About Me

Because of my accent, I often get asked where I'm from.

The answer isn't straightforward.

I was born and raised in Sardinia, an island with its own languages and dialects, history and identity unlike anywhere else in Italy. For the first eighteen years of my life, I grew up surrounded by archaeological sites, ancient traditions and a strong sense of belonging. History wasn't something I only studied at school, it was part of everyday life.

I grew up speaking both Italian and Sardinian. Looking back, I realise how much that impacted the way I see the world.

Language carries culture, values and different ways of thinking.

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At nineteen, I packed my life into a few bags and moved alone to Padua, in north-eastern Italy.

For the first time, I experienced what it meant to be the outsider, with a different accent, different traditions and a different way of seeing the world.

Those nine years influenced me deeply. I studied foreign languages, literature, philosophy, political science, human rights and the social sciences while working to support myself.

University gave me knowledge and living in a city so different from home gave me perspective and expanded my horizons.

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Every day I rode my bicycle through the streets of Padua, often passing Galileo Galilei's house. I loved the idea that someone had once walked those same streets asking questions that changed the way people understood the world. The more I learned, the more I realised how much there was still to discover. I wanted to keep crossing borders, intellectually as much as geographically.

The more I studied, the more I understood that no discipline exists in isolation: politics cannot be understood without history; migration cannot be understood without culture; identity cannot be understood without place.

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In 2013, that search for understanding took me even further and I migrated to Australia.

This time I wasn't studying migration, I was living it.

Like many migrants, I had to start again. I had to learn how to communicate in a different language, culture and environment. Much of the identity I had built through years of study and work suddenly became invisible. Over time, I rebuilt my professional life, became an Australian citizen, established a business and discovered a new way of contributing.

Living in regional Queensland taught me that knowledge only has value if people can connect with it.

That changed the way I work.