Walk in My Shoes
By Alwyn Evans
Penguin Books, 2004
349 pages, $18.95
REVIEW BY ANNOLIES TRUMAN
At an October 2 launch of this novel hosted by the Hills No War Alliance, author Alwyn Evans recalled her shock a few years ago when a friend made a derogatory remark about asylum seekers. She was jolted into realising how widespread prejudice against people seeking refuge in Australia was.
Evans had recently been introduced to an Afghan family on temporary protection visas (TPVs) and she knew enough about their history to be outraged at her friend's ignorance. Evans became determined to write a novel that would not only awaken Australians out of their complacency or racism to an awareness of refugees' reasons for fleeing their countries of origin, but also — and most importantly — to highlight the injustices and traumas suffered by refugees once they arrive on our shores.
Walk in My Shoes centres around a Hazara family from Afghanistan (modelled on the one Evans knows), narrated by the teenage daughter. It begins with their arrival in Western Australia and their bus journey to a detention centre. The story primarily relates their Australian experiences, but it includes numerous flashbacks to their persecution by the Taliban (which abducted and presumably executed the father) and their perilous sea voyage from Indonesia.
Evans spent two years researching and writing the book. She interviewed numerous refugees and those working with them about their experiences, along with a nurse who worked at Woomera detention centre. Although names and some places are fictitious the book is based on real experiences.
In one of the saddest parts of the book, the refugees see the state of the fishing boat that is to take them from Indonesia to Australia and refuse to get on board. The agents lie to them that the fishing boat will take them to a larger vessel. While en route to Australia the unseaworthy boat meets a violent storm. Everyone fears for their lives and is gut-wrenchingly sick and a tragedy occurs.
The first half of the book describes life in detention. The mood of the family and other detainees shifts from relief at arriving in a "safe" country, to shock at being incarcerated, to growing despair and desperation as their stories are told and retold to immigration officials, yet no visas are forthcoming. The mother sinks deeper into depression as the teenage children struggle with adult responsibilities in an impossible situation. Other detainees attempt suicide.
When the family eventually receives TPVs, Abdul, the young boy from their village who accompanied them and who lost his father to the Taliban, is forced to remain at the camp.
Part two of the book describes the adventures and difficulties of settling into Perth and the agonising uncertainty of whether the family would be granted permanent protection once their three-year TPVs ran out. There is also constant concern for Abdul's survival amidst the depression of camp life, the routine brutality of some of the guards, the riots and the hunger strikes.
Walk in My Shoes is highly readable, with humour and a love interest to balance the tales of hardship. It was written as a "crossover" book, suitable for adolescents as well as adults. My nine-year-old read it with relish. I know of two classrooms — one late primary school, the other in middle school — that are using it successfully.
Walk in My Shoes joins a growing list of novels and films exposing the shoddy treatment of refugees. The federal government's scapegoating of refugees succeeded in 2001 when the Howard government won an election based on racism with the acquiescence of the ALP. Yet the tide appears to be turning, in part measured by this growing genre of literature. Hopefully, by revealing the human face of refugees, Walk in My Shoes will contribute towards shifting public opinion further.
Half of all royalties from sales of the book go to CARAD, the Coalition for Asylum Seekers, Refugees and Detainees.
From Green Left Weekly, December 15, 2004.
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