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Publishes outstanding stories by Christine C, Nitya Dambiec, Darko Djukic, Irene Guo, Salima Haidari, Hallie Kent, Mert Korkusuz, David Maney, Kiah McIntyre-Cooper, Victoria Shaw, Ramona Strang, Edith Tom, Fabienne Trevere, Najeeba Wazefadost The winning stories magazine was created primarily to celebrate and commemorate the 2004 competition and sold also as a fundraiser for AAR. Printing part funded by Foundation for Young Australians Grant and otherwise by AAR funds from 2002 sales. Cover image created especially for this project by Judy Horacek Over 600 complimentary copies distributed to media; audience at the Young Australians Parliamentary Forum; winners; sponsors; and all sitting federal politicians, state premiers and education and social justice ministers; some librarians. Several schools have ordered full classroom sets Other bulk orders sent to Chilout; International PEN; NSW Dept of Ed; AEU (SA) Order here |
2004 "There is No Place Like Home" Schools Competition
On the theme There is No Place Like Home, school children and young writers to age 20 were encouraged to find and interview someone who was driven or torn from their home and forced to begin a new life and make a new home among strangers. They were invited to find and tell the stories of refugee or Indigenous Australians, displaced peoples from recent times or from the distant past. The competition encouraged the discovery of the meaning and experience of exile or forced dispossession, and how the young writers' peers or elders survived and rebuilt their lives.
$10,000 in prizemoneys was donated by many sponsors. All time admin and skills donated.
14 winners were selected by judges Geraldine Brooks, Nicholas Jose and Tony Birch. (major winning story had three authors). 63 young writers highly commended. Winning stories published in There is No Place Like Home Winning Stories Magazine and presented at the Young Australians' Parliamentary Forum.
2004 Young Australians Parliamentary Forum
(a joint Australians Against Racism and United Nations Association Australia project)
Held 6th October 2004 in the main Committee Room in Parliament House, Canberra. For a young person's commentary on the event go here
Funded by a grant from the Foundation for Young Australians, supported by Margaret Reynolds of UNAA and four parliamentarians.
This was the major event for the winners of There is No Place Like Home. They were flown to Canberra to read their stories at the event. Speeches were from Senator Andrew Bartlett, Senator Kerry Nettle, Annette Ellis MP for Dr Carmen Lawrence MP, Merlin Luck for Senator Marise Payne, and Hai-Van Nguyen, winner in 2002. Actors for Refugees MCs were Kate Atkinson, Rupert Reid and Georgina Naidu, and Merlin Luck for the Prize presentation event.
"Voices of Hope" Schools Project 2003
Amnesty International Australia worked in conjunction with Australians Against Racism to present AIA’s "Voices of Hope" in 2003, a huge nationwide schools program that took up the Australia is Refugees! concept. Australians Against Racism sponsored the major prize of $1000 in the literature section of the "Voices of Hope" Youth Arts Festival. Eva Sallis was one of the national judges.
Australia IS Refugees! Nationwide Competition 2002
| AIR! The Award Booklet AIR! publishes the winning stories for 2002. Copies are available for a contribution to AAR projects of $12. Order form here AIR! was an exceptionally successful schools competition run in two categories: years 6 and 7; and years 10-12. Hundreds of children and young adults from all over Australia participated. The project was entirely created and put into effect by volunteers, with major prizes sponsored by individuals and organisations (see below). For information on how the project was described, see the attached PDF flier here |
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SENATOR KERRY NETTLE
AUSTRALIAN GREENS
"This project asked children and young adults to find someone who came to Australia as a refugee and listen to their story. Then they had to imagine it, and in a sense make it their own by writing it. This sounds simple but such an encounter is one of the most transforming of human experiences. Many children had one of these stories living in the memory of a relative, and many found strangers who, through storytelling, became friends. Many had, housed in their own memory, one of these terrible, wonderful and important stories. The results are extraordinary. The entries we received were diverse in the extreme but they shared a striking compassion and a natural sense justice and the importance of human rights. This project speaks very well indeed for young Australians.
This experience is clearly profoundly transforming. This project gave its participants enough freedom to discover for themselves what it means to be a refugee or to value and express their own history as refugee. It is the hope of all involved in implementing the project that this will have a slow but direct impact on Australia’s evolving community.
Australia IS Refugees! received stories from 41 countries: Afghanistan, Albania, Austria, Bosnia, Cambodia, Chile, Colombia, El-Salvador, England, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Ireland, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Kosovo, Kenya, Laos, Latvia, Liberia, Lithuania, Palestine, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Ukraine, Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Zaire, Zimbabwe.
We will be compiling a major book from up to seventy entries in 2003."
EVA SALLIS
Results
Read winners and highly commended list here
Read judges reports here
Download winning stories
Hai-Van Nguyen NSW Senior First Prize
Zana Mujezinovic VIC Senior Second Prize
Melanie Poole ACT Senior Third Prize
Mohammad Zia VIC Senior Equal Fourth Prize
Zara Al Hosany Al Shara NSW Senior Equal Fourth Prize
Khazmira Bashah WA Junior First Prize
Gabriel Courtney NSW Junior Second Prize
Tita Tran SA Junior Third Prize
Rosa Brown NSW Junior Special Award
Australia IS Refugees! people
Concept by Eva Sallis, coordinated by Sonja Dechian, Jenni Devereaux, Mary Freer, Heather Millar, John Wishart. Media and PR by Virginia Gordon and Morag Smith, Design by Kelly Martin
Judges Phillip Adams, Helen Garner, Tom Shapcott, Libby Gleeson and Meme McDonald
Prizes presented by Malcolm Fraser
AIR! edited by Heather Millar and Eva Sallis
design by Helena Turinski
cover art by Kate Durham
printing made possible by Resources for Courses
Major Prizes sponsored by Australian Education Union, Australian Education Union SA, Allen & Unwin, Geraldine Brooks, John Kinsella, Raimond Gaita, Independent Education Union Australia, National Committee on Human Rights Education, NSW Teachers Federation, Margaret Reynolds United Nations Association Australia, Selina
Sponsors and supporters are Actors for Refugees, A Just Australia/Australians For Just Refugee Programs (AFJRP), Ian Anderson, Kate Atkinson, Australian Refugees’ Association, BJ and A Bake, Brunswick street Bookstore, Julian Burnside QC, Errin Davis, James Dent, Dan Farmer, Ann Feather, Derek Fielding, Ron and Sue Fraser, Fremantle Refugee Support Project, Alice Garner, Fiona Hardie and Sandy Grant, Hardie Grant Publishing, Lolo Houbein, John Kinsella, Greg Magi, The CUB Malthouse, Bern McPhee, Metro/Screen Education, Grace Mulraney, Oz Positive, CJR and LJ Payne, Hellen Rabel, Resources for Courses, Rural Australians for Refugees, Albert Shelling, School of Social Work and Social Policy, University of South Australia, Beverley Sherry, Jack Smit Project Safecom, MDH and REJ Smith, South Australians for Justice for Refugees, Jo Stanley, Victoria Chambers, Nadia Wheatley, Teresita White, Diana Wolowski, Ulrike Zimmermann.
Winners and Professor Reynolds accommodated by Savoy Park Plaza Hotel