Sydney residents were drawn to three sprawling words in the sky today.
The words “SHUT DOWN MANUS” were written above the Opera House today, commemorating a year since the passing of Iranian refugee and Manus detention centre detainee, Reza Barati.
The statement was a crowd-funded initiative initiated by three artists who have not associated with any political or refugee groups, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. The online campaign raised $9,700 in a week.
The statement comes in light of a recently-released report from the Australian Human Rights Commission titled “The Forgotten Children”. The report investigates human rights abuses inflicted on roughly 800 children detainees across Australia’s immigration detention centres while being held for indefinite periods.
Asylum seekers on Manus Island contacted one of the artists, Asha Bee-Abraham via Facebook to thank her, saying:
“Even words cannot express my appreciation to you and all your people who have empathy for our plight. I am so happy to see that lots of people with hearts and compassion still exist.”
Another sky written statement saying “Close Nauru” was scheduled for the skies over Canberra’s parliament house at 3pm.
