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For Ecca Vandal, punk was a way in – and a way out. Born to a Sri Lankan family in South Africa, she moved to Australia at a young age, and faced pressure to assimilate. “There were just so many restrictions and limitations growing up in such a strict cultural and religious upbringing,” says Ecca. “When I discovered punk rock, it was so much about expressing yourself against those boundaries, against those things that actually suffocate you. I realized that actually my journey is what I had to talk about. I don't want to see Women voiceless.” Ecca came to punk from jazz training and music school orthodoxy, from weighty first-gen parental expectations, and other places far from the Melbourne home studio where Ecca first screamed her feelings into a microphone. “What I was taught as a child is the exact opposite of like, "Fuck it, I exist and I make noise and I'm lou