Academics for Refugees National Day of Action

Academics for Refugees National Day of Action at Australian university campuses on 17 October 2018:

University campuses and more – readings of Behrouz Boochani’s book ‘No Friend But the Mountains’ People across the university sector (academics, professional staff, and students) are invited to take action.

NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION: UPDATE AND RESOURCES

Dear Academics for Refugees Network Members

Thank you to everyone for a fantastic response to the National Day of Action.

The National Day of Action for Refugees is now TEN DAYS AWAY on Wednesday 17 October 2018. There are already tens of NDA events scheduled to take place across Australian universities, along with network meetings to plan for future university-based campaigns. These include:

• Public ‘Read-Ins’ of Behrouz Boochani’s incredible recent book, No Friend but the Mountains (trans. Omid Tofighian, Pan Macmillan 2018) where academics, students and university staff will take it in turns to read extracts of the text out-loud in a busy part of the university.
• Academics for Refugees Photo Actions with posters (to be posted to social media)
• Public signings of the #NoMoreHarm postcards to be sent to PM Scott Morrison and other politicians
• Manus Recording Project Collective Public ‘Listen-In’ (see Special Events here and below)
• And other events such as film screenings (see here and here), and even a special issue launch of the Human Rights Defender Refugee Voices!

Details about your local campus event at your university are available here and in the list at the end of this email. Please tell your colleagues about the NDA and encourage them to join you at your local campus event. 

If there is no event currently organised for your university and you are interested in organising an event, see the Academics for Refugees website for further details and let us know via email:

NDA RESOURCE PACK

The following online resources are now available here for use during the National Day of Action and in the lead up to promote the NDA:

• Academics for Refugees NDA posters and letter-per-page hashtag posters
• #NoMoreHarm postcard to print for NDA events and to send to the Prime Minister or local MPs. Please contact your NTEU Representative for hard copies of the postcard or print them independently.
• NDA media release, with academics calling for an urgent end to offshore detention, to be adapted for local events/ to add local experts.
• Academics for Refugees sign-on sheet for new academics and researchers interested in joining the network, to be sent to  after the event.
• Links to up-to-date resources and factsheets to assist with campaigning, including the Academics for Refugees policy papers.

Hashtags to support the NDA
We encourage members to  promote the NDA, using the #NoMoreHarm and #AcademicsforRefugees hashtags and text in the resources provided. Please also like our Facebook page and post any photo actions there as they take place on Twitter, using the two hashtags.

The National Day of Action is supported by the NTEU; Teachers for Refugees; Librarians for Refugees; the Brigidine Asylum Seekers Project and Doctors for Justice; The Australian Refugee Action Network; University of Melbourne Student Union; and the Refugee Advocacy Network.

NDA SPECIAL EVENTS

‘listen in’ at Melbourne Law School, UNSW Law School and Ian Potter Museum of Art
On October 17^th, the Manus Recording Project Collective would like to invite you to ‘listen in’ with us either at the Ian Potter or at Melbourne Law School or UNSW Law School, all of which are open to the public and free to attend. Since 24 July 2018, six men – Farhad Ban­desh, Behrouz Boochani, Samad Abdul, Shamin­dan Kana­p­athi, Kazem Kazemi and Abdul Aziz Muhamat – have been send­ing daily audio record­ings from Manus Island, where they are indefinitely detained, to Melbourne. The ten minute long record­ings are then played through­out the day in the gallery at the Ian Potter Museum of Art and in the foyer at Melbourne Law School. The recordings are part of an artwork entitled how are you today by the Manus Recording Project Collective and commissioned for Eavesdropping. The work aims to open a chan­nel for a form of speech at a moment when words can sometimes seem to have been exhausted. It is at once extremely intimate – a rare opportunity to listen to these men lis­ten­ing, only very recently, some four thou­sand kilo­me­tres away – and highly polit­i­cal. For full details about this and related events, see HERE

Launching Human Rights Defender: Refugee Voices 17 October 2018
The Australian Human Rights Institute and the UNSW Forced Migration Research Network invite you to the launch of the latest edition of the Human Rights Defender on Refugee Voices: The Power of Storytelling.
This magazine by guest editors Dr Susanne Schmeidl and Isobel Blomfield focuses on the importance of allowing refugees to tell their own story through different avenues (narratives, photography, and poetry) and features stories of displacement and resilience from Somalia, Myanmar and Syria.To close the National Day of Action for Refugees, join us at Penny Lane Bar and Café, UNSW Sydney, for light refreshments, drinks and discussion.
Location: Penny Lane Bar and CafeTime: 5pm – 6.30pm AEDT

See list of planned events – https://academicsforrefugees.wordpress.com/nda-calendar-of-events/