Eugenia Flynn is a 27 year old, Larrakia and Tiwi woman from the Northern Territory, Australia. She now lives in Adelaide, where she works as the General Manager of an Indigenous youth performing arts company, and writes about identity and culture.

She has a background in government policy development, in the areas of young people, Aboriginal health and economic disadvantage. Eugenia says:

“I like to write about the world we live in from the point-of-view of an Aboriginal Australian, Chinese, Muslim Female. I know that’s a lot of labels, but you should know that I refuse to be wholly defined by any of them.”

Eugenia is exploring her Muslim identity after converting to Islam 8 years ago and maintains a strong Chinese identity through the Teo Chew language group.

Her blog, Black Thoughts Live Here, is written in an honest, engaging and conversational style that challenges readers to examine their own views.

One popular post generating discussion is Why yes, I am a woman….. Here Eugenia shares her views on the hijab as “a reflection of my personal modesty…a beautiful expression and adornment of feminine beauty”. These notions of femininity are explored further as she examines the roles of men and women in Muslim culture.

Check out the biography section of her blog to read about her contribution to political and racial matters. Black Thoughts Live Here is an insightful blog to visit for a thought provoking read and a multi-cultural perspective of Australia.

Image credit: Neuro74 on Flickr

Read more:
Everyday Melbourne
100 Blogs on Living Abroad
What is a Global Citizen?

Everyday Melbourne is a daily photography blog by Nisanart. She has lived in Melbourne for the last 10 years, working both full-time and as a freelance artist. As the tag line indicates, her blog offers a perspective of the city “by Asian eyes”. Nisanart’s says:

“I confessed, I walked on Burke street Mall so many times, I’ve never notice there is Union Lane runs between Bourke Street and Little Collins Street…since I started this blog, I learn more about Melbourne.”

From graffitied lane ways to grocery stalls, her photos reflect how the people of Melbourne continue to influence the city’s appearance. And her passion for exploring the inner city suburbs really resonated with me as I prepare to return home to Melbourne.

During our email chat, Nisanart highlighted Melbourne’s multicultural population as an aspect that enhances her life in the city. She described Australia as “a society of people from a rich variety of cultural, ethnic, linguistic and religious backgrounds”.

A typical day for her is “unexpected” so she carries her camera at all times to capture moments like her favourite photo below - St Kilda pier after sunrise.

When asked about the best parts of living in Australia she chose the “great sport and great coffee”, and provided these local recommendations on the city of Melbourne:

1. Federation Squarewhere “something is going on almost every weekend;

2. St Kilda because it’s a “cosmopolitan, cool beachside suburb”; and

3. Brunswick Street, Fitzroy which “best reflects Melbourne’s bohemian culture”.

Although this blog began as a way to record her personal journey before moving to Thailand to retire, she also provides links and historical facts on the city. Check out her blog and explore Melbourne through Asian eyes.

All photos in this post are by Nisanart.

Read more:
More Australian blogs on Blogs of the World
ANZAC day: an Australian’s pilgrimage to Gallipoli
Biking in Australian cities

Jan and Amanda live in Perth, West Australia, where summer is about to arrive. Try not to feel too envious if you’re reading from the Northern Hemisphere…

In Jan and Amanda they write about life in Australia. Amanda is Australian, Jan is German and their posts are written in both languages. Photos of their trips to the spectacular countryside surrounding Perth are an added bonus.

Photo: Sunrise at Bodallin, West Australia from Jan and Amanda

Like Kyle, who wrote about learning to get on with her Chilean father-in-law for My Partner is a Foreigner, Amanda is also a professional blogger, mostly writing about travel.

In a different blog Not a Ballerina she writes about her life as a travel writer. It is the second blog of several - go there and check out the rest as well!

Sadly Olive will not update The Life of Riley any more. The oldest blogger in the world passed away on July 12th aged 108.

Olive took up blogging in February 2007 at the age of 106 with the help of Mike, her helper, and through her blog she became known and loved all over the world.

The blog is an amazing record of the life of this remarkable Australian lady, and also hopefully an inspiration to all of us that you are never too old to start something new.

Little Jenny Wren is an artistic look at everyday life with a mother of three living in Tasmania, Australia. Jenny loves ‘all things domestic’ and in her spare time makes beautiful cloth dolls.

Photo: home-made bread rolls from Little Jenny Wren. Don’t they look delicious?

Especially interesting if you are eager to read all about life in Australia (and other countries) is the A Day in my Life project which Jenny started in March 2008. On the 14th of each month she keeps a diary of everything she does that day, and posts so you can read about it. She has been joined by more than 30 other friends who each keep diaries of their own.

Update: May’s day in my life stories are linked here. There are diaries from Australia, New Zealand, USA, UK, Canada, Israel and Germany.

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If this is your first visit to PocketCultures then welcome! Please have a look around - on this page you will find blogs from different countries, in Topics of the World there are articles about world cultures and in My Partner is a Foreigner you can read stories about multi-cultural relationships. After reading if you would like to comment or drop us a line we’d love to hear from you.