Behrouz Boochani has won Australia’s richest literary prize copping a total of $125,000 in prize money after being awarded the non-fiction prize and Victorian prize for literature at Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards 2019 with his debut book. The Kurdish Iranian writer was conspicuously absent from the prize-giving ceremony however as he is not allowed into Australia and remains in detention on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea where he has lived for almost six years.
His book ‘No Friend But the Mountains‘ was written one text message at a time over a five year period from within the detention centre because of the unreliability of the internet connection and to protect against the material being lost or confiscated. The book is an autobiographical account of his attempt to make the journey from Indonesia to Australia and his subsequent incarceration. It is written in an amalgam of styles: part creative writing, part strategic resistance.
“It is a paradoxical feeling”
Behrouz Boochani
He became a well-known voice on Manus Island, acting as a source for journalists both in Australia and internationally. He wrote articles and created a movie, ‘Chauka, Please Tell Us The Time‘ but Boochani has said he was a novelist first before becoming a filmmaker or journalist, and writing helped him to survive. In lieu of appearing at the awards ceremony in person, he video conferenced in from the refugee accommodation centre where he currently lives in East Lorengau.
Australia has one of the most stringent immigration policies and asylum seekers who try to reach the country by boat are not allowed to land but are instead processed at offshore centres. Five years after the relaunch of Australia’s offshore processing regime, both camps have technically been closed but hundreds like Boochani continue to languish without a clear future.
Boochani would like to leave Manus Island but not to come to Australia. He hopes that his book will help people in Australia and around the world understand how the offshore detention programme has systematically tortured innocent people on Manus and Nauru for almost six years. It is his hope that the awards will bring more attention to the refugees’ situation, create change, and in turn bring an end the policy.
