The Year the Maps Changed Book-Chat
by Danielle Binks
Description
This chat can be adjusted, depending on the year-levels. Either a general book-chat about The Year the Maps Changed that’s also a talk about my publishing-journey and a call for student-activism and importance of engaging with the News media. For older year-levels, an additional component can be delving into Australia’s treatment of asylum-seekers and refugees.
‘Operation Safe Haven’ had an enormous impact on Australian immigration policies. It laid the blueprint for how our Government still treats refugees to this day – it signaled the switch from offering ‘permanent protection’ and resettlement, to ‘temporary asylum’ and conditional aid. After Kosovo; the East Timor Crisis would escalate, and in August 2001 the Tampa Affair would forever cement this new hostility and treatment of refugees and asylum seekers in the Australian psyche. The horrific events of September 11 would come the following month and Australia’s path towards a more inhumane treatment and “othering” of refugees subsequently would be enacted in a most atrocious way, drawing ongoing international criticism, including from the United Nations organisations responsible for refugees and human rights.
* Publishing Journey
* What is The Year the Maps Changed all about?
* Fred’s journey to social-consciousness and the role personal experience, journalism and the News media play
* A history of the Kosovo War and Operation Safe Haven
* Australian then and now: our historic treatment of Asylum Seekers
‘Operation Safe Haven’ had an enormous impact on Australian immigration policies. It laid the blueprint for how our Government still treats refugees to this day – it signaled the switch from offering ‘permanent protection’ and resettlement, to ‘temporary asylum’ and conditional aid. After Kosovo; the East Timor Crisis would escalate, and in August 2001 the Tampa Affair would forever cement this new hostility and treatment of refugees and asylum seekers in the Australian psyche. The horrific events of September 11 would come the following month and Australia’s path towards a more inhumane treatment and “othering” of refugees subsequently would be enacted in a most atrocious way, drawing ongoing international criticism, including from the United Nations organisations responsible for refugees and human rights.
Topics Covered
* Publishing Journey
* What is The Year the Maps Changed all about?
* Fred’s journey to social-consciousness and the role personal experience, journalism and the News media play
* A history of the Kosovo War and Operation Safe Haven
* Australian then and now: our historic treatment of Asylum Seekers
Details
Audience
Primary school students (Yeas 4+), secondary students (all-levels)
Duration
45 or 60-minutes, depending on year-level
Requirements
Data Projector, and screen for a PowerPoint presentation. I have a MacBook Pro laptop – and can bring it along if a school has the necessary video adaptors, cables/plug-ins to hook my laptop up for projection. OR – I can provide the Presentation on a USB stick on the day, or via DropBox well in advance. Internet connection only necessary if DropBox is the preferred method of file-transfer. No videos or .mp4 necessary. Just a PowerPoint with still slides.