Hazara basically is
people that looks like me.
We've been targeted in Afghanistan for so long.
People who moved to Pakistan, was like "Alright, let's have a better life!".
If you're Hazara, you got this look, then you're Shia, so you die.
They've got nowhere else to go basically.
I lost my father, um, in a target killing,
just for being a Hazara, just for being
a Shia Muslim.
I remember people used to come at our place with guns.
Yeah, this is my hometown where I grew up.
A valley between the mountains.
They used to ask for my dad,
my uncle, yeah, and then we used to say "Oh, no one's home."
It's, um I think it's taken in Saudi Arabia. A few years before he was shot dead.
He, he fled himself to save his life, and, um,
we wouldn't know where he was
when I went to queta this time to, um,
visit his grave.
Um,
yeah,
we were in the process of getting a visa for him,
and it just took so long
time ran out for him, I think.
Um,
yeah.
I consider myself as as as an Aussie, get up every morning, you know,
go to work, input to, you know, to the Australian economy, you know
to to the people pay my taxes,
It's like every normal Australian
Earliest memories I remember, uh, playing with my, um,
friends and my cousins, you know? We used to play, um,
a sport, It's called [...]
It's kind of like similar to, um, softball.
Um, I can't exactly remember how we left,
but I remember being at the back of the donkey.
My older brother, he left before me and then my younger siblings, obviously,
they were too young to come.
I remember my mum
following me for, like, quite a while.
I would say about
an hour plus, she was coming with me.
And, uh,
she said goodbyes to me, and then,
I remember, uh,
standing there and waving.
It wasn't easy,
my uncle, who you know, is not the
calmest person in the world.
We used to work at his shop while he wasn't there.
He was kind of the boss, he used to come to the shop,
Uh,
How's that? How's that? Good. Alright, I'm going and I'll be back soon.
I remember my uncle said, oh, we're going to Australia.
We actually flew to Malaysia.
We landed in Malaysia. Obviously Then
people smugglers again,
they drove us to this abandoned town. I would say.
a day or two later
somewhere else come
parked us in the car again.
Put us in the jungle.
There was another guy with us all the way from Quetta.
We were lining up to go in the car.
People were like Alright,
more people going going,
and then the, one of the people smugglers was like
That's it. No more.
Myself and this guy, we went through, and my uncle and my cousin
are behind us. I said, "I don't have money, It's all but my uncle." he's like
Your uncle will pay for all of that don't worry.
I'll just send you through as you go.
And then transferred me from places, to places, to places, with without my uncle.
And I'm assuming that my uncle somewhere behind me
a day later or two days later, he would come.
That's me.
That's my cousin that travelled with me.
Um, he's in Kuwait now,
that's his brother,
There's two boats.
Families, they get on a bigger boat,
people by themselves on a small boat, I think on the third day,
we faced very rough kind of sea.
From that moment, I think we travelled for another few hours to find an island,
and everyone got off the boat,
both boats were like, done.
I've been coming here for quite a while now,
last 10 years plus,
yeah, I come here and you know, there's people do stuff, they get together.
It's the whole community coming together. So they've
put, uh,
money from their own pocket to buy a place like this as a community
centre and work on it.
The next day towards lunch or the afternoon.
These two, like
people who came in a motorbike, were like, Oh, wait, we are police,
like... sure,
Uh, They've walked all of us. Up and down,
up and down the mountains of the jungle, to get to the other side.
They've cleared out this hall where, like all the
police officers used to put their tables and work on it,
but they've cleared that place for us to stay.
That was the first moment where I could contact my family.
Oh, Lord, where are you? I'm like I'm still alive.
What happened to my uncle, I don't know?
My uncle was like, Oh, yeah, yeah,
we're home.
Gee,
what happened to you? I was like, yep,
When you got, you know,
separated from us that night, we got captured by
Malaysian police and they got deported back to Pakistan.
Yeah, they they were happy, but I was like,
man, I was I was, like,
so upset and so depressed.
All together, I think I was in Indonesia
um, for
16 to 18 months,
by myself,
would have been what, 13, 14, somewhere about that
or maybe even younger,
News broke out one day.
it was like, oh, Osama bin Laden hit a building in America.
What's America?
Soon after that, George Bush declared a war on Afghanistan.
Um,
they went and kicked the Taliban out,
The UNHCR said, Oh, Afghanistan is peaceful now,
no one will do anything,
you guys going back.
We'll give you $1000 US dollars,
and we'll do your ticket, and we'll send you straight to Kabul.
It's never peaceful. For Hazara,
for my people, it's never peaceful.
And I was like, all that effort, you know, I went through to
to get to Australia,
and it didn't work out.
And then my brother, he said he's going to sponsor us, to
to come to Australia
on a refugee visa.
And that's my brothers,
um,
and my mom.
uh, family here, now,
obviously, this photo is a bit old
Nowadays you know, I, I, um,
try to help other people to apply for their asylum uh uh,
visas and things like that for their protection visa.
Used to help out with, uh, Saint Vincent de Paul,
Uh, feeding the homeless.
Give something
to the community you know,
it's given me a lot, so I thought I would give back,
you know, as much as I could.
Who am I to give advice, but I would say, um,
be kind to people,
embrace whatever you have, you know,
for people that wants to
pursue their dream, go for it.
Because it is achievable in this country.
Follow your dreams,
and work for it!
Is the most important thing. Yes.