Teaching+about+refugees+and+migration

Resources for teaching about refugees, asylum seekers and migration available from the Languages and Multicultural Resource Centre and online.

(this list is currently being updated -feb2015) Teacher reference

Refugee Council, Refugee week resources

Immigration museum, Origins website (interactive statistics on the history of migration to Melbourne)

Oxfam, Refugee realities education kit for teachers

Classroom resources

List of links to video clips and teacher notes from Global words https://delicious.com/globalwords/refugees Lesson plans with links to websites, recommendations of related fiction and non-fiction reading material. Junior primary - Refugees and migration: Words to unite us Upper primary - Refugees and migration: Global people Junior secondary - Refugees and migration: Seeking refuge — The journey
 * Global words kits **

Australian Geography Teachers Association AGTV website Geog space Refugee migration . The site contains units of work linked to Australian curriculum for year 10.


 * DVDs & Videos **
 * Fiction films and documentaries **


 * //Australia’s Refugee Dilemma// (2002) ** This film investigates what it means to be a refugee, why people become refugees, people smuggling and what happens to people who come to Australia, claiming to be refugees. (Documentary) (video) Later Middle Years

//**Between the devil & the deep blue sea (**//**2011)** Tells the story of Zainab and many others who make the decision to risk their lives to leave their home in Northern Afghanistan seeking asylum. The filmmakers Jessie Taylor and Ali reza Sadiqi met with 250 asylum seekers in jails and detetention centres and hostels in Indonesia. Through candid interviews, hidden camera footage and in the words of the people themselves they explore why people leave home, what they leave behind and what it takes to turn someone into a 'boat person'?

Documentary centred on the experiences of one of the survivors of the SIEV X tragedy. Three hundred and fifty three asylum seekers were drowned when the boat sank between Indonesia and Australia.
 * //Hope// (2008 **

A documentary following two refugee families as they try to settle into life in Australia. One family is a Karen Burmese family who had been living in a refugee camp on the Thai Burma border and the other a Sudanese family settling in a rural town in Victoria.
 * //I’ll call Australia home// (2009) **

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">This program looks at the recent turmoil for Australian asylum seekers. It includes first-hand interviews with a range of government representatives, refugee advocates and others closely affiliated with International Affairs. We hear about life within detention centres and different views on the actions of the Australian government. (Documentary) (Video) Later middle years
 * //In Detention: Locking up Asylum Seekers// (2004) **

Directed by Clara Law, this is the story of a 15-year old Afghan boy who is seeking asylum in Australia, and about the Australian family who befriend him. (Documentary) (DVD) Middle years/Later years
 * //Letters to Ali// (2004) **

A feature-length film that follows two Sudanese refugees on an extraordinary journey from Africa to America. (Documentary) Upper middle/later years. (DVD)
 * //The Lost Boys of Sudan// (2003) **

Kirkpatrick, Heather (2013) //**Mary and Mohammed.**// A film that follows the arrival of Tasmania's first asylum seeker detention centre through the eyes of local knitting club member Mary. Mary is initially opposed to the centre and suspicious of the asylum seekers. Meeting the detainees face to face, and hearing their stories, changes attitudes in the local community.

Inspired by a true story, a tale which centres on three generations of women, deeply affected by the advent of the Taliban’s rule in their land, Afghanistan. (DVD) Middle years/later years
 * //Osama// (2004) **

Covers Tampa incident, the establishment of off-shore detention centres, and the re-election of the Howard Government.
 * //Tampa and Beyond// (2002) **

Written and directed by Kurdish Iranian filmmaker [|Bahman Ghobadi]. Life in a Kurdish refugee camp on the border of Iraq and Turkey is seen through the experiences of several children/young adults just prior to the invasion of Iraq by US forces. The dangerous conditions in Iraq for Kurds under Saddam Hussein is highlighted.
 * //Turtles can Fly// (2005) **

Filmed in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya. This video provides an overview of conditions in the camp, introduces some of the refugee families currently living there and the NGOs who provide services to the camp inhabitants. The film includes a section which focuses particularly on the high degree of risk faced by women and girls in the camp. This video is an ideal teaching tool for secondary, tertiary students and the teaching community.
 * //Welcome to Kakuma// (2002) **

<span style="color: #339966; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Websites

[|http://www.education.vic.gov.au/studentlearning/programs/multicultural/default.htm]
 * DET **
 * Multicultural Education Unit **

[]
 * Amnesty International Australia – Refugees and Human Rights **

[|www.immi.gov.au] Provides information about Australia’s contribution to the international refugee and humanitarian program, visas and advice to asylum seekers and migrants.
 * Australian Government Immigration site **

[] This website is provided by the State Library of Victoria and is designed for Victorian students and their teachers. It provides access to:
 * Colonial Melbourne: everyday life**
 * comprehensive easy to follow research and essay writing guides
 * over 700 digitised primary sources from the State Library of Victoria
 * a database of teachers's resources with links to the Victorian Essential Learning Standards and the Australian Curriculum

[|www.cv,vic.gov.au/stories/digital-stories-of-immigration] Digital stories created with archival footage and voice-overs by the key people.
 * Culture Victoria: Immigrants and Emigrants: digital stories of immigration**

[|www.sbs.com.au/refugees/home.html] Audio stories and information about refugees who have settled in Australia – their origins, journeys and settlement.
 * How far we’ve come: refugee stories**

[] Interactive database of refugee and migration information. Students can build their own statistics of migration to Australia choosing period and country of origin, including beliefs, work status, age etc. The site also provides digital stories, information about programs and structured enquiry based learning activities.
 * Immigration Museum **

[] [] Online journals //The IHL magazine// and //The Humanitarian:// stories from refugees and those that help. Teachers and Later years studnets
 * Red Cross **

[|www.refugeecouncil.org.au] Refugee week activities, media releases, information about refugees including debunking some myths and stereotypes.
 * Refugee Council of Australia **

[]
 * Refugee Week Advocacy Kit **

[] StepOne provides guidance and practical resources to councils and community groups interested in implementing community harmony initiatives in their local areas.
 * Australian Government, Department of Immigration and Citizenship, //Stepone: community harmony guide for local government// **

[|www.unhcr.org.au]
 * United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees - UNHCR **

[|www.unhcr.ch] Information on the regional position in regard to the refugee convention and the status of refugees in our region. Includes information on settlement quotas, provides fact sheets on resettlement from various countries.
 * UNHCR **
 * Includes section for teachers outlining lesson plans secondary school level age range **.
 * // UNHCR Regional Asylum Systems //**** (Aus, NZ, Papua New Guinea & the South Pacific) [] **

A searchable website with many useful resources and a great source of information and statistics regarding refugees and the international response. The Refworld database contains thousands of recent articles regarding refugee issues as well reports on the human rights situation in many countries. As well as providing background information for teachers the site provides great research opportunities for late middle to senior secondary students.
 * // UNHCR – The UN Refugee agency [] //**

<span style="color: #339966; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Refugee / Migration stories


 * Picture books **

Do, Anh and Do, Suzanne (2011) //**The Little Refugee**// Illustrations by Bruce Whatley The picture book version of the novel for adults //The Happiest Refugee.// A story about the flight of the author's family from Vietnam. There is peril, adventure and all the struggles and joys of settling and finding success in a new country. Anh Do is a comedian and tells the story with warmth and humour.

<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Donkeys Can’t Fly on Planes is collection of 25 stories written by young South Sudanese refugees. Written with the assistance of staff at the Latrobe English Language Centre and the Liddiard Street Primary School in Traralgon, eastern Victoria, the children record and illustrated their own true stories of survival and making a new home in Australia.
 * //Donkey's can't fly on planes//**

Dove, Richard (2011) **Us** //**Karen,**// A story told in simple yet poignant language of the Karen's peoples' flight from Burma to refugee camps in Thailand and finally to settlement in Australia. Illustrated by Tha Do.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Eiyo, Paskalina with Enadio, Sarafino and Whitebeach, Terry (2014) //**When I was a boy in Sudan** & **When I was a girl in Sudan,**// <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Illustrations by Gay McKinnon. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">These touching and simply told stories about the daily life of children in two Madi villages in Sudan reveal much about the relationships between children and parents. They show the essential contribution children make to family and community <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">health and well-being. The inclusion of words in the Madi language provides another layer of Sudanese culture. The books are for the general classroom use or for Madi background students in Australia learning English.

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">Garland, Sherry (1993 ) //<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">**The Lotus seed,** //<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;"> Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, San Diego. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">A young girl forced to leave Vietnam takes a lotus seed with her to remind her of her home. The seed is planted in the new country symbolising the new life.

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Greder, Armin (2007) //**The Island,**// Allen and Unwin, Crows Nest <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">A lone man is washed up on the shores of a remote and fortress like island. The Islanders’ response to the stranger is at first grudgingly accommodating, though not kind. Soon the irrational fear of the stranger/other drives the islanders to forcibly evict the man from the island. The black and white illustrations symbolically and vividly depict the treatment of some refugees.

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Hathorn, Libby (2002) T//**he Wishing Cupboard**//, Lothian, South Melbourne. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">A grandmother relates stories about her family; migration to Australia from Vietnam and longing for relatives back in Vietnam. Treasured objects in the grandmother’s cupboard evoke memories of Vietnam.

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Hoffman, Mary (2002 ) //**The Colour of home**//, Frances Lincoln, London <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">A little boy from Somalia reveals through paintings in class some of his experiences of war and fleeing with his family to settle in England -so cold and grey compared to the colour of home. A moving and hopeful story.

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Lofthouse, Liz (2007) //**Ziba came on a boat**//, Penguin, Camberwell. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">The author was inspired by stories told to her by people from the Hazara community in Australia who are refugees from Afghanistan. Ziba is a story of a young girl and her mother escaping by boat to Australia.

Miller, David (2003) //**Refugees,**// Lothian, Port Melbourne Another paper cut illustrated book by David Miller. The refugee story is told through allegory in this story of two wild ducks forced from their home when developers move in. They fly from swamp, to pond, to sea desperately looking for a safe place to settle.

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Riggio, A, Shea PD (1995) //**The whispering cloth : a refugee's story**//, Boyds Mills, Philadelphia. About the Hmong people driven out of Laos for supporting the US during the Vietnam war. Set in Ban Vinai a refugee camp near Chaing Khan, Thaliland which was closed in 1995 resulting in the forced exile of thousands of refugees from Laos. Told as a story within a story, young Mai is taught the traditions of making a pa’ndau (traditional Hmong embroidered stories on cloth) and becoming more skilled wants to be able to tell her own story. Grandma helps Mai to relate her own story and that of her parents who were killed by soldiers, forcing Mai to flee with her grandmother.

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Robinson A, Allan J (2009) //**Hamzat’s journey: a refugee diary**//, Frances Lincoln UK. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">A story in diary form re telling the experiences of Hamzat who was injured by a landmine during the Russian occupation of Chechnya. Background in given to the conflict between Russia and Chechnya, the war and occupation, and the effects on Hamzat’s family. With the help of an aid organisation Hamzat goes to London to receive an artificial leg and eventually settles with his family there.

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Say, Allen. (1993) //**Grandfather’s Journey,**// Houghton Mifflin, Boston. See below. The parents migration story is told and the return to Japan.

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Say, Allen. (1999) T//**ea with milk,**// Houghton Mifflin, Boston. A migration story with a twist –the reverse migration of a young woman and her family back to her parents homeland –Japan. The young woman misses life and friends in America and struggles to find a place in Japan until she meets a young man in a similar position. The notion of home and belonging is explored.

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Tan, S (2006) //**The Arrival,**// Allen & Unwin, Melbourne. A refugee story told through pictures. A partly symbolic story of persecution, a journey and resettlement in a strange new land. This wordless picture book is suitable for Y2-12 as the narrative and illustrations contain complexity yet remain approachable, and the reader can readily identify with the experiences of the migrant/refugee. In Shaun Tan’s usual style the familiar and unfamiliar/ fantasy and reality are combined provoking feelings and understandings on different levels.

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Williams, Karen Lynn (2007) //**Four feet, two sandals**//, Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, Michigan <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Two girls living in a refugee camp in Kenya have calloused and worn feet from not wearing shoes for a long time, then each of them find one sandal of a pair. The girls resolve to take turns wearing the sandals. The story illustrates the hardships but also the resilience of refugees as they await acceptance to a new country.

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Williams, Mary (2005) //**Brothers in hope : the story of the Lost Boys of Sudan**//, Lee & Low Books, New York. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Thousands of orphaned boys fled Sudan’s civil war and forced military service by walking over 3,000 kilometres to Camp Kakuma in Kenya. This picture book is aimed at the primary level and therefore while speaking of the extreme difficulties faced by the boys is appropriately modified for the audience level. The boys’ strength and persistence through adversity is the overwhelming message of the book. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Many fiction and non-fiction titles, posters and websites are available for Early, Middle and Later years about refugees, asylum seekers and migration.

The Languages and Multicultural Education Resources Centre (LMERC) is a specialist support centre for schools in the following areas: Languages other than English (LOTE),English as a Second Language (ESL), Multicultural Education, Studies of Asia, Civics and Citizenship, Human Rights, Global Education, Values and related areas. LMERC library membership is available to Victorian teachers from school sectors, after hours ethnic schools and staff and students from tertiary education faculties. To become a member of the LMERC library, visit the library, or complete an online application form at [] and receive a library borrower’s card. Resources can be posted to schools in regional areas.

LMERC is located at 150 Palmerston Street, Carlton 3053  (03) 9349 1418

Wikispace: for electronic copies of this and other resource lists: http://www.globaleducationresources.wikispaces.com
 * Email ** lmerc.library@edumail.vic.gov.au
 * Website and **** Catalogue: ** https://lmerc.softlinkhosting.com.au/liberty