Every year millions of refugees from around the world escape civil war and human rights violations in search for a new homeland. Roughly 13,000 of these people are accepted into Australia. Of that figure, 6,000 are chosen by the government from the world’s most notorious refugee camps and a further 7,000 arrive on humanitarian visas, often sponsored by family and friends.

But what happens once they arrive?

I'll Call Australian Home is an intimate documentary filmed over six months, which looks at two refugee families who escaped civil war and violence in their homeland, hoping for a fresh start on safer shores. Once relocated to their new home, these families must tackle their life experiences - from their first supermarket trip, to their first day at school, to dealing with Australian welfare agencies.

While the immediate horrors of war and the confinement of refugee camps are behind them, the new lives of these families are not without struggle as they negotiate the everyday realities of settling in a new country. They face getting to know a new currency, schooling for their children, learning a different language and reuniting family torn apart by war.

For the ethnic Karen family from Burma, so many things are startling—suburbs that seem to be for cars not people, too many clothes to choose from at ‘op’ shops, using automatic teller machines and discovering chickens wrapped in plastic from the supermarket fridge. But learning English in 510 hours of government paid lessons is proving the biggest challenge of all.

Constance Okat and her extended family have been in Australia for several years after fleeing civil war in Sudan in the 1990s. For Constance, the task is not so much the practical realities of Australian life, but trying to reunite all the members of her family that have been separated for over ten years. On top of this, Constance is also trying to challenge the notion that refugees do not assimilate in Australian society, a debate which was reignited earlier this year and has some support in her community.

Made with the cooperation of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Australian government’s resettlement agencies, I’ll call Australia home is a gentle and revealing story of ordinary people who have witnessed extraordinary tragedy. But united in a new country they find the strength, resilience and the courage to start again.


I'll Call Australia Home will be repeated on SBS in 2009.

The DVD is available from Screen Australia.

Screen Australia Sales
Office Phone: 02 8113 1064 | 1800 213 099
Fax: 1800 077 471
Email: sales@screenaustralia.gov.au
www.screenaustralia.gov.au