Nor Shanino grew up in the Flemington Towers. Now a community youth worker, Nor was heavily involved in the effort by local youth groups to organise mental health support and care packages for those, including his father - who is auto-immune compromised - who were forced into lockdown. He witnesses and manages the misinformation pervading the residents lives daily, “Some kids are out there saying, ‘Black people can’t get Covid-19.’ I’m like, ‘Where did you hear this?’ ‘It’s on a YouTube clip.’ I’m like, ‘You know I can go home and make a YouTube clip!’” He now acts as a conduit, providing accurate, timely information between government services and the residents.

The front entrance to the apartment complex at 130 Flemington is smeared with a handprint of an unknown substance. Since the draconian lockdown in July 2020 cleaning in the government run housing commission apartments has been a point of conjecture for residents with Government agencies insisting that the cleaning is taking place. This hand print was still visible ten days after this image was made.

Elhadi Abass, formerly a journalist who fled the unrest in Sudan, has lived on the Flemington estate for 18 years. He has been a vocal advocate for the residents during their communication with various agencies - health, cleaning, aid - working in the complex in the wake of the 2020 lockdown.

Ruth Eyakem, originally from Eritrea and a resident on the Flemington estate, describes the lockdown as "Undermining my belief that it was possible to be accepted as an Australian. I will never recover." On the day of the lockdown Ruth was on her way to fill her prescription for her anxiety medication when she was forced back inside and told it would be delivered to her. The medication never arrived. Her mental health has suffered as a result.

Awatif Taha, originally from Sudan, has lived on the Flemington estate for 18 years. With her husband Elhadi Abass, she has been involved in trying to improve relations between government and the residents in the wake of the 2020 lockdown. The generational divide within migrant families between elders, who have lived experience of trauma and persecution, and their children, who are first generation Australians, has further complicated the issue of trust. “Our children, the educated ones, they are yelling and angry and talking about their rights, and the older family members say ‘Don’t do that. That may be a dreadful mistake. Don’t make trouble.’ The older ones thought Australia was different from where they came from, but now they were thinking they had been wrong, and this government too would persecute us.”

Ahmed Dini is and was a resident of the Canning Street complex subjected to hard lockdown in July 2020. A youth advocate amongst the Afro-Australian community as a Somali refugee who arrived in Melbourne aged ten, he has been vocal in his assertion that the lockdown was handled poorly and has adversely affected Afro-Australian youth in the area.

Barry Berih was one of the 11% of residents who contracted Covid-19 at 33 Alfred Street North Melbourne, the tower that was subjected to the longest lockdown of 14 days. As a community worker and founder of the not for profit group Young Australian People, he was a key figure in rallying the community to help its own from within his bedroom but feels the damage has shed a light on an undercurrent of systemic racism, “For those of us born here, we work in government, in private industry. We contribute to Australia. We thought we were Australian. And more than that, we are human. And suddenly we were treated differently. It makes you question everything."