O Mahony: Confronting Experiences

The text chosen for this unit id the book Refuge by prominent Australian writer Jackie French (2013). Refuge follows the story of Faris, a young refugee feeling from his homeland with his grandmother to Australia. On the dangerous boat journey from Indonesia to Australia, they encounter a terrible storm where Faris falls unconscious and wakes up living his dream life in Australia. However, he has no recollection of how he got there. Whilst on the beach, he meets a strange group of children all from different times and places. Faris soon discovers that each child is like him, a migrant who travelled to Australia searching for a better place. Each child is living in their own ‘dream’ Australia and the beach provides a sort of ‘refuge’ from reality for them. Eventually, Faris has to make the decision to either continue living in this dream land or face his reality. This book is interesting as unlike other refugee texts, this novel serves to tell the multicultural history of Australian immigration. French relays the more than 60 000 year old history of people travelling to Australia by boat and makes the statement that all immigrants and refugees need to be treated with empathy and understanding.

Throughout the novel many problems occur. Some of the main problems are racial and equality issues. Events in this book show how prejudice and intolerance can ruin numerous friendships and change lives.

Similarily examined in GBTWYCF, the participant’s genuine “refugee experience” allows them to identify social understanding about the fact of other people’s lifestyles and how they withstand the most severe of individual adversities. An extensive structure taken of Raye weeping followed by a remote taken of the moon enhances her concern towards Maisara “I’ve had issues holding child birth through…I do know where she’s arriving from…” examines how by your same circumstances as others, people are able to empathise.

Communicating the difficulties in a journey is the poem “Migrants” the poem highlights the experience of a migrant family coming to Australia to seek asylum post WWII. Throughout the poem it

An individual’s search for identity is fuelled by a need to find a place in the world where we belong, thus not belonging consequently leas to a feeling of alienation and isolation. This notion is explored through May’s journey seeking to connect with her racial heritage, her idea of understanding and acceptance. The old man Graham, May encounters at the mission expresses an Aboriginal perspective on the contemporary relationship between the two societies. “no one to talk about it. And they die, kill em selves, than those governments just put another numba, nother cross in they list. They still trying to do it, kill us of, tell us that its always been they plan.” They hybrid vernacular communicates the hatred through the ethnolect strongly marked by the non –standard features of the pronouns in “they list,” “they plan.” Graham’s diatribe reflects him as an individual demonstrating the marginalisation of the minority groups. Similarly, Armin Greder’s picture book The island demonstrates the notion concerning the duality of belonging with its inherit prejudices and xenophobic attitudes expresses the majority’s deliberate exclusion of ‘the other’ outside

The film begins with loud voices of a foreign language, images of a crowded refugee camp in Hong Kong, and a caged young girl. A man struggles to articulate his age in English. A woman rejects his application. The camera lingers on his disappointment. The voice of the documentary begins its commentary on the number of displaced people in the world and asks “What does it take to come to Canada?” The voice is not critical but puts the question and the information to the viewer for their own criticisms to be drawn.

The poem ‘Migrants by ‘Bruce Dawe ’should be included for the core text for journeying as it portrays journeying through the perceptions and experiences of a migrant group. This poem depicts feelings of ignorance and disrespectfulness encountered by the migrant group as they are treated with a lack of concern by people living in Australia.

Discovery is a paradoxical process which allows individuals to explore concealed and indefinite ideas, enabling a broader understanding of their world and its surroundings. This dichotomous process often occurs at the intersection of exploration and introspection, catalysing a social awakening that enlightens and positions individuals to consider new conceptions. The Logie Award-winning television show “Go Back to Where You Came From” directed by Ivan O’Mahony documents an intimidating refugee journey that was undertaken by six uniquely-characterised individuals representing the myriad perspectives of Australians, consequently challenging the antipathy and intolerance that has become the major characteristic of the wider refugee debate. Resonating with the historical Moreover, Shaun Tan’s post-colonialist picture book “The Rabbits” explores the devastating and demoralizing consequences of the discovery, depicting the obliteration of spiritual, emotional and cultural bonds underpinned by the hegemony imposed by British imperialism.

In her 2009 TED talks presentation,” The Danger of a Single Story,” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie explains how a single story presented by the media and books can affect the way a person may perceive others, places, and cultures (Adichie). She goes into details explaining her point through personal experiences where she falsely misunderstood someone based on a single word she heard numerously, and how she was a victim of a common stereotype. According to Adichie, there is never a single story and that people can go through a mental shift of their perspective if they considered various alternatives that differ from the same story that is commonly told.

The development of acceptance is a process laid upon several significant factors, and by belonging in community settings, one may gain confidence and feel tolerated. Likewise, being alienated and ostracised because of racial and social insecurities can have a negative influence on how one may act, and thus outcasts are made to feel inferior as a result of the harmful manner in which they are treated. These concepts of inclusion and discrimination are explored through the contemporary memoir of Anh Do, which focuses on a refugee’s journey from Vietnam to Australia. The Happiest Refugee (2010) methodically displays an array of perspectives surrounding belonging and presents factors of both family and community allegiance.

On the refugee council website, there are many truly stories by migrants and refugees about their experience of contact with Australian culture. They need to be classified and made the subject of academic research. Nevertheless, the area of interest to the present research project because of their testimony to the input of migrants’ culture into Australian

This view shows the shift from a fairly negative to positive attitude that migrant in the 21st century experiences and the changing relationships that the present migrant in Australia holds compared to a past migrant. The chance to express individuality is another form of the changing attitudes of the migrant experience in Australia. Fatima shows that here she is able to freely express herself and her opinions and is glad that she has left “Hell”; her country of origin (Pakistan) and a metaphor for a place that is torturous and evil. Referring back to “Migrant Woman on a Melbourne Tram”, the migrant revealed that her culture is different by wearing clothing that is unusual to the typical Australian woman. This established alienation and distance between her and the Australian people.

Perceptions are pervasive in society and can prompt lethal repercussions. These include relationship breakup, privation of belonging and obviates progression. The film ‘Bran Nue Dae’ explores perceptions such as alcoholic, on drugs, unhygienic, destitute, belonging nowhere and a nuisance to society that associate with indigenous Australians. Albeit some of these statements are true, this is NOT the case for all. Believe it or not, there are people in society that have escaped from these circle of perceptions and have been able to live a ‘typical’ life. It is as a result of this, to never make perceptions true or reality.

There are many different views about refugees in Australian society, where illegal boat people and over flowing detention centres are a controversial problem today. Go Back To Where You Came From is a documentary directed by Ivan O’Mahoney about a social experiment that challenges the dominant views of six Australians about refugees and asylum seekers. These six Australians are taken on a 25 day journey where they are placed into the troubled “worlds” of refugees. For a few of the Australians it is their first time overseas but, for all of them it is the most challenging and confronting experience of their lives. This essay will discuss

Go Back To Where You Came From is an Australian documentary/reality show in which participants are given the opportunity to experience what the life of refugee and asylum seeker can be like, albeit edited and packaged for an audience. During the course of the three hour long series, the six individuals not only have the chance to get under the skin of a refugee in terms of achieving a greater degree of insight into what being a refugee really means, but also to get on the viewing audiences nerves in perhaps all or any of the of the first three senses described above. Moreover the refugees participating in the series may ‘get under the skin’ of the programme participants and the