From There To Here
Mish Kumar-Jonson on Migrant Healing
Mishma Kuma-jonson
Mishma Kuma-jonson moved across six countries and learned that belonging is not about gratitude or assimilation, but about being believed in your wholeness.
Kintsugi Studio
From There To Here
Mishma Kuma-jonson
Mishma Kuma-jonson moved across six countries and learned that belonging is not about gratitude or assimilation, but about being believed in your wholeness.
You don't have to be in crisis to call.
Mishma Kuma-jonson has lived in India, Oman, France, America, New Zealand, and Australia. Each place taught them something different about what it means to be South Indian, what it means to belong, and what gets lost when you code-switch across six countries, multiple languages, and every marginalised identity you hold: queer, neurodivergent, disabled, non-binary. In regional Victoria, daily racist jokes at work forced a choice between safety and a paycheck. Mishma chose to keep the job and swallow the hurt, learning early that migrants are asked to assimilate while rarely being asked to be believed in their wholeness.
Mishma pushes back against the mythology that surrounds migration in Australia: the pressure to be grateful for being here, the assumption that established Australians will meet newcomers halfway (they usually don't), and the idea that empathy is the answer. Empathy has limits. You cannot understand someone's experience if you have not lived it. But you can choose compassion by believing what they tell you about their life without needing to relate to it first. This shift from empathy to belief changes everything.
Healing, Mishma argues, does not mean waiting until trauma is resolved to reconnect with joy. Joy is a muscle that atrophies if you do not exercise it. The dancing, the singing, the deliberate choice to find moments of lightness even while difficulty still exists, that is what keeps you alive in the fight. Home is not a place Mishma has found yet, even in the countries they have lived in or the culture they were born into. But deep belonging exists in a marriage where all parts of themselves are welcomed and celebrated.
⚠️ Content advisory: this episode discusses grief & loss, which some listeners may find distressing.
If you need support, you're not alone. Help is available: • Lifeline (24/7 crisis support): 13 11 14 · lifeline.org.au • GriefLine: 1300 845 745 · griefline.org.au
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