The First Minister turned interviewer to encourage more migrant women to come forward and have their stories heard and preserved.
Michelle O’Neill has stepped behind the microphone for a change to capture the powerful life story of a migrant mother who moved to Dungannon more than 14 years ago.
Ahead of International Women’s Day, the First Minister interviewed Domingas Gusmão for Heritage Journeys: Voices of Migrant Women in Mid Ulster, an initiative led by First Steps Women’s Centre in Dungannon, which has been funded by a £231,000 award from The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
The project is preserving the stories of 100 migrant women who have made Mid Ulster their home and contributed to life in the area between 2000 and 2024, through interviews and cultural material which will then be archived at the Linen Hall Library in Belfast, as a legacy for future generations.
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Having lived in Mid Ulster all her life and, as MLA for the area, the First Minister agreed to the role of interviewer to encourage more migrant women to come forward and have their stories heard and preserved.
The interview with Domingas, a mother of three originally from East Timor, was recorded at Michelle O’Neill’s constituency office in Cookstown, Co Tyrone.
Domingas came to Dungannon 14 years ago to join her husband, who was working at Moy Park. All three of Domingas’s children were born in Northern Ireland.
During the emotional interview, the two women connected over motherhood and family, before the First Minister explored with Domingas the challenges she faced in adapting to a new country and whether she felt part of the community.
Domingas said: “Not everybody accepts and understands what we’ve been facing. We’re not here just for fun or a holiday. They wonder why we’re here. We want to give our children the best life.
“We want to contribute to life here. We have to ignore it. We have to control how we react, and it’s often better not to do anything.”
Following up, the First Minister asked: “Is that something that concerns you all the time? Are you worried about hate and racism?” Domingas told her: “Even if it happens somewhere else, I can feel afraid to go out. I have younger kids, and it concerns me, but I am lucky, and my neighbourhood is amazing.”
In the interview, Domingas also tells the First Minister about missing her family, including her father, who is now seriously unwell. She has not seen him since returning home briefly in 2017 because she cannot afford the trip back.
In another moving moment, Domingas, spoke of the joy she felt when her son, who has autism, first called her “mummy” at the age of five.
Now settled in Dungannon, Domingas describes Mid Ulster as home, and emphasised the importance of finding support through the First Steps Women’s Centre, where she attended classes and gradually built confidence and fluency in English.
Alongside raising her family, she continues to practise traditional music, cooking, and crafts from East Timor and has established a small business creating and selling her hand-crocheted items.
In closing the interview, Michelle O’Neill told Domingas: “I can say to you, as your First Minister, I want to build a society and a home for everybody that’s inclusive, where everybody is welcome, and where we celebrate our difference and our diversity, and that we all recognise we are stronger for it.”
The recording also captured the moment Domingas gifted the First Minister a hand-crocheted red-and-green table centrepiece, which the First Minister said she would be proud to use on her table on Christmas Day. Domingas also crocheted a gift for Deputy First Minister, Emma Little Pengelly.
Domingas added: “It meant a great deal to me to be interviewed by our First Minister and local MLA. I am used to seeing her on television being interviewed, so to suddenly have her asking about my life was very special.
“She really put me at ease, and I was surprised by how many shared experiences we had around things like getting lists of jobs to do after school when we were children, and raising teenage children. I feel privileged to be part of this project and of First Steps Women’s Centre in Dungannon.
“Knowing my story, and the stories of so many other women of my generation, will be preserved in The Linen Hall Library, so that my children and grandchildren can one day hear about our journeys to make a home in Mid Ulster, means a great deal to me.”
Ms O’Neill said of her turn behind the microphone: “I don’t think I’ll be stepping behind the microphone permanently, but it has been such an enjoyable privilege to be able to explore Domingas’ journey to Mid Ulster with her and to hear about all the fears and hopes she had and has.
“Domingas and her family are valuable members of our society in Mid Ulster, and our community is better and more diverse as a result.
“I urge any woman from another country who has come to live in Mid Ulster to get in touch with First Steps Women’s Centre in Dungannon to ensure their stories are also recorded and stored for future generations.
“I wish everyone the best of luck in gathering and treasuring these valuable oral histories, which are a vital part of life here and which deserve to be celebrated.”
Further information on First Steps Women’s Centre is available at www.firststepswomenscentre.org.
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