Lead Partner: Scattered People, Australia
Description
Based in Brisbane, Australia the Refugee Claimants Support Centre (RCSC) is grounded in the principles of social justice, multiculturalism and community development. As much as possible refugee claimants drive and participate in the work of the Centre. Refugee claimants (also known as ‘asylum seekers’) are men, women and children who, fearing persecution in their country of origin, have escaped to a safe country. They come to countries like Australia seeking asylum and protection from conflict, oppressive regimes and personal persecution. Many ‘first world’ countries such as Australia, are making the process of seeking asylum increasingly difficult by denying refugee claimants work permission, language classes, access to health services and basic financial support. Hence refugee claimants, while waiting up to three years for their cases to be heard and a decision to be made, can often live in poverty without access to basic services and life necessities.
It was in such an environment of support and belonging that the Refugee Claimants Choir was created and from this that the Scattered People project evolved. By coming together to sing - finding and sharing their ‘common ground’ - their brokenness, their resilience, their frustrations and their hopes for the future and by teaching one another the songs of their homeland, refugee claimants shared their culture and in the process tapped a deep internal resource. Under the musical direction of Centre volunteers, they developed into a Choir that, since 1998, has performed successfully at a number of public venues in Brisbane and Canberra.
Following these performances an opportunity was recognised to use the success of the choir to record a CD to educate and raise the public’s awareness of the plight of refugee claimants. RCSC and Lifeline Brisbane worked with refugee claimants to identify generic themes common in their journey. It began with their homeland in peaceful times, the trauma and chaos of war or persecution, their escape to Australia, the difficulties of adjusting to a new environment, the frustration of seeking asylum, and their overwhelming desire for peace and acceptance.
The Brisbane Ethnic Music & Arts Centre Inc (BEMAC) contributed to the project as did a number of Brisbane musicians, many of them from diverse cultures and some of them former refugees. All contributed to the crafting of the CD entitled Scattered People as it expressed the experiences, frustration and hopes of the refugee claimants in original songs and music. With very little resource and a home recording studio the music went on to national and international success.
www.brisbane-stories.webcentral.com.au/scatteredpeople
“everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution”
- article 14, Universal declaration of Human Rights
Contact Details
info@sweetfreedom.netWebsite: http://www.refugees.org.au/