By Bert Hetebry

I am a poor wayfaring stranger

travelling through this world of woe

but there’s no sickness, toil or danger

in that bright land to which I go.

(Natalie Merchant)

Nina Simone was asked what freedom was in an interview in 1968, I had forgotten about that but a video clip of that interview was posted on a comments column recently and I was further reminded of it on Saturday evening when I attended a concert presented by a diverse group of musicians featuring music from the Middle East, a musical journey which took us from Turkey, through Syria, Jerusalem, Egypt, Iran and finally in Pakistan.

Mesmerisingly beautiful music filling the space with joy, life and love, music seemingly from bygone times and mysterious places, but oh so easily fitting into the sounds of today.

One of the musicians is a friend Michael, from Lebanon. He plays the Oud (an ancient stringed instrument dating back, as legend has it, to the time of the Biblical King David} in that ensemble, joining Riq from Iran who plays the Ney (Iranian flute), the Darbuka (Drum), and Saeed from Iraq plays the Daf, another drum used throughout the Middle East and into southern Asia and Afghanistan.

Just a few of the musicians who have sought freedom from religious and political persecution and the economic chaos corruption causes in some regions, to settle here in Australia and have joined Australian musicians to keep their musical cultures alive and to blend it with both classical European and contemporary Australian music.

Chatting with other attendees after the concert introduced people from pretty much all over the troubled Middle East, people who had left Palestine/Israel in 1967, family members of people who had left during the Nakba of 1948, Iranians who had fled in 1979 after fall of the Shah and the imposition of Islamic rule, others who left Iraq fleeing Saddam Hussien’s regime and the wars, including US (and Australian) invasion of 2003.

For the people I met there, Australia has become a safe haven, a place of freedom; freedom to be who they are, culturally and ethnically. And a freedom which allows the exploration and merging of cultures and to present World Music in regular concerts.

In an upstairs area above the venue for the music event was a display “1948 Palestine in Pictures” providing an insight into Palestinian history and culture of the families which have made Perth their home and the contributions made as immigrants as well as striving to retain their cultural identities as immigrants.

One young man, a lawyer, recently resigned as an Australian Diplomat, the first Palestinian Christian to serve as a career diplomat in the Australian Foreign Service, resigned after October 2023 because of “the inability to speak openly, meaningfully and constructively about race, particularly anti-Palestinianism”. His Grandfather was a Christian leader in Jerusalem prior to 1948, a Bishop in The Church of England, working alongside Muslim and Jewish people, something which is forgotten today, people of all faiths lived in harmony in Palestine/Israel prior to 1948.

The stories told in music, art and the historical display are reminders that we are an immigrant nation and over time, most notably since the end of World War 2, Australia has welcomed refugees from just about every conflict that has resulted in displacing people who cannot return to their homelands for any number of reasons, but it seems in recent times there has been a resistance to help so many who find themselves stateless. Currently, according to information provided by the UNHCR there are more than 1.3million people who are stateless, (That is more than five times the total population of Australia!) and that number grows with every conflict and ‘natural disaster’ fuelled by climate change.

The ‘children overboard’ saga during the 2001 Federal election lead to a hardening in attitude toward immigrants, particularly those who for whatever reason could not arrive at international airports, like tourists. The boats had to be stopped! So prison camps were established on remote islands, Christmas Island, but to wash our hands of responsibility Nauru and Manus Island were used to hold these unfortunate people, both islands, supported by Australia, but not on Australian soil. A policy both sides of politics adhere to, a hardness of heart which denies the humanitarianism to dignify those people as human beings.

Recent events in Europe have seen a political shift to the ‘right’, with an anti-immigrant movement, refusing to accept more displaced people, yet at the same time decrying the lowering birthrates within the European populations.

Meeting with the people I met on the weekend, and at previous performances reminds me of my own immigrant journey, I arrived here as a seven year old from The Netherlands in 1954, my parents joined my mother’s brothers who had already settled here, and we joined a Dutch church, so language and culture were preserved, the religious element in my life was strong while growing up as was the desire by the church community to ensure that the religious elements remained and were taught to upcoming generations with the development of youth programmes and a parent controlled school which upheld the doctrinal standards of the church we attended along with other Dutch things, food, St Nicholas celebrations complete with ‘Black Pete”, {but no clogs, thankfully} and these elements are still here although I no longer attend church. Through her own choice my youngest granddaughter felt the need to learn to speak Dutch (at age 5) and attended a Dutch language Saturday school for a year.

Each immigrant community carries on the traditions of their homelands and that adds so much colour and flavour to culture to the places we live. And when we met up with these people, especially at a cultural function we learn that they are not a threat, that they are in fact just like us, lovers of music, of art, of family.

And yet, it seems that fear of strangers is so much a part of politics today, fear that religious extremism will destroy our lives somehow, fear that people who dress differently, speak differently somehow taint the world we live in.

Freedom, as defined by Nina Simone in the interview is to ‘live without fear.’

I wish I knew how it would feel to be free

I wish I could break all the chains holdin’ me

I wish I could say all the things that I should say

Say ‘em loud, say ‘em clear

For the whole world to hear

(Nina Simone)