The historical DNA of our split state may ultimately lie in the Constitution. According to Dr Sangeetha Pillai, constitutional lawyer and Senior Research Associate at the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, ‘the Constitutional framework stands on the definition of British subjects, and has exceptional powers with regards to aliens and immigration. There are sweeping powers of exclusion, and very little in the way of rights.’ In Australia’s long preoccupation with excluding certain races, Pillai identified a uniquely Australian concern, not seen in other modern constitutions. Thankfully, there have been counter-currents to this recent history. Campaigns such as #KidsoffNauru have mobilised a broad coalition, including civil society groups. In 2019, Craig Foster and #SaveHakeem saved a young soccer player from deportation to Bahrain. ‘I believe in the power of people themselves,’ Foster told me. Last year, Medicare-ineligible asylum seekers in Western Australia were granted access to public hospital treatment, in a vindication for quiet lobbying. Globally, there are causes for both hope and concern: progressive campaigns like #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter have activated millions of people, while Australia’s hard-line policies on people seeking asylum are being considered by the UK Home Office.
Our split state is nothing short of a national illness. It appears to now be simultaneously healing, becoming more disjointed, and travelling abroad – like a contagion. g Curby produced and co-hosted The Wait, a podcast on the plight of refugees in Indonesia (https://www.thewaitpodcast.com/). 1
Hessom Razavi – a writer and doctor based in Perth – is the ABR Behrouz Boochani Fellow. He was born in Iran in 1976 and came to Australia when he was thirteen. He completed his studies as an ophthalmologist in 2015. His earlier Fellowship articles appeared in the May and November 2020 issues of ABR. Acknowledgements I am most grateful for the contributions and support of Dr Megan Neervoort, Dr Liana Joy Christensen, Dr Omid Tofighian, Behrouz Boochani, Peter Rose, and the ABR team. The ABR Behrouz Boochani Fellowship, closely associated with the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness at the University of Melbourne, is funded by Peter McMullin, a lawyer, philanthropist, and businessman.
What Distance Burns Smoke softens the trees, a swift omen scented before seen. It warps what it brings, from the sun to grief. I stir on the stoop I rent. All around me wasps shimmy, Orange alphabet of knives. I call them father and son Until my tongue blisters. I chew the queen into bits And for a moment, we understand each other Her children and I, the way a believer understands God: As a largeness capable of being Stung. Out of stillness I come to marvel At my survival, the stupendous absurdity of breath. I tremble so violent I vibrate off the ground, a man Dripping between earth and sky with only a mother Left in life – what luck – and men I will never call Baba. Soon I am high enough to see the limits of burning The pall dispersing over waves, the end arriving As always, on the edge of an unfathomable wing – In the long vanishing blue I smile a migrant smile Knowing we look our best as we leave.
Omar Sakr ❖
Omar Sakr has published two poetry collections: These Wild Houses (Cordite, 2017) and The Lost Arabs (UQP, 2019). AUSTRALIAN BOOK REVIEW JUNE 2021
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