Remembering October 19, 2001By JAMES BOYCEThree years ago today a dilapidated old boat crammed with nearly 400 people sank between Indonesia and Christmas Island - inside the Australian border protection surveillance zone. 146 children, 142 women and 65 men drowned. This tragic event happened at the height of national hysteria about border protection during the 2001 election - when much of our navy had been employed along our northern coast to supposedly protect us from such desperate and poor people finding a place of safety on our wealthy and privileged continent. It was not until the morning of the 23 October that Australians first heard of the tragedy - the day after the 45 survivors had arrived in Djakarta on an Indonesian fishing boat who had picked them up in the sea about 20 hours after the sinking. The Prime Minister’s immediate response was that the issue was nothing to do with Australia as it had happened inside Indonesian territorial waters and he repeated this claim many times during the election campaign. That information was incorrect. The Senate, especially Senators Faulkner and Bartlett, and committed individuals, especially Tony Kevin, have since produced much evidence to show many other inconsistencies in the Government's position and to suggest that Australia was implicated in the horror on a number of levels. There have been five ignored Senate motions on the matter - including to release the names of the dead and to have a full powers' judicial review into the links with Australia’s people smuggling disruption program. But it is above all the complacent view that the dead are ‘nothing to do with us’ that has led to people around the country gathering each year on the anniversary, to affirm that their deaths was just as much a terrible tragedy as the Americans who died on September 11 or the Australians who died at Bali. We hope that the power of remembering and honouring the life and shocking death of those on the SIEV X, will, both help heal and to change. Just as ANZAC day serves to remember not just those who died at Gallipoli or in armed combat, but the horror of war generally, we hope that this commemoration will remind Australia of the horror of domestic and international policies that that would shut out fellow human beings fleeing persecution and unimaginable suffering from any place of safety or refuge. After last year's commemoration in Hobart, it was resolved to seek a permanent memorial to the SIEV X disaster that could also be a focal point of the annual commemoration. And Cornelian Bay Point was our first choice because it is here that we remember our dead, and what we wanted to say more than anything else was that those 353 women men and children were our people too. This memorial is about connecting with our shared humanity - those who drowned are mums and dads and their kids, people with stories, people who had suffered, people who had dreamed and longed and risked all for the hope of a new life with us. And of course Cornelian Bay Point also looks out - beyond our comfortable and privileged home to where 20 million refugees still seek a safe haven - somewhere to call home.
More information is available at,
An online memorial is at,
Also, James Boyce is a member of Tasmanian for Refugees and was involved in the planning of the new memorial - a bench and plaque - at Cornelian Bay Point.
RAPID RESPONSE EMAIL: What do you think? Tuesday, October 19, 2004 |