Remembering for Refugees in Australia: Political Memories and Concepts of Democracy in Refugee Advocacy Post-Tampa

Abstract

Democratic politics involves a constant negotiation about the belonging and sovereignty of its polity. In Australia, this is particularly apparent in debates about asylum seekers arriving by boat. After a drastic shift in refugee policies in the 2001 Tampa affaire, refugee advocates challenged with various protests the status quo of refugee policies and inadvertently, dominant perceptions of political belonging and sovereignty. Crucially, I argue, certain forms of memory were employed in such protests to construct alternative models of democracy, with particular modes of belonging and sovereignty that were deemed more inclusive of refugees. I examine three distinct cases of political memories being used for refugee advocacy: the ‘boat-people.org’ campaign, the Tampa rallies in Melbourne and the SIEV X memorial in Canberra. I show how in each case certain forms of memory were evoked with particular implications for the idea of democratic belonging and sovereignty and with specific criteria under which refugees were to be accepted.

Keywords:

• Refugee Advocacy
• Tampa
• Asylum Seekers
• Belonging
• Political Memories
• Australia
• Social Inclusion

Notes

[1] For example, when first speaking about the MV Tampa before Parliament he argued:

Australia has a record in relation to caring for refugees of which every member of this House should be proud. No nation in the last 50 years has been more generous or more decent in relation to refugees than has Australia. […] But that does not mean that we are abandoning in any way our right to decide who comes here […]. (Howard, Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates, House of Representatives, 27/08/2001, 30235)

[2] In 1999, the government even produced a film depicting the dangers faced by boat people, from the passage to snakes and crocodiles to detention, in order to scare potential asylum seekers off (see Crock et al. 2006, p. 50).

[3] Bleeding Art of it, The Age, 07.06.2004, available at www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/06/04/1086203617857.html [Accessed 16 Feb 2012].

[4] The original homepage documented other projections onto Sydney buildings but the homepage was since replaced by a blog that documents only the opera house projection and other events. Print outs of the homepage from 14 July 2009 are in possession of the author.

[5] Refugee Action Collective (Victoria): About (Mission Statement), homepage archived 27 March 2002, available at http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/23543/20020327-0000/www.rac-vic.org/about/about.html [accessed 20 Feb 2012].

[6] Tim Petterson of RAC (Victoria), Interview in Melbourne, 15 January 2008.

[7] Refugee Action Collective (Victoria): About (Mission Statement).

[8] ‘Refugee rally marks Tampa anniversary’, ABC News online, posted 29.08.2003, 11:01 pm at www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2003/08/29/935256.htm [Accessed 06 Sep 2007].

[9] Refugee Action Collective: Tampa Anniversary Rally to blow the whistle on four years of Coalition persecution of refugees, media release, 26 August 2005, copy held by the author.

[10] Petterson, interview (see note 6).

[11] RAC: About (Mission Statement).

[12] Karen Jones of RAC (Victoria), interview conducted in Melbourne, 22 January 2008.

[13] Quoted in RAC (Victoria): Newsletter, September 2004, p. 4, available at http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/23543/20041002-0000/www.rac-vic.org/downld/RAC_Newsletter_September_04b.pdf [accessed 20 Feb 2012].

[14] Refugee Action Collective (Victoria): Tampa Day River Spectacle to steer a new course in refugee policy, Media Alert, Tuesday, 22 August 2006, copy held by the author.

[15] Steve Biddulph, a psychologist and author who later initiated the memorial project, had given a speech to a local Tasmanian group of Rural Australians for Refugees (RAR) for the first anniversary of the refugee boat's sinking when he was approached by members of the group who told him that they had not heard of the boat's fate before and were shocked to learn about it; Steve Biddulph in an interview with the author, Canberra on 2 September 2007.

[16] Tony Kevin: Twisting Tale of Dog that didn't Bark, The Canberra Times, 25 March 2002.

[17] Beth Gibbings of the SIEV X memorial, interview with the author, Canberra 2 September 2007.

[18] Steve Biddulph: Memorial is also Hope for Humanity, Sydney Morning Herald, 30 August 2007.