In this episode we meet Kalyani Inpakumar, a Tamil woman who lives in Sydney. She came to Australia in 1990, coming to meet her then-husband, with whom she would have two daughters. Kalyani describes herself, with pride, as having come from Tamil Eelam.
We learn about Kalyani’s migration journey, which took in
multiple countries. And we hear her stories of community-building, of how she now works with Tamil community organisations and newly arrived refugees. The building of spaces and cultures where migrants and citizens can work together and learn from each sits at the centre of Kalyani’s story. This active creation of informal connections and networks offers a vital perspective of how statelessness is negotiated.
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Being Stateless is a podcast about people in Australia who
have been stateless. About their memories, experiences, and histories.
Across a series of oral history interviews, Jordana Silverstein – a historian and descendant of stateless refugees – has brought together people living in Australia who share stories, insights, knowledge and experiences of statelessness.
In this podcast series, join Jordana and the interviewees to
learn about how we can understand and describe statelessness, citizenship, and what it means to belong somewhere.
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This episode was created and produced on the lands of the
Wurundjeri and Tugagal people. We pay our respects to their Elders, past and present. Sovereignty has never been ceded. This always was and always will be Aboriginal land. We are grateful to First Nations writers, activists, scholars and artists from across the continent, from whom we continue to learn so much.
This podcast comes from the Peter McMullin Centre on
Statelessness and is funded in part by the Australian Research Council. Michael Green was the Story Editor and it was produced by Greta Robenstone.
