most beautiful ways we've been able to translate such overwhelming emotions. Our home gives us the space and safety we need to create.

I started documenting our journey after living in boarding houses and sleeping under bridges and bypasses, and hoped that one day I'd be able to put it all together. Now I have 3 years worth of documentation of homelessness, from photographs to film. My partner has written songs about our journey and all the places we stayed before we finally found our home.

Now our hope is for our eldest two children to be able to come and live with us at our home, it would be our greatest joy.

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