RUSSELL Jack is quick to point out he was good at sport at school.
This may seem like an inconsequential fact, but when you are one of two non-European students in your primary school in pre-multicultural Australia, you look for ways to fit in.
"Sport cut across all barriers at school, and I was never made to feel like an outsider," says Russ, who grew up in Bendigo during World War II.
"All of the children used to come to my house for dinner because they liked my mother's Chinese cooking.
"They wouldn't say much: just walk in, pull up a chair, eat some food, say their thanks and leave."
There is no greater entry point to Bendigo Art Gallery's new exhibition, Childhood: Growing up in Bendigo, than through the stories of gold rush descendant Russell Jack.
