Nathan Beard has long been wise to rituals, both strange and familiar, that create a sense of home. As a boy growing up in 90s Perth, his mother, who immigrated from Thailand, nurtured tropical plants in their suburban garden. He remembers shrines in the house, and time spent with women in the Thai community. His upbringing, he says, felt ordinary.
“My mum’s garden was different—in the back of our house there would be banana palms, a portrait, herbs,” Beard says. “She had a really green thumb, but it