In 2005, Monga Mukasa was nine when he arrived with his family in Shepparton from conflict in his native Democratic Republic of Congo, Monga 23 did not take long to find a favourite place in Shepparton
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Ilias Bakalla finds out about the community space that helped his family integrate in their new home
For Monga Mukasa, Shepparton's Monash Park is a community space that helped him feel at home after his family fled from conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Monga is now working at Trinity Catholic Primary School in Richmond while completing his master’s degree in teaching linguistics, but he visits Monash Park when he makes the trip home to Shepparton to see his family.
The 23-year-old said the lush green park “has really played a major role in helping us (his family) integrate.”
Monga arrived with his father Maulidi, brother Pappi and sisters Juliette, Archie and Fitina in 2005 when he was nine years old.
They escaped conflict in their hometown Baraka Ffizi to find refuge in Tanzania for five years before they were granted refugee entry to Australia.
Monga's sister Neema (Fitina’s twin) was separated from the family and was living with their uncle Machinda Maulidi before they were reunited in 2007.
Monga's mother Juliette Mukasa unfortunately died in the conflict.
Nowadays there is a large Congolese community in Shepparton but back in 2005 the Mukasas were one of just three Congolese families.
Monga remembers other ethnic families coming together at Monash Park to sing and dance.
"There were Samoans, Tongans, Sudanese and Kenyans,” he said.
Gospel music is a big part of African culture and Monga says it was nice to have the community space to practise their culture.
“After singing we would bring our soccer ball down and kick it around; we were young, like 10 or 11,” he said.
Talking about that time in his life, Monga said he was young and had just arrived in a new country.
“I remember being really excited.”
He had expected Shepparton to be a concrete jungle like New York, Sydney or Melbourne; but the iconic cows and dense bushland surrounding Monash Park reminded Monga of his time living in Tanzania and helped him quickly feel at home in Shepparton.
“The refugee camp we lived in was surrounded by trees and there were cows around, owned by wealthy farmers,” he said.
In a few weeks’ time Monga will be travelling to the far north of Russia to a town on the Norwegian boarder called Nikel, where he will be taking part in a cultural exchange program.
“I’ll be running some workshops, teaching song writing and African drums as well as teaching them about Australian history and indigenous history,” he said.
“I’m a bit nervous about the -30 degree temperatures predicted.”
Monga hopes to learn about the Russian way of life as well as their music, and also how they cope with such extreme weather.
Music is a big part of Monga’s life and he said Monash Park worked as a creative space for him as he often tool his guitar there to sit and strum away in the sun, sometimes joined by his brother Pappi.
“It's such a peaceful place, you can just look up there and see the beautiful blue skies or the trees and within that you can write a song.”
