A FORMER asylum seeker who spent time in detention will speak about his experience at a special Refugee Week event in Montmorency.
The Montmorency Asylum Seekers Support Group and the St Francis Xavier Social Justice Group will this Sunday hold a Voices from Detention discussion based on the novel They Cannot Take the Sky.
The novel voices first-hand experiences of asylum seekers held on Manus Island and Nauru immigration detention centres.
Michael Green, one of the novel’s editors, and John Gulzari, a refugee who spent time in detention, will speak at the event. Michelle Cunningham, from the Montmorency Asylum Seekers Support Group, said she was moved by the stories.
“I was reading the novel and just found it very powerful,” she said. “I spoke to the group and said we need to do something on this.”
The video interviews used for the book will also be shown at the talk.
“I’ve had a chance to watch the video,” Mrs Cunningham said. “The stories are rather confronting.”
The free event will take place at the St Francis Xavier Parish Hall at 1.45pm on Sunday.
Copies of the novel will be available for purchase.
(First published in the Diamond Valley Leader on June 21st 2017)
