Rosanne Hawke explores cultural identity, ideas of
social inclusion, exclusion and racism in a way that allows and/or pressures
the audience to question the trials and tribulations of ‘the asylum seeker experience’.
The reader is positioned to empathise and in some ways relate to the
participants, in particular with the story’s protagonist, twelve year old Soraya.
This corresponds with Ferrarelli’s idea that children’s literature can be used
‘to promote sensitivity to culture, gender and ethnic differences’ (Ferrarelli,
M 2007, p. 63).
Hawke creates a
glimpse of the trauma suffered by a broken family who escaped the upheaval of
Afghanistan. Soraya and her now small family have seen and experienced terrible
things under the rule of the Taliban. Having lost four members of her family
and for fear of losing more, they were forced to flee Afghanistan, risking
their lives in order to escape those who persecuted them. Soraya arrived in
Australia with surviving family members, her mother, younger brother and sister
only to be met with, not a place of freedom where they would be welcomed, but a
detention centre where depression and post-traumatic stress compound there
negative experiences. Granted a three year temporary protection visa, Soraya
tries to adjust and adapt to her new country and longs to stay there in safety.
“Through her storytelling we learn about the bravery and the reality of
Soraya’s life, the fear and terror she and her family have left and the
shocking uncertainty that they now face, still not knowing what the future
holds”(Hawke 2011). This medium provides children with a text that is
accessible and meaningful to the intended audience.
The use of lead
character which corresponds with the intended primary school audience leads to
increased identification and empathy with the characters. Children are able to
identify with Soraya’s familiar family dynamics at a level which helps to
breakdown pre-existing cultural boundaries. For example an ‘annoying’ younger
brother for whom Soraya wishes she knew “how to make him shut his mouth” (Hawke
2004 p.61) and a grandma who reads her bedtime stories. The familiarity of
playing in the park and making new friends is set against the unfamiliarity of
severe post traumatic stress and depression experienced by the mother due to the trauma of losses
and relocation. This juxtaposition of familiarity and unfamiliarity allows for
the reader to place themselves in the characters ‘shoes’.
Hawke portrays the non-Anglo-Celtic protagonist as
misunderstood and scrutinised; positioned as the victim, Soraya constantly
reminded she does not ‘belong’. “You’re not like us, and this is all some
people notice” (Hawke
2004 p.130).
Hawkes’ intent is to highlight the naivety and
ignorance which forms the foundations of intolerance, and how it promotes a
cultural void between Anglo-Celtic and non-Anglo-Celtic Australians. Throughout
the text adjectives such as different,
strange, foreign, wog and weirdare commonly used by other school kids to describe Soraya and her family (Hawke
2004). It is made clear that these descriptions are to be seen in a negative
light, reinforcing the sometimes brutal and harsh environment with which she
must contend.
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