The importance of Thanaka: narrative and human rights in Burma

In his address to the International Parliament of Writers in Strasbourg, 1996, Derrida proposes ‘an audacious call for a genuine innovation in the history of the right to asylum or the duty of hospitality’. Here cosmopolitanism characterises the International Parliament of Writers call for the opening of refugee cities across the world. In 2007 we have more than 40 million refugees worldwide and in Australia our Indigenous peoples have become internally displaced persons, making their own hospitality a tragic paradox. On February 1 this year I flew to Bangkok Thailand, to run writing workshops with Burmese women refugees. The women were preparing to submit work to the sixth edition of Burma Women's Voices, a publication supported by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. These anthologies focus on the stories of women's experiences living within Burma and as refugees. In this paper I will use the background of over forty years of military oppression in Burma to show the ways in which narrative and advocacy have been important factors in Burma women giving voice and how this has created positive steps towards reconciliation, healing and education in their lives.