Amidst the issue of asylum seekers, it was
not difficult to find an article about refugees. The article enlightened my
viewpoint about refugees as it presents the efforts of young refugee students
to perform their "tales" to the Australian public. Their stories are
necessary to shift the attitude towards refugees seeking emancipation in
Australian soil. Hattam and Every highlights the difficult topic on ethics
about refugees from both public and political sectors.
In regards to refugees, post-modern Australia
was the product of abandoning the white Australian policy from 1970 thus it has
acquired a multicultural identity. Multiculturalism in society has a direct
impact on classroom as the curricula have adjusted to the diverse learners that
undergo Australian education. Introducing the topic about refugees has been
difficult to approach especially since the 9/11 incident in 2001. A shockwave
of fear spread from America across the world as national security was under
threat by terrorism. Australia adopted this discourse within the Howard
government, as Mr Howard states, “Australia had no way to be certain that
terrorists…were not among the asylum seekers trying to enter the country by
boat from Indonesia.” This was the prime minister’s attitude in 2001, 12 years
later, and the discourse for accommodating refugees may or may not have shifted.
By associating the general refugee population with terrorism Australia’s multicultural
identity would be severed.
The newspaper article was about young adult
refugees that undertook workshops and convey their traumatic experience
travelling to Australia through public performances. The workshops were therapeutic
methods to share and heal from the traumatic journeys they underwent but more
importantly, the public performances were vital in order to step into the shoes
of the refugees. One girl said, “My school was bombed.” I wasn’t born in
Australia and I’ve experienced poverty thus we moved here to find a better
future. I went through the immigration system appropriately and I personally
had a disdain against refugees because they were exempt from the natural
process. Little did I know about the horrors they faced and the extent of the
effects of trauma in their lives. Compared to my circumstances they lost family
and friends, I still had that in my country. They travelled in wretched conditions;
I travelled while watching a movie that hasn’t been aired in Australia. They
face major public hostility while I can proudly say that I had a visa to get
here. The adults organizing the public performances admitted their political
purpose on the matter however it is dire that the young refugees were able to
communicate their experience to the public. If Australia deserves to have a
multicultural community then it should consider its representations of
refugees. Through these performances the public is able to question the
ruthless pedagogies imposed by the government through the media. The
possibility of a shift in attitude towards refugees can be achieved by
abandoning generalizations of terrorism and asylum seekers and shedding
sympathy to their plight.
R Hattam
& D Every (2010) Teaching in fractured classrooms: refugee
education, public culture, community and ethics, Race Ethnicity and Education,
13:4, 409-424, DOI: 10.1080/13613324.2010.488918
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