From the Principal

Throughout the term we have welcomed many visitors to the College, with quite a few being Year 4 students and their parents from various Primary Schools across Perth participating in enrolment interviews for entry into Year 7 2029. Most are wide-eyed at the size of our campus and the opportunities available, and many are a little nervous. As the interview concludes and we all head out into the Administration foyer to say our goodbyes, we pass an artwork painted by alumnus Bailey Arundell (Class of 2021) titled We’re All in the Same Boat. Quite often, Bailey’s artwork can prompt a pause from a prospective student, which provides the opportunity for a discussion about what the work might depict. These discussions can prove particularly insightful at times.

For those who have never seen the artwork, next to the oil painting there is a description which reads:

My artwork depicts Captain James Cook, the infamous British explorer who colonised Australia in 1770, situated in an inflatable boat with two asylum seekers, one of which holds an Australian flag above their head. The three figures could not be any more different to each other, separated by time, race and power, yet it is not their differences, but their similarities that are significant. The Western Sydney University revealed in a recent 2020 survey that 43% of Australians believe that all boats carrying asylum seekers should be turned back, and 36.4% believe the number of immigrants accepted into Australia is too high. I have always found it ironic how white Australians of European decent are able to express such xenophobic attitudes towards asylum seekers, despite not being native to this land themselves.

This week is Refugee Week, which serves as a powerful reminder of the courage, resilience, and strength displayed by those who have been forced to flee their homes and seek safety elsewhere. The Week also serves as an opportunity to raise awareness, challenge misconceptions, and showcase the positive impact refugees have on our communities. It is a time to reflect on the common humanity that binds us all with this year’s theme being ‘A Million Stories’.

We are invited, then, to listen to a Million Stories, or more specifically, statistics tell us that last year over 117 million people were forced from their homes, with over 30 million being refugees. Those forced from their own nation generally fled to similarly poor nations with the economic pressure caused by war also affecting the lives of people in far distant nations, too.

Quoting statistics in this way has the potential to distance ourselves from the human face, of course, and it was with this in mind that Australia signed the United Nations Convention on Refugees shortly after WWII. It was at that time that the world saw the horrific results of people being reduced to statistics and as threats to be eliminated. There was a universal understanding that vulnerable human beings mattered and needed protection.

Perhaps our challenge, then, is to re-awaken the understanding of who needs protection and carefully listen to those million stories.