JRS will
mount an exhibition of refugee and asylum seeker-produced artwork during
Refugee Week, to be held from 14 - 20 June 2009.
The
exhibition is part of an event to be held at JRS in Sydney on Wednesday 17
June, during which guests will share multicultural dishes and a program of
music, singing and dancing, all prepared by asylum seekers and refugees with
whom JRS works. The event has been made possible by the Small Grants Program
offered by the Refugee Council of Australia.
JRS Shelter
Project Assistant Cecilia Silva, who is trained in both fine arts and mental
health, has held a number of art workshops with asylum seekers and refugees,
and has recorded their stories to be exhibited alongside their paintings.
'I'm just
flabbergasted by the amount of resources and creativity that exists among the
refugees and asylum seekers that come to the centre', she says. 'If you abandon
yourself into the arts, it takes your mind away from your problems, even if
it's only for the time you do it. I believe in the arts as a healing
tool.'
Refugee
Week is an annual event initiated by the Refugee Council of Australia, and
coincides with World Refugee Day, which falls on Sunday 20 June. This year's
theme is 'Freedom from Fear'.
JRS will
use the event to increase awareness of asylum seeker and refugee issues and to
highlight the essence of Catholic Social Teaching with regard to displacement.
'Catholic
Social Teaching calls on us to show solidarity with refugees and asylum seekers
by imagining ourselves in the place of those who have been forced to flee
persecution or other factors which have jeopardised their livelihoods', says Fr
Sacha Bermudez-Goldman SJ, Director of JRS.
'It also
asks us to show hospitality to those who are forced to migrate in order to
preserve their lives and human dignity. At the end of the day what we are
called to do, in line with our scriptural tradition, is to give hospitality to
the stranger: "I was a stranger and you welcomed me", from Matthew
25:35.'
Friends and
supporters of JRS are invited to attend its Refugee Week event at 24 Roslyn
Street, Kings Cross on Wednesday 17 June from 11:30 am. For more information,
please contact Cecilia on 02 9356 3888.