Go Back To Where You Came From

Crossing the Red Sea illustrates the excruciating journey endured by immigrants after fleeing from the aftermath

The text chosen for this unit id the book Refuge by prominent Australian writer Jackie French (2013). Refuge follows the story of Faris, a young refugee feeling from his homeland with his grandmother to Australia. On the dangerous boat journey from Indonesia to Australia, they encounter a terrible storm where Faris falls unconscious and wakes up living his dream life in Australia. However, he has no recollection of how he got there. Whilst on the beach, he meets a strange group of children all from different times and places. Faris soon discovers that each child is like him, a migrant who travelled to Australia searching for a better place. Each child is living in their own ‘dream’ Australia and the beach provides a sort of ‘refuge’ from reality for them. Eventually, Faris has to make the decision to either continue living in this dream land or face his reality. This book is interesting as unlike other refugee texts, this novel serves to tell the multicultural history of Australian immigration. French relays the more than 60 000 year old history of people travelling to Australia by boat and makes the statement that all immigrants and refugees need to be treated with empathy and understanding.

Belonging is shaped by the experiences he or she encounters with others, and within the two poems ‘Migrant Hostel’ and ’10 Mary Street’ by Peter Skrzynecki, and the film ‘Looking For Alibrandi’ directed by Kate Woods, the characters’ personas are moulded by their endurances of alienation and barriers from mainstream society due to their personal and cultural differences.

The British invasion of Australia has unfortunately had multiple negative impacts on all Indigenous Australians, and additionally has created historic legacies that frequently effect the way in which people perceive, and work with Indigenous peoples. One of the historic legacies evident throughout Aileen’s case is the horrific occurrence of the stolen generation. One of the most profound consequences of colonisation, involving the removal of Aboriginal children from their families into missions, reserves or other institutions (Dudgeon, Wright, Paradies, Garvey & Walker, n.d.). This historic legacy can be identified in Aileen’s case, which has potential to impact on the processes taking place, and the decisions being made by the stakeholders.

This short story tackles the tale of aboriginal how their land was taken by immigrants and named by immigrants. But they aboriginal people were existing in the land from the earliest times. Hence, what goes into this story about Thomas King’s ‘’Borders’’ is a story full comedic and satire of; how modern generation perspective differs from the older generation. How it is not easy for people who have been a part of history to depart from their true identity and how the newer generation have not gained any exposure of their tribal past hence, they have a lack of understanding community and how the history differs from the rest of the people. This story

Discoveries can be fresh and intensely meaningful, They can occur emotionally, intellectually and pyhsically through confrontation. These forms of discovery impact a persons sense of self by developing a sense of empathy changing perspective and understading new ideas and values. In the televison series 'Go Back to where you came from' a Australian reality show where 5 selected people from across Australia do the cycle of a refugee or boat person backwards.

In the political power play and linguistic treatment of the emblematically powerless reveals not only core party values, but varying conceptions of Australian identity. This is especially recognisable when political debate is considered in the context of three distinct time periods and political situations, demonstrating a transient grasp of elusive ‘Australianness’ in a society defined not by what is desirable, but what is not, thereby degrading ideals of multi-cultural egalitarianism. Put simply, Australia’s postcolonial desire to control its borders and regulate the Hegelian ‘Other’ underpins the politicisation of the ‘boat people’ phenomenon. This relates closely to Chomsky’s assertion that intentionally inducing fear of a “terrifying enemy” is a standard device used “to whip the domestic population of any country into line” behind contentious

Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to give a speech at this year’s Youth Speaks for Australia conference. I am honored to be here to introduce the novel Only the Heart by Brian Caswell and David Chiem which is relevant to the hot topic of refugee families’ life here in Australia. Freedom is the seminal theme developed in the novel to highlight the experiences of the Vo family in post-war Vietnam. I will talk about water, Minh’s decision to meet the ambassador and Toan in relation to the theme setting, plot and character.

What secrets of history dwell rooted in the emotional depths of the muddled Australian river? Kate Grenville, an Australian author delves into the conflicts, encounters and relations between the Indigenous Australians and the European settlers within her novel ‘The Secret River’. The Secret River is part of a trilogy, published in 2005 and is a piece of historical fiction set upon the colonisation of Australia. Grenville uncovers a perspective on the bloody and fierce events that have been lost to time and hidden by people in the past. The novel is portrayed from the point of view of an unfairly deported convict, called William Thornhill from 19th century London, who struggles to live side by side the native Australians.

As mentioned above, my essay “Rabbits and Convicts” won North American Review’s Torch Prize for creative nonfiction in June 2015. The essay follows the importation of rabbits into Australia, their explosion mirroring the descendants of English convicts’ spread across the landscape. It comes at a point in the book manuscript, in a section titled “The Pacific,” where I expand my profiling of misfit species to include other parts of the world, adding both geographic and historical layers. This essay also features a removed narrator, so the audience can focus on the subject of the conquistadors of Australia, both four-legged and two. The work takes us out of the realm of environmental devastation to include cultural legacies and entwines them within

When we view the award-winning documentary Cronulla Riots, we are questioned about the values and ethics of being Australian. Everyone either young or old, male or female, Middle-Eastern or White, living on Australian soil are questioned about the embodiment of Australian values. Therefore, the documentary successfully achieved its purpose on questioning the viewers of being Australian. This can be best

Bobby is effectively the guide throughout the book, and a mediator between the European and Aboriginal cultures. Bridges the gap and creates understanding between the reader and author.

There are many different views about refugees in Australian society, where illegal boat people and over flowing detention centres are a controversial problem today. Go Back To Where You Came From is a documentary directed by Ivan O’Mahoney about a social experiment that challenges the dominant views of six Australians about refugees and asylum seekers. These six Australians are taken on a 25 day journey where they are placed into the troubled “worlds” of refugees. For a few of the Australians it is their first time overseas but, for all of them it is the most challenging and confronting experience of their lives. This essay will discuss

Go Back To Where You Came From is an Australian documentary/reality show in which participants are given the opportunity to experience what the life of refugee and asylum seeker can be like, albeit edited and packaged for an audience. During the course of the three hour long series, the six individuals not only have the chance to get under the skin of a refugee in terms of achieving a greater degree of insight into what being a refugee really means, but also to get on the viewing audiences nerves in perhaps all or any of the of the first three senses described above. Moreover the refugees participating in the series may ‘get under the skin’ of the programme participants and the

The extent to which discovery is embraced relies on the willingness of individuals to be ideologically receptive to their experiences. The influence of discovery may not be determined by the level of planning involved, but one’s willingness widen their perspective of the world, accepting places and people foreign to them. Whilst the mise-en-scene of the beach in the opening interviews establish Adam’s “sheltered” and “apprehensive” response to the refugee issue, his commitment and continual engagement on the ‘Go Back’ journey accentuates the transformation he experiences. Through the perceptive arrangement of indirect interviewing, close-up and mid-shots, Adam’s “reality check” at Villawood Detention Centre proved both intellectually and emotionally transformative, symbolically summated in O’Mahoney’s concluding image of this participant’s reflection with his passport, tenderly appreciating the safety of his home. The director purposefully juxtaposes the limited impact of Raquel’s discovery due to her detachment. The salient focus on her despondent facial and body expressions at the Chin school contrasts Gleny and Raye’s reflection on their empowering teaching experience, hence highlighting the vitality of personal interaction in facilitating intensely meaningful discovery. Sally Morgan similarly contrasts individual receptiveness