Sarah Kanowski

Yeah, it was pretty standard, I think.

I often, like, reflect.

I was just thinking in the car on the way here, like, what memories do I have of, like, fondness, of fun, of enjoyment in that period?

And it's weird that I just don't grab them straight away, you know?

And I remember one where my twin sister and I, she jumped on my shoulders and grabbed the Milo tin off the fridge and we sat down beside the fridge and ate Milo.

at like four years old.

But other than that, it was, yeah, there was violence pretty much daily, whether it was directed at us as kids or it was directed at my mum.

It was a pretty consistent theme.

Yeah, definitely.

I think my brother took that role on at school, but my sister took that role on.

My older sister, she was six years older.

She took it on everywhere.

Obviously, being six years older than me, she was six when my dad left and then just saw everything that happened from that point onwards and who my mom was with and what these men were like and had experiences of her own.

And I remember when we were, I was probably five or six.

She was probably 11.

And

We were all standing in the kitchen at one of the houses we lived in and she was standing at the kitchen doorway and this man walked from the front door of our house towards my mother's bedroom and as he walked there he saw us in the kitchen and went to walk in and my sister had a knife in her hand and she was only 11 but she pointed the knife at his throat and she said, if you come into this kitchen I'll put this knife through you or if you come near these kids I'll put this knife through you.

And that, like, I still remember the situation.

I remember what it was like.

And I just thought, you know, I was a kid.