Sophie, 16, wrote this speech for English. She read it at dinner tonight, wow!
Persuasive speech on asylum seekers in Australia
“I remember the noise of the gun shots shaking the floor, I remember having to leave everything I had behind, I remember the murder of my father right in front of me. I remember my mother telling me that we would be happier, safer where we were going, we got on a boat, along with hundreds of others, in the dead of the night. I remember what felt like months passing while we were bashed around at sea. It wasn’t any better when we finally got to land, in fact it was worse. I remember my disappointment when realising we wouldn’t be safer here. I was exposed to rape, suicide, murdet on the daily basis in this ‘prison’. I remember thinking I would never see my family again, I remember thinking that this must be hell, because nothing could be worse than this.
I remember vividly.”
Good afternoon,
To the press, media, Australian parliament
My name is Sophie Vawser and today I am here to tell you of the fatal, devastating results that your actions or decisions are causing.
The account that I just read, was from a young, 15-year-old teenage girl who was trying to seek asylum in Australia, away from ISIS terrorising her home country. This girl who remains nameless, was 15 years old when she witnessed her father be murdered at the hands of cowardly terrorists. 15 when she saw her own mother be raped, 15 being held in a detention centre, refused entry into Australia, and only 16 when she took her own life.
The term ‘asylum seeker’ is used to refer to someone- a person, a human, who has left their home country as a refugee and is seeking asylum or refuge in another. They have not done anything wrong, nor are they treated as if this statement is true.
The first article of the united nations universal declaration of human rights states that; “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” If this is true then why are hundreds of innocent people being stripped of their human rights every day?
The shocking fact is that Australia is the only country in the world with a policy of mandatory detention and offshore processing of asylum seekers who arrive without a valid visa. To hear this statistic, essentially, made me feel embarrassed. Embarrassment towards the idea that we deny these desperate people, basic help in their darkest times.
I’m sure some of you, if not a majority of you in this room have children of your own. Children that you would risk your life for, go to the sun and back for. Just to ensure that they would be happy and safe. Yes? Of course, because you love them, and you are human. Now imagine if the account I read was from one of your children. It is heartbreaking to know that this is many people’s reality and we aren’t doing nearly enough to help them.
As a nation, as a whole human race, we must come together.
Australia, we need to change our ways.
In April of 2010 I did a flat water canoeing course with my then employer Alta-1 Education. The guy leading the course was Mark Tait from Kuringal Education (Christchurch Grammar School). We got talking about a dream both of us had dreamed about building a Cedar strip canoe. I had considered it from time to time over previous years, I was particularly inspired when a friend built 3 nice kayaks our of Cedar. So the conversation with Mark on the course tipped me over the edge and I began to investigate plans.
By the 4th of September I had finished Strong-back MkII. I had not paid for any wood andwas determined not to. The wood for the actual boat was to cost me plenty! In fact I understood I would be up for over $600 for the Cedar. I mixed up (wrongly) some resin and glued it all to the floor.
It was a short bit and I had to join it twice on each side of the boat. In fact putting those 2 strips on in the heat of the day was quite the challenge…glue drying, wood slitting, seeing gaps through the joints AND through the bead and cove join – aghhh. But it’s looking ok.
After lunch and a swim down on the stunning Fitzroy River we drove up to Derby to visit the Whites. Paul and Laurel White pastor the Derby Baptist Church among other activities. They have bought the Aboriginal Training Centre just out of town and have big plans for growth and extension. Whilst there we did some manual labor… we raked up truck loads of dry leaves (fire hazard) and were asked to remove the stumps of 2 recently cut down Boab trees- hmmm??!!
Haan/ABC radio National that the EON Foundation from Perth had been helping the school set up a organic community Kitchen Garden. Barry showed us around the garden but was also good enough to spend time sharing with us the history of the the area. This community is not without some of the usual issues we read about in the media in remote Aboriginal regions, but there was something about the place that we all loved. We sensed a slowness and peace about it, a friendliness that drew us in.
On our first night at Cape Leveque (and every subsequent one!) we made our way down to the Western Beach and watched the sunset – undoubtably some of the most amazing sunsets I have ever seen!
Saturday morning saw us pulling into Eddie’s place at Ngamagkoon, just south of Kooljaman. We had asked if Eddie could spend a few hours with us telling us about his people and their culture. He was willing and would even show us the basics of living in a coastal Bardi community. We drove out into the Mangrove Flats and went on foot (with spears) into the thick mud searching (and finding!) some VERY large crabs hiding under trees. After crabbing we headed back to the Melaleuca scrub (not venturing too far in as there were sacred ceremony sites in behind) looking for bush honey and pollen. With our ears against the trunks listening for bees we wandered through the scrub until Eddie found the right spot, cut it open and allowed us to sample the most
But Eddie taught us that his people light the bush to thin it, also to make it better for collecting their fire wood, as well as for hunting the stuff in the long grass, such a different window we were now looking through! From there we went out onto one of the most stunning coastal scenes I have seen. The Ngamagkoon people’s land has a creek running out into the ocean where they do much of their spearing and fishing from.
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