From Apathy to Action

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From Apathy to Action: Promoting
Active Citizenship and Global
Responsibility amongst Populations
in the Global...
Article in Global Society · April 2010
DOI: 10.1080/13600821003626609
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From Apathy to Action: Promoting
Active Citizenship and Global
Responsibility amongst Populations in
the Global North
Erin K. Wilson
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Global Responsibility amongst Populations in the Global North, Global Society, 24:2, 275-296, DOI:
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From Apathy to Action: Promoting Active Citizenship
and Global Responsibility amongst Populations in the
Global North
ERIN K. WILSONÃ
Efforts to address social and global problems such as poverty, mass hunger and mass-
atrocity crimes are hindered signiﬁcantly by apathy and low levels of active civil and
political engagement amongst populations in developed countries. Social change non-
government organisations (NGOs), such as Oxfam Australia, Oxfam Hong Kong and
Me´decins Sans Frontie`res, have recently employed innovative, creative, experience-
based strategies in their efforts to promote active citizenship and greater global respon-
sibility amongst populations in the Global North. These techniques are based on two key
assumptions: that experiences change attitudes and that changes in behaviour will follow
changes in attitudes. Yet the effectiveness of these newer techniques and the accuracy of
the assumptions on which they are based remain largely untested. This article explores
these assumptions and discusses the innovative, creative techniques that they have gen-
erated in NGO public education efforts. The article examines the theoretical literature on
the problem of apathy and on the use of creative techniques to overcome apathy. It further
discusses the practical application of these techniques through an examination of Oxfam
Australia’s “Refugee Realities” project. This discussion is based on preliminary evalu-
ation research conducted by Oxfam Australia and the author’s own experiences as an
actor/volunteer on the project. The article suggests that creative, experience-based
public education strategies are effective in challenging and confronting public attitudes
towards issues of global injustice. Further research is needed, however, to determine
whether these encounters result in long-term changes in attitudes and whether they
contribute to moving individuals and communities from apathy to action.
Globalisation has had dramatic effects on the structure and nature of global poli-
tics and society, not the least of these being the rise of global civil society and emer-
ging global ethics.1
Traditional state interests and power politics compete with
humanitarian concerns and cosmopolitan moral and ethical commitments that
transcend sovereign boundaries.2
This increasing sense of a global community
Ã
The author is grateful to Steph Cousins, Oxfam Australia Humanitarian Advocacy Coordinator, for
her comments and suggestions on earlier drafts of this article.
1. Mary Kaldor, “The Idea of Global Civil Society”, International Affairs, Vol. 79, No. 3 (2003),
pp. 583–593.
2. Scott Turner, “Global Civil Society, Anarchy and Governance: Assessing an Emerging Para-
digm”, Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 35, No. 1 (1998), pp. 25–42.
Global Society, Vol. 24, No. 2, April, 2010
ISSN 1360-0826 print/ISSN 1469-798X online/10/020275–22 # 2010 University of Kent
DOI: 10.1080/13600821003626609
Downloadedby[UniversityofGroningen]at02:3025September2013

united by shared moral values is connected with other aspects of recent rapid
globalisation. The increasing role and reach of mass media3
has led to greater
coverage and reporting on humanitarian emergencies, mass-atrocity crimes,
poverty and other injustices that offend increasingly global moral sensibilities.4
Recent globalisation has also seen an increase in the numbers of non-government
organisations (NGOs) seeking to address human rights abuses and other global
injustices.5
Building on the increased availability of information and media cover-
age, these NGOs attempt to raise awareness and generate action amongst local
populations to lobby governments and promote global action to address and
rectify injustices.
Despite growing global morality, the emerging global civil society, the increased
availability of knowledge about global injustice and the efforts of NGOs, apathy
and political inaction, particularly in the Global North, remain significant pro-
blems. Attempting to rectify injustices such as global poverty and hunger and
provide care for victims of mass-atrocity crimes are hindered significantly by a
lack of awareness and motivation to act amongst populations in developed
countries.6
Several authors have offered explanations for this apparent moral
immunity, citing “compassion fatigue” or “psychological numbing”, the construc-
tion of mental barriers against problems that are morally challenging or upset-
ting.7
These barriers provide the means for avoiding responsibility for or acting
to address these injustices.
Much has been written on the problem of apathy of populations in developed
countries towards issues of global injustice, most notably by authors such as
Peter Singer, Peter Unger, Thomas Pogge and Susan George. Yet there has been
little exploration or assessment of the practical methods utilised by social
change organisations endeavouring to promote active global citizenship
amongst the individuals and communities of the Global North.
Development and social change NGOs regularly engage in advocacy and public
education activities around issues related to development and global justice in
developed countries. These activities aim at raising awareness and generating
engagement and action on issues such as poverty, hunger and mass-atrocity
crimes. Continued widespread apathy of Global North populations has led
NGOs to adopt a model of change that supports the use of advocacy and public
education campaigns not just to raise awareness about the occurrence of global
3. Meagan Shaw, “Worth a Helping Hand?”, The Age (20 October 2005), available: ,http://www.
theage.com.au/news/national/worth-a-helping-hand/2005/10/19/1129401314028.html. (accessed 3
June 2009); Manfred Steger, Globalism: Market Ideology Meets Terrorism, 2nd edn (Lanham, MD and
Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005), p. 38.
4. Susan Moeller, Compassion Fatigue: How the Media Sell War, Famine, Disease and Death (New York:
Routledge, 1999), p. 35.
5. Kiyotera Tsutsui and Christine Min Wotpika, “Global Civil Society and the International Human
Rights Movement: Citizen Participation in Human Rights International Nongovernmental Organiz-
ations”, Social Forces, Vol. 83, No. 2 (2004), pp. 592–593.
6. Shaw, op. cit.; Ian Royall, “We’re Caring Less for the Vulnerable”, The Herald Sun, 29 February
2008), available: ,http://global.factiva.com. (accessed 3 June 2009).
7. Moeller, op. cit., p. 35; Thomas Mertens, “International or Global Justice? Evaluating the Cosmo-
politan Approach”, in Andreas Follesdal and Thomas Pogge (eds.), Real World Justice: Grounds, Prin-
ciples, Human Rights and Social Institutions (Dordrecht: Springer, 2005), p. 102; Ashis Nandy, “The
Beautiful, Expanding Future of Poverty: Popular Economics as a Psychological Defense”, International
Studies Review, Vol. 4, No. 2 (2002), p. 111; Paul Slovic, “If I Look at the Mass I Will Never Act: Psychic
Numbing and Genocide”, Judgement and Decision Making, Vol. 2, No. 2 (2007), p. 79.
276 Erin K. Wilson

injustices but also to challenge and potentially alter attitudes, beliefs, behaviours,
policies and practices that perpetuate inequality and injustice. In order to meet
these objectives, social change organisations have experimented with creative
and innovative social education techniques. These new approaches have devel-
oped from the assumption that, firstly, experiences shape attitudes and, secondly,
that changes in attitudes result in changes in behaviour.
Oxfam Australia’s recent Refugee Realities project provides an example of one
such public education exhibition. The project made use of innovative, creative,
experiential techniques, including participatory theatre, design, audio-visual
engineering, music, dance and art. Refugee Realities aimed to educate school stu-
dents and the broader Australian public about the experiences of refugees and
about the rights of displaced peoples in crisis situations. Individuals participating
in the exhibition went through simulated experiences of refugees in crisis, includ-
ing fleeing conflict, travelling through dangerous terrain, encountering hostile
military and government officials and the daily challenges of life in a refugee
camp.
This article explores the use of innovative, creative, experiential techniques as
tools for overcoming apathy and promoting global responsibility amongst popu-
lations in developed countries. I focus particularly on participatory theatre,
acknowledging that this also frequently involves aspects of design and other crea-
tive techniques. Using Oxfam Australia’s Refugee Realities production as a case
study, I suggest that creative, experiential techniques, such as participatory
theatre, can be effective tools for encouraging social engagement and global
responsibility. Experiential techniques such as participatory theatre can establish
emotional connections between distant8
populations on moral issues that activate
feelings of empathy. Participatory theatre challenges the boundaries of individual
and collective identities by creating a sense of connection through shared experi-
ence. Further, participatory theatre provides people with an experience that can
make distant and unknown or unfamiliar issues real. Having experienced the
reality (or some small part of the reality) of injustice, people are more inclined
to act, even if only in some small way. The effectiveness of participatory theatre
suggests that other techniques which promote active participation and simulated
experiences inviting or requiring individual response would also be effective tools
in promoting active global citizenship on issues of injustice.
I begin by discussing the problem of apathy. I focus on the explanations of com-
passion fatigue and psychological numbing offered by recent authors and explore
emerging suggestions concerning how to transcend these mental and emotional
barriers. I then discuss the move by social change organisations to utilise more
experiential, creative techniques in public education and advocacy. I discuss a
range of techniques, but focus primarily on participatory theatre. I then provide
a detailed discussion of Refugee Realities, including background information,
description of scenes and processes from the exhibition and preliminary findings
of research conducted to assess the impact of the innovative, creative techniques
utilised in the exhibition. I conclude by discussing future directions for the
research. In this discussion, I make use of information from Oxfam Australia’s
evaluation report on the project, which used survey, Internet and interview data
as well as solicited and unsolicited written feedback from participants. Following
8. “Distance” here is understood in both physical and emotional terms.
From Apathy to Action 277

Haedicke’s approach, I also include my own reflections and observations as a
volunteer performer on the project.9
The Problem of Apathy
Apathy and political inaction are problems frequently lamented by social change
theorists and practitioners. Efforts to address global injustices such as poverty,
mass hunger and mass-atrocity crimes are hindered significantly by a lack of
awareness and active engagement amongst populations in developed countries.
Public intellectuals such as Peter Singer, Peter Unger, Susan George and
Thomas Pogge10
have all discussed the moral imperative that exists for wealthy
populations in developed countries to act to aid destitute populations in the
global South. These public intellectuals use blunt examples to demonstrate this
moral imperative, likening inaction towards disease, poverty and death in the
global South to walking past a drowning child and doing nothing to save them.11
Despite these compelling moral arguments that have been made continually
over the last 30–40 years, wealthy populations in the Global North for the most
part continue to ignore the “silent emergencies” occurring in the developing
world. These silent emergencies are not impossible to resolve or too overwhelm-
ing to address. Rather, those with the capability (political or financial or both) to
act to address these injustices lack the political and ethical will to do so.12
This
suggests that issues of power and privilege are central to understandings of
how injustices occur and how they can be addressed.13
Thus, ideological assump-
tions about power and privilege form an important background to how people
think about and respond to issues of global injustice.14
These deeply held, often
subconscious assumptions about relationships of power and privilege in global
politics offer one avenue through which to explain the ongoing apathy and inac-
tion of populations in the Global North on issues of global injustice.
Recent authors have referred to the phenomenon of psychological numbing in
relation to this lack of political and moral action.15
People erect psychological bar-
riers against problems or issues that are particularly challenging or upsetting,
thereby avoiding having to deal with the problem or take responsibility for it.
These psychological barriers prevent individuals and communities from having
9. Susan C. Haedicke, “The Politics of Participation: ‘Un Voyage pas Comme les Autres sur les
Chemins de L’Exil’”, Theatre Topics, Vol. 12, No. 2 (2002), pp. 99–100, 106.
10. Peter Singer, “Famine, Affluence and Morality”, Philosophy and Public Affairs, Vol. 1, No. 1 (1972),
pp. 229–243; Peter Singer, The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty (New York: Random
House, 2009); Peter Unger, Living High and Letting Die: Our Illusion of Innocence (Oxford: Oxford Univer-
sity Press, 1995); Susan George, How the Other Half Dies: The Real Reasons for World Hunger (Harmonds-
worth: Penguin, 1986); Thomas Pogge, World Poverty and Human Rights, 2nd edn (Cambridge: Polity
Press, 2008).
11. Unger, op. cit., pp. 8–10.
12. George, “A Short History of Neoliberalism: Twenty Years of Elite Economics and Emerging
Opportunities for Structural Change”, in François Houtart and François Polet (eds.), The Other
Davos: The Globalization of Resistance to the World Economic System (London and New York: Zed
Books, 2001), p. 16.
13. Vicente M. Lechuga, Laura Norman Clerc and Abigail K. Howell, “Power, Privilege, and Learn-
ing: Facilitating Encountered Situations to Promote Social Justice”, Journal of College Student Develop-
ment, Vol. 50, No. 2 (2009), p. 229.
14. Ibid., p. 230.
15. Nandy, op. cit., p. 111; Mertens, op. cit., p. 102.
278 Erin K. Wilson

to rethink their assumptions about power and privilege and their own role in
ongoing global injustices. Global poverty, mass hunger, disease and mass-atrocity
crimes all challenge individual and community assumptions about power and
morality that are an intimate part of their sense of identity.16
Psychological numbing refers to the ability of people to construct psychological
barriers against issues that are particularly traumatic or morally challenging.17
Robert J. Lifton took the term from psychology and used it within political
science to refer to how the general public dealt with the potential for nuclear
holocaust during the Cold War.18
Recently, Nandy, Mertens and Slovic have
all used this term in relation to inaction by Global North populations on
poverty, hunger, mass-atrocity crimes such as genocide, and environmental
problems such as climate change.19
Moeller and others have also referred to this
as “compassion fatigue”.20
Discussing why wealthy populations in the Global North fail to provide ade-
quate assistance for populations in the global South, Mertens argues that this
occurs because no personal connection has been established between people
living in relative privilege and those who are experiencing poverty and injustice.21
He quotes Bauman who suggests that morality alone is unable “to bridge too long
distances”.22
People feel morally compelled to act on behalf of those they can see
or have a personal connection with but not those with whom they are not closely
associated. Mertens states “morality teaches me to take responsibility for people
who are close to me, both in the territorial and the emotional sense of the
word”.23
When there is no such immediate connection, the impulse to act on
behalf of those experiencing injustice recedes.
In cases where the lives of others are removed and sealed off from our
lives by a series of wicked administrative measures or because they lit-
erally live at so far distance that it seems almost impossible to imagine
ourselves in their position, the voice of morality can be silenced.24
Mertens’ argument is supported by observations from chief executives of develop-
ment NGOs and public opinion researchers, who suggest that Global North
populations donate and/or campaign on behalf of people and communities
who most closely resemble themselves.25
16. Peter Singer, “The Singer Solution to World Poverty”, New York Times Sunday Magazine
(5 September 1999), pp. 60–63; Lechuga et al., op. cit., p. 229.
17. Charles R. Figley, “Compassion Fatigue as Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder: An Over-
view”, in Charles R. Figley (ed.), Compassion Fatigue: Coping with Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder
in Those Who Treat the Traumatized (London and New York: Brunner-Routledge, 1995), pp. 1–20;
Nandy, op. cit., p. 111.
18. Robert J. Lifton, “Beyond Psychic Numbing: A Call to Awareness”, American Journal of Orthop-
sychiatry, Vol. 52, No. 4 (1982), pp. 619–630.
19. Nandy, op. cit., p. 111; Mertens, op. cit., p. 102; Slovic, op. cit., p. 79.
20. Moeller, op. cit., p. 35; Shaw, op. cit.
21. Mertens, op. cit., p. 101.
22. Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust (Oxford: Polity Press, 1989) cited in Mertens, op.
cit., p. 101.
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid.
25. Shaw, op. cit.

Ashis Nandy makes a similar point in relation to global poverty. Immense con-
tradictions exist in the allocation of funds and spending habits within developed
countries in the face of extreme poverty, mass hunger and starvation, disease
and other dire yet not unsolvable problems facing the global South. Nandy
notes that “‘normal’ middle-class citizens, especially those belonging to the
liberal-democratic tradition, are uncomfortable with these paradoxes”.26
Rather
than addressing them or working through them, however, people tend to
simply ignore them, “push them under the carpet through various psychological
subterfuges”.27
Wealthy middle- and upper class populations in the Global North
have the luxury of being able to push these concerns to the side because they are
not directly, immediately or personally confronted with these dire situations. This
prevents them from having to alter their purchasing habits, their lifestyles, their
level of political engagement and activism or their assumptions about and atti-
tudes towards global injustice.
These theoretical arguments concerning apathy and psychological numbing/
compassion fatigue and how to overcome them are supported by recent research
in education and the arts. Evidence from school-based educational research
suggests that experiential, interactive learning is an effective means for engaging
students and educating them on issues such as justice and environmental
sustainability.28
This style of learning also provides students with fundamental
knowledge about power, privilege and oppression that is significant for under-
standing and responding to issues of injustice.29
Visual arts and design have
been identified as significant devices for engaging people on issues of social
and global injustice. McDonaugh and Braungart note that “design is a signal of
intent”.30
How we design objects and represent concepts and issues visually sig-
nifies the ideological assumptions underpinning our current approaches to these
issues and concepts. As well as providing visual representation of issues of injus-
tice, design and creative expression has the potential to translate seemingly objec-
tive scientific information and knowledge into sensory experiences that are
visually, emotionally and morally challenging.31
Participation in creative design
projects can also be empowering and encourage people towards greater engage-
ment with social issues and more active citizenship.32
Similar arguments have
been made concerning theatre,33
especially participatory theatre, discussed
further below.
26. Nandy, op. cit., p. 111.
27. Ibid.
28. Bernard Cox, Margaret Calder and John Fien, “Experiential Learning”, in Teaching and Learning
for a Sustainable Future, Version 4.0 (Paris: UNESCO), CD-ROM and website: ,http://www.unesco.org/
education/tlsf/TLSF/theme_d/uncofrm_d.htm ., 2005 (accessed 8 April 2009).
29. Lechuga et al., op. cit., p. 230.
30. William McDonaugh and Michael Braungart, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
(New York: Northpoint Press, 2002), p. 9. I am grateful to Philip Monsbourgh for recommending this
text.
31. Janine Randerson, “Between Reason and Sensation: Antipodean Artists and Climate Change”,
Leonardo, Vol. 40, No. 5 (2007), p. 443.
32. Kim Miller, “Iconographies of Gender, Poverty, and Power in Contemporary South African
Visual Culture”, NWSA Journal, Vol. 19, No. 1 (2007), p. 118.
33. Miriam Cosic, “Drama Drenched in Humanity”, The Australian (14 October 2005), available:
,http://global.factiva.com. (accessed 3 June 2009); Susan Leigh Foster, “Choreographies of
Protest”, Theatre Journal, Vol. 55, No. 3 (2003), pp. 395–412; Baz Kershaw, “Curiosity or Contempt:
On Spectacle, the Human, and Activism”, Theatre Journal, Vol. 55, No. 4 (2003), pp. 591–611.
280 Erin K. Wilson

For decades, social change organisations have tried a variety of public edu-
cation methods aimed at breaking down these psychological barriers and promot-
ing active engagement. These efforts are important, as human agency and active
citizenship on critical moral and political issues have high potential for significant
influence on policy and practice in global politics.34
Traditionally, social change
organisations have employed public engagement tools such as mail-outs, letter-
writing campaigns, magazines, posters and other print media, and events such
as protests, festivals, exhibitions and global days of action. Yet the continued
apathy or ignorance of the majority of citizens in the Global North raises questions
about the efficacy, both immediate and long term, of these traditional engagement
methods for promoting active global citizenship.
As a result of the seeming ineffectiveness of these traditional public education
and advocacy methods and in light of the research in education, design, art and
theatre, social change organisations have implemented new techniques aimed at
engaging the general public on issues of poverty and injustice. These innovative
and typically interactive methods utilise recently developed technologies and
the creative and visual arts to promote active engagement amongst populations
in the Global North. Such methods involve interactive websites incorporating
blogging, wikis and personalised graphics to accompany campaigns, non-tra-
ditional visual communications as well as interactive experiences such as partici-
patory theatre and simulation.
The principal difference between traditional and non-traditional techniques is
the level of engagement they encourage from citizens. Traditional methods are
generally non-reciprocal, providing information to citizens and inviting them to
act in response, but not directly involving them or engaging with them. Non-tra-
ditional techniques are much more interactive, requiring citizens to directly par-
ticipate at some level, to become “active”. These newer interactive techniques
are developed on the basis of two assumptions: (1) that experiences shape atti-
tudes; and (2) changes in attitudes facilitate changes in behaviour and promote
active engagement with issues of public morality and justice.35
These assumptions
are supported by much of the philosophical and theoretical literature on com-
passion fatigue and psychological numbing. To date, however, there is little
empirical evidence that demonstrates the practical validity of these assumptions.
Participatory Theatre and Social Activism
Theatre has been used in efforts to raise awareness about a host of social
and political ills. These range from political and social stigma associated with
HIV/AIDS sufferers, development, refugees and asylum seekers, mental illness
and numerous others.36
Theatre of the Oppressed, pioneered by Augusto
Boal,37
is perhaps one of the most famous examples. Foster also suggests that
34. Roland Bleiker, Popular Dissent, Human Agency and Global Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press, 2000).
35. Anna Powell, Oxfam Australia Youth Engagement Programs Manager, pers. comm., Teleconfer-
ence on Active Citizenship, August 2008.
36. Foster, op. cit., p. 396.
37. Augusto Boal, Theatre of the Oppressed translated from the Spanish by Charles A. & Maria-Odilia Leal
McBride and Emily Fryer, New edn. (London: Pluto Press, 2000).

non-violent change methods such as sit-ins, street marches and other non-violent
forms of protest contain an element of performance that contributes to their
effectiveness.38
Various theories abound as to why theatre is an effective tool for social change.
Kershaw suggests that theatre is able to influence people’s understanding and
experience of the human. It does this, in modern society at least, primarily
through creating spectacle that attracts attention and challenges people’s
morals, sense of self and sense of relationship with others.39
Schinina supports
this idea, arguing that “the value of theatre does not lie in its capacity to empha-
size what unifies human beings, but rather in its potential to emphasize their
differences and to create bridges between them”.40
Theatre can be both visually and audibly confronting. Because it occurs within a
confined space, theatre forces people to address these challenges and confronta-
tions, at least for the duration of the performance. Added to this is the experience
of the performance. Theatre will often generate an emotional reaction in people by
inviting them, if only passively, to take part in the reality they are presented with.
People will often then take the emotions and thought processes experienced
during the viewing of the performance away with them afterwards, discussing
them with friends and family, pondering the thoughts and emotions generated
within themselves for some time to come. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the
attitudes and behaviours of individuals may then be altered and changed
through particularly powerful theatrical performances (the same is also true for
other art forms, such as dance, literature, paintings and sculptures).41
This confrontational aspect of theatre is compounded in participatory theatre,
which is physically confronting as well as visually, audibly and emotionally chal-
lenging and engaging.42
The lines between audience and actor are blurred as
spectators become participants in the theatrical spectacle.43
Participants or
“spect-actors”44
become personally located within the theatrical experience, phys-
ically and emotionally, by being asked to take on the persona of a character within
the action.45
Throughout the course of the performance, they are personally
affected by the action, thinking and feeling in response to the events of the per-
formance, often in character but also frequently as themselves. This can generate
even deeper personal emotional connections with the theatrical experience than
occurs through passive viewings of theatrical performances.
Development and social change organisations have begun to utilise participa-
tory theatre in efforts to raise social awareness and engagement. This use of par-
ticipatory theatre has been based on the assumptions that experiences shape
attitudes and that shifts in attitudes will lead to changes in behaviour. Promenade
38. Foster, op. cit., pp. 396–397.
39. Kershaw, op. cit., p. 594.
40. Guglielmo Schinina, “Social Theatre and Some Open Questions about its Development”, The
Drama Review, Vol. 48, No. 3 (2004), p. 17.
41. On drama, see Cosic, op. cit.; Kershaw, op. cit., p. 592; Schinina, op. cit., p. 17; on artwork, see
McDonaugh and Braungart, op. cit., p. 9; Randerson, op. cit., p. 443.
42. Haedicke, op. cit., p. 104.
43. Ibid., p. 102.
44. Ibid.
45. Ibid., p. 99; Branislav Jakovljevic, “Theatre of War in the Former Yugoslavia: Event, Script,
Actors”, The Drama Review, Vol. 43, No. 3 (1999), p. 7.
282 Erin K. Wilson

theatre, a particular type of participatory theatre,46
has been used by a number of
organisations in simulating experiences of people living with and through various
injustices. Promenade theatre walks participants or “spect-actors” through the
action, exposing them to various physical locations as well as events, forcing
them to make decisions in character that could affect their survival.47
As
Condee notes, as well as having emotional responses to the material within the
performance, in promenade theatre “the audience has a kinaesthetic response to
the performance” as well.48
This type of theatre has been used by the City of
Port Phillip in Melbourne to raise awareness of social issues surrounding drug
addiction and prostitution speciﬁcally in St Kilda,49
as well as by social change
organisations around the world on a variety of issues. Notable examples
include the Me´decins Sans Frontie`res Refugee Camp simulation run in Central
Park in New York in 2006,50
subsequently taken on tour throughout North
America and produced in Australia in late 2008 and 2009,51
the CIRE (Coordi-
nation et Initiatives pour Refugies et Etrangers) production Un Voyage pas
Comme les Autres sur les Chemins de L’Exil in Paris,52
Oxfam Hong Kong, that has
established an Interactive Education Centre using theatre and other techniques
to produce simulations on a variety of issues including fair trade, refugees and
international labour rights,53
and refugee experience simulation kits developed
by Red Cross Canada, Canadian Foodgrains Bank and Canadian Lutheran
World Relief.54
It is important to emphasise that participatory theatre itself is not a new tech-
nique. What is new and innovative is that social change organisations, rather
than actors or theatre companies, are employing participatory theatre and other
creative, experiential devices in their efforts to promote active citizenship and
global responsibility. Previous examples of participatory theatre focused on
social change have been driven by actors, directors, scriptwriters and others
involved in theatre and the arts. These new projects, like Oxfam Australia’s
Refugee Realities, are being driven by NGOs and by people with little to no
exposure to or involvement with the performing arts.
46. William Condee, Theatrical Space: A Guide for Directors and Designers (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow
Press, 1995), ch. 14: “Environmental and Promenade Theatre”, pp. 169–184.
47. Alison Grifﬁths, “‘Journey for Those Who Cannot Travel’: Promenade Cinema and the Museum
Life Group”, Wide Angle, Vol. 18, No. 3 (1996), p. 54, fn. 5; Haedicke, op. cit., p. 101.
48. Condee, op. cit., p. 180.
49. Robyn Szechtman, pers. comm., March 2008; City of Port Phillip, “Back by Popular Demand –
Habits of the Heart”, available: ,http://www.portphillip.vic.gov.au/attachments/o27391.pdf.
(accessed 11 June 2009); Martin Mulligan, Kim Humphrey, Paul James, Christopher Scanlon, Pia
Smith and Nicky Welch, Creating Community: Celebrations, Arts and Wellbeing within and across Local Com-
munities (Melbourne: The Globalism Institute, 2006), p. 83.
50. Me´decins Sans Frontie`res, “A Refugee Camp in the Heart of the City”, available: ,http://www.
refugeecamp.org/home/. (accessed November 2008).
51. Me´decins Sans Frontie`res Australia, “Refugee Camp in Your City”, available: ,http://
refugeecamp.msf.org.au/. (accessed 5 June 2008).
52. Haedicke, op. cit., p. 99.
53. Oxfam Hong Kong, “Oxfam Hong Kong Interactive Education Centre”, available: ,http://
www.oxfam.org.hk/public/contents/category?cid¼8951&lang¼iso-8859-1. (accessed May 2009).
54. Canadian Red Cross, Canadian Foodgrains Bank and Canadian Lutheran World Relief, “In
Exile for a While: A Refugee’s Experience for Canadian Youth”, Red Cross Canada, available:
,http://www.redcross.ca/cmslib/general/inexileforawhilekit.pdf. (accessed 5 June 2009).

Little known or publicly accessible evaluation is available concerning the effec-
tiveness of these projects for changing attitudes and altering behaviours. Yet such
evaluations are important for determining whether innovative, creative, experien-
tial techniques are useful advocacy and social education tools.
The Oxfam Australia production Refugee Realities is different in this respect. A
concerted effort was made by Oxfam Australia to collect statistical as well as anec-
dotal data with which to assess the effectiveness of the project. These data, while
by no means definitive and conclusive, provide some indication of the utility of
creative, innovative, experiential techniques for shaping attitudes and changing
behaviours around issues of global injustice.
Background to Refugee Realities
The Refugee Realities project was conceived as a social education tool in line with
Oxfam International’s Strategic Plan for 2007–2012. The Strategic Plan outlined
a commitment to “rights in crisis”, focusing on Oxfam’s role in ensuring men
and women in humanitarian crisis situations receive the assistance and protection
to which they are entitled under international law.55
The Strategic Plan also
emphasised the role of Oxfam in promoting active citizenship, humanitarian
advocacy and government accountability. These goals were incorporated into
Oxfam Australia’s Strategic Plan for 2007–2013.56
Refugee Realities specifically
addressed the rights-in-crisis component of both Strategic Plans. The principal
aim of Refugee Realities was to educate a broad cross-section of the Australian
public about refugee rights and experiences, so as to encourage public engage-
ment and activism on refugee rights and humanitarian crisis issues.57
It was a
pilot event, the first of its kind to be run in Australia.58
The project was conceived amidst the waning years of the Howard government
in Australia. Policy on asylum seekers and refugees had been highly controversial
under the prime ministership of John Howard. The Howard government’s immi-
gration policy was characterised by a hardline stance against asylum seekers and
the development of the “Pacific Solution”, a system of offshore detention and
processing of asylum claims.59
The Pacific Solution was widely criticised, both
domestically and internationally. The United Nations High Commission for Refu-
gees (UNHCR) argued that the policy violated established international law, in
particular the Refugee Convention.60
Domestically, the Foreign Affairs, Defence
55. Oxfam International, Demanding Justice: Oxfam International Strategic Plan 2007–2012, available:
,http://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/oi_strategic_plan_2007_0.pdf. (accessed
August 2007), p. 8.
56. Oxfam Australia, For a Just World without Poverty: Oxfam Australia Strategic Plan 2007–2013,
available: ,http://www.oxfam.org.au/about/strategic_plan/. (accessed June 2008), p. 11.
57. Stephanie Cousins, Masahiro Kihata, Erin Wilson, Lyn Wan, Brendan Ross, Denise Cauchi and
Cressida McDonald, Refugee Realities Project Evaluation (Melbourne: Oxfam Australia, 2008), available:
,http://www.oxfam.org.au/refugee/learning/docs/RRP_Evaluation%20_Summary_%20FINAL.pdf.
(accessed June 2008), p. 5.
58. Ibid., p. 38.
59. Karin von Strokirch, “The Region in Review: International Issues and Events, 2003”, The Con-
temporary Pacific, Vol. 16, No. 2 (2004), p. 370.
60. Tara Magner, “A Less than ‘Pacific’ Solution for Asylum Seekers in Australia”, International
Journal of Refugee Law, Vol. 16, No. 1 (2004), pp. 53, 56.
284 Erin K. Wilson

and Trade References Committee (FADTRC) argued that the “Pacific Solution”
lacked transparency and had the potential for a long-term detrimental impact
on social cohesion and political stability.61
The FADTRC also suggested that the
policy generated negative perceptions about Australia within the Asia-Pacific
and globally.62
The Pacific Solution was official government policy from the
time of the Tampa crisis in 2001 until the election of the Rudd government in
November 2007. The new government formally ended the policy in December
of 2007, although questions continue to be asked about the Rudd government’s
stance on asylum seekers.63
Both anecdotal and documented evidence suggests that the Pacific Solution
policy both contributed to and was supported because of widespread prejudice
within the Australian community towards asylum seekers or “queue jumpers”,
particularly asylum seekers from Arabic backgrounds.64
Von Strokirch argues
that the Pacific Solution “was a thinly veiled attempt to capitalize on the xeno-
phobia of many Australians”,65
an attitude prominent within Australia since
the “White Australia” policy of the 1950s. Although the Pacific Solution received
strong electoral support during the early years of the new millennium, this
support waned in the final two years of the Howard government.66
Although the political and social context against which Refugee Realities was con-
ceived, developed and implemented is important to bear in mind, it must be empha-
sised that Refugee Realities was not a campaign or an attempt to lobby government for
change. Oxfam Australia was careful not to include any direct criticism of govern-
ment policy within the exhibition. Refugee Realities also did not attempt to persuade
participants in the exhibition to join government lobby groups or to protest against
government policy through other avenues. Refugee Realities was much broader in
scope, seeking to educate and alter assumptions and attitudes about refugees and
refugee experiences. The project had four specific principal aims:
1. Educate a broad cross-section of the Australian public about;
—the rights of displaced peoples in crisis situations, and the respon-
sibilities of governments and the international community to
protect those rights;
—the challenging and traumatic experiences displaced peoples
commonly face.
2. Develop greater understanding and support for refugees in Australia,
and strengthen public celebration of refugee contributions to the
nation.
3. Empower former refugees and their communities in Australia and facili-
tate collaboration and long-term links between various communities.
61. Von Strokirch (2004), op. cit., p. 370.
62. Cited in ibid., p. 370.
63. “Detention Still Poses Problem”, The Canberra Times (22 December 2008), available: ,http://
global.factiva.com. (accessed 2 June 2009).
64. Victoria Mason, “Strangers within the ‘Lucky Country’: Arab-Australians after September 11”,
Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, Vol. 24, No. 1 (2004), pp. 233–243.
65. Karin von Strokirch, “The Region in Review: International Issues and Events, 2001”, The Con-
temporary Pacific, Vol. 14, No. 2 (2002), p. 433.
66. I. Yusuf, “Go Back to Where You Never Came From”, The Canberra Times (28 November 2005),
available: ,http://global.factiva.com. (accessed 3 June 2009).

4. Develop a supporter base for greater funding and resources for humani-
tarian response activities (by demonstrating the positive work of
humanitarian agencies in the field).67
Campaigning and lobbying were not a direct focus of the overall goals of the
project. By focusing on these aims, the Refugee Realities project sought, in some
measure, to engage with, challenge and potentially alter the observed “xenopho-
bia of many Australians”.68
Planning for the event began in May of 2007, with initial efforts put into seeking
sponsorships, donations and grants to support the project.69
The project coordina-
tor was employed in August–September 2007.70
I became involved as a volunteer
in late September 2007, initially assisting with seeking sponsorship and later as an
actor. A scriptwriter was engaged to develop the script for the actors and interns
were recruited to assist with various different aspects of the design and planning
for the project. A number of reference groups were assembled as well, consisting
of teachers and representatives from other organisations that work with refugees,
particularly the Australian Red Cross, the Canberra Office of UNHCR and the
Asylum Seekers Resource Centre in Melbourne. These reference groups contribu-
ted to the development of teaching resources (including a semester-long curricu-
lum on refugees and an education kit designed specifically to prepare classes for
participation in the simulation) and provided input for the shape and focus of the
project itself.71
In late 2007, recruitment of event volunteers began. A large number of
volunteers were required for the technical, design and logistical component
of the project as well as volunteer actors. Production of the set began almost
immediately, while rehearsals for the performances began in early 2008.
Although a script was written before rehearsals started, much of the develop-
ment of the script occurred through the rehearsal process. As actors walked
through the various stages of the performance, questions arose about the clarity
of certain components of the script for the principal target audience (mainly
schoolchildren aged 10–15) and the actual logistics of performing various parts
of the script to fit within the timeframe of the tours (approximately one-and-a-
half to two hours) and manage the layout of the set. There needed to be a
degree of flexibility with the script so as to cater for different age groups (adult
members of the general public as opposed to school students, for example). The
actors also needed the confidence and skill to be able to improvise and deal
effectively and innovatively with problems and challenges as they arose.
Advertising for the event particularly emphasised the element of personal
experience. The event website, posters, postcards and T-shirts worn by volunteers
all presented the question “How Would You Survive?” By posing a direct question
to otherwise passive observers, the advertising for the event sought to engage and
confront people immediately with the refugee experience. This question also in
some ways challenged identities of participants as well as reshaping the identities
67. Cousins et al., op. cit., p. 4.
68. Von Strokirch (2002), op. cit., p. 433.
69. Steph Cousins, Refugee Realities Project Coordinator, pers. comm., September 2007.
70. Brendan Ross, Oxfam Humanitarian Advocacy manager, pers. comm., August 2007.
71. Steph Cousins, pers. comm., October 2007; Oxfam Australia, “Refugee Realities Learning Space”,
available: ,http://www.oxfam.org.au/refugee/learning/teachers/index.php. (accessed June 2008).
286 Erin K. Wilson

of the refugees and the perceptions of refugees by participants. Instead of being
seen as victims requiring pity, or as “queue jumpers”, refugees were cast as survi-
vors, people deserving respect, admiration and understanding for what they had
experienced and lived through. By challenging individual participants with this
question, their sense of self was also challenged and they were forced to consider
this question throughout the simulation experience—if this were really happening
to me, how would I survive?
Performing Refugee Realities
The script for Refugee Realities took participants through various stages of the
refugee experience. Before entering the simulation, participants were assembled
in a room called the “Timeline Exhibition”. This room contained a display of
refugee movements to Australia and some information about international politi-
cal developments directly affecting refugees from 1900 up until the present day.
Participants had a few moments to peruse this information before beginning the
pre-tour orientation. As part of the orientation, tour participants were divided
into four family groups (Azra, Brum, Caze and Deng) and given lanyards that
assigned them particular identities and roles within that family, such as father,
mother, uncle, grandmother and child. Tour guides (the principal actors for the
tours) emphasised the importance of looking after family members and staying
together. On the back of each lanyard was an SOS sign that participants were
instructed to show if at any point they found the simulation too distressing.
Participants were then given some background on refugees—who was considered
a refugee, what caused people to become refugees and some of the challenges
that refugees face.
Participants were then taken into the simulation. The first scene of the simu-
lation placed groups in a home. The room was designed to look like a home
that might be found anywhere in the world, with different cultural influences
and everyday objects such as a table, shelves, cooking utensils, a fridge, bed
and so on. Participants were then taken through a series of questions designed
to get them to actively take on the persona they had been assigned before the
simulation. The tour guide asked what their role in the household might be,
what items in the room they might use in performing their role and what they
did every day. Tour guides then asked participants to consider what would be
most important to them if they had to leave their home in a hurry, what they
would take with them and what they would do in the event of a war, whether
they would run or whether they would try and hide and hope not to be found.
The discussion aimed to establish relationships amongst the various family
members and give them a sense of belonging and ownership over the home
and the household items. Creating this sense of attachment was important for
what was to follow. If participants felt some connection to each other and to the
room and the items in the room, the sense of loss and disconnection that refugees
experienced when forced to flee their home would be felt more acutely by the par-
ticipants when they were faced with separation from their (simulated) family and
fleeing their (simulated) home.
While this discussion was taking place, an audio track played in the background
with everyday sounds from around the home—running water, songs on the radio,

daily household chatter. After approximately seven minutes, allowing time for the
questions and discussion, the ordinary household sounds were interrupted
abruptly by the sound of gunshots. Sometimes the tour guide actor would point
out the sounds to the participants; sometimes participants themselves noticed
the sounds and asked the tour guide what it meant. The tour guide actor then
urged participants to gather their family close together and lie on the ground to
keep safe. The sounds intensified, with sirens, screams, children crying, the
noise of people running and increased sounds of conflict, culminating in the
sound of a large explosion, followed by silence. After a few moments, the tour
guide confirmed that everyone was alright and then informed the group that
they must separate, with half the participants staying and hiding in the house
and the other half fleeing. The nametags given to participants at the beginning
of the simulation had either a “1” or “2” next to the family name. Those with a
“1” next to their name fled the house. Those with a “2” next to their name
stayed in the house to hide. This division split each family group. Usually the
members of each of the simulated families were, in real life, either family
members or close friends. This real attachment combined with the simulated
family attachment served to intensify the sense of separation, loss and uncertainty
as the groups were forced to pursue different actions.
Once separated, the tour guide led the first group from the room to begin their
journey. The group “travelled” through a “jungle”, with gunshots and animal
noises in the background. The lighting used in the jungle also created heat,
which contributed to the atmosphere. The actor playing the tour guide was
crucial in creating a sense of urgency for the journey, the need to be cautious
and aware so as to avoid being discovered by soldiers. With school groups,
teachers also played a major part in encouraging students to fully participate in
the simulation.
Once through the jungle, participants next had to cross a minefield. Before
entering the minefield, the tour guide talked to the participants about the
dangers refugees encounter on their journey and the need to constantly be
careful and aware. To minimise unnecessary trauma, the tour guide also gently
reminded participants that this was “just a simulation” rather than a real-life
minefield.
The minefield was made to look like a desert wasteland, covered in sand, with
rusted abandoned weaponry around the room. A constant audio track played
with wind howling and occasional sounds of battle to emphasise the desolateness
of the location. Avisual track also played showing images of refugees fleeing from
conflicts. There were some information points set up around the room, giving
details of the number of small arms sold throughout the world each year, statistics
on injuries caused by land mines, particularly to children, and other conflict-
related information. The room was set up with a number of triggers on
the floor, hidden by the sand. When participants stepped on these triggers, the
sound of a landmine exploding would be heard and a small device on
the ground would be activated that would send a badge flying into the air. The
badge had a symbol on it indicating a type of injury (a sling for an arm injury, a
crutch for a leg injury and an eyepatch for an eye injury). The person who
stepped on the trigger and set off the mine would then be told to wear the
badge to indicate that they had been injured. The rest of the members of their
family would have to assist that person along the rest of the journey.
288 Erin K. Wilson

After they crossed the minefield, the tour guide informed participants that they
must now travel at night. Refugees often travel at night, as it is safer than during
the day. Participants were handed blindfolds and told to put them on and then
assemble in single file with their hand on the shoulder of the person in front of
them. The tour guide then led them on to the next section of their “journey”,
which took the group outside.
Once outside, the first group removed their blindfolds. The group had arrived
near the border between their “country” and the “country” in which they
intended to seek asylum. On the other side of the border was the refugee camp.
The tour guide explained that in order to reach safety, the group must leave
their country, cross the border and get to the refugee camp. As part of the goal
to educate participants about the rights of displaced peoples in crises, the tour
guide reminded the group of Article 13 in the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights which states that any person has the right to leave any country,
including their own, to seek asylum.72
The group should, therefore, have
no problems in crossing the border to safety.
The group then approached the border. The border guards demanded appropri-
ate documentation, which, of course the participants did not have. This exchange
was followed by a period of about five minutes where the participants attempted
to negotiate with the border guards to let them through, all to no avail. The actors
playing the border guards were critical in order for participants to experience a
sense of frustration, anger and helplessness often experienced by refugees in
these situations. The border guards needed to be ruthless and harsh, emphasising
that the lives of refugees are often valued poorly or not at all in such situations,
that corruption is a large problem and that international law often has little rel-
evance on the ground in many conflict situations. Eventually, the border guards
directed the participants to go away and return when they had appropriate
travel documents. The group then moved away from the border, back towards
where they had come from and discussed their options. The tour guide facilitated
a discussion on what had just happened with the group, explaining that refugees
often have to wait for weeks at border crossings before they are allowed through.
The group then discussed what to do next, and how they could get across the
border to the refugee camp.
While the first group went through these stages of the journey, the second group
left behind in the “home” listened to stories from former refugees about theirexperi-
ences. These personal testimonies detailed the circumstances under which former
refugees had to flee their home and journey to another country for safety. After
approximately five minutes, a second tour guide came and took them through the
same journey (the jungle, minefield and travel by night) as the first group.
The second group arrived at the border while the first group was considering
what to do next. The families were reunited and the members discussed what
they had both experienced while being separated. The first group explained to
the second group what had been occurring at the border. After a few moments,
the entire group went back and attempted to cross the border again.
After a few more rounds of negotiating and arguing, the border guards even-
tually agreed to let the participants through, although often after receiving
72. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, available: ,www.un.org/udhr. (accessed 31 May
2009).

bribes. The bribes were usually made with fake money printed especially for the
simulation, although occasionally participants gave their own jewellery and
money to the border guards (they always received them back at the end). While
crossing the border, however, the border guards arrested and imprisoned all
adult members of the Azra family. The group was told that the Azras were
known political agitators and enemies of the government and must therefore be
arrested. The border guards provided no evidence for this. The Azra children
were then forced to cross into the new country alone.
Once the entire group were across the border and inside the refugee camp, the
tour guide explained that they must go through a registration process before they
could access the facilities in the camp.
The head of each family had to register with a government official, who did not
speak English. The government official presented the head of the family with a
form written in gibberish to complete. Participants struggled to determine what
they were required to write on the form, while the government official became
progressively angrier and more frustrated with them, yelling at them and speak-
ing slowly and clearly in the unintelligible language, as government officials often
do in English to refugees. Eventually, the government official would give up in
disgust, stamp the form as “accepted”, and the family moved on.
The family then registered with a humanitarian aid worker (who did speak
English). The aid worker gave them a ration card and explained how important
it was that they keep it safe. The cards used were genuine UNHCR ration
cards. The humanitarian worker then directed them to a representative from the
Australian Red Cross who took care of all the injured and unaccompanied minors.
After all the families had been registered, the humanitarian worker addressed the
newly arrived families. The aid worker explained that the camp was new and there
was still a lot of work to be done to finishing establishing the camp. Everyone had to
contribute to the running of the camp. The families were told that they would be
taken off to various different areas and taught about different aspects of camp
life. The injured and unaccompanied minors were taken to the Australian Red
Cross tent, where they were taught about the ICRC’s work with the injured and
their tracing service for families with members who are missing. The Brum
family would learn about water and sanitation in refugee camps, the Caze family
was taught about cooking and fuel while the Deng family was taught about shelter.
These education sessions lasted for approximately 15–20 minutes. Often the
volunteers who presented on these topics were former humanitarian aid
workers who were able to provide accounts of first-hand experiences to the par-
ticipants. The information on the amounts of water, food and shelter materials
given to families were all accurate and gained from UNHCR, Oxfam or other
humanitarian aid sources. The camp also displayed genuine humanitarian
supplies and materials including UNHCR tents, a water tank and water
bladder, real Oxfam and UNHCR buckets, blankets and other non-food items,
as well as latrine slabs commonly used in camp toilets.
At the conclusion of these information sessions, participants gathered together
for a final debrief. The tour guide would go through with them the deeper
meaning of what they experienced in the simulation. This discussion and
debrief concluded the formal part of the simulation. Participants were then free
to wander around the camp to look at other areas they had not seen or to continue
on through the exhibition. Two other areas of the exhibition were not included in
290 Erin K. Wilson

the simulation, the Future Homes section and the Action Tent. The Future Homes
section described the options refugees had once they had reached relative safety in
a camp. It also provided some discussion and commentary on Australian policies
such as mandatory detention for so-called “unlawful entrant” asylum seekers. It
included quotes from former refugees and asylum seekers who had been placed
in mandatory detention, drawings by children of the detention experience and a
simulated detention cell.
Oxfam’s intention here was not to be openly critical of government policy (the
exhibition was firstly and primarily an education tool rather than a campaign to
end mandatory detention). However, Oxfam Australia sought to provide accurate
information to allow participants to develop their own informed opinions about
the validity of particular immigration and humanitarian policies and practices
in place at the time.
Comments from participants in the surveys indicated that the Future Homes
section would have been more effective if it had been made part of the simulation.
However, survey and interview data suggested that many of the participants were
still personally affected by the information in the Future Homes section. Having
just completed the simulation as “refugees”, participants indicated that as they
walked through the Future Homes section, they thought about what they
would do and how they would feel in a similar situation faced with the harsh rea-
lities of some of Australia’s immigration policies relating to asylum seekers.
The final tent set up in the exhibition was the Action Tent, which was where par-
ticipants were directed to go after finishing in the Future Homes section. In the
Action Tent, participants could speak with representatives from Oxfam Australia,
the Australian Red Cross, Amnesty International Australia, Red R Australia and a
number of other organisations that work with refugees about ways that partici-
pants could get involved with the work of these organisations. Tours usually
lasted for one-and-a-half to two hours, with the option available to revisit some
aspects of the camp, the Future Homes, Action Tent and/or the Timeline exhibi-
tion after the tour was concluded, if the groups had time.
The main roles for performers in the tour were the tour guides, the border
guards, the government official and the humanitarian worker (the Red Cross repre-
sentative was usually someone who worked or volunteered regularly for the Red
Cross). The role of the tour guide was central to encouraging participants to fully
engage in the simulation. Tour guides also had to monitor the intensity of the per-
formance, assessing how participants were reacting to what they were experien-
cing so as to avoid any unacceptable trauma (noting, however, that the purpose
of the simulation was in some ways to simulate the feelings experienced by
people when they do face persecution and conflict). The border guard roles were
also extremely important and demanding as they had to be unflinchingly cruel,
even when some of the younger participants were laughing, not taking this part
of the simulation seriously. The government official was also an important role
for generating a sense of frustration and helplessness amongst the participants.
Evaluation Tools
The evaluation of the project relied on a number of different sources, including
participant and volunteer surveys, solicited and unsolicited written responses
and audio interviews. I focus on materials from the participant surveys, solicited

and unsolicited written feedback and audio interviews. All of these are reported
on and referred to in Oxfam Australia’s evaluation report on the project and in
the documentary film made about the project.
Simulation participants completed over 400 surveys. Surveys were designed by
the author and developed with input from the Refugee Realities’ Project Coordina-
tor and Oxfam Australia’s Research Unit Manager. The surveys covered a range of
questions including level of knowledge about refugees prior to attending the
event, how the event affected their level of knowledge and their feelings
towards refugees and which parts of the simulation participants were most and
least impacted by. The survey also asked what, if anything, participants would
do differently as a result of the simulation experience, as well as asking a range
of demographics questions.
Several hundred audio interviews were also collected on site at the simulation
as part of the Action Tent. These interviews asked participants specific questions
about their impressions of the exhibition, how they felt following the simulation
and what they would do differently now as a result of their participation.
Owing to time constraints, not all of these interviews were transcribed in time
for inclusion in the Oxfam Evaluation Report and so are not examined here.
A number of participants, in particular school groups, also sent unsolicited
e-mails and other forms of written feedback on the event to Oxfam Australia.
The surveys, interviews and written feedback were analysed by Oxfam staff
and volunteers to determine the effectiveness of numerous components of the
project in challenging and altering attitudes and potentially changing the behav-
iour of participants. I focus primarily on the findings relating specifically to the
use of creative, experiential techniques, mainly participatory theatre.
Preliminary Findings
The initial findings from the evaluation suggest that the experiential component of
the project was effective as a social education tool in raising awareness and
encouraging behavioural change. This was as a result of participants being
directly involved in the simulation, but also because of the performances from
the volunteer actors.
Feedback from participants suggested that the components of the exhibition
that were most experience/performance intensive had the greatest impact.
These sections were the journey through the jungle, landmine desert and by
night, the border crossing and the camp itself. Respondents commented on the
sense of loss, stress, anguish and urgency that the journey and the camp created.73
It was interesting and upfront. This way you could feel how the refugees
were treated. It gave a realistic way to help us empathise with refugees
and what they had to go through. The blind folds and landmine were
especially effective. (Survey respondent, after selecting journey as most
impacting)74
The messages and lists of names at the Red Cross Tracing tent really
hit me to the issues of family separation, the urgency of leaving home
73. Ibid., p. 28.
74. Ibid.
292 Erin K. Wilson

and the sense of loss. (Survey respondent, after selecting camp as most
impacting)
Respondents also commented on the harshness of the border guards, their lack of
compassion and the sense of frustration they felt at the border crossing. One
survey respondent wrote:
I found the journey and border crossing was quite confronting and
impacted me as the experiences and feelings were quite stressful.
(Survey respondent, after selecting border crossing as most impacting)75
Even as a volunteer tour guide actor, who knew what was going on and had
rehearsed it many times previously, I found myself becoming frustrated and
angry at the border guards for their lack of compassion, their implacable attitudes
and the unfeeling way they spoke to the participants, who for the most part were
children around 10–15 years of age.
Although the Run and Hide room was identified in the surveys as one of the
areas that had least impact on participants, anecdotal evidence suggested that
this was still an important part of the experience because of the emotions it
created. One parent commented that the separation at the beginning of the
simulation affected her as she was separated from her daughter. She stated that
she and her daughter both actually felt the pain of being separated.76
Responses indicate that these components of the exhibition had an impact
because the participants had been asked to take on the persona of refugees.
Comments from participants on these areas of the exhibit emphasise that it
enabled them to feel what refugees go through and what they experience.
After attending the event, a number of teachers wrote to Oxfam to inform them
of the impact of the simulation and its significance for the learning experience of
the students. While the education kit that Oxfam provided to schools was high-
lighted as helpful and of good quality, the teachers emphasised that the simulation
itself brought the issues to life for the students through their experiencing first
hand many of the problems that they had been studying. A number of schools
and universities have expressed interest in running or have run their own simu-
lation event as a result of attending the exhibition at Gasworks Arts Park.
Student groups from two Victorian universities, Ballarat University and La
Trobe University, ran their own scaled-down versions of Refugee Realities in
August 2008 for fellow staff and students. These simulations involved between
80 and 160 participants each and took them through an abridged version of the
Refugee Realities script. In response to this interest, Oxfam Australia is in the
process of developing simulation kits to enable schools and community groups
to run their own Refugee Realities.77
75. Ibid.
76. Ibid., p. 24.
77. Steph Cousins, pers. comm., November 2008. Three trials of the simulation kits are planned for
2009/10. The first of these trials was run in Mildura, a mid-sized country town in Victoria, Australia in
early December 2009. The other two will be run at schools in 2010. Another major simulation similar in
size to the first is planned for Canberra, the Australian capital, in May 2010. As Australian government
policy towards asylum seekers and refugees continues to be a prominent issue in parliament and the
media, this second major exhibition is likely to generate significant interest.

Schools and universities running their own events also points to shifts in atti-
tudes and behaviours as a result of participating in the simulation. It suggests
that participants are eager to recreate the experience and share it with others. Evi-
dence from the surveys also suggests that people’s attitudes and behaviours
shifted as a result of participating in the simulation. Seventy-five per cent of
survey respondents commented that they felt more compassionate towards
refugees, while a further 13% felt more concerned for the plight of refugees.78
An overwhelming 92% of survey respondents stated that the experience would
affect their future engagement with refugees in some way, with respondents
suggesting the following actions:
increase donations to aid and charity organisations, go on to learn and
engage more with refugee issues, seek out volunteering and work relating
to refugee protection and support, raise awareness of the issues amongst
friends, lobby the government and local MPs, visit refugee neighbours
and show them greater support, and talk to family/friends about what
they learnt from Refugee Realities.79
The findings suggest that creative, experiential tools, such as participatory theatre,
are effective for educating for social change because they expose people directly to
the experiences and emotions faced by others in real life. Being confronted with
these experiences and emotions challenges people’s self-perceptions and identi-
ties, forcing them to consider how they would cope and respond in crisis situ-
ations. In some measure, this enables participants to empathise and be more
compassionate towards those who have experienced such trauma or are experien-
cing it. Creative, experiential strategies assist in breaking down the psychological
barriers people erect in order to avoid facing and addressing morally challenging
and demanding issues such as mass human rights abuses and the plight of refu-
gees. As a result of being “spect-actors” as well as their encounters with actors in
the simulation itself, participants in the simulation gained increased knowledge
and awareness of refugee issues. Yet participants also claimed changes in attitudes
towards refugees as a result of their participation, and stated that their behaviours
would change. While this research seems to support the assumptions that social
change organisations are currently working from (that experiences shape attitudes
and that with changes in attitudes come changes in behaviours), there is further
work to be done to determine the extent of the effectiveness of such activities,
how significant the shift in attitudes is and whether or not behaviours do actually
change as a result of the experience.
Future Research
Further research is required on the significance and impact of performance- and
experiential-based education and advocacy tools on attitudes and behaviours.
For example, while survey respondents stated their future engagement with refu-
gees would alter as a result of their participation in the simulation experience,
78. Cousins et al., op. cit., p. 26.
79. Ibid., p. 28.
294 Erin K. Wilson

follow-up research needs to occur to determine whether this shift in behaviour has
actually taken place.
Research also needs to be undertaken to determine how to attract people with
little to no interest in social justice issues to such events. Through targeting the
simulation at school groups, a number of students who had little to no interest
in refugee issues prior to participating in the exhibition attended and were
impacted by the exhibition. The same cannot be said about adult members of
the general public. Understanding what might attract people with little interest
in these issues to such an event will also have an impact on how these events
are marketed and will contribute to their effectiveness. This need has been
identified elsewhere80
and is an important part of developing knowledge about
generating active global citizenship.
While this research focused on shifts in attitudes and behaviours of participants,
little research was undertaken into how involvement in the simulation affected the
actors. While these are people who are evidently already involved in social change
it would be useful to see whether their future activities were further shaped by
their involvement in such a project or even to determine why they chose to be
involved in something like this to begin with. This information may assist in
recruiting volunteers for similar projects in the future.
It is also important to empirically assess how effective experiential education
tools are for other social justice issues, including poverty, hunger and climate
change.
RMIT University and Oxfam Australia are currently exploring the possibilities
of a collaborative research project to gather more comprehensive findings in
relation to the use of creative, innovative, experiential-based activism and
education tools. This research will build on the initial findings from the Refugee
Realities simulation to examine the impact of experience on attitudes and
behaviours towards social change issues. The research will also address some of
the issues raised here regarding future research needs. Working in conjunction
with Oxfam Australia’s campaigning and advocacy arm as well as their Youth
Engagement Programs, RMIT researchers will explore the use of performance-
and other experiential-based advocacy and education tools on knowledge,
awareness, attitudes and behaviours towards issues of global injustice. The
study will follow participants over three years, examining long-term attitudinal
and behavioural shifts as a result of participation in experiential-based learning
exhibitions.
Conclusion
Results from the Oxfam Australia case study would seem to support assumptions
currently being made by social change activists and global justice theorists that
establishing connections with individuals suffering injustice through shared
experiences and emotions assist in overcoming psychological numbing towards
these issues. This, in turn, helps to shift attitudes and behaviours and encourages
people to more actively and passionately engage in social change activities. While
these findings are far from conclusive, they do suggest a positive link between
80. Martha C. Monroe, “A Priority for ESD Research: Influencing Adult Citizens”, Journal of
Education for Sustainable Development, Vol. 1, No. 1 (2007), pp. 107–113.

social education experiences that generate an emotional response and subsequent
shifts in attitudes and behaviours. Further research is needed to determine exactly
what the impact of these experiences are and whether or not changes in attitudes
and behaviours are long lasting, whether there is a signiﬁcant age at which such
experiences should occur for maximum effectiveness or whether certain types of
performance and experience are more effective at particular ages. Such research
will take time.
In the meantime, it would seem that creative, innovative, experience-based tools
have sufﬁcient impact to justify their continued use in social change education
and activism.
296 Erin K. Wilson

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