Summary

One of two identical full colour flyers promoting a refugee awareness campaign event staging the formation of human life rings at beaches around Australia on 8 May 2010.

Over a thousand people, dressed in the bright red and yellow of lifesavers, gathered in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide to form giant human life rings as a message to politicians about the treatment of asylum seekers. The event was organised by Amnesty International. The visual spectacles aimed to draw attention to such issues relating to asylum seekers in Australia as detention on Christmas Island, the reopening of the Curtin detention centre and the freeze on the processing of Sri Lankan and Afghan asylum applications. The Melbourne event was held at St Kilda Beach.

Physical Description

A5 full colour flyer printed on gloss paper. Text printed on yellow block with supporter logos along the yellow footer all superimposed over a full colour image of a lifesaver in the foreground and a sea of life rings on a beach.

Significance

This flyer documents the longevity of the asylum seeker community support campaign, in operation by a variety of organisations since the later 1990s. The iconography of the flyer is of interest with the linking of the classic Australian image of the lifesaver with the cause.

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