An act of public witness and liturgical protest in a response to the current crisis on Manus Island following the government’s closure of the island’s immigration detention centre. Sunday 19 November 2017, Tim Watts, Labor MP Office, 97 Geelong Rd, Footscray
We are here today to stand in solidarity with men who the Australian Government have held on Manus Island in limbo for over four years. We are here today on the unceded land of the people of the Kulin Nation because on October 31 the Manus camp was officially “closed.”
We are here today because water, food and power have been cut off. Over 600 men have been abandoned. They are collecting water in rubbish bins. They are digging wells to survive. They are showering in the rain. And left starving and without medical care. Because they can no longer tolerate political games and human rights abuses.
There has been no plan. There has been no justice. Their lives are on the line. Men have stated: We can’t blame the sea for drowning people but we blame Australia for killing us. People need a genuine solution. Not to be shifted from one prison to another where their lives remain at risk.
We echo their calls for freedom and safety and call on the Australian government to bring people back to Australia immediately and provide safe resettlement. We want the government to know that we are watching this humanitarian emergency unfold and we do not accept the violence, the abuse, and the ongoing persecution of refugees.
We hear stories of the men on Manus in their own voice. Raise our arms as they do in non-violent protest. We spell out SOS in cups in solidarity and symbolically of life-giving water denied. We make decorations together with our children and tell them stories… we want to teach our children justice. We make chains of the names of those we know on Manus and symbolically tear those chains. Felt and red lights denote the blood on the hands of our democratically elected Government who are treating people this way in our name. We have barbed wire on our tree instead of tinsel – neither the welcome you thought you’d be given nor the home you hoped to find. We sing, to remember and be re-membered. We make decorations, we recite, we pray, we sing… it feels like something. Wherever two or three are gathered… there is our hope.
Hold on (Love Makes A Way)
(tune: Keep your hand to the plough/Keep your eyes on the prize)
They are coming across the sea,
From their homes they have had to flee,
We say, love makes a way, hold on.
We are here to sing and shout,
Why you keeping God’s children out?
We say love makes a way, hold on.
Chorus
Hold on, hold on,
We say, love makes a way, hold on.
We say welcome the refugee
We say set all the people free
We say, love makes a way, hold on.
We have room in our hearts to care
We have plenty enough to share
We say, love makes a way, hold on.
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