Behrouz Boochani | Omid Tofighian | Moones Mansoubi | Madeline Gleeson | Sarah Dale
If it weren’t for the consecutive Australian government’s inhuman treatment of refugees; Behrouz Boochani wouldn’t be a household name.
The Kurdish-Iranian journalist spent six years languishing in offshore immigration detention, during which time he witnessed those seeking asylum being exposed to conditions that grossly violated international refugee law. Behrouz Boochani’s harrowing experience led to him write No Friend but the Mountains (trans. Omid Tofighian), an urgent autobiographical novel painstakingly composed of text messages, detailing the atrocities that were happening on the government’s watch in offshore detention.
Freedom, Only Freedom, is a new book which features the prison writings of Boochani; this collection is translated and edited by from his long-time translators and collaborators Omid Tofighian and Moones Mansoubi. The editors weave Boochani's critical prose with essays from experts on refugee rights, politics, literature and history to further unpack this harrowing experience.
Following an introduction by Omid Tofighian and Moones Mansoubi, Boochani will share his stories of resilience and shed light on the shameful refugee policies that the Australian government continues to endorse, following which he will be in conversation with human rights lawyer Madeline Gleeson.
Freedom, Only Freedom can be purchased here.
This event is presented by the UNSW Centre for Ideas and supported by the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law and the Refugee Advice & Casework Service.
ABOUT THE WALLACE WURTH LECTURE
The Wallace Wurth Lecture was first held in 1964 to commemorate the memory of the late Wallace Charles Wurth, the first Chancellor of UNSW Sydney (at the time known as the New South Wales University of Technology) and first President of the Council of the University. The first Wallace Wurth Lecture was delivered by the then Prime Minister of Australia, the Right Honourable Sir Robert Menzies and recent acclaimed speakers include Gail Kelly, Stan Grant and Daniel Dennett.
LIVE EVENT & VENUE
The Roundhouse is located at UNSW Sydney's Kensington Campus (highlighted red on this map). Please note this is a live event only, and will not be available via livestream.
VISITOR SAFETY INFORMATION
The health and safety of our patrons is our top priority. This event will abide by the Public Health Order prevailing at the time. Please follow our conditions of entry and check back here for updated information prior to the event.
Do not attend the event if you feel unwell, have recently experienced any cold or flu-like symptoms or are awaiting the results of a COVID-19 test.
Face masks are recommended.
ACCESS
Wheelchair Access
The Roundhouse is located at UNSW Sydney's Kensington Campus (E6 on map). The closest accessible drop off point to the Roundhouse is the north entrance (D5 on map). Vehicles need to arrive via Gate 2 on High Street, follow the road to Third Avenue, and turn onto 1st Avenue West. The closest accessible parking is available in the Western Campus Car Park on Anzac Parade (G2 on map).
Assisted Listening
The Roundhouse has a hearing loop. Patrons wishing to utilise this need to simply switch their hearing aid to the T (Telecoil) setting to pick up on the wireless signal.
Auslan & Captioning
Auslan interpreting services and/or live captioning can be provided for selected talks upon request.
To discuss access requirements and book selected services, please call the Centre for Ideas on 02 9065 0485 or email centreforideas@unsw.edu.au.
PUBLIC TRANSPORT & PARKING
The Roundhouse is located at UNSW Sydney's Kensington Campus (highlighted red on this map).
The Roundhouse is easily accessible via public transport. Call the Transport Infoline on 131 500 or visit transportnsw.info.
Paid casual and visitor parking is offered via the CellOPark App and ‘pay by plate meters’. For more information head here.
CONTACT
For all enquiries, please email centreforideas@unsw.edu.au or call the Centre for Ideas on 02 9065 0485.
The Centre for Ideas is happy to receive phone calls via the National Relay Service. TTY users, phone 133 677, then ask for 02 9065 0485. Speak and Listen users, phone 1300 555 727 then ask for 02 9065 0485. Internet relay users, visit relayservice.gov.au, then ask for 02 9065 0485.
Behrouz Boochani is a Kurdish-Iranian writer, journalist, scholar, cultural advocate and filmmaker. Boochani was a writer and editor for the Kurdish language magazine Werya in Iran. He is a Visiting Professor at Birkbeck Law School; Associate Professor in Social Sciences at UNSW Sydney; Honorary Member of PEN International; and winner of an Amnesty International Australia 2017 Media Award, the Diaspora Symposium Social Justice Award, the Liberty Victoria 2018 Empty Chair Award, and the Anna Politkovskaya award for journalism.
He publishes regularly with The Guardian, and his writing also features in The Saturday Paper, Huffington Post, New Matilda, The Financial Times and The Sydney Morning Herald. Boochani is also co-director (with Arash Kamali Sarvestani) of the 2017 feature-length film Chauka, Please Tell Us the Time; and collaborator on Nazanin Sahamizadeh’s play Manus. His book, No Friend but the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison won the 2019 Victorian Prize for Literature in addition to the Nonfiction category. He has also won the Special Award at the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, the Australian Book Industry Award for Nonfiction Book of the Year, and the National Biography Prize.
Photo Credit: Ehsan K Hazaveh
Omid Tofighian is Adjunct Lecturer in the School of the Arts and Media, UNSW Sydney and Honorary Research Fellow at Birkbeck Law, University of London. He is an award-winning lecturer, researcher and community advocate, combining philosophy with interests in citizen media, popular culture, displacement and discrimination.
His publications include Myth and Philosophy in Platonic Dialogues; translation of Behrouz Boochani's multi-award-winning book No Friend but the Mountains: Writing From Manus Prison, co-editor of special issues for journals Literature and Aesthetics, Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media and Southerly; and co-translator/co-editor of Freedom, Only Freedom: The Prison Writings of Behrouz Boochani.
Moones Mansoubi is a community, arts and cultural development worker based in Sydney. Her work is dedicated mainly to supporting and collaborating with migrants and people seeking asylum in Australia. She has managed numerous community and cultural projects, and the first translation of Behrouz Boochani’s work when he began writing from Manus Island. She was translation consultant for Boochani’s book, No Friend but the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison. Her translation of the article 'An Island Off Manus' (Saturday Paper) was included in Boochani’s winning nomination for the Amnesty Media Award in 2017. Moones has a Masters Degree in International Relations and is passionate about social justice and social cohesion. She is currently coordinator of the Community Refugee Welcome Centre in Inner West Sydney and a content producer for SBS Radio, Persian program.
Madeline Gleeson is a lawyer and Senior Research Fellow at the Andrew & Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at UNSW Sydney, where she directs the Offshore Processing and Regional Protection projects. Madeline specialises in international human rights and refugee law, with a focus on the law of State responsibility, extraterritorial human rights obligations, offshore processing on Nauru and Manus Island, and refugee protection in the Asia-Pacific region.
She has extensive experience working with forcibly displaced people around the world. She has conducted research on asylum seekers and refugees, statelessness, human trafficking, labour migration and land grabbing with the Jesuit Refugee Service in Cambodia, and worked with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) in Geneva, Switzerland. She also has human rights experience in South Africa and Indonesia, and previously practiced as a solicitor in Australia.
Sarah Dale is the Director and Principal Solicitor at RACS. She joined RACS in 2013 after spending a number of years working with people seeking asylum and refugees in visa cancellation and civil law issues. At RACS, Sarah was their first Child Specialist Solicitor, developing an outreach legal service to assist unaccompanied children seeking asylum in Australia, and worked tirelessly with children who were detained on Christmas Island and faced transfer to Nauru. She continued this outreach to young people who were transferred to Nauru as unaccompanied children. Sarah became Principal Solicitor in 2016 and has led RACS in responding to a shifting policy environment. In 2017, Sarah participated in the UNHCR Expert Roundtable in Brussels on family reunification, and in consultation with the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders at York University.
