Meet your vendor.
I grew up around Sydney, out west, in the Liverpool area. I’m dyslexic, so I went to a special school. I hated school with a passion, and just wanted to get out and work right away.
My first job was with my dad, doing landscaping. I love landscaping. I’m always outdoors: I’m all trades and did moving as well. But I didn’t want to work with my dad, I hate working with family. I was in a family with two half-brothers and two sisters, five of us all up. I was right in the middle, always getting in trouble.
I’ve been bashed most of my life. It didn’t feel like there were any services to help us when we were young kids; we basically had to fight to survive. There should be more services out there.
I lived on the streets in Sydney since I was 16 – it was rough. People start fights, your stuff gets stolen. I still think about it and cry, and say to myself, Why am I crying, I’m doing better for myself now… but it stays with you. I want to ask people to think about what it’s like being in my shoes for one day, just one day, and then come back and tell me how you experience it – you won’t come back.
I was homeless until I was 21 and had my son. Then my mum let us go back and live with her, as long as I kept my room clean.
I lost my mum in 2020, that’s been hard. I know she wouldn’t want me to be sad though, Mum would want me to be happy. That’s why I talk to people. That’s why I sell The Big Issue, it’s my backbone because I don’t have my family. I used to drink to try to deal with it, but ever since Mum passed away I don’t hardly drink no more.
You can’t choose your family, but you choose your friends. I say the three people lifting me up in my life are my missus, my mate and The Big Issue. I’ve been with my missus since 2019; we’re doing really good. My mate, I’ve known him for 37 years, since primary school, and we’ve both been through a lot together. We just talk about old days. He’s lost his mum too, and when we talk I say, “Bro, big men cry. Open up.” Everyone cries. And then I call him a sook – we can joke with each other and call each other anything.
I live by myself in Bondi, and The Big Issue has been helping support me through things going wrong with my house. There’s black mould and mildew there, I swear it’s slowly killing me. I can’t sleep, I have asthma that’s flaring up and I end up using my puffer all the time. I got electrocuted using my bathroom light switch, now I shower in the dark. I don’t want to have my cat in that situation. Housing should be pulling their finger out. I’m going to a tribunal. My case-worker wrote to the housing minister and I’m trying to put a transfer in too.
With the money I get from selling The Big Issue I’m saving to go to Germany someday, that’s where my family background is. My advice for anyone reading this: don’t give up. Stick with it. There’s a lot of help out there.
Aaron sells The Big Issue on Eddy Avenue, Sydney.
Interview by Eliza Janssen
Photo by Brent Lewin
Published in ed#745