Free movie for World Refugee Day

Margaret River Welcome will host a free movie and chai night on World Refugee Day, Thursday 20 June at Margaret River Uniting Church.

Watandar, My Countryman, explores the history of Afghan cameleers over 160 years in Australia from beyond the lens of former Afghan Refugee and photographer, Muzafar Ali.

The movie follows Ali as he attempts to understand his own new Afghan-Australian identity. while photographing Afghan cameleer descendants, who are Indigenous, colonial and immigrants at the same time.

Jolyon Hoff, the film’s director and producer describes Watandar, My Countryman as touching on some of Australia and the world’s biggest geopolitical stories, including the relationship between colonial, ancient and immigrant Australians, our treatment of refugees, the division between the world’s dominant religions, the success and or lack of success of the international forces in Afghanistan, and the power of individuals to create change.

Margaret River Welcome, a Community Support Group under the federal government’s Community Refugee Integration and Settlement Pilot program, will host the movie and chai night.

It is a free event, thanks to support from Augusta Margaret River Shire which is a signatory Refugee Welcome Zone, and Margaret River Uniting Church.

The evening is a social event rather than a fundraiser, a chance to reflect on the journey faced by so many in today’s world that is marked by displacement and the search for refuge.

Bookings are required.

For more information and to reserve your place, please email mrwelcomecsg@gmail.com.