Rose Vincent's story of culture, community and celebrating diversity

"My father is a fourth-generation Yackandandah-born Australian and he was working as an anthropologist in Mexico in the late 1960s when he met my mum," she said.

"They started a tradition where my dad chose the first name and my mum chose the second name of their children, so we all have very Australian and very Spanish first and second names.

"My dad was feeling quite homesick - and my mum didn't know any better - so he called me Sheila. Can you believe it? That's my real name."

While Rose was actually born in England in 1968, she spent the first few years of her life with her parents in Mexico. In 1971, the family packed up and migrated to the remote NSW town of Bourke.

Why Bourke? Rose said her Australian grandparents had settled in town after coming across it during their travels around Australia.

They felt a close connection to the Indigenous people there - the Wiradjuri people - and decided to stay rather than continue on their journey.

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The McIntosh's, who were dairy farmers in Yackandandah, did what they knew best and started setting up Bourke's first dairy farm.

"Not long after buying the property, my grandfather had a heart attack," Rose said.

"My dad - who was a civil engineer before he was an anthropologist - came back to help set up irrigation and that sort of infrastructure on the farm while my grandfather recovered.

"We ended up just staying there."

Rose's family was the first Mexican family in Bourke, and one of the only Mexican families in Australia at the time. But Bourke's Mexican population grew when her mother's sister came to visit for six months.

She fell in love with Rose's father's brother and got married. Rose's Mexican grandparents then migrated to Bourke to be with the rest of the family.

"There was this little colony of Mexicans in Bourke," Rose laughed. "They grew and cooked the traditional food from scratch because there was no other way.

"There was nothing. So the corn and tortillas - everything was made from scratch. I'm really grateful for that experience of growing up with a little bit of Mexico in Australia."

Being one of the few Mexican families in the country came with some perks.

"If there was a diplomat visiting from Mexico, mum would get a letter or a telegraph or something inviting her to Canberra to the embassy for some function," Rose laughed.

"It was like all of the Mexicans from around Australia can come. It was pretty crazy!"

But while Rose had plenty of fond memories of her childhood, she said there were also some challenges growing up as a migrant.

"When we first came to Australia, we only spoke Spanish," Rose said. "It wasn't until I went to school when I was five that mum and dad actually stopped speaking Spanish.

"The idea back then was about integration. My parents were advised I might get confused by being bilingual so it was better to just stop one and focus on the other."

Rose said she sometimes felt like an outsider in her home town.

"You were told you have to fit in, don't be too different," she said. "I never felt like I fitted in. I remember my hair was always bushier. I always wished my hair was blond and silky, you know. I can remember that.

"There was that pressure to integrate and nowhere where your culture could really be expressed."

But Bourke's remoteness also led to some pretty special memories for Rose.

Fred Hollows AC, who is renowned for restoring eyesight for thousands of people, was the family's optometrist.

Rose also came into contact with a literal saint - Mother Teresa, who had one of her Missionaries of Charity chapters in Bourke.

"I had a really close connection with that little community of nuns," Rose said. "I would just volunteer with them when I was in my teens.

"Twice in my time at Bourke, Mother Teresa visited. I didn't realise who she was at the time, but she really was an amazing person. I remember crying when I first met her without even knowing why I did.

"She took my hands in hers the first time I met her and she said, 'come to Calcutta'. I think my mum was a bit worried that I would actually go," Rose laughed.

"But then the next day, Mother Teresa said to me, 'Rose, your Calcutta is here'.

"I think that had an impact. I realised it's about living with both feet planted and looking out for those who aren't included. You don't have to go to Calcutta to find those people."

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Those words shaped Rose's life. When she was 18, she moved from Bourke to Cooma in the NSW Snowy Mountains for a gap year of volunteering and part-time work.

She then moved to Newcastle for university, where she also met and married her now-husband.

They relocated to Dubbo in regional NSW, where they lived, worked and raised three children.

But after about 15 years, it was time for a change.

"We just travelled for a year," Rose said. "We took our kids and bought a car in the UK and we travelled around.

"I think we counted 17 countries in the end. We just followed our noses and had the most amazing experience.

"Part of that was us just thinking about what we needed to do for the next chapter of life - whether we would go back to Dubbo and reinvest there or whether it was time to move and do something else.

"We decided to come to Bendigo."

For the past 12 years, Rose and her family have embedded themselves into the Bendigo community - especially through the creation of the Old Church on the Hill.

The building started as the Quarry Hill Methodist church back in the 1890s, but in recent years, Rose has helped transform the space into a community hub.

More than 30 diverse organisations and groups now use the site for meetings and events.

"We need more spaces where we can meet the other," Rose said. "I think that's how we're going to have more cohesive communities, rather than just sitting in our own echo-chambers.

"We need to actually make spaces where those echo-chambers can be pierced and we can hear other conversations and can listen and try to understand.

"I often say, a village without a community space is just a cluster of houses and nobody wants to live in a cluster of houses."'

Rose's drive towards a more cohesive community is also reflected in her work as a community programs manager at the Loddon Campaspe Multicultural Services.

"I have the best job in Bendigo," she said. "With the Multicultural Services, we have people from a multicultural background supporting people from a multicultural background.

"It's so important that people moving here can not only connect quickly with people of their own cultures, but that they can make as many links as possible to the established community.

"We still have so much work to do in the social cohesion space because I think people can be quite afraid of newcomers.

"I think that's another reason why I feel drawn to this work. It's just that I know if people can just meet other people, if they could find common ground and areas they can relate in, I know that can help break down barriers with people."

So what's next for Rose? She said she was open to wherever life takes her.

"I don't feel driven but I feel excited about what the future might be," Rose said. "I feel excited about what the next chapter might be for the Old Church because of just the awesome foundation that's already there.

"In the last few years at the Multicultural Services, we've done some really good work and deep work in terms of refreshing the organisation and all of the programs connected to it.

"I'm excited for what the future might be building on that. But I don't have any sort of personal aspirations in that space. I'll probably live very much in the present."

For someone who has made a number of big moves in her life, Rose said another change could be on the cards.

"We've got grandchildren now that live in the north coast of NSW and every now and again we think - oh does that mean we might need to move one day? Or would they ever come back home?" she said.

"If they moved back here, I think I would be quite happy to live all of my days here in Bendigo. But my husband and I talk every now and then about what the next chapter may be for us.

"I'd be very, very happy for that to still be here in Bendigo. But I guess, on my side of 50, the choices that your kids make also make a difference. So I wonder what that will be."

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