For most people, identity is a question they can answer without thinking. But for the Malau-Aduli sisters, the question “Where are you from?” lands a little differently. Born in Japan. Raised in Australia. Parents from Nigeria. “It’s like nowhere feels fully like home,” Paula reflects. “But also, everywhere kind of does.” Still, it wasn’t always simple. As kids, they shape-shifted depending on context. More Nigerian at home, more Australian at school.

It didn’t feel dramatic at the time. There was no press release. No final bow. No sobbing on the track. Bendere Oboya just stopped. She folded her spikes into a bag, stepped away from the lane lines, and let the silence take over.

Before there were courts and crowds, there was freedom. The kind found in backyards and busy kitchens, in the rooms where Nyadiew Puoch first learned to move in her own way. In the middle of a house in Cranbourne East teeming with siblings, motion, and rhythm of a bouncing ball.