Our Story

As a storyteller and advocate of human rights and social justice issues, Marilyn is passionate about working with marginalised communities and stories.

Marilyn is the Director and Founder of The Metis Centre, a social justice organisation working to address women and children’s safety and wellbeing. Marilyn has over 20 years’ experience working as a trauma-integrated counsellor with culturally diverse and marginalised communities.

She has been awarded the 2021 Westpac Social Change Fellowship for her Feeling Safe and Free initiative, which is an innovative trauma-informed program working with young people from marginalised backgrounds in conversations about wellbeing and safe relationships in culturally safe ways. 

I’ve always been fascinated by stories, how stories shape our lives and how our lives are shaped by the stories we tell.

I was born in a small town Malaysia in the 1970s and I left home to go to primary school in Singapore when I was 9 years old. At 9, I had to learn everything in English, which was a foreign language to me. Even though school was hard, I had a very curious mind and a hunger to learn. The primary school was a rich melting pot of different cultures, races and backgrounds. I had some wonderful teachers in the school who believed in me and introduced me to the world of knowledge and possibilities. I made friends at the school, who became precious life-long friendships.

My biggest influence when it comes to education was my mother. She was a smart, resourceful and brilliant woman who was never given the chance to go to school, and she made sure that all her children especially her daughters were educated so we would have the freedom and the opportunities to create our own lives.

I think my early experiences have shaped my passion working with children and young people. It’s important for us to take children and young people seriously and to do what we can to ensure that the all children are given access to education, particularly vulnerable stateless children. That is the vision behind Mettamorphosis.

The name, Mettamorphosis means transformation through compassion and wisdom. I think through education we can learn both compassion and wisdom.

Education has opened doors for me that took me to places beyond the circumstances I was born into. It has allowed to me to do what I love and I want every child to have that.

I began volunteering with a local student-run not-for-profit called Teach Learn Grow which brought my interests in social issues to the surface, and through several years I learnt so much about the enormous social inequality and disadvantage of education even within our own country of Australia, and how crippling this cycle can be to children’s lives in affecting their future from the get-go. I began to understand how pervasive the ongoing effects of colonisation of Aboriginal lands and livelihood in Australia are, and how future generations of children were continuing to suffer from it by being unable to reach their potential. More than anything though, I began to learn the breadth of the extent of injustices that occur in the world that we just aren’t aware of and are hidden from view. 

Last year I came across Mettamorphosis through co-founder Marilyn who was a passionate and inspiring lecturer of mine teaching in human rights, and felt an instant connection between my values and those of Mettamorphosis. The right to every child, regardless of their race, religion, place of birth or financial status, to have an equal access to basic education is foundation to my beliefs. I believe this is something that everyone shares, but through the crises in the world today these rights are still not met for  12 million asylum seeker and refugee children. This is particularly compounded when children are a part of stateless families and have no citizenship rights and have been forced to flee to countries that do not recognise the rights of asylum seekers and refugees – the right for their children to attend school, to access healthcare, or work to support their families until they are able to be resettled.

Whether a child grows up here in Perth, or is born into a family that experiences forced migration due to conflict or persecution, they deserve no less than us. And through one child at a time, we have the power to ensure that. No injustice is too difficult for us to address no matter how much we tell ourselves otherwise. There is always a way, even if it means by starting with one child. Isn’t that worth fighting for?’

As a student and activist I found my way to Marilyn, the founder of Mettamorphosis, as I was lucky enough to take two classes with her. It was then that I fell in love with the power and art of storytelling, and how this can instigate change. 

My parents both come from humble beginnings in Sri lanka, both their stories are testaments to their resilience and how access to education can change lives. If not for their struggles and choice to migrate to Australia some 30 years ago, I would not be afforded the opportunity to be a part of this organisation, nor all the other privileges that come with being born in a place like Australia. I feel very fortunate to be able to be a part of Mettamorphosis and learn from such a strong group as I feel certain that my future career is within the human rights s. I have seen and experienced first hand how education can change a life and the work here at Mettamorphosis does exactly that. Education is a human right, and it is so easy for us to forget that access to education is not universal. The Chin refugee schools in KL directly supports these stateless children and I am excited to learn my own lessons alongside them.

My name is Van Tha Rahtin and I am a film and video student at Edith Cown University. Filming and capturing beautiful moments for people is my hobby and something I do professionally. I’ve done multiple wedding videos, music videos and live concert shows. I directed many of the music video i’ve done, and have also directed short films.

I was introduced to Mettamorphosis when I was asked to do “Keeping Dreams Alive”, a short video to promote the Photovoice Exhibition events. Since then, I have been a member of the group and I help with media. 

I have been fortunate to be part of a large family. One that ‘migrated’ from the east coast of Australia to the south coast of Western Australia to a then isolated rural settlement community in the early 1960s.

A large and very young family, with no telecommunications in the early years, on a bush block with all extended family and friends left behind. In a friendly, peaceful, and environmentally beautiful region there were still real challenges.

One sacrifice made was to ensure we children got the best possible education. This again had a measure of dislocation attached to it as it necessitated leaving what had become a familiar and much loved farming lifestyle to attend schools in the capital city. And over this time more members kept being added to the family so that we older ones came to share in the simple joy of childhood over and over again, and appreciate the pathway into a much larger world that education provides.

A pathway that should be open to every child.

For stateless children this can be for as little as a coffee every 3 days. No sacrifice at all really.