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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'The island continent has created an archipelago of incarceration spanning from South East Asia, Micronesia and Melanesia in the Pacific, the Indian Ocean and across mainland Australia. This issue of Southerly, titled Writing Through Fences, is devoted entirely to the work of past and present refugees in these detention centres.
'The records of their experiences are devastating; their creative responses, across genres and media, are astounding. The issue also includes responses from Australian writers, activists, essayists and students, who engage with refugee writing as well as the practices and consequences of refugee incarceration.
'Writing Through Fences is guest edited by the writer-activists Hani Abdile, Behrouz Boochani, Janet Galbraith and Omid Tofighian. Two of these editors have direct experience of Australian refugee detention. Three have been displaced and exiled. All four have worked for years with refugees as translators, enablers and publishers to bring the creative voices of refugees into public view and circulation. This issue presents the greatest range of new refugee writing assembled to date in Australia.' (Publication summary)
Notes
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Only literary material by Australian authors individually indexed. Other material in this issue includes:
Companions, Screaming for My Beloved Country (Sudan) and In the Cage I Can Speak : MOHAMMED (full name withheld) Surabaya, Indonesia, 2017
Bon Voyage the Papi Family : Pius Posongan Pokris (PNG)
Animals Can Be Our Soulmates, Too : Erfan Dana/Shams Hussaini (Indonesia, 2020)
Lifelines : M. D. Imran (Ojibwe, Odawa, Potawatomi–Chicago USA, 2020)
Indonesia, Land of Refugee Limbo : Erfan Dana/Shams Hussaini (Indonesia, 2018)
The Autobiography of Mohamed Adam : Mohamed Adam (Manus Island, 2019)
The Passenger of Time : Homaira Zamiri (Indonesia, 2019)
Home—Where Else to Go? : Abdul Samad Haidari (Bogor, Java, Indonesia, 15 January 2020)
On Poems by Abdul Samad Haidari : Erik Kennedy (Otautahi–Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand, 2020)
Barbed Wire: The Devil’s Rope : Victoria Grieve-Williams (West shore of the Hudson River in the country of the Woaranek peoples of the Lenape tribe and Algonquian language group, NY state, USA, 2020)
For Yesterday : Mohammad Asif Rahimi (Indonesia, September 2020)
I Speak : Homaira Zamiri (Indonesia, 2020)
Dedication 1 : M. D. Imran (Ojibwe, Odawa and Potawatomi–Chicago, United States, 2020)
Dedication 2 : Erfan Dana/Shams Hussaini (Indonesia, 2020)
Excerpt from Eulogy : Erfan Dana/Shams Hussaini (Indonesia, 2018)
Racism at Jakarta Airport : Mohammad (Indonesia 2013)
Brutal : Uncle Davai Rarua (Motu-Koitabu Lands, Port Moresby, 2016)
Judgement : Ellie Shakiba / Elahe Zivardar (Nauru, 2017)
Shoes that left home with the spirit of hope... never to return : Erfan Dana / Shams Hussaini
Happy Bloody Christmas : Ali Dorani / Eaten Fish (Manus Island, 2016)
What Challenges Foreign Refugees Face in Indonesia! : J. N. Jonaid (Indonesia 2020)
Unfinished Story of a Girl Born Stateless : Nur Aziza (Indonesia, 2020)
Untitled : Mina (Indonesia, 2020)
Contents
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Response to Writing Through Fences,
single work
essay
(p. 22-24)'We can learn most from those who think differently. In my culture, Aboriginal culture, learning about other people and the world we share is a sacred duty. Adulthood requires it; full citizenship in an Aboriginal nation demands a journey towards intense curiosity, attentiveness and deep reflection. Those without these qualities are not listened to in the same way, and are more or less regarded as children. Australians, for the most part, are childlike in this sense. And children can be cruel.' (Introduction)
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A Boat Must Be Made,
single work
prose
(p. 26-31)Author's note: Excerpt from Heart’s Tongue performed at Castlemaine State Festival 2015 Dja Dja Wurrung Country–Castlemaine. With gratitude to, and respect for, the Dja Dja Wurrung, Waywurru and Barkindji peoples
We made this piece of work because we wanted to perform a possible process of seeking ways of being that show the beauty of encountering an-other with the many complexities that involves. For us, it is a poetics of being, not as disembodied philosophy but rooted in the earth, water, bodies, particular histories, the sensual and language. We wanted to perform possibilities of relationship that work to find places that complicate and shift fixed and binary thinking. Our writing together and subsequent performance was an attempt to move toward a language that grows from shared experiences and deeply held understandings of, and desires for, the world—including the sovereignty of an-other. We wanted to perform both the experiences of coming to ends that trail off into unshareable places; knowledges and experiences that are irrecoverably different as well as experiences of deep meeting. And importantly we wanted to reinvest the word and concept of “boat” with a shared commitment to love. As a starting point we worked from Sohrab Sepehri’s poem, “The Address.”
- Keep Walkingi"Consider the first time that a baby tries to walk,", single work poetry (p. 33-36)
- Friend, single work prose (p. 37-42)
- To My Special Friendi"I appreciate you like the poor when they get food.", single work poetry (p. 43)
- Oooh Old Friendsi"My beloved friend", single work poetry (p. 44)
- Rainbowi"I wake every night", single work poetry (p. 45)
- Long Dusty Road, single work poetry (p. 46-47)
- The Strong Sunfloweri"Manus Island knew nothing of sunflowers", single work poetry (p. 48)
- Unpassable Bridge in 3 Partsi"My guitar is my soul mate nowadays", single work poetry (p. 49-50)
- Dear Behrouz, single work correspondence (p. 55-76)
- C.C. WEEKLY : Christmas Island 4.4.2014, single work prose (p. 78-81)
- When?i"When will I be free from detention?", single work poetry (p. 82)
- One Strong Woman to Anotheri"Let us look forward.", single work poetry (p. 83)
- Newborn Baby behind the Fence VS Mr Abbott, single work prose (p. 84)
- Survivali"I’m not, who I was before", single work poetry (p. 85)
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Soaring Birdsi"I know your crash,",
single work
poetry
(p. 86-87)Author's note: 'To all asylum seekers all over the world; to anyone who has a sadness story in his/her life. Be strong. Be like the soaring birds. Allah (God) never forgets anyone.'
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On Translation,
single work
essay
(p. 93-95)'The following lines are the translation of my own piece. I translate this on the lands of the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation, traditional custodians of this land.' (Introduction)
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A Gift of Love,
single work
(p. 96-98)'My sculpture, "Love," is constituted from three calligraphic characters in the Farsi alphabet. When connected, the characters form the word ‘love.’ In this piece they are set apart to signify heartbreak. The inspiration for the sculpture is my personal heartbreak at the cruel treatment of refugees by successive Australian governments. Having been the recipient of such a treatment I created this piece with the intention of gifting it to the Parliament House as a reminder of love as well as the heartbreak cruel political decisions can cause in fellow human beings.' (Introduction)
- Call Our Names Beautifuli"A boat comes from far away.", single work poetry (p. 99-102)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Related Works
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y
Long Paddock
Writing through Fences
vol.
79
no.
2
November
2021
23555999
2021
periodical issue
'The island continent has created an archipelago of incarceration spanning from South East Asia, Micronesia and Melanesia in the Pacific, the Indian Ocean and across mainland Australia. This issue of Southerly, titled Writing Through Fences, is devoted entirely to the work of past and present refugees in these detention centres.
'The records of their experiences are devastating; their creative responses, across genres and media, are astounding. The issue also includes responses from Australian writers, activists, essayists and students, who engage with refugee writing as well as the practices and consequences of refugee incarceration.
'Writing Through Fences is guest edited by the writer-activists Hani Abdile, Behrouz Boochani, Janet Galbraith and Omid Tofighian. Two of these editors have direct experience of Australian refugee detention. Three have been displaced and exiled. All four have worked for years with refugees as translators, enablers and publishers to bring the creative voices of refugees into public view and circulation. This issue presents the greatest range of new refugee writing assembled to date in Australia.' (Publication summary)
Works about this Work
-
Response to Writing Through Fences
2021
single work
essay
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 79 no. 2 2021; (p. 22-24) 'We can learn most from those who think differently. In my culture, Aboriginal culture, learning about other people and the world we share is a sacred duty. Adulthood requires it; full citizenship in an Aboriginal nation demands a journey towards intense curiosity, attentiveness and deep reflection. Those without these qualities are not listened to in the same way, and are more or less regarded as children. Australians, for the most part, are childlike in this sense. And children can be cruel.' (Introduction)
-
Response to Writing Through Fences
2021
single work
essay
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 79 no. 2 2021; (p. 22-24) 'We can learn most from those who think differently. In my culture, Aboriginal culture, learning about other people and the world we share is a sacred duty. Adulthood requires it; full citizenship in an Aboriginal nation demands a journey towards intense curiosity, attentiveness and deep reflection. Those without these qualities are not listened to in the same way, and are more or less regarded as children. Australians, for the most part, are childlike in this sense. And children can be cruel.' (Introduction)
