The shocking continuation of the Australian refugee policy, and its iterations since the Tampa incident, has diminished our society morally and culturally.
The demonisation and imprisonment of people fleeing living hells not of their making not only robs individual freedoms, it also robs our society of the drive, skills and passion of these men and women.
How many artists, poets, architects, musicians, craft workers, writers, engineers, filmmakers and hardworking people who want to live and work in a civil world continue to languish in detention on Manus Island and Nauru.
We know of one architect, Reza Barati who was brutally bashed to death on Manus Island in February 2014. The #lightthedark campaign remembers this atrocity done in our name. As the years of internment drag on other brave men and women are reaching out to the world through social media, when they can, to tell their stories through writing, film, cartooning and song.
Artists and cartoonists around the world are sharing images of support online for refugees under the hashtag #AddaFish, and criticising Australia’s immigration detention regime.
If you can draw a fish please #addafish until this abomination of a policy is abolished and international human rights are once again practiced by the Australian parliament.
I will continue to post fish for Mr Eatenfish and others until the law is just and provides real freedom.