Refugee Week

Refugee Week is Australia’s peak annual activity to inform the public about refugees and celebrate positive contributions made by refugees to Australian society. Finding Freedom is the 2023 theme.

To live without the fear of war, to have your basic human rights upheld, to live in equality and without the fear of persecution are just some of the examples of what freedom can entail. Every day millions of people across the world embark on dangerous journeys for the sole purpose of finding safety and freedom. Finding Freedom should be a way of life.

Refugee Week runs from Sunday 18 June to Saturday 24 June.

Updated April 12, 2023
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What Strange Paradise
Akkad, Omar El
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR * From the widely acclaimed, bestselling author of American War--a beautifully written, unrelentingly dramatic, and profoundly moving novel that looks at the global refugee crisis through the eyes of a child. "Told from...
Saving the butterfly
Cooper, Helen
Paper Book
Two resourceful siblings begin a new life as refugees in a poetic picture book about thriving--in your own time--after great loss. From an award-winning author and a talented debut illustrator comes a profound story about child refugees healing and building new lives. When...
In search of safety : voices of refugees
Kuklin, Susan
Paper Book
Five refugees recount their courageous journeys to America -- and the unimaginable struggles that led them to flee their homelands -- in a powerful work from the author of Beyond Magenta and We Are Here to Stay. "From 1984, when I was born, until July 16, 2017,...
Disquiet
Livaneli, Zülfü
Paper Book
'Mercy is not an ointment for cruelty.' Disquiet transports the reader to the contemporary Middle East through the stories of Meleknaz, a Yazidi Syrian refugee, and Hussein, a young man from the Turkish city of Mardin near the Syrian border. Passionate about helping others, Hussein begins visiting a...
Wandering Souls
Pin, Cecile
Paper Book
One of Time Magazine's Must-Read Books of the Year Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal of Excellence in Fiction 2024 Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2023 "A deeply humane and genre-defying work of love and...
Year of the rabbit
Tian
Paper Book
One family's quest to survive the devastation of the Khmer Rouge "Striking and moving... The comics form allows readers [to] understand through chronological progression and a close view how horror can become the stuff of the everyday."--The New York Times
Rebel : my escape from Saudi Arabia to freedom
Mohammed, Rahaf
Paper Book
A gripping memoir of bravery and sacrifice by a young woman whose escape from her abusive family and an oppressive culture in Saudi Arabia captivated the world  In early 2019, after three years of careful planning, Rahaf Mohammed finally escaped her abusive family in Saudi Arabia--but...
Last boat out of Shanghai : the epic story of the Chinese who fled Mao's revolution
Zia, Helen
Paper Book
The dramatic, real-life stories of four young people caught up in the mass exodus of Shanghai in the wake of China's 1949 Communist Revolution-a precursor to the struggles faced by emigrants today. Shanghai has historically been China's jewel, its richest, most modern city. The...
Boy, everywhere
Dassu, A. M.
Paper Book
What turns citizens into refugees and then immigrants? In this powerful middle-grade debut, Sami and his family embark on a harrowing journey to save themselves from the Syrian civil war. Sami loves his life in Damascus, Syria. He hangs out with his best friend playing video games;...
No friend but the mountains : writing from Manus prison
Boochani, Behrouz
Paper Book
Winner of Australia's richest literary award, No Friend but the Mountains is Kurdish-Iranian journalist and refugee Behrouz Boochani's account of his detainment on Australia's notorious Manus Island prison. Composed entirely by text message, this work represents the harrowing experience of...
The global refugee crisis : fleeing conflict and violence
McPherson, Stephanie Sammartino
Paper Book
According to a UN tally, more than 1 million people fled violence and persecution in 2015. Of these, more than half were children. Thousands died along the way. The Syrian civil war as well as armed conflicts in Nigeria, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, and the Central African Republic contributed to...

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