Look at any of the world’s media sources today and it is impossible to miss a story about the ever increasing number of refugees across the globe. Forced to flee their countries of origin due to hardship, war or simply a desire to provide a better standard of life for themselves and their families, many often find themselves in a worse situation than the one they had originally fled.
According to statistics released by the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, in 2004 alone there were over 21.3 million displaced persons in the world. Of these over eight million were children and over seven million of these refugees had been living in detention camps for ten years or more.
And despite the ‘global village’ rhetoric, western response has been called apathetic and downright neglectful, particularly on the part of governments looking to juggle domestic politics with international human rights. Indeed the 27th article of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights cites the widely held belief in a person’s right to “freely to participate in the cultural life of the community.” The declaration also speaks of the importance accorded to human dignity which is a term defined by human rights, first by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, then by the Convention on the Status of Refugees of 1951. However when pitted against home grown issues of unemployment and increasing inflation, these Declarations can hold transient political value.
And as is so often the case, when governments are seen as failing in their efforts to ensure the rights of people enduring unjust conditions and hardship, the artists of the world and their supporters step into the breach. From working to increase public awareness and support of the plight of refugees, to trying to alleviate some of the devastating psychological trauma so many displaced persons experience due to their refugee status, these efforts do galvanise a response.
Davin Anders Hutchins, an American filmmaker whose self-funded documentary The Art Of Flight is a personal investigation into the struggle of Sudanese refugees in Egypt, stated at the premiere of his harrowing work: “We have been evoking sympathy for refugees for centuries and yet each year, there are more and more displaced. Our assumption is that our sympathy and charity are enough. It isn’t.”
Earlier this year, Australian humanitarians Anne Morrow and Jenni Mitchell, appalled by the worsening treatment of refugees seen in the news media, contacted the religious order of the Brigidine Sisters (who undertake an enormous amount of work with refugees) to see what they could do to help.
Horrified both at the living conditions witnessed in a visit to the now notorious Maribyrnong Detention Centre and the fact that the sisters were using their personal stipends to pay for basic living items such as baby formula through to accommodation and medical and legal advice for refugees, the two organised the fund-raiser and art show Bid 4 Freedom, now in its third year, to aid the sisters in their efforts.
Given the lack of governmental support for refugees, both financially and politically, such events within the global arts community are becoming prevalent. In so many instances, long after international relief organizations have provided food, clothing, shelter, medical care and sanitation, hapless refugees so often languish in camps that are little more than human warehouses.
In reality, doctors and other relief workers say the emotional traumas suffered by refugees, particularly children, is one of the most difficult and pressing problems they face in the refugee camps. As aid workers try to create hope, they also struggle to preserve cultural identity without instilling thoughts of revenge and hatred in the minds of those who have lost so much and been given so little in return. And it is such concerns that lay at the heart of many current arts based initiatives currently being put into place around the world.
One of the key figures in this burgeoning refugee arts movement is American dance student Sara Green, the creator of the organisation ART (Art for Refugees in Transition), a curriculum-based program that encourages the revitalization of traditional artistic practices among refugee populations. Believing that her experience as a dancer taught her a valuable lesson about the healing power of the arts, Green argues that: “No matter what was happening in my life, I could always turn to dance as a comfort. I wanted to translate that feeling for other people.”
Geared towards developing specific arts curricula based on the refugees’ own indigenous arts, the aim of ART is to help them to re-establish intergenerational relationships rooted in their own culture, and give them the impetus and tools to rebuild their communities.
In 2003 New York-based artist Alfredo Jaar, exhibited Fading. This controversial work portrayed suspended images of people endlessly drifting. His exhibition Witnessing to Silence: Art and Human Rights was staged to bring a clearer understanding of the plight facing refugees today. At the time Jaar summed it up succinctly:
“It is an unacceptable tragedy that in the 21st century people still die trying to simply cross a border between two countries.”
