By the mid-2010s, a number of Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka had settled in the Queensland regional town of Biloela. They worked at the local meatworks and shops, started families and got to know other residents.
This might have become just another success story of migrants in a rural community — even though these refugees had been left in limbo by the government’s refusal to realise their right to permanent settlement after they had arrived in the country.
Instead, in 2019, the government deployed Border Force to try to deport the family of Priya Nadesalingam (played by Leah Vandenberg), her husband Nades (Matt Domingo) and their two children, Kopika and Tharnicaa, who had been born in Biloela after Priya and Nades had married there.
A legal team, including former Biloela resident Simone Cameron (played by Sarah McIntosh), secured injunctions to prevent the family being returned to an unknown fate in Sri Lanka — a country dominated by Sinhala chauvinism.
The forcible return of refugees or asylum seekers to a country where they are liable to be subjected to persecution is appropriately termed “refoulement” and is against international law.
Instead, Priya, Nades and their two kids were imprisoned for more than four years in isolated, poorly-resourced detention centres in Naarm/Melbourne and on Christmas Island, and then in community detention in Boorloo/Perth, when Tharnicaa’s ill-health required her evacuation there.
All of this was happening far from the family’s friends in Biloela. Yet, local social workers Bronwyn Dendle (Liz Buchanan) and Angela Fredericks (Erika Naddei) launched the highly-focussed #HometoBilo campaign that went national with a 600,000-strong petition, backed up by rallies, mass letter-writing and images of the campaign’s white cockatoo logo at protests across the country.
Back to Bilo presents this story with passion and good humour. The play incorporates historical elements, such as campaign rally speeches and media interventions, and relies on the many participant interviews conducted by Matt Scholten (who came up with the original concept), Thinesh Thillai and Jay Ooi. It also integrated Tamil cultural elements, including music and dance from Menaka Thomas.
The campaign’s hope in an incoming Labor government returning the family to Biloela, which was realised in 2022, is important to the telling of the story. However, the play concludes by noting that 7500 refugees and their families — including production team members — are still waiting for permanent settlement under the government’s ironically-named Fast Track program.
Given the play is about upholding refugee rights, I wondered if some audience participation — in agit prop style — could help. No doubt quite a few of those attending had participated in the #HometoBilo campaign and, for example, would have benefited for being able to see each other there.
Also, Angela’s character suggests Biloela represents how rural communities have typically welcomed new residents, including refugees, as means for their revival.
The Nadesalingam family’s story shows this is true. But the current flag-draped racist rallies also purport to express so-called “Australian character and values”.
What being “Australian” means remains contested at the level of fundamental interests and values against which pragmatic arguments — about new residents including refugees reviving small rural towns — are unlikely to be sufficient.
[Back to Bilo was performed from September 3-16, at the Bille Brown Theatre, as part of the Brisbane Festival.]
