Big Ideas

The day the invisible was made visible — Manus Island detention survivors speak

01.16.2024 - By ABC listenPlay

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In early 2020, as Australians were being locked down, something strange was happening in an inner-suburban hotel in Brisbane. A group of men, previously invisible to most Australians, gathered on the hotel balcony wielding hand-made banners. Who were they? And how did this moment change the minds of middle Australia? It's 10 years since Kevin Rudd declared "no one who arrives by boat will ever settle here". The fallout catapulted thousands of lives into a decade-long limbo. Two of the men on that Brisbane balcony join host Natasha Mitchell and other guests at the Brisbane Powerhouse as part of the Portraits of Protest exhibition.

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