This project was a university assignment and a collaboration with Wesley Mission Brisbane and The Big Issue for Anti-Poverty Week 2015. I was partnered with a Vendor from The Big Issue, Rod McBride, this is his story.
Rod swims everyday. Growing up near Manley Beach in NSW he remembers a time when he could hear the swell changing just by sitting up in bed. “I swim everyday, because no matter what, I feel clean, like I can start again.”
The surf culture that he grew up in is still very much a part of him; community, friendship and looking out for one another. He speaks about how the older kids would teach you how to handle yourself in and outside of the water. And when in turn, when it was your time you would do the same.
Rod is an open and friendly person, the kind of guy that could strike up a conversation with just about anyone. However, when he puts on his high-vis yellow vest, it's as if the public no longer sees the person underneath. There is a prejudice that people who are on the street have done something to put themselves there. Rod is someone who does not fit this stereotype. After a work place injury he spent eight months recovering in hospital. Separated from his family and friends, the support systems in his life fell away. His relationship with his wife ended and for the first time in his life he began to suffer from depression. Without our health, job security, and people around us who care for us any one of us could find ourselves in a similar situation.
When I first met Rod, he was sleeping on a terrace at Southbank, Brisbane. He only recently found a permanent place to live, largely due to his own mindset and determination to change his own situation.
The Big Issue has given Rod a chance to reclaim the stability and community that was once part of his life.
