This year’s Auckland Arts Festival asks a bunch of messy, knotty questions – about the stories we tell, the impact they have, and whether there are voices too dangerous to be heard – and this series is about creating the space for a few of these conversations.

BAD REFUGEE

Refugees are expected to fit a certain archetype – so what happens when they don’t?

In Christchurch in early 2018, a school asked their students to “dress as refugees in old ragged clothes” as part of a fundraiser for World Vision. Good intentions? Maybe. Helpful? Not so much.

The narratives we hear about refugees tend to follow a certain formula – one that pulls at heartstrings (and on purse strings), but what are the unintended (and dangerous) consequences of this? What happens when we equate the word ‘refugee’ with ‘trauma’ or ‘poverty’? 

Join our panel – featuring Golriz Ghahraman, Leonard Bell and Guled Mire, and chaired by John Campbell – in a candid conversation about the myths that have shaped their experiences and the stories we aren’t hearing.