Kirsha proud to call Aussie her new home

KIRSHA Kaechele met her future husband, Mona creator David Walsh, left, at an art show in Switzerland. And that meeting brought her to the place she now calls home — and to which she took out citizenship yesterday. Ms Kaechele said she loved the US, her “first home”, but she believed Australia was “superior by far”.

A CITIZENSHIP ceremony at Government House yesterday was the latest chapter in a decade-long love story for Kirsha Kaechele.

Ms Kaechele first met her future husband, Mona creator David Walsh, at an art show in Switzerland in 2007.

“He was there preparing for his museum build, and I was there meeting with artists for my non-profit art space in the US,” she said.

“We fell in love and travelled together for a little while, then found the distance difficult — and each other. It took another three years just to figure that out, that we wanted to be together.

“Eventually [in 2010] one of us had to move, and he was just about to open Mona. He had two children already, so I thought that would be me.”

Ms Kaechele said her husband had wanted to be at the ceremony, but missed it because he “had to be with a politician”. Mr Walsh did make it to Government House in time for the after-party.

She said the short notice of yesterday’s Harmony Day citizenship ceremony had contributed to her husband’s absence, but the couple accepted that.

“I rejected my first offer for the ceremony ... on Australia Day. I didn’t want to become a citizen on Australia Day, be- cause of how many people feel badly about that,’’ she said.

Ms Kaechele said she was impressed by having a ceremony around Harmony Day.

“It makes so much sense, it’s so beautiful, it’s such a meaningful day to have a ceremony like this.”

Ms Kaechele said she loved the US, her “first home”, but she was believed Australia was “superior by far”.

“I may not like some of the recent efforts to erode some of the things that differentiate it from the US ... the healthcare, university access,’’ she said.

“Still I feel that the country is superior by far to the US, and that it cares for its citizens.”

Sunday Walsh, Ms Kaechele’s two-year-old daughter, witnessed the ceremony. Afterwards she was congratulated by another newly minted citizen, Debaki Thapa of Glenorchy, who moved from Nepal.