Seeking Asylum—Holding Patterns: The 2020 Ballina Region for Refugees Poetry Prize

• Bill Boyd ^[1] ; Emma Doolan ^[1] ; Ruth Henderson ^[2]
  1. [1] Southern Cross University

     Southern Cross University

     Australia

     
  2. [2] Ballina Region for Refugees
• Localización: Coolabah, ISSN-e 1988-5946, Nº. 29 (Modern Australia was conceived as a British convict colony, and this relatively recent past steeped), 2021 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Crime and Punishment), págs. 47-72
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo
• Resumen

  • Poetry provides valuable and insightful ways to explore and record social and political experiences and engagements. The plight of refugees and people seeking asylum in Australia is well known. Community groupssuch asthe Ballina Region for Refugees provide support to refugees and asylum seekers both in Australia and offshore. To help raise awareness and validate the experience of refugees and asylum seekers, the Ballina Region for Refugees runs an annual Poetry Prize. The 2020 Ballina Region for Refugees Poetry Prize theme was Seeking Asylum—Holding Patterns. This article presents the winning and highly commended poems, along with poems by refugee and asylum seeker poets. Poems from both insider witnesses – refugees and asylum seekers – and outsider witnesses – poets who seek to express an empathy with the plight of refugees and asylum seekers – have contributed to this collection. From haunting statements of human dissolution that should strike fear into anyone’s heart, through glimpses of hope, the poems explore the trails of asylum seeking and the dysfunctionality of the aftermath.