Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows Kuranda Seyit, who emigrated from Turkey with his family in 1969, talking about growing up in Australia and his experiences at school. Seyit was the only Turk at his school and was subject to racist taunts and acutely conscious of his difference. He describes one strategy he adopted to fit in. The clip includes shots of Seyit outside his old school at Emu Plains in western Sydney, as well as footage of the school quadrangle and the oval, interspersed with photographs of Seyit as a boy.

Educational value points

• Racial incidents at school, such as those that Seyit was subjected to, usually consist of name-calling, teasing, exclusion, verbal abuse and bullying. Children from non-English-speaking backgrounds may be targeted because of their perceived difference. Racism usually stems from an assumption by members of a particular culture or nationality that their particular culture has superior characteristics to another, thus allowing one culture to view another as alien and inferior.

• Seyit describes the effect that racism at school had on him. Racism can affect a student’s self-confidence and lead to feelings of insecurity and failure. Students who feel that their culture and identity are not valued may also have low self-esteem and feel that they have no place in the schooling system. Such feelings may lead to a rejection of their own culture and a subsequent confusion or insecurity about their identity.

• Like Seyit, many migrant children feel that they are caught between two cultures, that of their parents and that of mainstream Australia. Migrant children, particularly those at schools with a low ethnic population, often feel overwhelmed by the dominant Australian culture, and this can lead to friction at home. Seyit believes that schools should foster a national identity based on inclusiveness, one that allows these children to affirm their cultural background and to explore their identity as members of Australian society.

• The clip depicts an example of racial prejudice. In the period described in the film, migrants were expected to assimilate into Australian culture and were often discriminated against because of difference. Since the mid 1970s the Australian Government has pursued a policy of multiculturalism, which encourages public acceptance of immigrant and minority groups as distinct communities. The policy has been criticised, however, for a perceived failure to integrate migrants into the community.

• In the 1970s, Australians had a limited knowledge of Turkish people, culture or religion (most Turkish migrants are Muslims). However, Australians were aware of Gallipoli, a First World War campaign fought in Turkey in which 86,690 Turks were killed while a comparatively small number, 8,709, of Australians died. As a result of the Gallipoli campaign some Australians, particularly older adults, were hostile towards Turkish migrants.

• Large-scale immigration from Turkey to Australia began after a bilateral agreement was signed between the two countries in 1967. Over the next 30 years, about 30,000 Turkish migrants arrived in Australia. According to a national census there were 28,869 Turkish-born people in Australia in 1996 and a further 46,204 people who spoke Turkish or who were of Turkish background.

• Kuranda Seyit has worked as a teacher, a police officer and more recently as a media officer for the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (AFIC). He founded a think-tank, the Forum on Australia’s Islamic Relations (FAIR), which publishes a monthly newspaper and acts as a conduit for moderate Muslim opinion. Turkish-born Seyit grew up in Sydney’s outer west and, after rediscovering Islam, made Always a Visitor. The film established him as a documentary filmmaker and a broker between Muslims and other Australians. He is involved in the Goodness and Kindness campaign, an inter-faith project for upper primary students.

This clip starts approximately 7 minutes into the documentary.

Underlying the whole clip is archival school vision, and old photographs. Kuranda is standing on the oval.
Kuranda ... And when I started school, I was alienated and nobody – I was the only Turk in the school and I had the lowest, uh, self-esteem that I remember and um, I didn’t even want to be alive. I just didn’t know why I was in this situation – I felt like I had been, I was being punished. Imagine this picture of a little boy sitting on a bench in this big playground with er, 900 students, um, and just crying. I had to deal with name-calling, especially, you know, 'wog’ – was – being called a wog, I didn’t really appreciate that. And being called 'gobble gobble’ or 'turkey turkey’. And, er, people blaming me for what their grandfathers, uh, had experienced in Gallipoli and in World War I. I found that unbelievable. But it’s just like, 'Yeah, he’s a wog – we can do that’. It became difficult to juggle my two identities, because at times like, uh, religious times like Christmas – Christmas was a little problem, because all my friends were getting Christmas presents, and I was thinking, 'Wow, I want to be, you know, accepted and like everybody else. I don’t want them to say, “Oh, he doesn’t celebrate Christmas.”’ So I did, I did um, um, manipulate my parents to buy me gifts just at the right time that coincided with Christmas. And so I was on my new, you know, flash bicycle just at the time that everyone else was showing off their presents, and they go 'What did you get for Christmas?’ and I said, 'Look, you know, bicycle or cricket bat’.