Students speak on hope, survival and belonging

In the argy bargy of public debate about asylum seekers, nothing cuts through like talking to people with direct experience, as a gathering of year 10 students from thee Sydney schools found at a recent forum supported by UTS's Cosmopolitan Civil Societies Research Centre (CCS).

Titled Student Voices: Journeys of Hope, Survival and Belonging, the forum brought together students from Miller Technical High School, James Ruse Agricultural High and North Shore private school Barker College to listen to leading authors Thomas Keneally, Rosie Scott and Mark Isaacs discuss their literary works as they relate to the English curriculum on journeys of belonging.

Chaired by CCS Director Associate Professor Nina Burridge, the event was spurred by an authors' forum at UTS in April with the editors and key authors, including Thomas Keneally and Rosie Scott, of A Country Too Far, an anthology of stories, poems and memoirs about seeking asylum in Australia.

Associate Professor Burridge said the added impact for participating students was to hear in person from fellow year 10s who had fled their homeland with their families. 

Tales of survival were shared through performance and role-play exercises, with drama students from Barker acting out personal stories.

The event was organised by Miller teacher Tahmineh Hosseiny, a refugee from Afghanistan who came to Australia 14 years ago.

"To see the level of student engagement in this session between the Barker students and the Miller students was marvellous," Associate Professor Burridge said. "Miller Technical High is a highly ethnically diverse school and more than 50 per cent of the students have refugee backgrounds.

"To see them sit together and chat and hopefully form links was truly inspiring. They then engaged with the authors and asked some excellent questions."

James Ruse students wrote to the organisers, "It was truly a privilege to hear from such accomplished and intelligent speakers, some of whom were internationally well known. Hopefully our schools can continue holding forums like this in the future. Thanks again for providing us all with this eye-opening experience."