When Katka Adams and her mother arrived in Australia as
refugees they didn’t speak a word of English. It was 1969 and Katka was seven
years old. Escaping the political repression of communism in Prague, Katka and
her mother moved through several migrant hostels, including Bonegilla near
Albury-Wodonga, before settling in Melbourne.
“They just stuck me in a class of regular kids. I had to
relearn my whole way of writing, and I didn’t understand what the words meant”,
says Katka, in her now strong, easy Australian accent. The language barrier
meant Katka spent a lot of time alone drawing, even as a young child, and
developed a fondness for art that never wavered.
