"The measure of a society is found in its treatment of the weak and vunlerable. The people in Woomera (and all the other concentration camps) are our most vulnerable. It is for them and their right to have their humanity respected that I go to Woomera.!"
My family arrived from Poland after World War II. They and all the people on their boat were met by the then prime minister and minister for immigration because the one millionth migrant to Australia was on that boat. Over 50 years later, we are only up to our 6 millionth migrant. What the fuck went wrong? Why is our goverenment so damn keen on keeping others out? My family found peace and freedom in Australia. I have a moral obligation as a free Australian to do all that I can to ensure that other migrants to this country can be free too. As a nation, we all have an obligation to any person who comes to us in need and to treat them as humans. I plan on participating in several actions during the Festival to break the silence.
comentary [so far...]:I am back from Woomera and I honestly don't know how I feel. I have so many emotions with the actions I took part in and events I witnessed there. I ended up crying again last night as I recounted to my friends some of the things I witnessed in the desert. On the Sunday action we attempted to march around the perimeter of the detention centre. A section of the fence was not being guarded (at this point) by the police because they were trying to keep the main group away from the fence further down. A group of us went to the fence to start talking to a group of women and 4 of their children. We waved and called welcome to them and managed to have a kind of conversation with them because one of their group spoke English. Out of nowhere it seemed, 6 ACM fuckers came in full riot gear and started forcing them away from the fence - one beating a child with his baton to make the boy let go. Then APS came running down and started shoving us away from the fence and we had to move back. I have some photos of this happening and I am going to send them out to as many places as I can so that people can see exactly what kind of shit goes on in the hell holes Ruddock calls the detentions centres. For all the positive energy and achievements of the Woomera action, I know this story is what I am most going to remember.
