Dispatches from the Intersection

Sunili Govinnage is a lawyer and freelance writer, editor and researcher. You can find further details about my work experience on linkedin.com/in/sunili/

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How do you fight for human rights?

The fight to prevent the recent executions in Indonesia had various battle cries, not least reminders that the death penalty is a violation of fundamental human rights principles and international law. At their core, such arguments were a basic and clear call for mercy and compassion.

Human rights and international obligations are inevitably subordinate to what matters most to politicians: votes. Here’s me in The Monthly on how to bridge the gap between politics and principle.

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I read books by only minority authors for a year. It showed me just how white our reading world is.

White authors reign in book reviews, bestseller lists, literary awards and Amazon.com recommendations.

The Washington Post (omg) asked me to look a little deeper into my reading experiment last year. I also tried to explain why the hell I care about this and checked out the results of VIDA’s inaugural look at the numbers of women of colour in book reviews over at Medium.

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WA anti-protest laws shake the core of our legal system

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WA’s proposed anti-protest laws casually abandon one of the bedrock principles of our legal system, write Sunili Govinnage and Nick Duff.

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I read only non-white authors for 12 months. What I learned surprised me

My latest piece on the importance of diversity in publishing (and pop culture in general).

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I was lucky enough to chat to a great bunch of writers the other week during the Digital Writers Festival about "free speech" in the Asia-Pacific:

When it comes to freedom of speech, just how much is too much and how much is too little? Should we redefine freedom of expression or is it fine just the way it is? What is the role of censorship in an age where almost everyone is connected to each other and everyone has access — as well as the ability — to create content?

Cheers and thanks to André Dao, Eleanor Jackson and Ross Tapsell for the great discussion!

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Shutting the door on a regional solution

For over two years I’ve been volunteering to provide legal aid to people who are trying to get Refugee Status Determination through the UNHCR in Indonesia. While they are waiting patiently in the “queue” (although really, there isn’t one), the Australian government has tried everything it can to remind them they are not welcome here. Yesterday’s announcement that the minuscule quota of resettlement places would be further cut to just 450 is yet another slap in the face to them.

Confidentiality obligations mean I am unable to tell you too much about the reasons why they found themselves waiting for someone to decide on their future. A lawyer’s word isn’t worth much (a volunteer lawyer’s perhaps less so!) but know this: they are women and men asking for help who made a decision that didn’t really involve a choice.

They had no choice but to ask a “people smuggler” to get them out of Iran, Iraq, Pakistan or Afghanistan. They had no choice but to leave behind an existence of fear to one that is not much better: living in Indonesia, a country that is not party to the United Nations Convention on the Status of Refugees, without a domestic framework for protecting those who need protection.

When asylum seekers are recognised as refugees by the UNHCR, resettlement is the only option available where people cannot be returned to their countries of origin and local integration is not possible. The latter is unavailable for Indonesia. That option is also unavailable in all the other “host” or “transit” countries where refugees and asylum seekers would go to find safety in the region, such as Thailand or Malaysia. In Indonesia, the situation has become so desperate over recent months that people have self-surrendered to immigration detention in order to have a place to stay.

For a country with a population of over 240 million, ten thousand asylum seekers or refugees might not make much of an impact. For the most part, that’s the reason why this issue isn’t particularly high on the Indonesian political agenda – unless of course Australia is violating maritime borders in order to “turn the boats back”.

So when Scott Morrison suggests that banning the resettlement of asylum seekers who arrived in Indonesia after 1 July 2014 (there are over 1000 of them) is somehow a “neighbourly” thing to do to support Indonesia, it’s pretty easy to side-eye that in exasperation. Having lived there for a while now, I could list plenty of things that Australia could do to help Indonesia (call me maybe?) but cutting resettlement places is certainly not one of them.

While it’s easy for Morrison to say this policy will stop asylum seekers going to Indonesia, it will not stop asylum seekers from seeking asylum. The immediate past UNHCR Representative in Indonesia has noted that “deterrence is not a sustainable solution… as long as the countries of origin continue to produce refugees, and they continue to choose Southeast Asia as a destination, the burden will remain in Indonesia and the rest of the region. What we need is a regional solution.”

This most recent policy is not part of a regional solution. It will not stop people leaving places like Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan to escape persecution. It’s simply yet another short-sighted and cruel move that does nothing but use so-called “pull factors” as an excuse to be nasty for the sake of it.

And let’s not forget the political bipartisanship behind all of this. The Coalition is pretty terrible, but for well over five years, the ALP has been on exactly the same line. Kevin Rudd may have warned that refugee policy would lurch to the right under Julia Gillard but it was the former who restarted Howard’s “Pacific Solution” to ship people off to island prison camps.

The policies keep changing but the message is constant: Australia does not care about refugees, nor its obligations under the international law, because those boundless plains are no longer for sharing.

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Mopings of an Immigrant Expat

I am just about to head back to Jakarta, where I now live, after spending two weeks visiting friends and family in Perth, where I grew up.

And I am counting down the hours to when I can get the hell out of here. 

After watching the politics and seeing some miserable interactions that show just how unwelcome people of colour are in this country, there just isn't enough of the good stuff to make me want to stay - not even the blue skies, my darling friends and their cuddly babies or the ability to hug my mother on a regular on a regular basis.

Of course, I am grateful for every opportunity I have had because my parents chose to migrate to Australia over 25 years ago. The education I have received, the friends I have made, and the freedom to grow up without political unrest or war have been blessings. Knowing that is what makes it harder for me to be okay with the things I have seen this past fortnight.

Typically, the clearest examples are from public transport. The incidents weren't worth putting on YouTube because we've all seen a lot worse, and it's not necessary to recount them both now. The details are beside the point, but the moral of the story is that if one cannot truly epitomise and embody British sensibilities and appearances, you will not be welcome here (and a scared grandmother will call the police, because anything but is interfering with her human rights to be a nice white lady minding her own business).

The huffing and puffing of "banning the burqa" in Parliament House, the attacks on Hajabi women as a result, and more pathetic so-called jokes are just other iterations of this phenomenon. 

This week author Maxine Clake wrote a timely piece on racism in Australia (but then again, when is it ever not timely to write such an article?).

Multiculturalism must have died at some point while I wasn't paying attention. I sang that "We Are One But We Are Many" song at primary school so many times that I must have taken it for granted that I am, you are, we are Australian.

As long as I don't look Australian, I never will be accepted as belonging here, despite what my passport might say. And I can no longer feel comfortable calling this place "home".

[sunili-blog]

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I have depression. I also love a lot of people with depression. I think my depression has helped me to be a relatively good friend to other people who have depression.

Luckily, not everyone has depression. But everyone probably knows and cares about someone who does. I can imagine that it’s hard to look after someone like me - I know those who’ve looked after me over the years struggled but they are wonderful and I will always love them and respect them for it.

This piece is basically an attempted how-to-guide that goes with this excellent Stephen Fry quote:

It’s hard to be a friend to someone who’s depressed, but it is one of the kindest, noblest, and best things you will ever do.

The amazeballz Steph and Alex at Junkee worked very hard to get this in to shape, and I am very grateful to them for their excellentness.

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Minority Support: Indigenous and Minority Writers Online

Luke Pearson (@lukelpearson), Celeste Liddle (@Utopiana) and I had a chat during the Digital Writers Festival about how the internet is helping minority writers build communities and support networks to foster their ideas, and what we need to do to get more diverse voices out there.

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In 2014, I'll only read books by writers of colour. Here's why

I wrote a piece at Comment is free at the start of the year about what I'll be reading this year.

There was a bit of stir, which I've addressed here, and I've just posted my reviews of the first two books of the year: Americanah and Another Country.

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Intersectionality and Solidarity

I've started contributing to a group blog to discuss feminism from different perspectives. Here's my first post.

It's about "solidarity" in a reaction to all those who say "intersectionality" is divisive.

For me, it's the exact opposite.

As a woman from a migrant background raised in the West, my understanding about oppression and ways to address it have been strengthened by learning from the work of Black American feminists, Indigenous feminists from Australia and overseas, queer feminists and trans* feminists, and many other perspectives (such as the approaches of disability activists like Stella Young).

I feel pretty damn lucky that a bunch of amazing women invited me to share my thoughts on this. There's a lot more of this stuff to talk about so follow @intersectoz for more.

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Books To Read

Last week I started reading the most recent Booker winner The Luminaries and quickly got bored of reading about the pioneer gold-rush in New Zealand from the persecutive of people who refer to "Chinamen", "Natives" and "whores".

Here's the thing: while I understand it's set in a particular time and will use language in a certain way, I am not interested in reading stories written from the point of view of those who are always part of the dominant narrative.

Been there; studied all that in English lit; want more.

So here's my new year's resolution: I will only read novels written by people of colour either from non-Western countries or those who tell stories from minority perspectives within Western societies.

Indigenous Australian and Māori authors

Africanauthors [see this and this]

African American authors

Native American authors

Latin American authors who aren't Allende since I've read most of hers already [including these]

Middle Eastern authors [including these too]

South Asian authors

South East Asian authors -- incl Indonesian, since I live here now

East Asian authors

Pacific Islander authors

Eastern European authors etc.

I've started organising my ridiculously long Goodreads To Read "shelf" to have authors of colour up the top. It's not set in stone but merely a way to collect ideas, and I'm going to try to review the ones I get through with at least a paragraph.

Exceptions will be considered but can't think of any at this stage!

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I have had the honour of meeting Jessie Taylor and getting to hug her and call her and email her when I need help and guidance about "Human Rights Lawyering" and she is just wonderful.

Whenever something in my new life here in Indonesia has been overwhelming or stressful or just plain exhausting, I take a deep breath and somehow, every time, find myself thinking back to the shots of Jessie in Between the Devil and The Deep Blue Sea talking to desperate asylum seekers.

That will probably creep her out but honestly, that actually happens, and it gives me the courage and energy to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

Above is a brilliant talk that Jessie gave about being a human rights advocate that gave me warm fuzzies.

Jessie's talk has stacks of encouragement and advice - and in this gig you just cannot have enough of that because, as Jessie says, it is bloody hard to be doing this stuff.

Since I am a nerd I took notes. Here are my takeaways:

- advocacy is about human communications - human stories and making human connections

- you need the "the ability to take a hundred knocks and get up a hundred and one times"

- you cannot wait for it to be easier to do this work, or to be less scared to do it - you need to do it now

- "don't let people use your youth [and idealism] against you" and "don't let anyone put fear into you"

- "take criticism, take encouragement, take advice and wisdom from mentors and people you trust"

Thank you, Jessie :)

    *sorry for lack of posts - I have this day job and so I have just been SO BUSY. Like. I've barely had time to tweet. Crazy.

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I think it's indicative of something wider...the way Julia Gillard is spoken about and the fact that such sexist material is even thought by people to be funny, I think that we have to have an absolutely zero tolerance approach and, you know, be very, very clear that it's not acceptable.

Mia Freedman, speaking on ABC's 7.30, goes *batshit crazy* over just a harmless sexist joke.

No seriously though this is a bloody good point.

They were my sentiments exactly over the "small Asian female doctor" thing a while ago, and I repeat those sentiments often because this shit absolutely unacceptable. I just wonder if she will ever realise the irony of her saying this given her comments about racist jokes. (I doubt it.)

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Fuck The Master's Tools

There're a lot of thinkers and writers I respect, but recently I've been getting super pumped up by the work of Audre Lorde - an American, black, lesbian poet and academic who is one of the key people in Intersectionalist discourse.

One of her seminal papers is "The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House", in which she discusses the racism and homophobia of conventional feminism. 

Lorde's metaphor here was in terms of the idea that the opressor will use infighting among the oppressed (white women hating women of colour, heterosexuals hating homosexuals, etc) to retain their hold on power. Go google the essay and read it -- it's brilliant.

Oh deary dear. Pardon me, please, for being unable to "Keep Calm and Carry On" in the face of really, completely crap things happening to people who don't deserve really, completely crap things happening to them.

I've joked that I wish I was a straight, White, well-to-do First World male so that I could care less about shit things in the universe and just merrily be on my way if I happen to pass something terrible happening to a a fellow human being. Some of my best friends are straight, White, well-to-do First World male, of course, so I'm not saying all people like that are indifferent, insensitive jerks...... but most times when someone tells me to calm down, the person fits into all those categories (the rest of the times it's one or more).

But I'm glad I'm a brown girl. I am glad I can see injustice and I am bloody grateful I am lucky enough to have the opportunity to do something about it.

I am actually glad I get to be angry about these things: because they are worth getting angry about.

In another of Lorde's amazing essays, "Age, Race, Class and Sex: Women Redefining Difference", she makes a really interesting observation about the oppressor-group's insistence on using their language and their paradigms and their experiences as the only tools with which to engage in discourse:

Traditionally, in american society [and others], it is the members of oppressed, objectified groups who are expected to stretch out and bridge the gap between the actualities of our lives and the consciousness of our oppressor. For in order to survive, those of us for whom oppression is as american as apple pie have always had to be watchers, to become familiar with the language and manners of the oppressor, even sometimes adopting them for some illusion of protection. 

The "stop being ranty, please" derailing bullshit I get every time (EVERY. TIME.) I point out injustice and accidentally happen to get enraged and upset about it is the oppressor's insisting on my using their tools of "Keep Calm and Carry On" numbskullery to stop me pointing out how utterly shit and terrible they are.

I've written in detail about how this like-clockwork process is terrible and we shouldn't put up with it. It's not *silencing* in my case because hahaha no you will not shut me up so IN YOUR FACE. But that's what it attempts to do.

This is what I have to say to those people:

Oh HELL to the NO THANKS YOU COMPLETE DOUCHECANOE, you will not make me think that in order to "survive" I need to be a polite little petal who will put up and shut up with injustice and structural inequality.

Don't you DARE even TRY to tell me to "stop being so angry" about things that are BLOODY WORTH GETTING ANGRY ABOUT.

Nope I WILL NOT "calm down" just because you happen to be uncomfortable about what I am pointing out because YOU FUCKING OUGHT TO BE UNCOMFORTABLE ABOUT IT.

I was supposed to not swear on this blog but I really don't care for using the Master's Tools just to supplicant to the Master Tools. I might deign to be polite if they prove they are worth any respect, because obviously I am not an idiot, but trust me when I get ragingly, rantily angry at someone: they fucking deserve my wrath.

      *By the way -- I've also been referred to as a "self-victimiser" recently so please note that when I'm talking about an oppressor here I may not be referring to anyone actually oppressing ME. I'm referring in a general sense to a privileged fuckwit person / structure who / which is a terrible jerk to other people.

NB: All of the Lorde quotes above are from a collection of her speeches and essays entitled Sister Other. Check them out at www dot google dot com!

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I wrote a bitterly sarcastic satire about Abbott's comments at the Honourary Citizenship ceremony for Raoul Wallenberg last month, but here is an actual thing that the lovely people at "The Shake" published.

I wish more people would see the cognitive dissonance involved here. *goes looking for spare jar of fairy dust& 

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How to Stop the “Stop the Boats”

When Western Sydney backbencher Laurie Ferguson spoke out about what Labor must do to address the Coalition’s dominance in opinion polls, his focus was on the boats. According to Ferguson, everything would be much better if “the Prime Minister personally engages the electorate around the question of boats.”

The problem for Labor is that the Prime Minister already has personally engaged with electorate on the issue, way back in her very first major speech as Prime Minister.

At the end of her speech, Gillard asserted that the infamous Moving Forward slogan “means effective policy” and in relation to border protection and asylum seekers, it “means respecting the anxieties that are held by many in our community, but basing our policy and our discussion on the facts”.

Since then we have seen utterly spectacular failures on this front because in respecting any anxieties held by “many” in community, Labor based their policies on the fact that there were some people in the community who had anxieties, rather than on actual facts about asylum seekers.

The gear-change to “saving lives” and “stopping drownings at sea” that came in 2012 was ultimately a façade over the real situation that some people in the community continued to hold anxieties – we ended up talking more about border protection than people protection. No doubt those anxieties were reinforced by continual dog-whistling and fear-mongering from the Coalition, but it is important to remember than Gillard’s approach was to “respect” anxieties rather than explaining why there was no need to be worried.

Now Laurie Ferguson is calling on his party to offer the electorate a something different to what the Coalition is doing, because all we have seen is failing-policy after failing-policy that merely follows what the Coalition would have done anyway. (Actually, it's arguable that Labor's policies are worse in terms of the negative impact on asylum seekers - the majority of whom are future Australians.) Ferguson has said he thinks Labor needs to explain that refugee movements internationally is a complex problem, which it certainly is. But the problem of community anxiety about asylum seekers is a simpler one to manage.

It would have been best had this happened 3 years ago, but it still is possible to for Labor to engage with the electorate on in relation to their anxieties. It is possible to explain why there is no need to be anxious those who come across the seas.

Here's how:

show that defence and managing the flow of asylum seekers are actually two separate issues;

explain that we actually don’t need our Navy to “protect” us from asylum seekers because they are actually subject to more health and security checks than anyone coming by plane, and that the Refugees Convention has built-in exclusions against perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and serious non-political crimes;

dismantle myths that “good refugees” waiting in camps and that boat arrivals are gaining some sort of “advantage” by not waiting in an imaginary “queue”;

explain that there is no orderly migration process for people who are fleeing persecution.;

answer questions about why some people come on boats by showing that they have no other options like access to UNHCR camps and cannot be safe in countries like Indonesia, Thailand, India, Malaysia or Pakistan;

adhere to the spirit and purpose of the Refugees Convention so that when as we sit on the UN Security Council we cannot be reproached for undermining basic human rights obligations.

It is also possible to address problems with the budget that have arisen due to considerable blowouts in the costs of dealing with the unfounded anxieties of some people in our community. Perhaps Gillard could engage with the electorate about how the exorbitant amounts being spent on offshore detention centres can be redirected to our health system, or to fund the Gonski plan, or address Indigenous disadvantage, youth homelessness, domestic violence… or perhaps we’ll just still be banging on about the same thing without any better outcomes for anyone.