New Australian’s new Australia

Peter O’Brien writes: Have you heard of Saba Vasefi? That’s her (above) at the Woman Scream Festival with the Greens’ Lee Rhianon, and there was more in the Sunday Telegraph, which profiled her in an Australia Day lift-out beneath the following headline:

Ambassador of hope –This citizen of the world calls Australia her home

It seems Ms Vasefi fled Iran in 2010 after being sacked from her university post because she opposes capital punishment. She arrived in Australia with her daughter, a suitcase and not much else. But now, according to the Tele, she has ‘firmly established herself as a valued member of society.  So much so, she has been named as an Australia Day ambassador’.

A multicultural success story? Yes, but only so far, as Ms Vasefi has a few reservations about the country that took her in, which is perhaps to be expected of someone described as a feminist film maker, academic, poet and PhD student in Feminist Cinema Studies and documentary film at Macquarie University. Once, in a less enlightened age, new arrivals on our shores built useful things like, you know, the Snowy Mountains Scheme, but that was then. As she told the Telegraph of her Australia Day ambassadorship (emphasis added):

I was totally surprised when they asked me to do it because so much of the conversation in Australian society vilifies refugees.

And it’s obvious that what I have to say will be uncomfortable for many to hear and will challenge the views held by many. But I was so honoured to be named an Australia Day ambassador.

But a part of her still feels restless:

While I do identify with Australia I have a sense of belonging in several places such as the community of displaced and friends who support love, peace, equality and justice.  So I identify myself as a citizen of the world.

If Saba had been here a little longer, or perhaps if she looked beyond the grievance-industrial complex of universities and advocacy groups, she might have grasped that the vast majority of Australians welcome genuine refugees and have done so since the end of World War Two. Her own life here might also have provided a clue. Australia has been very kind to her, although she seems not to be entirely aware of her good fortune. In March last year she said:

After five years living in Australia as a refugee, I still feel I don’t belong here somehow.

My continuing search made me reach out to asylum seekers living in detention and drove me to work for the powerless women and children incarcerated there.

There are dozens of these Australia Day ambassadors.  The idea is that they go out and celebrate Australia Day with local communities.  Saba will be heading to Tamworth, where she will no doubt be able to provide the locals with a more nuanced view of what it is to be an Aussie.

As to her own experience of the ‘vilification of refugees’, the following excerpts are revealing:

In 2014, I was accepted to study at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School. I was determined to pursue filmmaking, but it was clear the curriculum lacked cultural awareness, particularly regarding students from refugee or non-English speaking backgrounds. A lot of work needs to be done to encourage diversity at all levels of education in Australia and teaching methods desperately need to be revised to promote a more sophisticated multicultural vision.

I had access to generous funding on the condition I produced a documentary film about a landmark event from Australian history. I had no knowledge of Australian history and I wanted to find a story that resonated with my own narrative. After spending years campaigning against capital punishment in Iran, I hoped I might find Australian women dedicated to the same cause. This is what led me to Edith Cowan. 

Edith Cowan, Australia’s first female parliamentarian, does have a link of sorts to capital punishment: her father was hanged in 1876 for shooting her stepmother. Ms Vasefi‘s daughter, Minerva, would be aware of that, as she attends a very good school, Tara in Sydney’s west, on a full academic and musical scholarship.

So, “generous funding” to make a film, honoured by the Australia Day crowd and a full scholarship for her daughter.

Yep, it’s a tough life for poor Ms Vasefi. Those Tamworth rednecks must be just itching to have Australia’s shortcomings brought to their attention.

For 2017’s Australian of the Year finalists, follow the link below.

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