This year I decided that I'd have a go at the 'Archibald' competition. In Australia this is the big one and everyone knows about it, like it or not. It gets a heap of press, some good and some bad. It's known for being 'contentious'. Not as off the end as that competition in the UK that Hirst and Emin, but it's going that way... sadly in my view.
I had a notion that I'd paint a set of three images as below. The idea was that the first two were obviously (mildly) challenging images to the status quo, (a bloke sucking his thumb and wearing a skirt) and the third was to be me hugging a refugee...
I was trying to say 'come on....question WHY this is not OK for you!' but I realised after trying to explain it to my students that it was too obscure.
The refugee I was going to paint is an artist now and has lived here for 30 years. He is the father of one of Matilda's teachers. He said why not paint a young woman that I know, that is in detention at the airport detention facility. She was raped by a prominent family member who was trying to marry her off to a 60 year old man and her life was at risk for opposing him. Her brother risked it all to get her out, and now he's languishing in the detention centre in Darwin for his bother. They arrived by boat in 2013 and were granted bridging visas pending their cases being investigated. The visa ran out and she was taken out of society and put in detention. Not long before that had happened, she'd fallen in love with a fabulous man called Milad Jafari and they got married. Milad is also from Iran, but he's been given a permanent residency visa. Because of that, Mojgan should have been allowed a spousal visa, but it would seem that Peter Dutton (the Minister for Immigration and Border Control and the soul-less man who has final say on this) prefers to be able to boast that no one has been given residency under his watch if they arrived by boat.
I wont go into detail here, but if you read the notable Australian barrister and human rights campaigner Julian Burnside's account of this system in his book 'Watching the Brief', you realise that it's a significantly flawed and unfair system, designed it would seem for political utility rather than for genuine investigation. So I fixed up to meet her at the detention facility (on the Friday, only a week before the submission date for the competition by now)... without my camera, since they don't allow them there. She turned out to be a soft and sincere young woman who was obviously bright and fun loving. I discovered that she was attending Yeronga State High School and that I would be able to set up a photo shoot there the following Monday. I did a number of preparation sketches such as the one below...and by Monday night I had the painting below. (Well actually by Tuesday morning..!)
Unfortunately for Mojgan, the painting didn't get into the finals...where it could have done her some good from a publicity point of view...(e.g Amnesty had said to me that they would run a story on their website if the painting got into the final...) but as it was, she was giving an interview with Channel 7 on the Monday about the plight of the refugees and by Thursday, they'd taken her by force (dragging her by the hair!) and transported her to the Darwin detention centre. They want to send her back to Iran (where it's expected she'll be killed).
The week before she was taken, I took Matilda and Phoebe to meet both Mojgan and Milad at the detention centre. They made an instant connection.
So when she was taken, they were very upset and did what they could to make people aware of her plight. I think it was quite an education for them to discover how duplicitous and scared, or even cowardly most people are if they see a face from the Middle East. Rather than take the time to educate themselves, the majority of people seem to just hide behind the hate and fear that comes so easily to them.
The girls (with the full support of their wonderful school) went from classroom to classroom telling Mojgan's story, and managed to get the kids to write over 700 letters and postcards! They got all those to also sign a petition which Matilda delivered to the Minister at his offices along with (which for some reason are under 24hr police protection!)
This is the petition...
The painting was used initially for the posters used by hundreds of protesters...
...and Kimberley College stood shoulder to shoulder with students from Mojgan's school, Yeronga State High...
Feeb and Milad...
Along with medical professionals like Daile... campaigning for Mojgan, and ALL the other innocent people who are being used for political gain.
But still nothing! How hard can it be Mr Dutton? Shame on you!
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