Tag

refugee stories

Tibetan Flag is flying outside of the BMCC Chamber

March 10th is a day of great significance for all Tibetans around the world. It is the day on which they gather to mark the anniversary of the Tibetan Uprising in 1959 when, after 10 years of Chinese occupation of Tibet, Tibetans rose up in opposition. 10th March 2020 is the 61st Anniversary of Tibetan National Uprising Day. The Blue Mountains City Council has for some years hosted a Flag Raising Ceremony and the flying of the Tibetan Flag outside the Council Chambers in our Peace Park.

Hard work and perseverance – Who Are We? Part 4

A house full of single men cut off from their families is not always the most serene of places. A house in Liverpool was one such place, full of Tamil men from Sri Lanka and living now very far from home. No mothers, no fathers, no children, and no wives, and this not by any real choice of their own. Many of the young men in this house had Australian residency, but without citizenship they cannot bring their families over to join them.

‘Do not abandon us’ Behrouz Boochani tells audience in Wentworth Falls

Behrouz Boochani, the Kurdish Iranian journalist and award winning autho, discussed his recently published memoir No Friend But the Mountain: Writing From Manus Prison at the Wentworth Falls School of Performing Arts last Saturday. Mr. Boochani fled from Iran to seek refuge in Australia but was instead sent to offshore detention on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea. Mr. Boochani is a vocal advocate for Kurdish people and all refugees and asylum seekers. Mr. Boochani Skyped in from East Lorengu, the refugee accommodation on Manus Island where he currently resides, and received a standing ovation from audience members, before talking about his memoir and his time in detention.

Changing lives, changing perceptions: Young refugees from the Treehouse Theatre perform for Katoomba High

Refugee students from Miller Technology High in Cabramatta, Sydney, shared their life stories in a Tree of Life performance for Katoomba High School on Wednesday 19 June. The students, from war-torn Iraq and Syria, were part of Parramatta’s Treehouse Theatre that provides a platform for young refugees to act out their stories of plight. The young refugees, aged between 12 and 17, performed in front of 700 Katoomba High School students and their teachers. None of them had been in Australia longer than 2 years, with one arriving only 8 months ago.