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Nauru Burning
In Nauru Burning: An uprising and its aftermath, Mark Isaacs goes behind the veil of secrecy around Australia’s offshore immigration detention centres to reveal a climate of fear and hopelessness, culminating in the riot and fire which destroyed much of the Nauru regional processing centre in July 2013. The book reveals how the tinderbox ignited and examines the investigation into who was responsible. It is the story of the fight of the men in detention to prove their innocence, and of the workers who tried to help them.
Ultimately, it is a comment on the lack of accountability and oversight for service providers in the deliberately remote and closed environment of Australia's offshore detention centres.
Ultimately, it is a comment on the lack of accountability and oversight for service providers in the deliberately remote and closed environment of Australia's offshore detention centres.
- GenresNonfictionPolitics
100 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2016
1 person is currently reading
60 people want to read
About the author
Mark Isaacs
3 books11 followersMark is a writer, an author, a researcher and a community worker.
His first book, The Undesirables: Inside Nauru (Hardie Grant, 2014), is an account of his work with asylum seekers in Nauru, one of Australia’s notorious offshore detention centres. His second book, Nauru Burning (Editia, 2016), follows up The Undesirables with an investigative report on human rights abuses on Nauru.
In 2017, Mark conducted an investigation into deportations to Afghanistan with the Edmund Rice Centre. The published report, titled 'Responsibility to Protect', paved the way for Mark's later writings in Afghanistan.
Mark’s third book, The Kabul Peace House (Hardie Grant, 2019) is about a community of peace activists in Afghanistan.
He is studying a Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Technology, Sydney. His research will focus on human migration in the Asia-Pacific region.
Mark is president of Sydney PEN, an affiliate of PEN International, a worldwide association of writers which defends freedom of expression and campaigns on behalf of writers who have been silenced by persecution or imprisonment.
Mark works as a community worker, while he writes as a freelancer. He has published articles with The Guardian, Foreign Policy, World Policy Journal, Sydney Morning Herald, Huffington Post, VICE, New Internationalist, Mamamia, New Matilda, The Griffith Review, Pacific Standard, Overland, Conscious Magazine, The Vocal, Right Now and Roads and Kingdoms.
www.markjisaacs.com
https://twitter.com/MarkJIsaacs
https://www.facebook.com/isaacsmark1
https://instagram.com/markj_isaacs/
His first book, The Undesirables: Inside Nauru (Hardie Grant, 2014), is an account of his work with asylum seekers in Nauru, one of Australia’s notorious offshore detention centres. His second book, Nauru Burning (Editia, 2016), follows up The Undesirables with an investigative report on human rights abuses on Nauru.
In 2017, Mark conducted an investigation into deportations to Afghanistan with the Edmund Rice Centre. The published report, titled 'Responsibility to Protect', paved the way for Mark's later writings in Afghanistan.
Mark’s third book, The Kabul Peace House (Hardie Grant, 2019) is about a community of peace activists in Afghanistan.
He is studying a Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Technology, Sydney. His research will focus on human migration in the Asia-Pacific region.
Mark is president of Sydney PEN, an affiliate of PEN International, a worldwide association of writers which defends freedom of expression and campaigns on behalf of writers who have been silenced by persecution or imprisonment.
Mark works as a community worker, while he writes as a freelancer. He has published articles with The Guardian, Foreign Policy, World Policy Journal, Sydney Morning Herald, Huffington Post, VICE, New Internationalist, Mamamia, New Matilda, The Griffith Review, Pacific Standard, Overland, Conscious Magazine, The Vocal, Right Now and Roads and Kingdoms.
www.markjisaacs.com
https://twitter.com/MarkJIsaacs
https://www.facebook.com/isaacsmark1
https://instagram.com/markj_isaacs/
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 27, 2016
This is a pretty sobering look at Australia's detention policy but also super important for understanding why current refugee processes across the world are not sustainable. This is the first long firm journalism piece I've read so it took a while for me to get used to the 'reporter' style language which strives to report the facts without emotional or sensationalised language (due to the sensitive legal line the author is probably walking). The most important thing I took away from this book is that there needs to be some very clear pathways for refugees, they need to know exactly how long processes will take and see their progression through that process. When things are clear cut you can endure a 7 year process, but if you are kept in limbo where everything is as clear as mud, paranoia sets in. This is not the way forward. I am not OK with my tax payers dollars going to the detention of people who are at their most vulnerable. Sure have your checks and balances, but make it systemised, make it fair, make it a finite length if time, and provide every opportunity for education, humanity and growth while they wait. If you're on the fence about asylum seekers, or even violently opposed, you need to read this and seek that the facts speak for themselves.
October 24, 2016
This is an important book at a critical time for Australia. Our country's policies on asylum seekers are appalling. I have no doubt we will look back on this period in history with a sense of shame. I hope that by publishing this book, we can influence ordinary Australians to question the nation's offshore detention policies and press for change, and influence our political leaders to take a stand rather than allowing these atrocities to continue on their watch.
This is what World Vision Australia CEO Tim Costello has to say about the book:
“Mark Isaacs’s insight into the events that led up to the riot and fire at the Nauru refugee detention centre, and its aftermath, should concern every Australian. This book is graphic evidence of dark practices directly linked to Australia’s immigration and border protection policies. It is a shameful story that needed to be told. Mark Isaacs has rightly taken a stand against a policy of secrecy and lack of scrutiny that may have hidden the truth forever.” – Tim Costello, CEO, World Vision Australia
This is what World Vision Australia CEO Tim Costello has to say about the book:
“Mark Isaacs’s insight into the events that led up to the riot and fire at the Nauru refugee detention centre, and its aftermath, should concern every Australian. This book is graphic evidence of dark practices directly linked to Australia’s immigration and border protection policies. It is a shameful story that needed to be told. Mark Isaacs has rightly taken a stand against a policy of secrecy and lack of scrutiny that may have hidden the truth forever.” – Tim Costello, CEO, World Vision Australia
November 24, 2017
"Our world needs more love, more acceptance, more generosity, more compassion. Justice is a struggle. Don't be disheartened. Don't give up." Thus concludes, not the book itself, but the acknowledgements section and I feel it sets the tone for the "why" of this book being written.
This book is a crucial if harrowing read. Some readers have accused it of being "disjointed" but I think that it is simply that the facts that are there about that night are similarly disjointed, no smooth narrative can be imposed on them without writing fiction, which is exactly what Isaacs is NOT doing. Instead he is sifting evidence. He cannot squarely tell us who started the fires at Nauru (neither can anyone else apparently) but he looks at the way people were treated before, during and after the riots and shows us that some grave injustices have been committed.
Even guilty people would still need better treatment than the men in this book (by virtue of being human) and there is much evidence that some (possibly all) of the men mistreated were in fact innocent. Some of the men starved, beaten, exposed to extreme temperatures, overcrowded and kept in unhygienic conditions were guilty of nothing more than chanting "freedom" or even less.
None of this is pleasant reading (it is important though), and Isaacs has kept it blessedly short, only giving the facts, not embellishing, his voice throughout the chapters is dispassionate although in his acknowledgement you see the emotions behind the text (and I needed that last sentence desperately). As a society we need to face these unpleasant facts- our collective denial makes us guilty.
Please read this book.
This book is a crucial if harrowing read. Some readers have accused it of being "disjointed" but I think that it is simply that the facts that are there about that night are similarly disjointed, no smooth narrative can be imposed on them without writing fiction, which is exactly what Isaacs is NOT doing. Instead he is sifting evidence. He cannot squarely tell us who started the fires at Nauru (neither can anyone else apparently) but he looks at the way people were treated before, during and after the riots and shows us that some grave injustices have been committed.
Even guilty people would still need better treatment than the men in this book (by virtue of being human) and there is much evidence that some (possibly all) of the men mistreated were in fact innocent. Some of the men starved, beaten, exposed to extreme temperatures, overcrowded and kept in unhygienic conditions were guilty of nothing more than chanting "freedom" or even less.
None of this is pleasant reading (it is important though), and Isaacs has kept it blessedly short, only giving the facts, not embellishing, his voice throughout the chapters is dispassionate although in his acknowledgement you see the emotions behind the text (and I needed that last sentence desperately). As a society we need to face these unpleasant facts- our collective denial makes us guilty.
Please read this book.
March 11, 2018
The Australian Government's offshore detention policy is a huge and divisive issue today, not only in our own country but round the world. Always our treatment of those who arrive by boat seeking asylum is kept as secret and hidden as possible and is obscured by lies and omissions in an attempt to keep the Australian people ignorant as to what really happens.
Fortunately there are determined and tenacious social justice advocates who persist in breaking through the secrecy and deceit - Mark Isaacs, writer and adventurer, is one of them. In "Nauru Rising" Isaacs tells the true story behind the notorious riot at the Nauru Regional Processing Centre in July 2013. Using witness accounts, he refutes the misleading information put out in official reports, gives convincing explanations about the stresses and tensions that built up prior to the riots and, most importantly, records the actual incidents and the people involved as they occurred.
The riot on Nauru is not the only violent incident to arise in offshore detention centres as a result of government policy, or, more recently, denial of responsibility. The Australian people need to be informed of the facts behind those incidents. "Nauru Burning" is a book that everyone with a concern about our treatment of asylum seekers should read.
Fortunately there are determined and tenacious social justice advocates who persist in breaking through the secrecy and deceit - Mark Isaacs, writer and adventurer, is one of them. In "Nauru Rising" Isaacs tells the true story behind the notorious riot at the Nauru Regional Processing Centre in July 2013. Using witness accounts, he refutes the misleading information put out in official reports, gives convincing explanations about the stresses and tensions that built up prior to the riots and, most importantly, records the actual incidents and the people involved as they occurred.
The riot on Nauru is not the only violent incident to arise in offshore detention centres as a result of government policy, or, more recently, denial of responsibility. The Australian people need to be informed of the facts behind those incidents. "Nauru Burning" is a book that everyone with a concern about our treatment of asylum seekers should read.
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December 3, 2022My round the world tour stop #1 (Nauru)
A short but very impactful work by a then employee of the Salvation Army, providing humanitarian support services to the asylum seekers detained on Nauru. The author witnessed the burning of the detention center in 2013 by some detainees. His reporting is measured, clear, factual.
A valuable resource for future writers and historians about Nauru, and especially a call to awareness for all of us about what’s going on in these detention centers.
More at https://thecasualbookblog.wordpress.c...
A short but very impactful work by a then employee of the Salvation Army, providing humanitarian support services to the asylum seekers detained on Nauru. The author witnessed the burning of the detention center in 2013 by some detainees. His reporting is measured, clear, factual.
A valuable resource for future writers and historians about Nauru, and especially a call to awareness for all of us about what’s going on in these detention centers.
More at https://thecasualbookblog.wordpress.c...
May 12, 2017
An important story, but not one that is told well. The chapters are disjointed and there are so many people mentioned, so it is hard to follow a story.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews