‘I feel a real connection to New Zealand’ Behrouz Boochani on life and work in Aotearoa – Stuff.co.nz

Anyone who follows Behrouz Boochani on Twitter knows hes not fond of Australian politicians. Especially their habit of detaining asylum seekers in inhospitable places such as Manus Island, where the now 38-year-old spent six years incarcerated by the Australian government.

A former investigative journalist in his Iranian homeland, Boochani was persecuted for his support for Kurdish rights, fleeing for Australia in 2013 where he was detained at the Papua New Guinea detention facility, which was later found to be illegal.

He came to Christchurch in 2019 and was granted refugee status in 2020. Boochani continues to fight for asylum seekers, marginalised people and indigenous rights across the globe.

He sat down with Sharon Stephenson to talk about his work and appearing at the upcoming Womad Festival.

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Where were you born? Im the second oldest of five children, born in Kurdistan in the west of Iran. My family were sheep and goat farmers.

What did you want to do with your life? My heart was set on becoming a footballer! I follow Barcelona and Ronaldinho was my favourite player I wanted to win a world cup.

Instead you became a journalist and political activist. I was kind of forced to do that because Kurds were being marginalised by the system and we were losing our culture. I was 18 when I started to resist. I was writing in secret because I feared for my safety.

Why did you leave Iran? In 2012 I was working for a cultural magazine when some of my colleagues were arrested. I flew to Indonesia in May 2013 and thought Id be processed by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. But it didnt happen and it wasnt safe for me to live in Indonesia so I got on a boat to sail to Australia.

Joseph Johnson/Stuff

A former investigative journalist in his Iranian homeland, Boochani was persecuted for his support for Kurdish rights.

Was it a perilous journey? The first boat broke down after 40 hours at sea. I was arrested in Indonesia but managed to escape from prison and got on another boat. There were 65 of us and it took a week to get to Australia. We were arrested as soon as we arrived and sent to Manus Island.

There followed six years of what you say was inhumane treatment. I saw friends being shot and stabbed by guards, while others died of medical neglect and suicide. The mental torture of being deprived of hope was also immense.

It prompted you to tell the world about it. I started writing articles for The Guardian Australia and the Sydney Morning Herald on a smuggled phone, sending texts that were translated. I wanted the world to know about how both the detainees and the indigenous people were being treated.

Id guess that didnt go down well with authorities? I had my phone confiscated twice and had to smuggle in other phones. But I knew I had to keep writing.

Was that writing eventually turned into a documentary? I secretly filmed footage of life in the detention centre on my phone for six months, sending it to an Iranian colleague in the Netherlands who turned it into Chauka, Please Tell Us the Time.

One critic called it an essential film for all Australians and it was screened at film festivals around the world, including London, Berlin and Gothenburg.

After that came your memoir No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison. I wrote around 100,000 words for it, tapped out in texts. It was a lot of text messages.

You were invited to speak about your work at Word Christchurch in 2019. How did that change your life? I sought asylum status when I arrived in New Zealand and was eventually granted refugee status in July 2020.

JOSEPH JOHNSON/STUFF

Kurdish Iranian refugee and journalist Behrouz Boochani has been awarded refugee status by the New Zealand government.

What have you done since arriving here? I spent a year at the Ngi Tahu Research Centre working on two projects. One of those is a play about the disproportionate number of indigenous Australians in custody and life inside Australias immigration detention centres. It's called Jurrungu Ngan-ga and is in collaboration with Australias leading indigenous intercultural dance company. Its having its world premiere at the Sydney Festival at the end of January.

Are you still writing? Another project Ive been involved with is guest editing an Australian journal called Southerly. The issue was devoted to the work of refugees and those whove been incarcerated in detention centres.

Im also working on a fiction book but Im so busy I never seem to have time to write it. I hope to have it finished at the end of 2022.

Youre also in demand as a global speaker, right? I speak all over the world via Zoom, especially to universities, about the issue of marginalisation of indigenous cultures and refugees. Last week I spoke to a university in Sweden.

What do you do when youre not working? People in Canterbury would have seen me cycling around the city. I like cycling through Hagley Park. I also play football sometimes.

Is New Zealand home now? Although most of my work is based in Australia, physically I am based in Christchurch. Im happy here and have made friends all over the country. I feel a real connection to New Zealand and am learning a lot about indigenous resistance and the process of decolonisation here.

What will you be speaking about at Womad? About the history of colonisation that still exists in Australia. Their government banishes people to islands and takes indigenous land to house these people. Were both treated badly, so if we can get together, we can resist the system.

Behrouz Boochani is one of the speakers at Womad, 18-20 March. Visit womad.co.nz for info.

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'I feel a real connection to New Zealand' Behrouz Boochani on life and work in Aotearoa - Stuff.co.nz