Speaking at the Newcastle Writers Festival, author Kon Karapanagiotidis asked everyone who was born or had a parent who was born overseas, to stand up.
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Only a handful remained seated.
He then explained that, for him, it was a long and torturous journey from feeling throughout childhood that he did not belong, to realising most of us come from a background of immigration, trying to work out how to belong.
His experiences led him towards a politics of acceptance and inclusion based on his faith that compassion can change the world.
It's a lesson we should all learn because we are under immense pressure to mutely accept the politics of exploitation.
The exploitation of the environment has led us to an unfolding disaster that is terrifying our children.
But the exploitation of people has had a numbing effect.
It is incredible to think our political leaders are proud that imprisoning innocent people who came here seeking shelter has acted as a deterrent to others seeking shelter.
Having won elections with this theme, its no wonder they think voters will dumbly accept that it is worth spending $185 million reopening the Christmas Island immigration detention centre, to protect us from sick refugees who would "game the system".
Who is gaming the system?
It is incredible to think our political leaders are proud that imprisoning innocent people who came here seeking shelter has acted as a deterrent to others seeking shelter.
We've had enough of dumbing and numbing. For example, a politician and his accomplices who have a model migrant boat as a desktop trophy with the words 'I Stopped These'. Numbing, with no hint of the people on those boats. Dumbing because boats are not the issue. Votes are the issue.
The age of spin is over. It has cost us dearly. It is not just the shame of gigantic desolate mining voids, ruined bone-dry rivers, the imprisonment of our finest writers, the abuse of innocent people in immigration detention hell. It is not just the shame, but the immense cost that our descendants will have to bear.
The grace of Jacinda Ardern, epitomised in the photo published in newspapers of her embracing a member of the Christchurch Muslim community, swells our hearts. It reminds us that to be truly human is to welcome others with solace and compassion.
Compassion led Mr Karapanagiotidis to establish the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre in Melbourne. Ms Ardern does it on a broader scale: her whole country. Newcastle does it as a self-proclaimed Refugee Welcome Zone.
On Manus and Nauru, the compassion of asylum seekers for each other is reflected by accolades from the Australian and international community.
Abdul Aziz received the 2019 Martin Ennals Award Laureate for exposing conditions on Manus. Behrouz Boochani's film Chauka please tell us the time and book No Friend But the Mountains has won numerous awards.
Farhad Bandesh prints his art on t-shirts that are made here, not in the sweatshops of Asia. His artwork and music will feature at The Big Exhale exhibition in in Melbourne on April 26. A movement is growing that says "Yes to Refugees, No to Racism".
More than a million people signed a petition rejecting a brutal racist statement by an MP about the Christchurch shooting. That petition has a history of earlier petitions: about 200,00 people signed a petition to stop the deportation of a family, demanding their return to their community in Biloela.
In this digital age, online responses are a signature of the community. It is a sign that people know, as Urusla LeGuin once wrote, that joy built on the successful slaughter of hope is not the right kind of joy, that to praise despair is to condemn delight.
A movement is growing. Palm Sunday has been adopted by the refugee advocacy movement as an occasion to welcome the stranger.
Newcastle, which has proclaimed itself as a Refugee Welcome City, will join other cities and towns around Australia doing just that.
This Palm Sunday, people will be coming to welcome refugees and asylum seekers, with kindness and delight. People of all faiths, Muslim, Christian, Quakers, people from across the political spectrum, supporters of organisations such as Amnesty and Getup, refugee advocacy groups, will picnic together to publicly declare that we, as a society, say "Yes to Refugees, No to Racism". They will hear direct from Farhad Bandesh on Manus as well as from local speakers.
Join us at the Foreshore Park on Sunday, April 14, from noon to 2pm, for a peaceful family picnic.
