It’s Refugee Week, and this year’s theme of ‘Healing’ encourages the refugee and non-refugee Australian communities to find connection, humanity and healing – especially through the power of storytelling and sharing experiences. If you’re looking for a starting to point to engage with the themes of Refugee Week and better understand the experience of those seeking safety and asylum in Australia, this list of articles and podcasts is a good place to start.
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The trauma of Afghanistan echoes through generations of my family by Mariam Tokhi for The Guardian
“I am Australian, I think, and yet it aches something fierce when war breaks out again in a land so far from here… They say a part of you lives in every place that you have lived and a part of that place lives within you. But what if you never lived in that war-torn place: how does it live within you?”
They were trapped in immigration detention for nine years. Here’s what life after the Park Hotel looks like on ABC
“The next day Ms Leahy looked up from her desk and saw Adnan holding a protest sign and gesturing that he wanted her to attach it to his clothing. ‘His lips were sewn together,’ she recalls. ‘It was his way of saying, ‘Enough is enough, what more do you want from us? Just give us an answer’.”
Monica fled Myanmar for Australia as a child. The crisis there has brought it all back on SBS
“I would wake up in the middle of the night with nightmares about when I left Myanmar. It felt so real and I had to tell myself it wasn’t real. I would wake up just bawling my eyes out. I was really numb, and I didn’t see a lot of my friends. So many of my friends were trying to give me advice on how to cope with it and I just didn’t respond.”
Behrouz Boochani: ‘Human beings don’t have a place to go but to other human beings‘ on Sydney Morning Herald ($)
“Okay, let’s say you are a right-wing person who hates refugees, hates migrants – at least you care about your money. They are spending this money. And I believe very strongly there is huge corruption with this policy, with security companies that have made vast amounts of money.”
‘I was squatting’: why asylum seekers so often struggle to find secure housing on The Guardian
“Every real estate agent we applied to said: ‘You are asylum seekers, you don’t have a permanent residency, you don’t have the documents that we are asking for.’ And above all, we don’t have anyone to reference or stand as witness for us.”
The “Good Refugee”: Why Are Only Some Asylum Seekers Worth Fighting For? by Tim Lo Surdo on Junkee
“For many people of colour, excellence is not optional, it’s simply a survival strategy. That is what the Biloela Tamil family did. They were “exemplary” citizens who worked hard, spent time volunteering, actively contributed to the community, and lived in a regional town. Mediocrity would have been a death sentence for Priya and Nades.”
Finally free after almost a decade in immigration detention, Amin is too sick to work and struggles to eat even one meal a day on ABC
“I did not come in here to have the government pay me. I just want to work, stand on my feet, pay taxes, and live a life like everybody else.”
Listen
Refugees on Air podcast
Hosted by Sarah and Maya Ghassali, this podcast gives refugees from all around Australia a voice to share their stories.
Temporary by Guardian Australia
An eight-part narrative podcast detailing the uncertain journey and extended limbo that faces asylum seekers who have arrived in Australia by boat. It was inspired by the 2019 book, Refugee Rights and Policy Wrongs: A frank, up-to-date guide by experts by Jane McAdam and Fiona Chong.
‘Refugees of Sudan – Lizzy’s story’ on Social JustUs podcast
South Sudanese refugee, Lizzy, talks about her journey, assimilation to Australian ‘culture’ and the challenges of life as a refugee.
In My Country podcast
Six people who came to Australia as refugees or asylum seekers share their stories, in their own words, with hosts Pia Perversi-Burchall and Adam Wood. This podcast covers stories of identity, religion, sexuality, culture, purpose, and the idea of what makes ‘home’.