Interviews with the people in detention - whether on a ship or in the desert - are not allowed by those who make these sorts of decisions. Regardless of what we may know or think of the media, the absence of the screen mediated reality (stories) of people who are inside these systems, means that people outside (you and I, the person who serves you in the deli, those who know the world through commercial television and tabloid newspapers) remain untouched by the everyday reality of those detained.

These drawings were made by children who were imprisoned at (the now closed) Woomera Detention Centre. They were drawn after the violence that happened there over the weekend of the 21-23 of sept. 2001 when detention centre employees of ACM (Australian Correctional Management) used water canons and tear gas to 'quieten' the people locked up there. The larger version of each image is linked from here. Childrens names and numbers (they are referred to by number in the D.C's) have been erased.

The images here are excerpts from quite detailed drawings. click on any excerpt and the complete drawing will download - each image is approx 700k so it will take a while if you have a slower connection.

guard fall brown
hands fall2
  grey
  pokimage by POK 110 "The artist was given the name 'POK 110' by the Australian Government when he arrived.'POK' is the first 3 letters of the name of the boat he arrived on, and 110 is the sequential number as each arrival was processed. That was how he was referred to, during the time he was in Australia, by the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs and also by Australian Correctional Management, a private operator."
Jeremy Moore, Lawyers for Woomera Refugees Statement