EMILY: What do you think freedom means when you’re an asylum seeker?
HANI: I think freedom means everything for every individual. It doesn’t matter what kind of situation they are in. It’s just something that you really need in your life.
Sometimes in the Christmas Island detention centre, I used to feel like I didn’t have the freedom to think, you know? Even when you go outside [in the yards or on excursion] there, you’re kind of free because you can walk around, but you’re actually only free physically, not mentally, because you have so much stress about your future.
EMILY: That’s an interesting distinction – to be free, you need to have both physical and mental freedom. Do you think it’s possible that if somebody takes away your freedom physically you can still have your mental freedom?
HANI: Yeah, I think if you fight for it. Sometimes it’s better to be physically imprisoned rather than mentally imprisoned. Because when you have a physical lack of freedom, you know that, ‘Oh, I can’t walk here, I can’t get out of here.’ That you know. But when you are mentally locked up but you are physically free, that is the worst, because you don’t know what your future holds, or when you will be mentally free. Freedom doesn’t mean just walking free, it also means being free mentally, emotionally, and, you know – everything.
EMILY: Can you tell me how far you would go for freedom, or maybe tell me some of the things that you’ve already done that demonstrate how far you would go for freedom?
HANI: For freedom, I would touch the sun. I would touch the sun even though it’s too hot. Yeah, because for me, freedom means a lot. As I told you, if freedom was a person, I could be her slave for the rest of my life. Because without freedom, life is just . . .you know, life is impossible. You can keep living life without freedom, but it wouldn’t be as sweet as it is with freedom.
EMILY: So, in the book, the characters have to make a lot of choices that influence their freedom. Can you give me an example of some of the choices that you’ve made?
HANI: The choices that I’ve made to be free… well, for me, I travelled miles and miles to get the freedom that I needed. But then living in the Christmas Island detention centre was not the perfect place, even though I had most of the things that I needed.
To get that freedom, I had to do lot of things that upset me. But I also found that the weapon that could bring me that freedom was my ability to write and to speak up.
EMILY: Were there many times on your journey when you felt like you didn’t have any choice in what happened next?
HANI: Yeah. So, when the guy nailed me under the boat deck as if I was a dead person, I knew that I didn’t have any choice. But it got me the freedom I wanted, and I think nothing ever comes easy in the world – you have to fight for it.
Every time I think about freedom, I will always remember Nelson Mandela, who spent twenty years behind bars and fought for the freedom of the rest of the South African people. He was just a person like me, you know? He had a brain, and he had everything that I have. He didn’t have anything extra, but with patience and willpower, it got him through all those hard times.
So, it didn’t matter to me how many walls were in front of me to reach my freedom – I knew that I would fight for it until my last breath.
Return to scene 17 to continue with the story.
STORIES ABOUT SOMALI REFUGEES, BY SOMALI REFUGEES
Video of Hani telling her story and reading poems:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbRn26mikJg, Hani Abdile, ‘Living Library’, MerJa Media, Australia, 16 September 2015
Book of poetry (for adults):
I Will Rise, by Hani Abdile, Writing Through Fences, Australia, 2016.
Inspirational schools speaker link for Abdi Aden:
Booked Out, Australia, http://bookedout.com.au/find-a-speaker/author/abdi-aden/
Memoir (for adults):
Shining: The Story of a Lucky Man, by Abdi Aden with Robert Hillman, Harper Collins, Australia, 2015.
Memoir (for children):
Yes, I Can! Abdi’s Story, by Abdi Aden, self-published, Australia, 2018.
A poem:
Home, by Warsan Shire, United Kingdom, 2011.
In writing: http://austinrefugees.org/home-a-refugee-poem/
Audio read by Warsan Shire: http://seekershub.org/blog/2015/09/home-warsanshire/
TAKE ACTION
The orphanage ‘Bright Dream’ does not exist. However, many organisations around the world are doing amazing work to support human rights. You can find out more here:
http://www.roads-to-refuge.com.au
https://www.amnesty.org.uk/junior-urgent-action-network
http://www.unhcr.org/en-au/
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ABOVE ALL ELSE, I kiss the toes of the magnificent Hani Abdile: poet, survivor and superstar. I feel so lucky that our paths crossed. My world is richer from your laughter and stories, and you blew air into the lungs of this book. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Deep respect to Abdi Aden: a kind and generous person with true integrity, who was a great sounding-board and advisor. Nadia Niaz also gave rich and thoughtful advice from a Muslim perspective.
So many people have trusted me with their stories – too many to name here, but especially detainees at the Pontville Immigration Detention Centre, and students in the Young Adult Migrant Education program at TAFE. I hope that you find all the freedom and happiness you deserve, and more.
I’m lucky to count among my friends a crack team of refugee advocates, including Clarissa Adriel, Janet Galbraith, Justine Davis, Mark Isaacs, Frederika Steen, Pamela Curr and Kirsty Madden, who have all inspired and advised me on this project and many others. Thank you, too, to all the tireless people around the world who work for organisations such as Amnesty and the UNHCR to bring about a better, more just world.
The birth scene was given the
