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Issue 159 Spring 2024
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Publication of the Anglesea Community House
Refugee Reflections Bahaa Dabbagh
Bahaa (left) with the other refugee writers at the retreat
The Aireys Inlet Rural Australians for Refugees in association with the Australian Catholic University ran a pilot project for refugee writers in April this year. The aim was to pair four refugee writers with local Surf Coast writers in a weekend retreat so the writers could experience the landscape of their new home, discuss the art of writing with their Australian peers and write, write, write. Bahaa Dabbagh reflects on the outcome of the retreat. The refugee journey is filled with a constant feeling of being hassled. That feeling doesn’t start with the journey and it certainly doesn’t end with it. When life sentenced me to run away, it didn’t really tell me where I would land or what I was really running from. All refugees are trying to escape something: war, famine, persecution, climate or injustice. The journey does not end when we arrive at the other side feeling “safe” from the event that is our motive to flee. The refugee experience, no matter how varied it is, dictates that we have to go through a stage of being stuck in survival mode. That mode feels like playing a game with everyone but their difficulty setting is lower than mine, or at least it seems like that. Survival mode is usually most present when we try to
experience the world while the people around us don’t really notice the things that we notice. We refugees usually navigate the world with misleading beliefs that we have created about ourselves, other people, and sometimes the whole world. Examples? Sure! You might go to the airport lookout to see planes landing and taking off because it’s fun. But when I go to the airport, I need to locate the planes overhead so I’m sure that they are not coming for me. Then for me too it’s fun. You might go to the beach and enjoy the feeling of water on your body, but my refugee friend promised her father that she would never touch that water after his experience on the boat. You might be afraid of the dark and you prefer the lights on while you sleep. I do too, but I’m not afraid of the dark. I’m afraid of feeling powerless when there’s a power outage. While many examples are nuanced, some of them are devastating. Like realising that the scholarship you were granted because of your outstanding academic excellence, is still not enough to get you to university. Someone in Continued on page 4
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