In January 2008, Josie Mesiku and I agreed to pursue the setting up of "The African Kitchen", a mobile catering business and cafe that would operate out of the former Pizza Parlor at Malak Shopping Centre. Josie was a Community Arts Organiser for Darwin Community Arts and an African community leader. Josie had been working with a group of African women on the project since 2007; she was happy to work with DCA jointly to progress the project. Josie and I inspected the shop and had initial discussions with Henry Yap, the Shopping Centre owner, who was supportive of the project.

Tragically, Josie died in February 2008 in a fire that engulfed her flat. The African Kitchen project, unfortunately, did not proceed after her death.

I continued to be inspired by Josie and her vision for the Kitchen. I discussed possibilities of pursuing the idea of a cafe -- a community-based and multicultural cafe -- with my colleagues, including Andrish Saint-Clare, who was also a friend and colleague of Josie's, and who was working for DCA at the time. He was supportive of the idea too. We also discussed the possibility of the cafe serving food from diverse communities cultures, not just African.

I also discussed Josie's vision and plans, and DCA's interest in pursuing a similar vision, with Kelly-Lee Hickey, my Co-Producer for the Darwin Fringe Festival. Kelly-Lee, I believe, took on and enriched those ideas and challenges, and in discussions with Juliana Lobo of Melaleuca Refugee Centre (who also knew Josie), developed a project concept which she (Kelly-Lee) called "My Sister's Kitchen".

The original project idea was to organise sessions over several months at Malak Shopping Centre where women from different cultural backgrounds cooked and shared recipes and stories, and that a video (and other outputs) would be produced from these sharing sessions. Kelly-Lee Hickey then applied to the Living In Harmony Program (now the Diverse Australia Program of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship) for project funding.

The application was short-listed; DCA was invited to submit a full application. At this stage, Kelly-Lee Hickey had left the organisation. Nic Borgese took over the development of the project application and project; Nic developed the full application and modified the original proposal so that the emphasis was on supporting the women's sharing of recipes, stories, and cultural information through the weekly sessions, which would include cooking but also other activities (such as outings, or theatre exercises). The video production, which was prominent in the original proposal, was modified so that video and other documentation of the project would be undertaken by the women participating in the project and also by participants of DCA's digital media skills development activities -- the documentation and production of video and other outputs were thus to become self-generated as well as generated through synergies with other DCA activities.

The full project application was approved by the Diverse Australia Program in late 2008 for implementation in 2009. Nic Borgese became Project Officer; he organised project governance, recruited participants, procured equipment, and set up Chambers Crescent Theatre as the main venue for project sessions. Nic Borgese took leave in April 2009 to travel to Europe for a year. He had successfully laid the foundation for My Sister's Kitchen.

Brenda Logan took over from Nic in April and proceeded to further develop the project. Her invaluable contributions included exploring theatre as an avenue for interaction and sharing, and revistalising DCA's community garden into a Kitchen Garden for My Sisters' Kitchen. The project has flourised exceedingly on her watch and now has the potential to further develop possibly as an ongoing and long-term arts and cultural development project as well as a  social enterprise project in future.