Erasing racism one story at a time
[Music]
i was born
in a little village called babalum in
chad central africa
we had a comfortable middle class living
situation
both of my parents were educated with
careers of their own
my mother owned her own business and my
father was an elected politician
in our local government our family was
well respected within the community
and i was loved nurtured and provided
with everything i needed as a young
child
when i was four years old my father
spoke out against corruption in the
government
although i was too young to fully
understand what was happening
i knew there was something wrong
suddenly
the police started coming to our house
asking for my father
something in my mother’s body language
made it very clear
that the police had become something for
us to fear
the police started coming to our house
every single day
for months following up to the day that
changed my life forever
the day that my dream life became a
nightmare
the knock on the door that morning was
different
it was a lot earlier and it was far more
forceful
my father ordered my mother and i and my
little brother to go
hide under the bed that he was going to
get the door
we huddled silently afraid to breathe
and afraid to make noise
we did as our father told us and hide
under the bed
he went and got the door alone
i don’t remember every moment of that
day but i do remember
hearing a loud gunshot and from that
moment
my mother started to cry
she pulled me and my brother close to
her and put her arms around us
as if her arms were some form of shield
that would protect us from these men
and their bullets we waited patiently
for what felt like an eternity
it took so long for the police officers
to come
and do a kirsty check around our house
and finally they left
and my father was gone too
there was nothing everything was taken
away from us
my mother was left with two kids to look
after
she had the grief of losing her husband
and also the grief of finding another
means to provide for her two kids
on a daily basis the loss of our father
was not only emotionally painful for us
but it was all also financially our
friends and our family deceded us
because we no longer had the one show
that we leaned on
as the days and the months went by my
mother saw that chad was becoming
a difficult country a hot country that
she would not be able to support
us while living there because our lives
were also in danger
my 22 year old mother found out that she
was also pregnant
so not that she was only with two kids
she was also expecting another child
at the age of just 22. we waited until
my mother gave birth to my little sister
and in the middle of the night we set
off on an unknown journey
to a nearby refugee camp in benin
we walked about 2 000 miles to reach the
refugee camp
when we got there sadly we got the news
that the refugee camp was full
so my mother wanting us to be somewhere
that we can be seen
she made beds out of cardboard boxes we
slept
outside the unhcr office for two months
on cardboard boxes
before we were finally accepted into the
refugee camp
life in the refugee camp was not easy we
went days without food we didn’t have
access to shelter and all of these other
things
but we were getting used to it and it’s
a life that i would not wish
upon anyone after living in the camp for
a couple of years
one morning the police officers from the
camp came
and knocked on our door this time i was
terrified
because i thought the first time they
came they took
my father so obviously this time they
were going to take my mom
i was so young and i didn’t have power
to save my mom
but my mother exited and went to get the
door
and the police officers of the camp told
her that there was a man looking for
us there was a man who knew our names
a man who knew our story
as we looked this man was my father
my father was shot but he made it out
alive
he was able to flee chad with his life
and find us
in the refugee camp our family
was united and our hopes for the future
was restored we stayed in the refugee
camp for seven years
we sent our family documents to many
countries but we were
not accepting but after seven years
the good news came that we were accepted
to australia
we had absolutely no clue where
australia was
but we knew that it was going to be
somewhere peaceful
and we were grateful for that
opportunity to be adopted into a new
home
may 2007 i got on a flight for the first
time
and we settled in toowoomba
which is a two hours drive from the
city’s capital
tuwumba was a nice and welcoming
community
i went to the refugee camp when i was 4
years old
and i left and came to australia at the
age of 11.
at the age of 11 the only word i knew
was thank you but i thought thank you
meant hello
so i went everywhere thanking everyone
thinking i was politely greeting them
it was so hard to fit in because kids my
age
didn’t understand why i was the way that
i was
they didn’t understand why my skin was a
little darker
they didn’t understand why my accent was
different and they didn’t understand why
i was here in australia
i started looking around to find ways or
organizations or programs that were in
place
that would educate young people about
the arrivals
of refugees and migrants school’s been
the ideal place for education
i was disappointed to find out that
there were not many programs around
that did that by educating young people
so i wanted to find a way to give back
to my community i wanted to give back to
the country that has adopted my family
and has given us a second chance at life
so after doing a few investigation
i created erase
erase is about storytelling it’s using
the power of narrative
to erase racism one story at a time
a group of young people from refugee and
migrant backgrounds
who get trained in public speaking
get on a get in a car and set out on an
anti-racism
road trip it is very exciting
after the group of students come
together
we allow young people in schools the
opportunity
to ask questions no questions are banned
or censored
there comes a times in every everyone’s
life
when you have a project the moment
you have a project and you’re excited
about you know that this pro
this program might work and there comes
a moment that you know
for sure that it will work that moment
came for me
when we were presenting at our first
school
this young boy looked at us and said i
think
refugees are a waste of space and they
should not be here
he looked straight at me as he said it
and i knew that
he was talking about me but i proceeded
with the program
and at the end of the session he came
and apologized
and simply said that he didn’t know
it shows that just by sharing our
stories just by using
my story and sharing and having a
conversation with this young boy
he was able to understand our journeys a
little bit better
and he was able to know that refugees
and migrants are not just a waste of
space
no questions are censored or been
most of the times we get the same
questions but
we always get some surprising new
questions
just at a recent school visit a young
boy bravely
asked us a question and he said
what class of flight did you come into
australia
i looked at this young boy and i was
happy that he felt safe enough
in his classroom environment to be able
to ask us these questions
because if young people have questions
about refugees and migrants
the best people to ask are refugees and
the best people to us
are young people who are just like them
who have experienced hardship and trauma
that can use their stories as an example
i looked at this young boy and we
answered and we said
economy of course we didn’t fly into
australia
in a business class and he was shocked
so that just proves this type of
stereotypes and stigmas
that are held that young people carry on
but just a simple conversation and a
simple q a
session can change i believe that no one
is born racist
and as michelle obama once said you
can’t
hate from up close racism
is a result of behaviors that go
unchallenged
and behaviors that just go without being
questioned
but i truly believe that we can erase
racism one story at a time
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
you