I'll Call Australia Home

2008, 54 Minutes

Refugee families from Burma and Sudan discover the joys and challenges of their new Australian home.
While the immediate horrors of war and the confinement of refugee camps are behind them, the new lives of these families are not without struggle as they negotiate the everyday realities of settling in a new country. They face getting to know a new currency, schooling for their children, learning a different language and reuniting family torn apart by war.

Over six months, I’ll Call Australia Home offers an intimate record of these families as they tackle their new life experiences; from their first supermarket trip to their first day at school, to dealing with Australian welfare agencies.
For the ethnic Karen family from Burma so many things are startling—suburbs that seem to be for cars not people, too many clothes to choose from at ‘op’ shops, using automatic teller machines and discovering chickens wrapped in plastic from the supermarket fridge. But learning English in 510 hours of government paid lessons is proving the biggest challenge of all.

For Constance and her extended family from Sudan who have been in Australia longer, the task is not so much the practical realities of Australian life but drawing together all the members of her family separated for over 10 years.

Made with the cooperation of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Australian Government’s resettlement agencies, this is a gentle and revealing story of ordinary people who have witnessed extraordinary tragedy. But united in a new country they find the strength, resilience and courage to start again.