Refugees and Asylum Seekers

Over the years SWAN has had a variety of speakers discussing the complicated social justice issues around Asylum Seekers and refugees in Australia. Several members of SWAN are regular visitors to the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre and are happy to take any items donated at SWAN meetings to the ASRC. A box is located by the registration desk where donations of non perishable food and toiletries can be deposited. For further information on fund raising campaigns, volunteering opportunities and up to date news, please refer to the ASRC website.
Bayside Refugee Advocacy and Support Agency is another option for assisting refugees and have details on their website re how you can join, what they do and how you can assist.
Also Grandmothers for Refugees who also welcome Friends of Grandmothers for Refugees.
I'm Hani, Poet and RACS Ambassador.
I wanted to share with you my poem - 'I Will Rise'.
I wrote this when I was held in Christmas Island, as a tribute to the great Maya Angelou.
Because people will rise, it doesn't matter what happens. There is always hope on the horizon.
I Will Rise by Hani Abdile
You now lock me in detention and damage my hopes But it's like dust And one day, one day I will rise
You may avoid my sadness and send me to Manus But one day, one day I will rise
You may hide the reality and break my heart But one day, one day I will rise
Why can't you help me? Why can't you help me? I might be a female who needs assistance from you
You may send me to other countries and shoot me with your words But one day, one day I will rise
You may punish me by saying lies But one day, one day I will rise
You may kill me with your hateful actions But it's like air And one day, one day I will rise
You may never care about my awful past and enjoy my tears But one day I will rise
I might have bad memories rooted in pain But one day, one day I will rise
I may have left a fear-filled life, a fear-filled life full of horror But one day I will rise
Does my mind, does my mind upset you so full of thoughts? I'm an asylum seeker, I am an asylum seeker who seeks for freedom and doesn't have anywhere else to go
Does it come, does it come as a surprise to you that no matter what you have done to me I will forgive you?
Wherever you send me as long as I see the sun rise and the moon come up
I will rise. I will rise. I will rise.
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Hani Abdile, Poet and RACS Ambassador |
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