Family reunion : the potential of digital storytelling and the tracing files of the Australian Red Cross International Tracing Service

Over the course of 2013 and 2014, a research project with the Australian Red Cross International Tracing Service required me to interview people granted refugee status in Australia about tracing their family members. The project presented a unique opportunity to consider how to give voice to the many stories of asylum seekers and refugees who have come to this country. We wanted to unsettle dominant narratives about those seeking asylum, those who are routinely denied their individual humanity and maligned as invaders, or a burden. We also sought a more participatory model of storytelling, one that could actively incorporate material traditionally relegated to the private or personal realm, with the potential to contribute to a more informed public domain. One of our main research outcomes was a public exhibition. By including filmed interviews with Red Cross clients, as they are called, in the exhibition, we hoped to speak to current debates about refugees and asylum in Australia, in which the voices of refugees are usually left out.