Ammar has become a big fan of cooking TV shows such as Master Chef since he arrived in Australia in 2013, where he learned about the cuisines of many different cultures.
The avid home cook drew inspiration from these TV chefs to develop his culturally diverse menu, which combined Italian and Australian cuisine.
“I cook these dishes at home sometimes for friends. I really enjoy being in the kitchen and cooking,” he said.
Ammar, who is seeking asylum in Australia, has enjoyed cooking from an early age, when he would watch his mother prepare meals in his native country of Iraq.
“She made different food from the Australian and Italian meals I have here. We had rice, smoked fish and chicken. Before I came to Australia, I sometimes cooked for my mum too,” he said.
Chicken and mushroom risotto
Serves 4–6
Ingredients:
300g chicken breast, diced
Two cups of mushrooms, chopped
¼ cup of cream
Bunch of shallots/spring onions, chopped
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 ½ cups Arborio rice
Three cups of stock or water
Olive oil to taste
Method:
- Heat olive oil in a large pot. Add chicken and mushrooms until cooked through.
- Add the cream, shallots and garlic, and continue stirring.
- Add the rice and stir.
- Add stock or water one ladle at a time. Stir until rice has absorbed the liquid, then add another ladleful until the rice is cooked.
Tomato vegetarian pasta
Serves 4–6
Ingredients:
500g penne pasta
1 red capsicum, chopped
1 green capsicum, chopped
200g mushrooms
1 Spanish onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
½ tablespoon of butter
½ cup pitted black olives
1 jar whole peeled Italian tomatoes
A handful of basil leaves
A pinch of white pepper
A pinch of salt
Method:
- Heat butter in a fry pan until melted.
- Add garlic, onion, mushrooms, olives and both capsicums, and fry.
- Add the tinned tomato, basil and white pepper, and sauté until heated through.
- Meanwhile, cook penne pasta in boiling water with a pinch of salt until al dente.
- Drain the pasta and stir the sauce through.
The introductory workshop gave the women a taste of the traditional dance style of Bharatanatyam, which is an intricate and expressive form of dance that has been practised in India for centuries.
The workshop was organised as part of Settlement Services International’s Arts and Culture program with the aim of equipping female refugees with the tools to use dance as a physical outlet to express their emotions.
Talented performer and educator Aruna Gandhi led the women in an exploration of the hand gestures, rhythm, storytelling and movements that are an inherent part of the classic Indian dance style.
“All of us have a dream. We all want to achieve something or to create something, so we put all of those feelings and aspirations together in a dance. That’s what this workshop was all about,” Ms Gandhi said.
“Each person has to feel and express their own unique feelings and experiences.”
SSI’s HSS Service Delivery Manager Yamamah Agha said the workshop was a great confidence-building exercise for the women and gave them a safe environment to connect with their peers.
“Isolation is a real risk for some female refugees, so it’s important for SSI to facilitate social opportunities that help women to connect with other women while learning new skills,” she said.
“These workshops also support refugees’ physical and emotional wellbeing by promoting the benefits of exercise and physical activity.”
For many of the women, the dance workshop was also a unique introduction to a new culture, Ms Agha added.
“Many of these women come from countries without the widespread multiculturalism that is such an inherent part of Australian society, so this workshop was a great way to explore a new culture and learn about traditions to which these women may not have previously been exposed,” she said.
The women reconvened this week for a second workshop with Aruna, where they used the skills they acquired in the introductory session to begin choreographing a piece for showcase later this year.
Journalist Sarah Malik facilitated the evening and opened the March 29 event by describing the journey of a refugee and asylum seeker as being like that of Jason and the Argonauts — though their quest was Australia, instead of the Golden Fleece.
Four amazing individuals were on the panel for the Inspiring stories of former refugees who made Australia home discussion and, throughout the evening, it became apparent that their common experiences were the power of education, employment and English language.
Hana Sadiq, from Iraq, said from her very first day in Australia she studied English. Ms Sadiq now helps newly arrived students and their families to settle in Australia.
“Language is the key to settling here,” she said.
“Australian English is the hardest English in the world to learn,” said Deng Thiak Adut, who came to Australia from South Sudan. Mr Adut, now a lawyer with his own practice, came to Australia with no knowledge of English.
Having escaped life as a child soldier, he said there were different wars to fight in Australia, and learning English (as well as the cold weather) was one of them.
Watch Speakers’ Series: Inspiring stories of former refugees in full below
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Describing himself as the veteran on the panel, having arrived from Vietnam in 1978, Huy Truong said that, although the atmosphere towards refugees was then more positive than it is today, he and his siblings still struggled to fit in and there were even physical fights.
“Without language, every day was a frustration,” Mr Truong said.
The SSI Speakers Series provides opportunities for panel discussions that enhance knowledge and awareness about refugee and asylum seeker issues, and one of the issues discussed was the challenges that they each had to overcome.
Aminata Conteh-Biger was one of the first refugees from Sierra Leone to be accepted into Australia in 2000. Although very sociable by nature, her trauma caused her to become introverted, she said, and she struggled and felt isolated for a long time.
Now, every day provided a choice and “no” was not an option for her. “If someone says I can’t do something, I try even harder,” Ms Conteh-Biger said.
Mr Adut said he would never be able to explain how hard it was when he first arrived, but there were so many opportunities and he grabbed them all.
“Work hard and you’ll get there,” he said. “Australia truly is rich in everything, so take advantage of all the opportunities there are.”
Between them, Mr Truong’s parents worked 24 hours a day as factory shift workers. That strong work ethic spurred him on to succeed, contribute back to the country that accepted his family, and not waste the opportunity given to him to grow up in a safe place.
“Having come from a refugee background, that gave us a strong sense of self-reliance and a different perspective on life — you can’t really complain about ‘having a bad day’,” Mr Truong said.
Unfortunately, Mr Truong had to leave before the evening was over, but the one message the other three guests wanted to leave was what it meant to be a refugee.
Ms Conteh-Biger: “Be compassionate — there is not a deep enough understanding in Australia of why people are seeking refuge here. People don’t risk their children and their lives by putting them on a boat for no reason.”
Mr Adut: “Do not judge refugees. In fact they should be welcomed as heroes.”
Ms Sadiq: “It is difficult and they face hard times but, with support, employment and English, they will overcome them and thrive.”
{youtube}https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buA3tsGnp2s{/youtube}
“My experiences have helped me understand the meaning of humanity,” Mr Adut said. “What it means to be given opportunity in life.”
Mr Adut practices in the areas of criminal, family, employment and international law. He has not only worked at three reputable Sydney law firms but has also demonstrated a remarkable commitment to social justice.
He has worked at Blacktown Local Court as a liaison officer to the local Sudanese community and at Parramatta Community Justice Clinic, which operates to provide disadvantaged members of the community access to the legal justice system.
“I can empathise with people who are vulnerable and underprivileged,” he said. “I’m one of them; my life is not separate from theirs because we have been through the same experiences.”
Mr Adut is committed to making a positive difference and in doing so, devotes many hours of his personal time every week to activities such as mentoring, advising and supporting members of the community.
According to Mr Adut, the main issues affecting refugees at the moment are integration, discrimination and economic deprivation. Additionally, he believes they are likely to get caught up in the justice system.
“They are entering a society where everything has already been established,” Mr Adut said. “My advice is to them is that they need to be patient, it is the most necessary skill if you are a refugee. It’s not a quick fix, it’s a marathon.”
As a result of his own experience, Mr Adut defends Australian and believes it is a welcoming nation and this is a concept that should be protected by all of us.
“I think that being Australian is a beautiful thing,” Mr Adut said. “Being Australian means continuing the history of helping and accepting people who need a hand up.”
“I always tell them, accept help from those who are willing and are able to help. “Don’t worry about those who aren’t”.
Mr Adut has been nationally recognised for his achievements and NSW Premier Mike Baird invited him to give the 2016 Australia Day Address, which drew critical acclaim home and abroad. The 2016 Australia Day Address can be read here.
See Mr Adut tell his story in person at SSI Speakers’ Series:
Speakers’ Series: Inspiring stories of former refugees
When: Tuesday, March 29
Time: 6-7.30pm
Where: SSI Head office, Level 2, 158 Liverpool Road Ashfield, NSW 2131 Australia
Tickets: $15 donation available through Eventbrite
SSI Work for the Dole participant Marcel Tawbeh (left) and staff member Napoleon Mansour.
The Staples Bag was developed as part of the CoAct/SSI Work for the Dole (WFD) program. It provides access to discounted essential groceries and also provides job seekers with tangible skills in a range of areas including logo and website design, packaging and warehouse maintenance, customer service and direct marketing.
“The SSI Staples Bag is a great program that has given me experience in different things, and I’ve discovered that working with people and in retail is really fun and much easier than I thought it would be,” Mr Tawbeh said.
Brad Reed of Croydon Park has been with SSI’s Work for the Dole program for less than three weeks but has already had five job interviews in that time; more than he has had in the past eight years of unemployment.
Mr Reed moved from Broken Hill to help his ageing grandmother and to find work. He said he was ‘stoked’ about his employment prospects and can’t believe that people in Sydney say it’s hard to find work.
“I moved to Sydney because I want to be a good role model for my two sons and I don’t want them to see me sitting around unemployed and unable to provide for them” Mr Reed said.
“SSI has really looked out for me and found opportunities that I’m interested in.
“Working with the Staples Bag team is helping to me keep busy, learn new skills and meet new people, and it gets me closer to bringing my boys to Sydney to join me.”
Mr Tawbeh is a keen gamer and hopes to get a job in an electronics shop, while Mr Reed is interested in security work.
Both men however are extremely motivated and happy to find any employment, and attribute this motivation to SSI.
“I do extra hours with Staples Bag because I enjoy it so much,” Mr Tawbeh said.
Settlement Services International (SSI) is a community-based not-for-profit organisation that provides a range of services in the areas of humanitarian settlement, accommodation, asylum seeker assistance, multicultural foster care, employment services and disability support in NSW.
As a member of CoAct, a national network of locally-embedded community service providers, SSI delivers the Australian Government’s jobactive service.
Job seekers can find the CoAct/SSI job active office at 308 Beamish Street Campsie. To purchase the Staples Bag, visit the warehouse at 449 Canterbury Road, Campsie or go to website www.thestaplesbag.org.au
Media enquiries
SSI Communications Coordinator Rekha Sanghi 0422 304 578
Ability Links NSW Linker Takako Nishide and Castlecrag mother Hiroko Kawashima.
ALNSW is a program designed to help people with disability, their families and carers, meet their needs and reach their potential within their local communities.
Since the family’s arrival in Australia, Sayaka had been attending the Sydney Japanese International School. With her family’s efforts and tutoring from a support teacher privately funded by her parents, she had been getting by during her primary school education.
However, this situation proved to be insufficient once Sayaka turned 12, and the transition to high school quickly approached. Mrs Nishide knew that she had to find a new school for her daughter, but did not know where to start looking for options for an international student with a disability in a schooling system she was not familiar with.
“We moved to Australia two and a half years ago because of my husband’s job,” Mrs. Nishide said. “It was harder for my son, who was 14 at the time and had to quit his baseball team, which meant a lot to him. However, life for my daughter Sayaka had been easier in Sydney than what it would have been in Japan, where social stigma of having a mental health issue is still a problem.”
Now based in Castlecrag, Mrs Nishide found the solution unexpectedly at a Japanese carers meeting group in Chatswood where she met Hiroko Kawashima. Mrs Kawashima is a Linker with SSI’s ALNSW program.
SSI Linkers use their knowledge of the local area to help their participants plan for their future by accessing already existing resources available close to them. The pair started working together to explore the best options for Sayaka’s future. Mrs Kawashima, who is based in SSI’s new Willoughby office, helped the Castlecrag mum to navigate the public school system in NSW, helping fill out and lodge applications, as well as meeting with school counsellors.
This effort resulted in a place secured for Sayaka at Chatswood High School, where she will attend a special needs class with 15 other students who also require special learning support.
Chatswood High School, where Sayaka will start Year 7 at the end of January, promotes an integration policy where students with disabilities have their educational needs met by a combination of integrated and specialist classes. According to its website, “additional support is provided by itinerant support teachers, interpreters and teachers’ aides.”
To find out more about ALNSW and how SSI can help, please call the Ability Links offices on 02 8799 6700.
Photos from the education training event.
While most of the presentation addressed how the educational institutions could assist students from a refugee or migrant background, it became clear that the institutions could benefit from the experience and expertise of the migrant resource centres, multicultural services and community organisations in the NSP.
At the training activity, NSP members discussed ways to empower clients to make informed decisions about study and the employment opportunities that might result from specific pathways.
It covered the services provided, gave an overview of education and training, and programs from the university sector, TAFE and Centrelink that support migrants and refugees, and explained how referrals can be made to TAFE for training and education opportunities.
Deborah Hyam, a faculty director at TAFE, said TAFE offered many beneficial services, including inclusive teaching practices industry involvement, multicultural communities on campus, hands-on, practical training, government-funded training with concessions and scholarships, outreach programs, counselling services, disability consultants and learner support programs.
Zarlasht Sarwari, a senior project officer for UNSW, said the university provided equity access for students experiencing disadvantage or hardship. There were scholarships and pathway programs to develop academic skills, including those for mature-age students who had never dreamed they would attend university.
Ms Sarwari said NSP partners had a role in helping students find people in the education sector who could support and encourage them.
Successful transition
Semra Tastan, project coordinator with Learning, Education Aspiration, Participation (LEAP) at Macquarie University, spoke of improving access and support for students under-represented at university. Macquarie University, she said, supported the successful transition of high school students from refugee backgrounds into higher education.
Fernando Giumentaro and Julian Jeyakumar from the Australian Government Department of Human Services said the department could help enable NSP partners to empower their clients. Multicultural Services Officers could assist clients to gain access to Centrelink, Medicare and Child Support services, they said.
The TAFE NSW workshop included speakers from TAFE in Western Sydney, South Western Sydney, and Sutherland College Sydney Institute. The workshop was led by Paula Abood, a community cultural development practitioner, filmmaker, writer and educator, led the workshop and spoke of the effect and influence of cultural misunderstandings, family context and access to financial support. She said it was possible to set clients up well if their re-entry into education was a positive experience.
No overseas qualifications precisely match Australian qualifications, NSP members were told, which often made it necessary to enrol in TAFE to get recognition. TAFE has higher education sections and is a stepping stone for skills development before university. It also has reverse pathways to add vocational training after getting an academic degree.
NSP members were told they should contact TAFE staff for assistance to find the right people with the right expertise for their clients. TAFE staff, in turn, may encourage students to connect with a migrant resource centre, where they can find company and encouragement.
TAFE offers language training in work settings and courses with embedded English language training, and it is investigating a program with SSI to match skills with functional language, NSP members heard.
Norma Fakhouri, a senior counsellor at Sutherland College, said, “the key is how we work together to share resources and become an ecosystem that is fluid and shares resources and knowledge.”
The NSP could help educators by assessing their clients: What do they have? Do they need money for internships, support for traineeships, or help with employability skills?
Migrants and people from refugee backgrounds, and their case workers, shouldn’t be shy to contact universities to explain the problems they are facing. Educators advised NSP members that they could speak to equity departments, who understand those problems.
Participants were told universities also needed to have conversations with people on the ground so they remained informed about key issues.
Australia Day address speaker Deng Thiak Adut. Photo: James Brickwood
It has been a 200-year journey for their descendants to reassert the right to be free of those fears, to acclaim pride in their traditions. That’s a long wait.
The theme of this year’s Australia Day address is that freedom from fear is very special to all of us. To appreciate the value of freedom one must first be denied it. To know real fear gives special meaning and yearning to being free of fear.
So what does ‘freedom from fear’ entail for you and me as Australians, or those who ‘want to be Australians’ in 2016?
Let me share with you parts of my story. It may be unfamiliar to those who have been born and grown up in a peaceful Australia. To those who have come as refugees from the world’s trouble spots, parts of this story will be too familiar. A point of this story is to emphasise how very lucky we are to enjoy freedom from fear, and how very unlucky are many, many others who neither choose, nor deserve their fate.
I was born in a small fishing village called Malek, in the South Sudan. My father was a fisherman and we had a banana farm. I am one of eight children born to Mr Thiak Adut Garang and Ms Athieu Akau Deng. So the parts of my name are drawn from both my parents. My given name is Deng which means god of the rain. In those parts of this wide brown land that are short of water my name might be a good omen. I have a nickname: Auoloch, which means swallow. Alas I couldn’t fly and as a young boy, about the age of a typical second grader in Sydney, I was conscripted into an army.
As they took me away from my home and family I didn’t even understand what freedoms I had lost. I didn’t understand how fearful I should have been. I was young. I was ignorant. I lost the freedom to read and write. I lost the freedom to sing children’s songs. I lost the right to be innocent. I lost the right to be a child.
Instead, I was taught to sing war songs. In place of the love of life I was taught to love the death of others. I had one freedom – the freedom to die and I’ll return to that a little later.
I lost the right to say what I thought. In place of ‘free speech’, I was an oppressor to those who wanted to express opinions that were different to those who armed me, fed me, told me what to think, where to go and what to do.
And there was something else very special to me that was taken away. I was denied the right to become an initiated member of my tribe. The mark of ‘inclusiveness’ was denied to me.
{youtube}https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buA3tsGnp2s{/youtube}
I had to wait until I became an Australian citizen to know that I belonged.
As an Australian I am proud that we have a national anthem. It’s ours and to hear it played and sung is to feel pride, pride that we are a nation of free people. It has a historical background that is familiar to those who grew up here, but which is not easily understood by newcomers. I found it useful to take some lines from our anthem to bring together what I want to share with you.
To be here today, talking about freedom from fear, about the rewards that come from thinking ‘inclusively’, rather than thinking ‘divisively’, is to achieve something that the child conscript Deng could not imagine.
I came to Australia as an illiterate, penniless teenager, traumatised physically and emotionally by war. In Sudan, I was considered legally disabled, only by virtue of being black or having a dark skin complexion. As you can see I am very black and proud of my dark skin complexion. But in the Sudan my colour meant that my prospects could go no further than a dream of being allowed to finish a primary education. To be a lawyer was unthinkable. Australia opened the doors of its schools and universities. I would particularly like to thank the Western Sydney University where I received my Law degree and the University of Wollongong where I obtained my Masters degree in Law – an experience which enabled me to realise my dream of becoming a court room advocate. Australia educated me. How lucky I became. How lucky is any person who receives an education in a free land and goes on to use it in daily life.
In 1987, the year before the Australian Bi-Centennial celebrations, I was among many young children forcibly removed from their homes and families and marched to Ethiopia, for reasons that were unknown to me at the time. I walked thousands of kilometres without shoes or underwear.
What do we take for granted as Australians? Free education, food, clothing (more than shoes and underwear), shelter , health care and personal safety. We take those things for granted until we don’t have them.
I witnessed children like myself dying as we made our way, bare]foot and starving. As a child, witnessing the death of a relative is something that stays with you for life. Even today, I remember the deadened face and the gaunt skeletal body of one of my nephews lying on a corn sack. I saw too much abuse and death among my friends during the war. I sustained physical abuse from my superiors because of my inability to follow orders and for demanding decent treatment. I was a child soldier and I was expected to kill or be killed.
Within a year I was plagued by disease and malnutrition. I felt isolated and deserted. I remember being told off by one of my close relatives in 1989 because I was poking him with my protruding bones. He too was a forced conscript. We were stationed in a camp in Western Ethiopia that was disguised as though it was a refugees’ camp. He told me I should just die. I understand now that he too was suffering from depression and by caring for me he was unable to improve his own situation. By this time, I could only take fluids. I feel sorry for my relative. I do not believe that he was trying to be cruel. He was just a child too, unable to properly look after me or himself.
In those days, what I needed was a loving parent. What child, taken away from the care of his or her parents will not suffer some form of psychological trauma? What child, merely seven years of age and ordered to witness deaths by firing squads will not suffer a lasting injury? What child, upon seeing dead bodies, lying in pools of moving blood, will not suffer some sort of long term psychological damage?
Around 1993, I watched some boys, only 10 or 11 years old, as they picked up their AK47s, put the gun to their heads, squeezed the trigger with their own fingers and blew out their brains. In a better world those fingers might have made music in a place such as this hall, built homes, operated the equipment of scientific discovery. Instead their short lives were as nothing – innocents destroyed. I, consumed by fear, couldn’t pull a trigger myself, because I was too scared. Yes, fear saved me. But I understand why they did it. For my fellow child soldiers, pulling the trigger was the quickest way to die and for them the thought of dying was better than the reality of living.
I wonder what their spirits would have thought if they saw that I would become a practising lawyer in Australia some 18 years later. I grieve for them. For them the freedom from fear was death. I was lucky. You are too. Freedom from fear is about acceptance of our common identity. For we Australians in 2016 freedom from fear is almost taken for granted. We had better take care to keep it.
Let me turn now from memories of death to messages of hope, first for new arrivals to these shores and then to those who have long called Australia home.
To those recently arrived, do not give up the dream that brought you here. Within every Australian community there are people who were immigrants or whose parents were immigrants. Treat the experiences that brought you here as tough training for the journey of establishing new lives, new families, new careers.
Clover Moore in that same speech I mentioned earlier noted that, ‘The Australian national anthem has promised that, for those who’ve come across the sea, we’ve boundless plains to share’. Surprise! Surprise! Australia is a nation where most of us, most of the time, seek to give and receive a ‘fair go’ and ‘respect democracy’. It’s that ‘fair go’ that you see in every new Australian success story. That is the ‘Advance Australia Fair’ in the anthem.
I know that some who are watching and listening will be wondering why I, so black, am ignoring that the ruling majority appear to be white. I don’t ignore it, just as I don’t ignore that the colours and faces of the Australian community are such a rich palate. Take a trip around an Australian city, visit a building site, walk around an educational campus, look at the names in our sporting teams, and hear, see, smell, and taste the richness of the cultures in any of our shopping centres. White is a colour to which so much can be added.
I remind every youthful migrant to remember and cherish where you came from. It is your grounding, just as important to you as this land is to the traditional owners of this place. Your parents and relatives made sacrifices for your freedom to be here without fear. You must have a dream that takes you up and beyond any past trauma and turmoil. We are special, each and every one of us. You are special to this nation and you ought to listen to your heart and take hold of opportunities.
Of course fears arrive unbidden and unwelcome. We all experience that from time to time. Can we get and keep a job? How do we keep our cherished cultural traditions alive? Can we earn respect? Will we be listened to? But don’t fight your fears alone. Here we have the freedom to seek help from new friends, the elders, even a stranger who can be your friend at the time you need them. Remember, fellow immigrants, we begin as strangers in this land and we have much to learn. But the freedoms of this place mean that most of the time, from most people, there is a welcoming hand. So fear not.
That leads me to those who are settled Australians. This past few years there have been unexpected fears, the fears that random atrocities such as those that took place in Bali, and more recently in London, Paris and Istanbul will come here. We scarcely notice the frequency of such acts in other places where terror, not freedom from fear, is the norm.
Fears and doubt are the ideal environment in which to breed misguided obsessions and grand delusions. There is nothing new in such manipulation. It was done to me. Such manipulation of the confused and searching spirit of youth is essential for those who use others in their quest for power.
In responding to tragedies in which the lives of victims and perpetrators alike have been snuffed out to serve some demagogue, we must all be careful not to let local opportunists exploit our emotions with simplistic solutions.
What seems new for we Australians is that the physical barriers to terror such as distance and sea are now irrelevant. But this is just the shortness of memory. These barriers became irrelevant for the traditional owners of this land when the winds and the currents brought the ships of the First Fleet up this Harbour. More recently these barriers were no barriers at all when a midget submarine entered Sydney Harbour during the Second World War.
Then as now freedom from fear is something that must be fought for. It can never be taken for granted. Fighting must sometimes be physical and our War Memorials are testament to those who fought and gave their all. But the first line of defence against consuming fear is always our collective hearts and minds.
And collectively what makes this Nation one to be proud of is the willingness of most in our communities to be accepting, tolerant, inclusive and welcoming. Our anthem speaks of the courage needed to let us all combine. Now is the time.
The fears among us are not limited to terrorism. It is all too clear that partner abuse and child abuse flourished in families where the victims were afraid to speak out. It is not so long ago that gays and lesbians lived in fear of exposure. Attitudes and actions needed to change and that has happened, but there is still more to be done.
This afternoon, I delight in thanking all those whose support for ‘freedom from fear’ never wavers. These are the people, the people all around us, who freely gave me hope and sustained it. They understand the journey that has brought new arrivals to these shores from war, famine, oppression, and which then becomes the new journey that follows a new path, a path of ‘freedom from fear’.
The spirit of giving walks that same path to remind us all about the less fortunate. The reward of freedom from fear has a price: to willingly give for others without hope of anything beyond ‘thanks’. This is an obligation that never ends.
One of my early Australian friends illustrates this point. He bought me my first bicycle and got me a job to mow lawns. Geoff died a decade ago, and I shall always remember him for his encouragement, his faith, and his investment in me.
There are now so many friends, colleagues, and teachers who all in different ways have led me here. I thank you all, not only for your help to me but the likely help you have given others too.
Last but not least, my gratitude is to fellow Australians for opening the door, not only to me but to all the other migrants like me. Without your spirit of a fair go, my story could not have been told.
We acquire our community wisdom from our collective, shared experiences.
It’s that wisdom, which underlies our entitlement to sing in joyful strains how proud we are today to be Australians.
Let’s look at the future. My guru told me to live so that I can build a living memorial for my departed loved ones. There will be a charitable foundation in the name of my murdered brother, John Mac. We will raise funds and take action to alleviate poverty, bring education and better health to the lands where I was born and he died.
I will try to follow in the footsteps of a man who wanted to make things right.
I hope that I can be like my friend Geoff, giving less fortunate people a fair go.
I hope that all of us, each in our own way, will strive to understand and help others.
I wish us all a Happy Australia Day.
This transcript first appeared at: SMH.
The photography workshops, held at Auburn Centre for Community and the Royal Botanic Gardens, explored the still image from portraiture to landscape, working with DSLRs, studio set-ups and outdoor photography.
They were part of a body of work within CuriousWorks’ community program that equips former refugees to communicate their experience of seeking asylum, arrival in Australia and what lies beyond refuge.
The display at the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre gave participants a chance to show their work to family and friends, while getting feedback from experienced curators and artists. It was an important step in the creative process, as the participants (who were originally from Iran, Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq) worked towards being part of the arts centre’s major Refuge exhibition in 2016.
Apart from their artistic development, participants have cited numerous other personal, professional and community benefits to being involved in the program.
SSI Arts & Culture Coordinator Carolina Triana said arts initiatives were a powerful tool for refugee and asylum seeker settlement. Both visual storytelling workshops run by CuriousWorks in partnership with SSI to date have helped participants find a creative voice and contributed to building confidence and developing language skills among participants, Ms Triana said.
Guido Gonzalez — a CuriousWorks filmmaker and cultural leader born in Chile, who moved to Australia as a child refugee — mentored the SSI photography group. He was full of enthusiasm for CuriousWorks and its partnership with SSI.
“As a young person growing up in western Sydney I’ve always wanted to engage with arts programs,” Mr Gonzalez said. “When I was younger I saw lots of organisations, facilitators and artists but I’ve never seen anyone do things the way CuriousWorks does things.
“They really emphasise the people in the workshops and what they are getting out of it. And, when the workshop is done, what is happening after that — the opportunities.
“I love the way they help new arrivals find their place and belonging through expression and artistic engagement.”
Mr Gonzalez said working with SSI participants had been life-changing.
“Every time I engage with a new group from SSI I’m being taught another piece of humanity,” he said. “I don’t have to travel the world. The world is here. It’s in western Sydney.
Curious Works will now give the participants’ photography another life. In addition to a further four-week workshop at Casula Powerhouse, the SSI participants will have a chance to show their photography in a larger Powerhouse space and contribute to an exhibition during Refugee Week in 2016.
Mr Gonzalez has also spoken to Fairfield Council about showing the participants’ photographs in Fairfield, which has a large refugee community.
SSI launched its Arts & Culture program for refugees and people seeking asylum in February 2014, to harness the positive roles that the arts and cultural activities can play during settlement.
The program also supports newly arrived artists by identifying relevant networks and providing professional development and performance opportunities while they are seeking asylum or during their early stages of settlement.
Read more about the SSI Curious Works workshops
Adoption is a legal process and transfers rights and responsibilities of parenthood from the child’s birth parents (or from the Minister for those children where parental responsibility is with the Minister) to the adoptive parents.
‘Openness’ in open adoption refers to the building of a relationship between the birth and adoptive families through contact with each other, and the degree of openness with which adoption is discussed within the adoptive family.
One of the key aspects of the Department of Family and Community Services’ Safe Home for Life reforms is the promotion of open adoption as the preferred placement option for children and young people in care, ahead of long term foster care.
As a provider of out of home care services to children and young people of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, through its Multicultural Foster Care Service, SSI has a keen interest in the development of open adoption in NSW.
SSI CEO Violet Roumeliotis said that open adoption was new territory for SSI and many other out of home care agencies, many of whom were represented at the forum.
“Whilst we know we can draw on the skills and expertise that our Multicultural Foster Care Service program already holds in caring for children and young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds, we also know there will be new practice issues to consider in working with open adoption,” Ms Roumeliotis said.
ACWA Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Dr Wendy Foote said that adoption was not just about adding another child to the family.
“Open adoption means extending the family’s borders to encompass not only the child or young person, but also their culture and their biological family,” Dr Foote said.
“It’s important that honest and sometimes difficult conversations between families happen early on in the process of working with families, as adoption is one of the possible pathways for children to achieve stable and permanent homes when their biological families are not able to provide safety and stability.”
The importance of cultural maintenance was a key point in all presentations. The minimising of the ‘ripple effect’ of adoption was also raised as a consideration through an increased level of community engagement and consideration of the broader family.
The ripple effect concept refers to the wide-ranging impacts that adoption has beyond just the mothers and the children that are adopted.
“Open adoption is just one of a number of options available to children and young people in out-of-home care, and we want to be sure that all options are carefully considered to ensure it’s in the best interest of the child,” Ms Roumeliotis said.