In Episode Three we meet Mohin Shahin, a Palestinian man who was stateless when he was born in Lebanon in 1956. His parents had been forced to move to South Lebanon after the Nakba, and he and his siblings grew up in Lebanon before some of them moved as young adults to Australia. Mohin migrated in 1987 with his wife and young daughter. Becoming an Australian citizen, Mohin tells us, was a big moment in his life. He lives in Adelaide.
In this interview we learn about these parts of his life,
learning about how he negotiated life and bureaucracy in Lebanon and through migration. We hear about his family’s work – his family owns and runs a large business – and about how the family supports each other. They are dispersed, but they retain their Palestinianness as fundamental to who they are. Through Mohin’s words and memories, we learn of the effects of exile that sit alongside statelessness.
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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 recorded and produced on the lands of the
Wurundjeri and Kaurna 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.
