Dear scattered friends,

A quick catch-up before Christmas. Needless to say, the men are still in detention at Pinkenba – sleeping during the day, on the internet at night searching for news of their homeland.

sleep all day
surf at night
the internet – a lonely light
on all we know
and our tears will flow
as we surf the net at night

homeland is weeping
news of the day
stories we’re reading
break our hearts but we can’t turn away

There is a Christmas tree prominently located in the common room where we gather with our guitars. Not a common sight for the Persians and the Iraqis, those from Afghanistan, Kuwait and Syria. But it’s there anyway. Hopefully by osmosis, the message of peace on earth will find its way into this jaded context. We resisted any inclination to sing Christmas carols apart from John Lennon’s classic ‘War is over – if you want it’:

and so this is Christmas
for weak and for strong
for rich and for poor ones
the world is so wrong

There has been some movement in the Centre with good news for a relative few – enabling their transit into community detention. Most continue the wait that began on Christmas Island sixteen months ago. Others have had their claims for asylum rejected. The resultant depression becomes contagious.

Our morning music sessions are not well attended. As we’ve mentioned before, most of the detainees are sleeping so we’ve come up with a plan in consultation with SERCO: the plan is that we come at night instead of in the day. The details are currently being negotiated though Simon and Aleathea came last Tuesday night from 8pm – 10pm to test the proposal, positioned themselves in the outdoor recreation area – played, sang and talked. More men joined in, others gathered in groups and tuned in.

Occasionally a young singer comes out of the shadows and joins us. He has virtually no English but when we can persuade him to sing for us, he rubs his eyes and wrings his hands, runs his fingers through his hair ‘til he’s at the point of tears then he wrings his hands again – it’s a painful process but then the vocals begin slowly and gather strength. His eyes are usually moist by this time but we are all transfixed – his singing is beautiful.  When it’s over as I mentioned in my last update, he bows courteously, touches his heart with his hand and disappears back into the shadows from where he came.

The other night though, his mood was lighter, his smiles were spontaneous. He has had some good news. He is “on a favourable course” according to Mahin the interpreter. His application for protection has been approved subject to police checks (which can take a further 3-12 months apparently). But he is happy – better days ahead. One of the SERCO staff said to him “This is a nice Christmas present”. He reacted in horror thinking with his very rudimentary understanding of English that she was hinting at his impending return to Christmas Island. That word will never be the same.

Remember the young man who “sang always with great passion and his wife for whom he would always vacate his comfortable chair” who was transferred to the Inverbrackie Family Detention Centre in South Australia? His name is Ali and his young wife is Sareh. They now live in community detention in Clayfield here in Brisbane. Last week Scattered People member Lou drove down from Maleny, picked them up together with Sareh’s sister Saviz and her husband Rahman and took them to her home in the country for a couple of days with her own family. During that time they attended the Buddies’ picnic at Mooloolaba (Buddies are a Sunshine Coast support group for refugees and asylum seekers). Here is an excerpt (with permission) of Lou’s email to me following that experience:

Hi Brian, well the weather treated us well and the sun shone when we got to Mooloolaba.  The picnic was a great success.  I spent most of my time with them on the beach and Ali and Sephr spent a lot of time in the water.  I’ve travelled so far in two days and have shown the two families some great sights, a walk in the rainforest and down to the big dam today and a great dinner of different pizzas.  We played cards until 12.30 this morning and lots of laughs.  Maggie and I showed them the game of CHEAT and I think Australians are better liars than Iranians so we caught them out every time. It was a great experience for me and my kids, they were all very loving towards Maggie and Darcy.  I know that this is a good thing for my kids  to learn to be more tolerant and understanding of others. I hope to have them all again soon.  As the train arrived at the  station each of these six new Iranian/Australians embraced Maggie and I with such warmth and I felt very happy to have met such new and wonderful friends and that I could make a difference and share my beautiful part of the world with them.   See you next Thursday. Lou

When we took our guitars to the Detention Centre on that very first day – Thursday June 9, 2011, we were uncertain where this ‘program’ would lead. Reading the above email excerpt will give you, our broader network, a sense of the ever-expanding circle of friends that has become possible. If you want to be part of that and invite Ali and Sareh – or any of the others to a picnic or for a meal at your home, that would be wonderful – they would appreciate it immensely – please give me a call (07 3624 2403)

Ali and Sareh have subsequently come back into the Detention Centre with us to give hope to the men who are struggling from one day to the next. Ali and Rahman came with us yesterday.

We did have a newcomer though: Paul Vidler, a young Brisbane blues player who contacted us via the Adelaide-based initiative ‘Welcome to Australia’. He brought with him three guitars – one that he played through the morning sessions, one that he gave to the Centre as a gift for the men to use and one that he gave to Ali as a present after hearing of his love for music and his desire to play the guitar. These are good things. Ali is a little overwhelmed with the welcome he is receiving. The keyboards donated to the Detention Centre by Lou and Mick her husband are attracting much interest on the part of the detainees. No one can play though – they’ve asked about a teacher. I said I would put the word out amongst this network for any volunteer keyboard teacher who could go in to Pinkenba perhaps once a week or a fortnight in the afternoon or evening preferably to assist the men with the musical basics. Please let me know if you hear of anybody who would be prepared to assist in this way.

The industrial diver Abed and Neda his sister of ‘My Heart Will Go On’ acclaim, have also moved back to Brisbane living in community detention. Word is that they are doing well, maximising any opportunity they have to join a Neighbourhood Centre English class or engage in practice conversation. Sadly though, Neda’s best friend has disappeared in the latest boat sinking off the coast of Java. She is terribly distressed with a fading hope that her friend will be located as one of the survivors.

Prior to SERCO Activities officer Nicole leaving for another job three weeks ago, she came up with an idea to draw on the skills and available time of the detainees – furniture restoration. Her idea has been refined by Kirsten her replacement and will soon be implemented. Lifeline/UnitingCare Community has responded positively to the initiative.  A truck from the Lifeline store will bring on a regular basis 3 or 4 items of furniture needing repair and attention. These items will be worked on by those interested and then stored in one of the outer buildings – waiting for their ‘restorers’ to be relocated into community detention. They will take these prized items with them.

Damaged pieces – once useful and appreciated – needing to be useful and appreciated again.

Scattered People will continue through the break at the Detention Centre – in the form of Simon and his sister Aleathea sitting in the common area on Wednesday nights, playing guitars, mandolins, flutes and singing.

There is no break for the detainees.

Best wishes to each of you over Christmas – may the new year bring hope for all of us.

The Scattered People team
December 23rd 2011

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Dear scattered associates, it’s time for an update.

The last narrative of September 15, 2011 detailed that all of the detainees with whom we’d been associated for 15 weeks – the majority of the mums, the dads, the couples, the singles and the children had been transferred into community detention – mostly in Brisbane. This was of course very good news. You may remember our distress that the industrial diver and his sister (My Heart Will Go On) and another couple had been transferred to the Inverbrackie Family Detention Centre in South Australia.

Scattered People member Paola was delighted to have come across groups of our friends at the Multicultural Festival and at an Iranian celebration in the Queen Street Mall. Hugs, kisses – the sweet aroma of freedom. The mechanical engineer Ali (I can use names now too – all in the name of personalising and humanising) came to our rehearsal at the Romero Centre on Monday of this week. Outside of the Detention Centre (where professional distance is required), we were able to embrace. It felt very good. Ali’s young wife Neda was at an English class. Needless to say, learning the language is top priority for them all – jobs will follow and then their lives can gather momentum.

Abed (the industrial diver) and his sister (also Neda) have received their protection visas as well and are living we understand, in Melbourne. Her heart is going on. Scattered People member Lou has been visiting some of the families now living in Nundah and assisting with provision of furniture and other ‘settling in’ requirements. Life has changed for the better for all of these people. We know that this will be heart-warming for all of you to know – as it is for us.

Back at Pinkenba, the atmosphere is dramatically different. There are no women – there are no children. Just men who have been living in detention on Christmas Island for fourteen months – men from Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Syria and Palestine. Men with haunted eyes – most on medication for depression according to the interpreters. Young men, older men. Men who say ‘hello’ to us and greet us warmly. Others who stare into space and don’t respond to our greetings.

During our first session, one of the men from the back of the room shouted to us. The interpreter quietly translated “we don’t need music, we need a decision”. After all those months on Christmas Island waiting and waiting – the outburst was understandable. We get it.
Nevertheless we sang in solidarity:

big clock tickin’ the pendulum still
we’ll hang on somehow we always will
but who’ll be saving my heart while I’m waiting in limbo?

Mahin our beloved Farsi interpreter was with us for the first few weeks but has subsequently been transferred to another Centre. While she was with us, those few of the detainees who gathered with us were predominantly Iranian. Those from other countries stood smoking and huddled in the outside area. The Arabic interpreter was busy in the medical sessions – always a priority. We get that too. Our efforts to off-set our perceived image as an Iranian-friendly group of musicians have so far had minimal success. One of the men who occasionally attends our sessions – joining us late each time, has a beautiful singing voice – outstanding quality. When he sings, people gather. We watch their faces. They are transported in the love songs and join with laughter into the jaunty equivalents of our pub singalongs. These are good moments. Mostly though, he is a troubled soul – extremely courteous – participates momentarily and memorably but then walks quietly away.

Music is a doubled-edged sword which can access conflicting places. It goes with the territory.

We have learnt Soltane Ghalba (the Sultan of My Heart) – a song in Farsi and have indicated our desire to learn songs in Arabic and other languages – songs that sustain and give hope. “Next week” they say – they will teach us some new ones.

Yesterday we played through our repertoire but then had a surprising request … can you sing an Elvis Presley song? Serco staff looked sidewards as ‘Love Me Tender’ echoed through the outdoor area – being drowned out occasionally (and possibly thankfully) by the overhead airliners. “More rock songs” came the subsequent plea from one of the Iranians – possibly weary of the emotive minor chords so prevalent in Persian music. We looked at one another and didn’t need to be asked twice. We launched into ‘Back in the USSR’, ‘Get Back’ and ‘I Saw Her Standing There’. I asked one of the men if he knew of the Beatles. He shook his head sideways. Another reminder to us that the world is bigger than our experience of it.

We closed with ‘I’m A Believer’ by the Monkees and finally as a tribute not just to Eric Burden and the Animals but especially to the detainees here with us – those singing, those staring, those ignoring us, those smoking against the wall outside, those walking around the garden in their own lonely and turbulent world

we gotta get outta this place
If it’s the last thing we ever do
we gotta get outta this place
girl there’s a better life for me and you

Next rehearsal at the Romero Centre in Dutton Park will take place on Monday December 5 at noon. Word is spreading. This week we had two women from Afghanistan, one lady from Sudan, two English language volunteers and of course, Ali from Iran. In addition to the Scattered People songs led by Yani, each participant sang a song from her/his home country. We were a small group this time but according to the admin workers in the office, we sounded beautiful.

That was nice to hear.

The young woman from Sudan – a little fragile – confided that she usually hates Mondays but that she loved this one.

That felt even better.

Best wishes from the Scattered People team

Together Red Northside Choir Jamming with music and the CD and choir logos to promote the concert & CD Launch at QUT Kelvin Grove.

Together Red are a choir  led by Music Therapist Kate Fletcher with the Down Syndrome Association of Queensland (DSAQ). The choir has been participating in a research project called DIScoveringEBILITIES funded by the AuDa Foundation.

Together Red have been working with Kate to compose their own songs and will have a CD launch on Saturday the 19th of November at Queensland University of Technology Concert Studio at Kelvin Grove.The Launch will feature an internet jam using jam2jam and a series of Network Improvisations where choir members will use iPads with touch screen controllers especially designed for  each users ability. The pre launch workshop will feature a range of audio visual jams that will assist researchers to devise interactive music and video systems for performances online and live. The research will create a system for the use of generative technologies for music therapy.

Building health and harmony in our community through music.

My friend Richard McCarthy in Dalby understands the power of music to heal and connect. This land was sung into place and it sings to us through its Indigenous people. Listen!

 Dear Scattered friends and supporters,

It’s week 15 and we have mostly good news. The Pinkenba Detention Centre is currently empty.

A telephone message from Nicole, the activities coordinator on Tuesday revealed that there were only seven detainees left at the centre – all of the others have been relocated into community detention. She urged that I ring before our session today in case there were only one or two detainees left – possibly not worth our while to come.

I telephoned as advised to say that even if there was only one detainee left in the place, we would be there. Nicole was away but I was told by another SERCO staff member that all detainees had been relocated.

It is now 10.30am on Thursday morning – probably the time we would be raucously engaged in the ‘Need One Another’ chorus

need one another when we’re down hearted
need one another when we’re so low
need one another help us move on
need one another now

or belting out …

Thirsty country, need to flee, will you make some room for me

It’s strangely quiet though.

It is a very good thought that these people we’ve come to know so well are now out in the community – somewhere in Brisbane – supported to some degree by the Red Cross while navigating their way – still quite restricted, still without work permission, still dependent on the government to provide basic subsistence while waiting for their protection visa applications to be processed.

At least they’re not locked up.

We think of them all with great affection: the mechanical engineer and his wife, the young poet in her yellow tracksuit, that little ray of sunshine and her mum who is slowly re-learning how to smile, the seamstress who wrote the poem ‘Butterflies Are Free’ and her husband who gave me the flower from his garden, the young girl supporting her emotionally precarious Dad who is missing his wife still in Iran unable to escape, the mischievous bird whistler, the teenager who added a rap verse whenever he could to our songs, the little boy making beautiful things out of origami, the young woman who wore socks beneath the hand-out thongs … we love them all and see them all as being wonderful assets to our communities.

Our goal was to identify, affirm and describe their humanity for all of you and to remind themselves of it too. Our music didn’t break down the walls of the detention Centre nor did it challenge Government policy. It was designed to connect traumatised people with others who care for them, to sustain their hopes and those other precious aspects of themselves – the light from which can be so easily extinguished. It was an opportunity to laugh, to shake hands and embrace warmly. It was a chance for voices to be heard, for songs to be sung – songs that became ambassadors for their own sustaining thoughts and where those songs could not be located, remembered or accessed – to write new ones that invited rhythms and melodies to convey what was still left to be said.

“I used to believe that music could change the world.
I have come to realise that only people can change the world.
but music can change people.”

Michael Franti

Scattered People began rehearsals yesterday (Wednesday) at the Romero Centre in 20 Dutton Street Dutton Park. The back verandah was crowded as the music wafted over the neighbour’s fences. Some things you just can’t contain. Unfamiliar faces – community detainees  – were present. In time perhaps, those whom we’ve come to know at Pinkenba will find a way there. We hope this will happen. It may not though. We are aware that our role for some may have been a kind of temporary ‘glue’ to assist in keeping themselves together – a stage of their lives that they may therapeutically choose to leave behind in favour of finding other ways and contexts to sustain themselves.  Important that we understand and support that.

need one another help us move on

The songs that emerged from the 15 week Pinkenba experience in addition to new ones – yet to be composed – will feature on the Scattered People #3 album to be released in 2012.

It’s not all good news though as I hinted in my introduction.

The industrial diver and his sister – the vocalist who sang ‘My Heart Will Go On’ together with the young man who sang always with great passion and his wife for whom he would always vacate his comfortable chair, have been transferred to the Inverbrackie Family Detention Centre in South Australia. It’s a bewildering decision and we can only imagine their distress. We share it. Our hearts are heavy. The diver was aching to swim at the Sunshine Coast. His sister did not get to hear her poem translated by Mahin ‘My Chevalier and My Mecca’ just this week put to music.

in the grey horizon where nobody cares
behind cold heavy mountains and the fog of despair
in life’s storm in the cold and dark
in the swamp of my desire you’re my sorrow’s chevalier

She has been severely depressed. We are not sure how her heart will go on.

We are seeking more information.

So it’s with a mixture of feelings that I close our weekly transmissions to you all. This will be the final edition. Our intention was to provide peripheral vision for you, the outside network into the multiple layers of humanity that can be engaged when music opens the door and creates a safe and welcoming place.

Mocha Keram (thank you) for your guest appearances, your regular feedback, your dependable support and on-going interest. We recognise you as kindred spirits.

In the meantime, we have heard that 70 males from Christmas Island are to be flown to Pinkenba tomorrow. We will tune our guitars.

The show must go on.

In solidarity,
The Scattered People team.

Please forward this link to your networks.

If your time (and/or job descriptions) will allow, please join us,

regards,

Brian

Like to sing? Like to meet other people?

Enjoy singing with others and making friends as part of the …

SCATTERED PEOPLE CHOIR

starting at Romero Centre (20 Dutton St. Dutton Park)

Wed 14 September

12.30-2.30pm

This group of musicians has been working for many years with people new to Australia, sharing enjoyment of music and songs from different cultures to express their feelings and create good energy.

They have been going once a week into BITA (Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation – detention centre) once a week for the last few months and would like people to be able to continue meeting and singing at Romero.

Come and join in and share your voice &  laughter!!!!

Week 14 at the Pinkenba Detention Centre. Something’s different today: The mechanical engineer – big, welcoming and loveable, the body builder who dances like a girl, master of the Rubik’s cube, instigator of the mischievous slow clap – has gone. His beloved partner who has lived next door to him since they were children – she who writes poetry under the influence of Rumi, she who dressed in yellow to celebrate Ramadan – went with him. According to Mahin the interpreter, they have both been given their protection visas. It is wonderful news. It is our assessment system having a satisfying outcome.  It is what we have been hoping for.

We miss them.

The men arrived first this morning and made themselves comfortable on the soft lounge chairs in the common room. Their comfort was to be short-lived. Their wives arrived soon after. The men jumped to their feet offering the ladies the comfortable chairs. They’ll teach us Aussies a thing or two.

Straight into ‘Limbo’ – our latest composition. The rock and roll experiment seems to be paying off. The boys are into it. Leathy finds a harmony for the girls.

you save my body, you’re savin’ my skin, you’ve saved me the bed I’ve been sleepin’ in
but who’ll be savin’ my heart while I’m waitin’ here in limbo?

The song will find its way on to the 2012 Scattered People 3 album. The album, like its predecessors will somehow find its way into the fragile and vulnerable gatherings of future seekers of safety, future travellers of those same well-trodden though distressing pathways – offering an atmosphere of understanding and solidarity.

The oppressors and the oppressed. Some things don’t seem to change.

With Yani and Pete being overseas, Aleathea led the warm-ups and used a soft colourful bag of rice to engage all of us – thrown from one to the other precipitating bird calls, dogs barking, owls hooting, guttural noises – vocal exercises – sounds that we didn’t know we could make and will hopefully never make again. Simon finished off the exercise with an impressive display of juggling.

Interpreter Mahin had sent an email during the week introducing us to a courageous young Iranian poet Hila Sedighi who exposes in her poetry the inhumane treatment of her government towards vulnerable people especially women. Predictably she has been imprisoned. From the ‘land of philosophy, poetry and faith’, Hila is an inspiration to all of us in the room.

هیلا صدیقی شاعر جوان ایرانی به 4 ماه حبس تعزیری تبدیل به 5 سال تعلیق محکوم شد

جهان زن ـ بالاخره سازمان اطلاعات سپاه که تحمل شعرهای زیبا و ضداستبدادی هیلاصدیقی را هم تاب نیاورد و با احضار او و تفتیش خانه اش برای او پرونده ای تشکیل داده و این پرونده را به دادگاه فرستادند تا زبان او را نیز قطع کنند. آن ها با تلاش برای پرونده سازی برای او و اخراج از محیط کارش، قصد دارند تا مردم را از شعرهای با مضمون و آتشنیش محروم سازند. اما او همچنان محبوب قلوب است.

Poem – I’m iranian woman – Hila Sedighi – YouTube <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTbw3XRIvLk>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTbw3XRIvLk <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTbw3XRIvLk>

Persian songs followed. Two of the men sang with passion – fired up, we suspect with the mention of the name Hila Sedighi. It was Paola’s turn. She admitted to being nervous and asked us all to close our eyes. She told us of her own feelings of connectedness to the group and then sang beautifully in Spanish – a romantic song of course reminding us that romance and justice are close cousins. The man who for the last three weeks has frightened us with those shrieking bird noises via that small piece of plastic, fortunately was unable to find the plastic in his pocket. He sang instead a “country song” for us in a dialect of Farsi after asking us first to close our eyes. We know when ‘the mickey’ is being taken out of us.

At the Mustang Bar in the Valley on a Saturday night, such an act could have repercussions. In this environment, it was wonderful.

Simon and Aleathea then treated us to a high quality rendition of Supertramp’s ‘Give A Little Bit’. The lyrics could have been written in this room.

give a little bit of my life to you
give a little bit of your time to me
see the man with the lonely eyes
take his hand, you’ll be surprised

There is a sense of buoyancy that positive decisions are being made by the Department and that community detention is increasingly within reach for those who remain here. It is recognised and accepted it seems that those with children, will go first. Public pressure on the Government that children should not be held in detention has had its impact. Not even SERCO staff know what the next step will be for the Pinkenba Centre – it could become a short-term transit centre for visa over-stayers. It could on the other hand become filled to capacity with those who were up until relatively recently, destined for Malaysia. They will soon be informed by DITA. We will know soon after.

The ‘Free Like Butterflies’ poem which has become a song sounded sweet today:

keep us safe and hold us together
‘til we’re free like those butterflies

The poet’s husband went outside, picked a tiny though beautiful flower from the garden he looks after, came back in and gave it to me.

my wish is that someday I’ll be
more able to give than be given
this wish is important to me

The gift that gives twice.

The Romero Centre in 20 Dutton Street, Dutton Park will become the second rehearsal venue for Scattered People beginning this Wednesday 15th of September from 12.30 – 2.30. Please come if you can and join us. Of course our hope is that it will become a regular meeting and singing opportunity for those in community detention and others with a refugee experience but all are welcome.

We will play our songs on the spacious back verandah. Forgive us though if we are slightly distracted. We will be on the alert – scanning the front door – hoping, anticipating … looking for a woman dressed in yellow and a big, big man who dances like a girl.

Best wishes,
The Scattered People team

Please forward through your relevant networks.