Young refugees tell their stories

28 May 2009
A collection of short stories, written by young refugees living in Wellington, has been praised by writer Dame Fiona Kidman as “well-written, accessible stories set in a contemporary world”.

Written during a series of ten writing workshops, the stories in Earthless Trees touch on universal themes: survival, family, home and friends. They range in subject matter from the domestic and personal to war, escape and loss.

“I am profoundly moved by what I read here: the losses endured, the culture that has been displaced, and the ongoing difficulty of survival in New Zealand,” Dame Fiona says in the preface.

Dame Fiona and Dr Ingrid Horrocks attended one of the writing workshops, which were organised by the Wellington Refugees as Survivors Trust. Staff member Samson Sahele, a journalist in his homeland of Ethiopia before coming to New Zealand in 2000, was the driving force behind the project.

"An inspiration”

Jeff Thomas, General Manager of Refugees as Survivors, says Samson was "an inspiration”, encouraging the workshop participants to develop their writing skills and tell their stories.

Publishing a collection of the stories wasn’t part of the workshops project. “This book is beyond our expectations and a fantastic outcome,” Jeff says. “The writers and their families are very proud of what they’ve achieved. So are we.”

Eight young refugees, mostly at secondary school, took part in the workshops. Four of them – Hajar Ali (Afghanistan), Samson Sahele (Ethiopia), Shamim Homayun (Afghanistan) and Abubakar Mohammed (Somalia) – contributed stories for Earthless Trees.

“Mama was hanging on to me as if I were her eye lashes glued to her eyes. With every gust of wind she blinked to protect me. I was hidden under her burqua in my bulletproof vest but there was no protection for my mother,”  says the narrator in The Journey, written by Hajar Ali.

In Words of Honey and Sugar, writer Shamim Homayun begins the story: “From her right hand they stretched up her arm – white and pink marks engraved upon her smooth olive skin. No matter how much I ran my fingers over them, admiring them, my grandmother never talked about the many scars on her hand.”

Mental health services

The Wellington Refugees as Survivors Trust is a registered charitable trust, established in 1997 to provide mental health services to minimise the impact of the refugees’ experiences of torture and trauma, and to support their resettlement in New Zealand.

“The main aim of the project was to encourage young people to tell their stories, give them some skills to write them down, and motivate them to focus on their education” Jeff says.

“Telling the stories can be very therapeutic. Doing activities like this not only helps individuals. It also helps their families and communities.”