This is Cedric. After years of backpacking around the world around the world like Daft Punk, he landed in Melbourne in 2012 and started doing the fashion things..
You live in Fitzroy Nth and are doing fashun. Congratulations, you’re a hipster.
No I’m definitely not a hipster.
What is that ring? Are you married? #damnit
No, my ring is from my hometown in France, it’s a Gaelic symbol but I’m not Irish. My parents were migrants so I’m half Congolese, half Angolan but 100% Breton – us people living in the west of France are very proud of our Gaelic culture.
You’re like a mix tape. My ex was Senegalese-French, he was the best but he was always angry, why are French guys always angry?
Yeah it’s more a black French thing, you need to look angry. It’s really dodgy in a lot of areas of the country.
Babe I have been to Paris – the Donnie boys at the Shoppo bus stop are scarier than anything I saw there.
Nah, you step outside the central part of the cities and it’s commission high-rise housing everywhere with various cultures, religions and types of people, trying to live together while being influenced by many different factors. France is a great country but there are definitely some shady sections.
So what do you do here?
When I arrived, I worked cafes and things then was lucky to get a job at the Social Studio. We help refugees assimilate into Australian culture providing them with sewing skills, qualifications, education, support and employment in hospitality, design, clothing production and retail. It is so great to see people I helped four years ago, be able to speak the language and going well, feeling good about being here.
You mean they’re not all ‘Sweet, cheers mate’ when they roll up?
It’s so different here for them as they mostly come from war zones. Suddenly they have all this space and freedom in a country that is nothing like what they have experienced before. Getting a job is hard. The culture shift is very difficult, so we end up helping them with everything – we help them to understand their letters, fill out forms, translate the slang and try to explain Aussie norms.
Things in our culture make no sense – Vegemite, calling rangas ‘Bluey’, Karl Stefanovic..
Yes there are some weird things in Australian culture, Vegemite it’s definitely one of them – this thing is nasty. Or even the footy game is something so strange especially for us Europeans when we talk about football, for us it’s the soccer games. Maybe one day I will finally fully understand the rules of this games and be able to actually appreciate it.
What is your favourite thing to do in Melbourne?
Drinking coffee. The culture here around coffee is very interesting I love it.
