REFUGEE WEEK AMBASSADORS
Refugee Week Ambassadors are the key spokespeople for Refugee Week. They will be available for interviews, media statements and public appearances in the lead-up to and during Refugee Week 2010 (June 20-26).
Refugee Week Ambassadors include both former refugees and individuals who have a long term interest in and understanding of refugee and migrant issues in Australia. Our 2010 Refugee Week Ambassadors are:
Dennis Altman
Dennis Altman is the son of refugees, who came to Australia in the 1930s fleeing Hitler’s persecution of the Jews. Many of his family died because they were not able to leave Europe. He is a writer and academic who first came to attention with the publication of his book Homosexual: Oppression & Liberation in 1972, which was the first serious analysis to emerge from the gay liberation movement. Since then Dennis has written eleven books, exploring sexuality, politics and their interrelationship in Australia, the United States and globally. He is currently Professor of Politics and Director of the Institute for Human Security at LaTrobe University in Melbourne and a Board member of Oxfam Australia. In 2007 he was made a member of the Order of Australia.
Aduc Barec
Civil war in the early 1990s forced Aduc Barec and her family to flee from Sudan to Ethiopia. The family travelled on foot with a group of young boys orphaned by the civil war, one of many such groups who would later become known as the “Lost Boys of Sudan”. Aduc remained in Ethiopia for six years before political instability again placed her family in danger and they were forced to flee back to the Sudanese border. Eventually they were found by UNHCR and moved to a refugee camp in Kenya. It was only in 1997 that Aduc and her family were finally resettled in Australia. Aduc now lives in Gosford with her husband and children, working as a nurse in a retirement village and as a casual intepreter.
Binneh Conteh
Binneh Conteh’s long and dangerous journey to Australia began in Sierra Leone, where political unrest resulting from civil war had placed his family under threat. When Binneh’s uncle and younger brother, a colonel in the army, were caught and killed by rebels, the family were forced to flee the country. They escaped by boat at night and walked on foot for over five days. Binneh finally sought refuge in Chriar, a large refugee camp in Guinea. He applied for a Humanitarian Visa with UNHCR and arrived in Australia in 2002. Binneh now lives in Guildford with wife Jeniba and is studying economics at the University of Western Sydney. Since 1995, he has been part of Friends of Sierra Leone, a not-for-profit organisation which aims to educate the public about the culture and history of Sierra Leone, and supports small-scale development and relief projects in Sierra Leone. He also works as a volunteer for the NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors (STARTTS).
Rev Bill Crews
Rev Bill Crews is founder and chair of the Exodus Foundation, which assists homeless and abandoned youth and other people in need. Throughout his career, he has been a pioneer in providing services and assistance to the disadvantaged. Rev Crews was a member of the team that created the first 24-hour crisis centre in Australia and established the first programme in Australia to reunite adoptees and birth parents (Reunion Register), the first programme to assist parents who were at risk of abusing their children (Child Abuse Prevention Service) and the first modern youth refuge in Australia. He has also been intimately involved in establishing drug rehabilitation, education and prevention programmes throughout New South Wales. Rev Crews has been named a National Living Treasure and is a member of the Order of Australia.
Nicholas Cowdery
Nicholas is the New South Wales Director of Public Prosecutions. Throughout his career as a barrister, he has specialised in criminal law, common law, administrative law and some commercial law. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1987 and served as an Associate Judge of the District Court between 1988 and 1990. In 1999, he was elected President of the International Association of Prosecutors.
Eva Cox
Writer, academic and prominent feminist Eva Cox was born into a middle-class Jewish family in Vienna in 1938. Following the annexation of Austria by Hitler and the consequent disenfranchisement of Jews, her mother sought refuge with her children in England. They later travelled to Australia, where their relatives had earlier sought refuge. Eva has had a long and distinguished career an activist and sociologist. She is a long-time member and spokesperson for the Women’s Electoral Lobby and a prominent advocate for women’s rights and welfare. She has served as Director of the New South Wales Council for Social Service, Advisor to the shadow spokesperson on Social Services and a Senior Lecturer at the University of Technology, Sydney, as well as being a widely-published writer. She became an Officer in the Order of Australia in 1995.
Mary Crock
Mary Crock is a lawyer, researcher and academic who has written and lectured on many other aspects of immigration and refugee law. She has worked with Australian Senators (most notably in 1999-2000 on an inquiry into Australia’s Refugee and Humanitarian Program) and with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission in preparing a report on the Curtin Immigration Detention Centre. Mary also helped to establish and run the Victorian Immigration Advice and Rights Centre Inc in Melbourne, now known as the Refugee and Immigration Law Centre. In 2006, she published the results of her research into child migrants and asylum seekers, entitled Seeking Asylum Alone. Mary has assumed leadership roles as Chair of various migration law related committees for the Law Institute of Victoria, the Law Society of New South Wales and the Law Council of Australia and has served on the Executive Committee of the Refugee Council of Australia.
John Dowd
John Dowd QC is Chair of Executive Committee of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and President of the ICJ’s Australian section. He is a former leader of the NSW Liberal Party and has served as a Judge of the Supreme Court of NSW and Ambassador and President to the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). He is an Officer of the Order of Australia.
Kate Durham
Kate Durham is a Melbourne-based artist, practising in jewellery, sculpture and drawing, who uses her work to highlight the issues faced by refugees and asylum seekers. Her work has been shown in Japan, England, the USA and around Australia and she is represented in several major collections, including the National Gallery of Victoria. In 2001, Kate established Spare Rooms for Refugees, a project to provide community accommodation for asylum seekers. In June 2002, she travelled to Nauru with a BBC journalist and thus provided the first images of Australia’s Pacific Solution.
Malcolm Fraser
Malcolm Fraser was Australia’s 22nd Prime Minister, serving from 1975 to 1983. Since resigning from parliament, he has remained active in Australia’s international and diplomatic relations, serving as Co-Chairman of the Commonwealth Committee of Eminent Persons against Apartheid; leader of a Commonwealth election observer mission to Pakistan in 1997 following the dismissal of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s government; Special Envoy to Yugoslavia to secure the release from prison of Australian aid workers; and Special Envoy to lobby in support of Australia’s candidacy for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. He was the founding Chairman of CARE Australia and has served as President of CARE International and. He was awarded Australia’s Human Rights Medal in 2000 for his contribution to the advancement of human rights in Australia and internationally.
Alice Garner
Alice Garner is an actress, musician and historian. She has starred in the television series SeaChange and The Secret Life of Us and the films Monkey Grip, Love and Other Catastrophes and Jindabyne. She is also an accomplished cellist and published author. In 2001, along with fellow actress Kate Atkinson, Alice founded Actors for Refugees, an advocacy and performance organisation which aimed to raise awareness about of the plight of refugees and asylum seekers in Australia. She is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with La Trobe University’s History Program.
Michael Gawenda
Michael Gawenda is one of Australia’s best known and most distinguished journalists. His parents fled Poland in the wake of the German invasion in 1939. Few of their family members who remained behind survived. Michael’s career in journalism began in 1970 when he undertook an internship at The Age newspaper. The internship was the beginning of a successful and fulfilling 37-year career with the newspaper, where he worked as a feature writer, news writer, foreign correspondent, editor and editor-in-chief. Michael has won three Walkley Awards throughout his career. He was appointed inaugural Director of the University of Melbourne’s Centre for the Advanced Study for Journalism in 2007.
Dr Karl Kruszelnicki
Dr Karl Kruszelnicki was born in Sweden to Polish refugee parents from European concentration camps. His father had been a member of the Polish resistance and was imprisoned in Russian jails and German concentration camps. The family migrated to Australia when Karl was two and lived for some time a refugee camp in Bonegilla near Albury, before moving to Wollongong.
Dr Karl is a prominent scientist, medical doctor and television and radio presenter. He holds degrees in Physics and Maths, Biomedical Engineering, Medicine and Surgery and is a member of the Order of Australia.
Tony Le-Nguyen
Tony Le-Nguyen, born Lê Thiện Toàn in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam, fled to Australia with his family in the wake of the Vietnam War. Over the past 20 years, Tony has worked as an actor, writer, director and producer. He is best known for his role as Tiger in Jeffrey Wright’s 1992 feature film Romper Stomper and has appeared in numerous television productions including Stingers and SeaChange. He is currently the Community Development Coordinator for Quang Minh Buddhist Centre, based in Melbourne, Australia.
John Marsden
John Marsden is one of Australia’s most influential and successful authors. His titles include So Much to Tell You, the Tomorrow series and the Ellie Chronicles. More than 2.5 million copies of John’s books have been sold in Australia alone. He is also an international best-seller and has many major awards to his credit. His recent picture book, Home and Away, was nominated for the Children’s Book Council Picture Book of the Year in 2009. The book is a fictional account of an Australian family who become refugees after war breaks out in Australia.
John Menadue
John Menadue has had a distinguished career both in the private sector and the Public Service. He served as Private Secretary to Gough Whitlam from 1960 to 1967 and was head of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet from 1974 to 1976, working for Prime Ministers Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser. He has also served as Australian Ambassador to Japan, Head of the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs, Head of the Department of the Special Minister of State and Head of the Department of Trade. In the private sector, John roles have included General Manager of News Limited, CEO of Qantas, Director of Telstra, Director of the NSW State Rail Authority and Chairman of the Australian Japan Foundation. He is an Officer of the Order of Australia and a Centenary Medallist.
Henri Szeps
Henri was born in Switzerland in a refugee camp during WWII, lived in Paris and came to Australia when he was eight. He has had an enviable career on stage and screen, performing in such classics as Glengarry Glen Ross, The Good Doctor and Travelling North as well as the one-man shows The Double Bass, Sky, I’m Not a Dentist and Why Kids?. He and Garry McDonald are currently touring the eastern states of Australia in Halpern and Johnson. Henri has been nominated for several acting awards and has won a Penguin Award for his role as Mick Mendel in the prestigious ABC TV series, Palace of Dreams; a Helpmann Award for Herr Schultz in the musical Cabaret; but he is still best known for his role of Robert Beare in the landmark TV comedy series Mother and Son, opposite Ruth Cracknell and Garry McDonald. Henri was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for services to the arts and the community in 2001.
Dinh Tran
Dinh Tran was 9 when she arrived in Australia by boat from Vung Tau in Vietnam with her mother and sister. Their boat took them from war torn Vietnam to Indonesia and then on to Darwin. Unfortunately there were many who missed the boat, including her father and aunt and it was only many years later, after many attempts that the family were able to reunite. Once in Darwin, Dinh and her mother and sister were processed quickly and flown to Sydney. When Dinh started school in Year 4 at Greenacre Public School she spoke no English, yet she several years later she successfully completed a combined Bachelor of Science and Law at the University of New South Wales. Today she lives with her two children and works full time as a Registrar of the Family Court. She is also a volunteer swimming teacher for the Bankstown Sports Club and is a member of Friends of STARTTS where she is a group leader for the first Canley Heights Scouts Group.
Choose from the links below for more specific information about Refugee Week:
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