By Susan Adams. This poem is part of our December 2012 and January 2013 focus on Asylum Seekers. We try our lives, father says in mail from his Island of Christmas to Jakarta nothing will happen otherwise. With time to wind, dreams become hope, secrets are a burden in streets. The manifest left for later. […]
By William Pitt. This poem is part of our December 2012 and January 2013 focus on Asylum Seekers. The huts are falling on top of each other, all trying to find a bit of light; humanity […]
By Penny Gibson. This short story is part of our December 2012 and January 2013 focus on Asylum Seekers. The apartment smelt of stale cigarette smoke when Bedar arrived. He stared around him in silence as Jerry busied himself with bags of food. “Last fella was a smoker,” he said. “You a smoker?” Bedar nodded. What had […]
By Ellena Savage. A version of this article previously appeared on the Tharunka website, and was the winner of Tharunka Non-Fiction Writing Competition. It is May, 2009. A cold, clear night; frost will set over the tips of lawns before dawn. I wait at a bar for my new boyfriend, Ishmail, an attractive Eritrean-Australian I met though […]
By Emilie Zoey Baker. This piece is part of our September focus on Women’s Rights. See all of this month’s articles here. We were told it was a party, that there’d be heaps of people there. We were stoked ’cause they said the whole team was putting it on. Me and Michelle follow Carlton. We went […]
Luka Lesson is the current Australian Poetry Slam Champion and Co-director of The Centre for Poetics and Justice based in Melbourne. Luka has been active in utilising hip-hop and poetry as a form of self-determination and raising awareness for marginalised young people through community development projects for many years. He has also taught Indigenous Studies at […]
This article is part of our February theme, which focuses on one of the great silences in the human rights conversation in Australia: Prisoners’ Rights. Read our Editorial for more on this theme. Our first piece for our February theme, Prisoners’ Rights, is a moving audio work which reminds us of the humanity of those we […]
Blink is a short story inspired by the recent eviction of Occupy Melbourne from City Square. Click here to read an eyewitness account of the eviction by our Editor-in-Chief, Andre Dao, with an accompanying photo gallery. Adam didn’t blink from the high pitched screams. His eye simply pressed harder against the viewfinder, making sure the […]
Bloody regime If the key of paradise was in the hands of Sudan’s regime, I would reject it If the signing of peace accord save Sudan’s regime, I would dismiss it If religion was in the name of Sudan’s regime, I would be godless If prayers bring Darfuri people rights, I will practice it If […]
Thanks to our friends at Voiceworks we’re pleased to present the following article by Bridget Chappell, a young Australian writer, on the criminalisation of sex work in Iraqi Kurdistan. As Chappell points out in her piece, one of the major arguments put forward to justify the invasion of Iraq in 2003 was widespread human rights […]
Today I missed my train by 10 seconds I have to wait 20 minutes to catch the next one That is why I got upset and grabbed a paper and held a pen To write something in order to relieve my anxiety If you want to know how time is expensive just miss a train […]
The following story is based on true events. It contains very graphic imagery which might shock some readers. It is not recommended for younger readers. It was late as Rochelle crossed the main street towards Mosman Park. She left behind the flickering streetlights and entered the unlit path of the park, dragging her fingers through […]
