Rally & Walk for the Right to Seek Asylum
Sep. 1st, 2013 02:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xenithPhotos from "Rally & Walk for the Right to Seek Asylum" on Saturday. I did manage to make some notes about the speakers' name but mostly I didn't catch them, even though I was listening for them.
All the cracks gathering at the fray, I mean, walkers gathering at the Brickfields. From there, they'll walk to Royal Park for the rally.
Jeremy Ball, the MC, rallying this troops in preparation for leaving. By "rallying" I mean telling them the route and to be careful crossing the roads.
Leaving. Those cards have "Safe" on one side and "Asylum" on the other.
Not a lot of other signs though :(
Waiting to cross the road. It did come to my notice further down the road that the walkers were quiet, other than casual conversation between them. Not into legitimising and promoting their cause via traditional protests methods.
Arriving at Royal Park.
Welcome to Country was done by Dorothy Murray. Then John Brennan spoke on behalf of Safe Asylum, who organised the rally, but I managed to not take his photo.
(A grey background behind the speakers again & the shadow/light pattern of the levee steps doesn't help.)
Ali from Amnesty International.
Lucy Landon-Lane from the Greens. The candidates from the other parties obviously had more important things to do.
Dakota Chugg.
Not sure of her name. I have Roxa, but that's not right. She was a refugee from Iraq. She told us how her mother and brother had gone to seek asylum. Then her father took her and her sister to Syria, and from there the girls were able to come to Australia but she had to leave her father behind. A few years ago she became a citizen and got a passport, and then she was able to visit her mother and brother in Switzerland, for the first time in ten years. Also it's her mother's birthday today.
At this point, Jeremey pointed out that they were in a Refugee Welcome Zone. From that website:
"A Refugee Welcome Zone is a Local Government Area which has made a commitment in spirit to welcoming refugees into the community, upholding the human rights of refugees, demonstrating compassion for refugees and enhancing cultural and religious diversity in the community."
There are eighty four of them in the country, including Hobart City & Launceston City.
He also added that only weak men are interested in strong borders.
Steve Biddulph, after making the audience laugh with his characterisation of local MPs, told about growing up in a Yorkshire town after the end of World War II. With his friends, he'd run around pretending to kill Germans, until a young German school came to their school. He asked his mother about his and she said the Germans are not bad people but they have bad politicians. And that was the theme of his talk.
Afterwards, I saw this on the ground in front of where the speakers stood so it can be closing photo.
All the cracks gathering at the fray, I mean, walkers gathering at the Brickfields. From there, they'll walk to Royal Park for the rally.
Jeremy Ball, the MC, rallying this troops in preparation for leaving. By "rallying" I mean telling them the route and to be careful crossing the roads.
Leaving. Those cards have "Safe" on one side and "Asylum" on the other.
Not a lot of other signs though :(
Waiting to cross the road. It did come to my notice further down the road that the walkers were quiet, other than casual conversation between them. Not into legitimising and promoting their cause via traditional protests methods.
Arriving at Royal Park.
Welcome to Country was done by Dorothy Murray. Then John Brennan spoke on behalf of Safe Asylum, who organised the rally, but I managed to not take his photo.
(A grey background behind the speakers again & the shadow/light pattern of the levee steps doesn't help.)
Ali from Amnesty International.
Lucy Landon-Lane from the Greens. The candidates from the other parties obviously had more important things to do.
Dakota Chugg.
Not sure of her name. I have Roxa, but that's not right. She was a refugee from Iraq. She told us how her mother and brother had gone to seek asylum. Then her father took her and her sister to Syria, and from there the girls were able to come to Australia but she had to leave her father behind. A few years ago she became a citizen and got a passport, and then she was able to visit her mother and brother in Switzerland, for the first time in ten years. Also it's her mother's birthday today.
At this point, Jeremey pointed out that they were in a Refugee Welcome Zone. From that website:
"A Refugee Welcome Zone is a Local Government Area which has made a commitment in spirit to welcoming refugees into the community, upholding the human rights of refugees, demonstrating compassion for refugees and enhancing cultural and religious diversity in the community."
There are eighty four of them in the country, including Hobart City & Launceston City.
He also added that only weak men are interested in strong borders.
Steve Biddulph, after making the audience laugh with his characterisation of local MPs, told about growing up in a Yorkshire town after the end of World War II. With his friends, he'd run around pretending to kill Germans, until a young German school came to their school. He asked his mother about his and she said the Germans are not bad people but they have bad politicians. And that was the theme of his talk.
Afterwards, I saw this on the ground in front of where the speakers stood so it can be closing photo.
