Dark Dreams: Australian Refugee Stories...By Young Writers Aged 11-20 Years

Dark Dreams: Australian Refugee Stories is an anthology of essays, interviews, comments and short stories written by children and young adults aged 11-20 years. These young writers explore or imaginatively recreate the story of someone who came to Australia as a refugee. Most of these essays, interviews and stories were written on the basis of a live interview. These are the stories of extraordinary Australians the young authors found in their family, neighbourhood, and local communities; and in themselves.

This is a unique book in Australia. The stories are the finest of hundreds collected through an unprecedented nationwide schools competition in 2002, devised by writer Eva Sallis and run by Australians Against Racism Inc.

The essays and stories range in length from 700 words to 2,500 words and represent many different countries. Some focus on survival, some on horrors, some on the experiences and alienation of a new world. Some are stories of refugees still living in detention centres in Australia, and one is the unbearable story of a twelve-year-old SIEVX survivor, told by her fifteen-year-old friend, and capturing both their voices.

The longer works are often framed by one-liners or paragraphs of striking comment, epigraphs and observations from very young children. These stories are shocking, moving, and at times funny. Some are written with the quirky humour of children, others show the frank compassion and honest surprise of young Australians as they encounter experiences more terrible than their own. Some are the gut-churning stories from young voices of children just starting to rebuild lives here. These children's voices and children's views have the power to chasten us with the clarity of their understanding and revelation of the big issues now facing us.

This book is too diverse to be partisan in any sense. There are stories of escape from the holocaust, people smuggled from Poland and Germany; of survival in Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Serbia; of terrible boat journeys from Vietnam and other parts of South East Asia; and of the long roads and ongoing uncertainties of people fleeing Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries in recent years. Many stories show the shocking things humans do to each other; many others show the wonderful things that strangers can do. The total picture is a powerful indictment of war itself, all wars. And across the collection, there emerges the recurrent theme of friendship: friendships lost, broken, remembered and found, now in Australia.

These stories are unavoidably topical, disturbing and political. They are highly, provocatively readable.

Schools across Australia are trying to find ways to talk about refugees, terrorism and war. This book is well-poised have a huge impact in schools, particularly because it is written by children's peers. Dark Dreams has a key role to play in schools in 2004.