Sydneysiders will be able to reflect on Australia's rich history of sea-based migration with the launch of a new projection show on the roof of the Australian National Maritime Museum this Australia Day.
The eight-minute installation, Waves of Migration, captures personal stories from British convicts and early settlers, to Jewish refugees and displaced persons from war-torn Europe, to Ten Pound Poms, Vietnamese boat people and seaborne asylum seekers.
The show's curator, Kim Tao, says one of the most poignant stories in the show is the Lederer family.
Arthur, his wife Valerie and their son Walter Lederer fled Nazi-occupied Austria in 1938 as Jewish persecution was escalating.
Jean Lederer, the wife of the late Walter Lederer, said Arthur appealed to all his friends when he decided to leave Vienna.
“He wrote to all his exalted customers around the world to ask them to invite him into their country as a means of getting out of Vienna” she said.
Also represented in the show is the story of Afghan refugee Hedayat Osyan, who fled from Afghanistan to Indonesia in 2009, where he boarded a small fishing boat which sank en route to Australia.
He was rescued by the Royal Australian Navy and detained on Christmas Island while his refugee status was assessed.
“No one wants to leave their country. So they have some problem, they're leaving their family, their country their home town, and this exhibition show how people come, and it show their story of people, and its very good to decrease the prejudice and discrimination in Australia “ Hedayat said.
