Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows Gumaa, a Sudanese refugee now living in Australia, recounting the story of his kidnapping in his native Sudan. Footage of the region where he lived in southern Sudan and of the town he was taken to in northern Sudan, along with a map showing his journey, accompanies his account. A split screen shows the contrasts between northern and southern Sudan that he refers to and provides vivid footage to illustrate his narrative. Gumaa tells his story with clarity but with no hint of bitterness or self-pity.

Educational value points

• The clip provides the human and tragic story of one refugee from the Sudan now living in Australia. Most of Australia’s more than 23,000 Sudanese refugees are victims of the civil war between the north and the south that has plagued the country since 1955 and resulted in more than a million deaths, large numbers of displaced people and abductions, and the enslavement of women and children.

• Gumaa’s story provides an insight into the problems of resettlement for refugees from the Sudan, many of whom have experienced trauma as a result of civil war. Most come to Australia with no knowledge of English and are from a rural subsistence economy. Many are separated from family and have experienced trauma such as torture, yet they must try to gain housing, education and employment without knowing the culture or language of their new country.

• The clip shows something of the economic and social divide that exists within the Republic of Sudan. Generally speaking, there is a population divide between the northern Arabs, predominantly Sunni Muslims who speak Arabic, and southern non-Arab Africans, comprising hundreds of ethnic and tribal divisions and language groups. The south is significantly underdeveloped.

• Sudanese refugees such as Gumaa are mainly from southern Sudan and have come to Australia on a Refugee or Special Humanitarian Program (SHP) visa under Australia’s Offshore Humanitarian Program. An Offshore Humanitarian visa entitles the holder to permanent residency, onshore family reunification and eventually citizenship. Government services available to holders include English courses, accommodation support and Centrelink benefits.

• At the time the clip was made the Sudanese represented the largest proportion of the 13,000 refugees per year accepted by Australia but this changed in 2007. The Australian Government decided to reduce the proportion of its intake that comprised people from Africa in favour of a group of people from Asia, the Karen people from Burma. Fewer than half the refugee places were to be given to people from the Sudan under the new policy.

• Gumaa’s powerful and moving personal story is enhanced by the imaginative use of film in the clip. Visual images convey the diversity of Sudan and its people. Split-screen images provide a rich source of information when they simultaneously show the urban setting Gumaa was taken to and the rural landscape where he lived as a boy. Split screens also show a map of his journey alongside images of the landscape he was travelling through.