Human Rights is Nothing Without Stories

On By More to the StoryIn Events, Telling other people's stories

To mark International Human Rights Day on Saturday December 10 I attended a wonderful event at The Centre for Stories in Northbridge, and listened to a great panel of speakers discussing why stories matter.  Each had a different perspective and it was one of the most thoughtful afternoons I have experienced.

Chair and Director of the Centre for Human Rights Education at Curtin University, Baden Offord, set the scene for a crowded room of people.  We heard from Mary Ann Kenny from Murdoch who also acts as a lawyer for refugees and asylum seekers. Her heart breaking stories illustrated how the power of social media makes it easier for those in detention or in the community care to communicate. Mary Ann’s stories moved us all to tears. John Ryan gave us the view of an educator and talked about what concerns students and teachers in schools have. Yasue Arimutsu gave her first-hand experience of how some Japanese people struggle to find a clear identity and Yirga Gelaw Woldyes shared his own personal story as a boy growing up in Ethiopia. I was particularly taken with his point that it is possible to feel a sense of dislocation in your country when language is taken away or not respected.

After a break for coffee and chocolates at afternoon tea, we re-convened for an open and stimulating discussion. Baden concluded by reminding us that human rights theory is nothing without stories.

As a storyteller, I have always felt that it is impossible to fully understand a place or a person without engaging with all the stories of that place or person. In this way we surely have a better chance of finding a shared humanity. To do that, of course, we need to find better ways of listening and respecting each other. It was suggested to me through the week at a conference called ‘Re-imagining Australia’, that we need to give up something so that there is more room in our lives for contemplation – and that allows for a better way of listening.

One of my favourite Australian writers, Kim Scott, was also at this conference. When it opens, if you visit the new Perth Stadium at Burswood in WA you will see a poem written by Kim and etched around the walls in Noongar and English welcoming people – it is beautiful. I was particularly taken with these lines:

Travelling, we are many peoples; 

But our footprints make us one.

Let’s all think more about everyone’s footprints around the world.

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Rosemary with Baden Offord, Director of the Curtin University Centre for Human Rights Education
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Baden Offord, Yasue Arimutsu, Mary Ann Kenny, Yira Gelaw Woldyes and John Ryan at The Centre for Stories 2016 International Human Rights Day event

Human Rights Day

On By More to the StoryIn Events, get involved

The Centre for Stories in Northbridge Western Australia is holding a special event on Human Rights Day, Saturday 10 December, involving Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes, Mary Ann Kenny, Baden Offord, John Ryan and Yasue Arimitsu. You may not know their names, but all these people make a difference in our world. They will be sharing the stories and books that have influenced and impacted upon their human rights work.  Come along and listen. If you aren’t in WA – look for an event near you so you can take participate in International Human Rights Day.

Human Rights Day commemorates the day on which, in 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 1950, the Assembly passed a resolution inviting all States and interested organisations to observe 10 December of each year as Human Rights Day.

The United Nations asks that on Human Rights Day we reaffirm our common humanity. In our current global environment I hope we can all take time to reflect on these issues more. Whoever we are and wherever we are, we can make a difference…. in the street, in school, at work, in public transport or at the voting booth. It’s up to all of us to understand the issues and the true stories so that we can defend the rights of a refugee or migrant, a person with disabilities, an LGBT person, a woman, a child, indigenous peoples, a minority group, or anyone else at risk of discrimination or violence.

Personally, I can’t think of a better way to mark Human Rights Day than to attend this Centre for Stories event. The speakers are all significant voices in the human rights movement and I’m sure this event will sell out very fast. If you are interested I urge you to reserve your place soon. I’ll look forward to seeing you there or hearing about your activities elsewhere in Australia and around the world.

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The Seven Ages of Woman

On By More to the StoryIn Refugee stories, Telling other people's stories

My friend at Radio National Australia, Susan Maushart, has produced a wonderful new series called The Seven Ages of Woman.   Some of you might remember ‘the seven ages of man’ speech from Shakespeare’s As You Like It which is among the most celebrated passages in English literature. Susan decided it needed a fresh approach – from a woman’s perspective!

Her series of the stories is about seven Australian girls and women, each poised at a critical moment in her life journey. From child to senior and from different cultural backgrounds and experiences they each reveal what it’s like to be female – right at this moment.

Susan and I re-connected after she read my book. She realised that to have a truly representative group of Australian women in her series, there needed to be at least one woman from a refugee background included. She asked me who I knew and I took her to meet the team at the Edmund Rice Centre WA where I spend a lot of time as a Board member and supporter. Like me, Susan was impressed by the grass roots work being done at the Centre. It was there that Susan met Bella.

Bella is a young woman in her twenties with a refugee background who works at the Edmund Rice Centre. She inspires all women every day through her work and life. I love spending time with her.  And you will too as you listen to Bella’s story in the Seven Ages of Woman.

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A perverse punishment

On By More to the StoryIn Australian Asylum Seeking Policy, politics

The Refugee Council of Australia has labelled the proposed draconian laws, aimed at banning people who arrived seeking asylum in Australia by boat from ever setting foot on Australian soil, as ill-targeted, perverse punishment for people who came to us seeking safety.

In their recent newsletter, Refugee Council of Australia acting CEO Tim O’Connor said “The Minister and the Prime Minister have gone to some lengths to suggest these proposed laws are targeted at the people smuggling trade, yet it is both perverse and cruel that the people who will be ill-targeted are those that have sought our safety and protection.” You can read the full article here.

If, like me, you are horrified at this latest development, I urge you to sign the Refugee Council of Australia’s online petition.

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Refugees Welcome Here

On By More to the StoryIn Australian Asylum Seeking Policy, politics

Refugees not welcome in Australia? NO WAY.  

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Placard at a recent Refugee Week event

The Federal Government’s announcement to ban refugees and asylum seekers on Manus Island and Nauru from ever coming to Australia applies to 1,300 people who currently live there.

Seventy-two per cent of those who have been through the camps have been assessed as being refugees, according to the latest information issued by the government. I have no words for this latest cruelty inflicted by my government. What is the point of this when its ‘turn back’ policy is supposedly working?  Fear, confusion of language and violation of international human rights continues in my country.

Malcolm Turnbull is sounding more and more like the previous PM John Howard who said in 2001: “We will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come” as he fought against the rising support for Pauline Hanson and her One Nation party.

Can we really be returning to this low point in our history?

There is so much misunderstanding about why and how people seek protection and what happens when they arrive here.   Why as a community are we prepared to accept the lack of information about what is happening in our detention centres?   Asylum seekers are not only the most vulnerable group of people in Australia, but also one of the most marginalised.

Pauline Hansen went further yesterday that “all refugees are not welcome here.”   It’s time that the millions of people who have come to Australia as refugees stood up with people like me and you to loudly say NO.   Refugees ARE welcome here and have contributed positively to our community for decades.

I was please to share the stage at a community event with members of the Australian Red Cross last week. It was heartening to be reminded that they have been working with people impacted by migration – including people seeking protection – for almost 100 years.

There is a lot of great information on the Australian Red Cross website and it’s an interesting experience to take their quiz on asylum seekers and refugees… It reminded me how we have been misled on the facts. I encourage you to take the quiz and see how you go.

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Meeting the lovely Natasha Venebles from the Australian Red Cross

Personal insights on Iraq from my friend Karl

On By More to the StoryIn Telling other people's stories

It’s nearly a week since the military operation to recapture Iraq’s second city from the Islamic State began.

For more than two years, the Islamic State has held Mosul, in northern Iraq, in a stranglehold. People who have fled say the militants terrorize people, conduct public executions, recruit children as fighters, forbid communication with the outside world — all in the name of enforcing a brutal regime they call Islamic – which it is not.

The UN estimates the worst-case scenario is 1.5 million people at risk. We all hope this is not the case. A friend of mine Karl Schrembi is working with the Norwegian Refugee Council based in in Erbil, where refugee camps are hastily being constructed – a mere 80m kms from Mosul.

I first met Karl in 2010 in the tropical paradise of Ubud, Bali with Janet De Neefe at the writers and readers festival. At that time he was stationed in the Gaza strip on the front line with Oxfam. His personal insights as a humanitarian aid worker (and a poet) helps us all understand the true cost of war.

For those who know Karl – he assures me is doing OK and his agency is working hard along with other aid agencies to do what they can. We can only hope that he, and all who do this important work, will continue to stay safe.

Here are some links to Karl’s interviews on the BBC, ABC radio and NY Times.

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The Forgotten Children

On By More to the StoryIn Australian Asylum Seeking Policy, Telling other people's stories

The human face of Australia’s tough border policies can be seen through the eyes of more than 100 refugee children living on Nauru – some for more than 2 years.

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Four Corners spoke to children and young people recognised as refugees, released from detention, but trapped in limbo. The recently aired program included footage filmed for Four Corners and smuggled out of the country, that showed children talking of their experiences over the last three years. It was hard to watch.

One of the more telling quotes came from a teacher who had worked with them “You could see the light drain out of their eyes. You could see them go flat.”

What are we doing? Who are we as a country?

If you didn’t see the program please follow this link.

Finally, some welcome news

On By More to the StoryIn Australian Asylum Seeking Policy, politics

Some welcome news has come out of Malcolm Turnbull’s attendance at the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York this week. Australia has announced it will increase its humanitarian intake of refugees to 18,750.

However that was the limit of any good news. It was extremely disappointing that Prime Minister Turnbull did not mention the 2,000 asylum seekers stuck for months, even years, in limbo on Manus and Nauru. Phil Glendenning, President of Refugee Council of Australia, referred to the omission as the “elephant in the room in the form of our offshore detention system”.  Most of these people have been assessed as refugees and need to be treated as such. And was I the only person horrified as our PM lectured the member nations of the United Nations about border security? Surely not.

The wonderful Tim Costello wrote a thoughtful blog recently published in the Huffington Post Australia called Looking the Other Way is no Longer an Option. It ends with these powerful words:

“Conscience doesn’t always win, and it rarely wins quickly. Most often those who stand up in the public square on matters of conscience face long and lonely battles, even if ultimately vindicated.

But it is nonetheless to be treasured and promoted because it remains one of the major engines of change for good in the world, and in our own country.

There has never been a better time for an earnest and honest national conversation about where our collective conscience is pointing.“

You can read the full blog here.

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#WithRefugees

On By More to the StoryIn Telling other people's stories

Cate Blanchett, in her role as UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, has headed up a top cast in an exclusive Facebook film to promote UN Refugee Agency’s #WithRefugees campaign.

I heartily recommend that you take five minutes out of your day to watch this video and remember how lucky you are. It is based on a rhythmic poem entitled What They Took With Them by Jenifer Toksvig, that was inspired by first person testimony from refugees of items they took with them when they were forced to flee.

As well as Cate Blanchett it features Keira Knightley, Juliet Stevenson, Peter Capaldi, Stanley Tucci, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kit Harington, Douglas Booth, Jesse Eisenberg and Neil Gaiman.

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Cate Blanchett with actors (L-R) Stanley Tucci, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kit Harington and Douglas Booth rehearsing. Photo by Rich Hardcastle

The Politics of Hate

On By More to the StoryIn politics

As I sat listening to Pauline Hanson’s maiden speech in the parliament I was, like many Australians, appalled at what I heard.

Few people get the chance to make a first speech to Parliament, even less manage to deliver two. But Pauline Hanson’s political comeback puts her in this unique club. She returned to Canberra railing against another minority group. In the 1990s it was Indigenous Australians and Asians she targeted, in 2016 Hanson has singled out Muslims.

In the introduction to my book More to the Story –conversations with refugees I said the following:

I left Australia with my husband at the end of 1996 to work in Hong Kong, just as Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party began its popular rise, with a focus on race and anti-immigration messages. This increased xenophobia seemed magnified to us as expatriate Australians watching and reading about it from afar. Our Chinese friends started asking us why Australians hated them so much. My standard reply was to deny that Australians hated anyone or were racist. I talked about our long multicultural history of welcoming new arrivals from all over the world, as well as helping those in need. Over the following years, however, I began to worry that this position no longer did reflect Australia.

Yesterday, and today as I listened to callers on talkback radio, my worst fears have been confirmed. Hanson’s election seems to have given permission to the voices of racism in our society to speak more openly. It is hard to understand how a Senator can say we are being “swamped by Muslims” when according to the last census the Muslim community is less than 2% of our total population.

Yes, I accept we live in a free democratic society with the right to free speech, but I don’t believe we live in a society that should tolerate hate speech. I hope everyone I know will stand with the Muslim community against those like Senator Hanson who make wide ranging, factually incorrect assertions about minority groups in Australia. Surely the least we can demand is a fair and factual debate.

There are links below to some thoughtful articles in the Guardian Australia which present a more balanced view. And true to my belief that everyone’s voice deserves to be heard, (something Pauline Hanson is clearly against) here is the link to her speech.

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