NT Human Rights award winner in Hobart for Australia Day

MEDIA RELEASE/ DARWIN NORTHERN TERRITORY

Monday 23 January 2012

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The winner of the NT 2011 HUMAN RIGHTS ART AWARD, Mr Javad Javadi, a former mason, will be arriving in Hobart in time to celebrate Australia Day.
Pontville Detention Centre is in receive mode awaiting his imminent arrival. Mr Javadi has produced some truly remarkable artworks including a model boat
which won him the coveted award in Darwin in December and a model house, a cross between an Afghan traditional home and an Australian suburban dream home
complete with swimming pool and garage. He makes his art from recycled materials including dish cloths and icypole sticks.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/201...

Mr Javadi, a Hazara asylum seeker from Bamyan Province in Afghanistan, has spent some 22 months in detention in Darwin and
will join fellow Hazaras and former Darwin residents at Pontville in Hobart, Tasmania.

Pontville has been one of the most successful detention centres in Australia in terms of the community welcoming the asylum seekers.
Active volunteers and senior citizens regularly visit the centre and the Hazaras have been busy making handicrafts for the up and coming exhibition
of art from both Darwin and Pontville centres scheduled for the end of February.

Hobart has had its share of negative views towards the Hazaras, mostly via Senator Eric Abetz, leader of the Opposition in the Senate, who has maintained an erroneous view that the Hazaras were not initially welcome in the community.

Mayor of Brighton Tony Foster told local Tasmanian newspaper THE EXAMINER in September 2011 "I’ve lived in Pontville for 33 years, I’ve been on council for 25 years and been Mayor for 18 years.
I think I know what this community stands for."

He rejected the likelihood of any rioting by Pontville detainees because "probably the majority will get refugee status" and would not jeopardise their chances of settling in Australia.
Mayor Foster may indeed be basing his speculations on cold hard facts rather any fictive analysis of refugee issues. 98% of Hazaras receive refugee status in Australia and comprise a tiny percentage of
the current mass exodus of Hazaras from Afghanistan as it becomes increasing unsafe for them to live in their homeland.
Mr Javad Javadi, born in the same region where the Taliban famously blew up world heritage ancient stone Buddhas, is just one of them.