Well Said!

  By Helen Said, Autistic advocate, Melbourne Australia I am from a mixed ethnic background - Greek, English and Maltese. My parents were both born in Egypt and I am an Australian Citizen. I embrace all of these countries as having contributed to my identity. I have no single ethnic identity but my ancestry is mainly Greek.  My surname, Said, is of Middle Eastern origin but was introduced into Malta generations ago and I inherited my surname from a distant Maltese ancestor. We also inherited the Catholic faith and British Citizenship down the male line of the family. British citizenship caused our family to be expelled from Egypt during the Second Arab-Israeli War. My parents fled to England which is where I was born. The Second Arab-Israeli War of 1956 was fought over ownership of the Suez Canal. In this war, England, France and Israel joined forces to attack Egypt for nationalising the Suez Canal. The war was unjustified because the United Nations ultimately declared the Sue...

By Helen Said, Autistic advocate, Melbourne Australia In November 2025, the Australian government introduced a new system of providing care for elders who live in their own homes. Over the past month and a half, I have been comparing the “Support at Home” granted to my mother, who has just received aged care funding, with the services previously granted to my late father, who was funded under the old system of aged care packages.   As an older Autistic advocate, I have also been pondering how well these new services will meet the needs of Australian Autistic elders living in their own homes. I have attended online Autistic discussions and forums about the needs of elder neurokin, and even been an elder guest speaker. However, neither our speeches nor discussions addressed the specifics of government services provided to elder Autistics living in their own homes in Australia.    Elders to have more rights, less services and increased costs A few months ago, shortly before ...

  By Helen Said, Autistic advocate, Melbourne Australia I come from a multicultural family and I love all kinds of foods, but this is not the case for all Autistics. Some Autistics have strong sensitivities to the texture, taste or smell of certain foods and cannot eat them. They often self advocate for accommodations for their sensory sensitivities, or make special arrangments, to access food they can tolerate, when they go out to restaurants or travel overseas. As much as we need to respect the Autistic minority's sensory needs, Autistics with food sensitivities need to respect the sensitivities of migrants and second generation Australians from non-Anglo backgrounds, by not pulling faces or making expressions of disgust about our multicultural Melbourne restaurant food or the foods on sale in our countries of origin.  I once attended an Autistics only event, held in a pub because this food was deemed safer for those with food sensitivities, and a small number of indivduals ...