As we celebrate Mother’s Day this weekend in Australia, we’re reflecting not only on the love and strength of mothers and mother figures everywhere, but the generational stories, recipes, and resilience they’ve passed down. This piece is based on questions prepared by fellow blog writer, Nrutya Sangdhore.
We spoke with two of our Welcome Merchant community members, Kadiatu from Taste of Sierra Leone, and Arad, from Persia’s Pantry, who opened their hearts to us about the women who made them who they are today.
Kadiatu – Taste of Sierra Leone
Kadiatu moved to Australia in 2002 with her family and now balances work as a payroll officer with running her brilliant food business alongside her sister. A proud mother of a 16-year-old daughter, she tells us her own mother is the glue holding their family together.
“She’s kind-hearted, loving, and caring; a mother not just to us, but to our friends too,” Kadiatu says.
Their bond is strongest in the kitchen. Cooking together is more than just a daily routine. It’s storytelling, connection, and culture all in one. “Almost all of her dishes remind me of home: jollof rice, cassava, and potato leaf stews.”
It’s clear that her mother’s influence runs deep, not just in flavour, but in philosophy. “She always encouraged us to help those less fortunate,” Kadiatu explains. “Without her, starting our business would have been very difficult.”
Kadiatu doesn’t mark Mother’s Day with a big celebration. “In my family, we don’t celebrate it in a specific way. I visit my mother two to four times a week. Every visit is Mother’s Day.”
Arad – Persia’s Pantry
For Arad, memories of his mother are etched into moments of survival, migration, and joy. Born in a small village at the border of Iran and Iraq, his early life was defined by war. His mother ran a kitchen under a tent for fellow displaced people, baking sweets before sunrise.
“She was flexible, not in body, but in thought,” he tells us. “She was illiterate, but she lived fully in each moment.”
Arad’s mother passed away two years ago, but her legacy lives on in the scents and flavours of Persia’s Pantry. “It is impossible to remember her and not remember her date cookies, filled with dates, walnuts, cardamom, and saffron. People called her the ‘fragrant woman.’”
There’s a poetic intensity to the way Arad speaks about her. “She once said: ‘Wherever you are, come to my grave and calm me down a little.’ When she died, I thought: this mother will lie behind the light.”
One memory in particular stays with him: a moment of conflict, followed by resolution. When a young Arad had upset his mother, he had to witness her disappointment, as she uttered “be ashamed of my eyes”. The following day, his mother helped him across a river on the way to school. Upon reaching the other side, she explained “Mother is the river and the child is the boat. Never make the river angry.”
That metaphor has shaped his understanding of her ever since. His mother was the river: a force of nature, sometimes turbulent, always guiding. She carried her children through storms, kept them afloat through war and exile. And like a river, she was both quiet and powerful, silently nourishing everything around her. “To this day, when I cross water, I think of her hands steering us through,” he says.
Her values still guide him; especially her belief that Mother’s Day should reunite families through food, music, and dance. For Arad, it’s the scent of rosewater on her hands and the echoes of her voice that flow through his life and work; like a current that never dries.
This Mother’s Day, Welcome Merchant celebrates the mothers and mother figures who held us up, nourished our dreams, and stirred the pots that brought us home.
Whether near or far, living or remembered, their love is woven into everything we do. To all the mums, grandmothers, and mother-figures in our communities: Happy Mother’s Day. May we continue to honour your stories for many years to come.