Home to Biloela (Priya Nadesalingam with Rebekah Holt, A&U)

Raw and poignant, Priya Nadesalingam’s Home to Biloela is a personal account of what became a national campaign to bring one family home. It provides an intimate insight into the well-known story of the Murugappan family, who were forcibly removed from their home in Biloela and placed in immigration detention. The memoir alternates between the perspective of Nadesalingam and that of Rebekah Holt, the key journalist covering the story. Nadesalingam begins by describing her refugee status as positioning her as ‘less than human’. The constant deportation attempts and deprivation of basic human rights in detention centres, such as on Christmas Island, provoke a strong sense of outrage regarding the degradation of human life in a supposedly first-world country. As Holt observes, the treatment of the Murugappan family was ‘a story Australia had never been allowed to see before’. It is Nadesalingam’s final sentiments which are most sobering—that even when she obtains her ultimate goal of permanent residency, the past years of trauma have affected her in a way that makes such an achievement bittersweet: ‘I had lived the past ten years on the highs and lows of a huge wave. I may have landed safely on the ground now, but I was unable to feel undiluted joy’. Home to Biloela is a nonetheless inspiring story of perseverance through the trauma of Australia’s refugee system. This tale of love and a fierce spirit is a necessary document that defines what Australia is and what it could be, perfect for people who are interested in the power of grassroots movements and the extraordinary change one community can bring.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Satara Uthayakumaran is a Sri Lankan Australian writer, currently studying a Bachelor of Arts/Laws at the Australian National University. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

Category: Reviews