Embedded Files
As a pro bono advisor to the Home to Bilo team, I played a key behind-the-scenes role in the success of a high-profile community campaign credited with "chang[ing] the national conversation on refugees".1
For four years, I worked closely with local organisers dedicated to bringing the Nadesalingam home to the central Queensland town of Biloela.
Our campaign won the support of a majority of Australians, along with conservative broadcaster Alan Jones and six Morrison government MPs, including former National Party leader Barnaby Joyce.
My work included:
Co-writing an online petition that grew to become Australia's third largest to date
Creating more than 250 petition updates, campaign emails and media releases
Designing 13 digital actions that generated 53,000 emails and phone calls to decision makers
Producing 1,300 social media posts
Crowdfunding over $780,000 for legal fees, billboards and newspaper ads, and to compensate the family for lost wages
The Home to Bilo team were finalists in the 2022 Human Rights Commission awards.
28 April 2018: Brisbane refugee activists hold a facsimile of Biloela's town sign in front of Story Bridge. Photo: Yusuke Akai.
29 April 2018: Former Biloela resident Mereani Ledua holds a portrait of the Nadesalingam family on the Sydney Opera House steps. I designed the photo opportunity and Home to Bilo campaigner Simone Cameron organised the participants. Photo: Zebedee Parkes.
2 May 2018: Refugee activists sing "I am, you are, we are Australian" outside the Federal Court in Melbourne. Home to Bilo co-founder Angela Fredericks travelled from Biloela to deliver a powerful unscripted speech, which formed the core of our message over the next four years. I designed and coordinated the event. Photo: Rod Hysted.
9 May 2018: Home to Bilo releases a campaign video, reaching 45,000 people on Facebook. I created the video and Simone Cameron secured Mark Seymour's permission to use his song "Throw Your Arms Around Me".
12 May 2018: Simone Cameron, daughter Isabelle and friend at a "birthday party" for detained three-year-old Kopika Nadesalingam at the State Library in Melbourne. Home to Bilo campaigners Vashini Jayakumar and Angela Fredericks organised simultaneous birthday celebrations in Brisbane and Biloela. Photo: Iain Murray.
28 May 2018: Biloela residents Marie Austin and Margot Plant travel to Sydney to join ABC TV's Q&A audience. I put the campaign in touch with a Q&A producer and helped draft Marie's question to Liberal Senator Jim Molan, the former Operation Sovereign Borders Special Envoy.
8 September 2018: Marie Austin, Vashini Jayakumar and Margot Plant lead a march on Peter Dutton's electorate office in Brisbane's northern suburbs. I travelled to Brisbane to coordinate the event. Photo: Stephen Finkel.
8 September 2018: Home to Bilo campaigner Marie Austin sits below a supersite billboard near Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton's electorate office. I designed the billboard and created a crowdfunder to pay for it. Photo: Matthew Melvin.
19 January 2019: Simone Cameron leads a protest at the suburban Sydney office of Immigration Minister David Coleman. Photo: James Supple.
19 January 2019: Home to Bilo co-founders Bronwyn Dendle and Angela Fredericks lead a march to the Gladstone office of the member for Flynn, Ken O'Dowd. Vashini Jayakumar, Margot Plant, Marie Austin and I led simultaneous events at the Brisbane office of Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton and the Department of Home Affairs in Melbourne.
5 March 2019: On the first anniversary of the the family's abduction from Biloela, Home to Bilo places a half-page advertisement on page two of Queensland's daily newspaper, The Courier Mail, reaching 345,000 readers. I wrote and designed the ad, along with the crowdfunder to pay for it.
30 March 2019: The Courier Mail's weekend magazine publishes a cover story on the Home to Bilo campaign, reaching 220,000 readers. Qweekend contacted Home to Bilo soon after our first ad in The Courier Mail.
15 May 2019: A sympathetic Courier Mail story puts the ball firmly in Immigration Minister David Coleman's court after the High Court declines to hear Priya's appeal.
27 June 2019: 2GB's Alan Jones joins the call to bring the family home to Bilo. In early 2019, a conservative supporter brought the campaign to Jones' attention. When Angela Fredericks was invited to appear on his influential show, her decision was aided by advice from a media industry friend who told me that Jones was more likely to back than attack the campaign.
30 September 2019: 819,000 viewers witness the Morrison government's failed attempt to force the Nadesalingam family to Sri Lanka as The Project screens Nades and Priya's mobile phone footage.
1 September 2019: Tamil community members join thousands of supporters at the State Library in Melbourne after the Morrison government forces the Nadesalingam family to Christmas Island.
1 September 2019: Bronwyn Dendle and Angela Fredericks speak to media at a community vigil in Biloela's Lions Park.
1 September 2019: Opposition Home Affairs spokesperson Kristina Kenneally and human rights campaigner Craig Foster address a large crowd of supporters in Martin Place, Sydney.
4 September 2019: Opposition leader Anthony Albanese travels to Biloela to throw his support behind the campaign.
11 September 2019: Home to Bilo campaigners Angela Fredericks and Bronwyn Dendle travel to Canberra to present their petition and meet with MPs including former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce, who first spoke out in support of the Nadesalingam family on 31 August. Change.org's Nic Dorward coordinated the petition presentation, lobbying trip and press conference.
12 May 2020: A livestreamed birthday celebration for five-year-old Kopika Nadesalingam reaches over 16,000 people on Facebook. The Tamil Refugee Council's Aran Mylvaganam came up with the idea and I produced the Zoom event.
16 May 2020: Two days after Kopika joins Home to Bilo's livestreamed birthday celebration by phone, the Morrison government reintroduces legislation to enable the confiscation of mobile phones from people held in immigration detention. Home to Bilo immediately backed the National Justice Project's campaign against the "Mobile Phone Ban Bill", and I produced videos, social media posts, campaign emails and digital action pages to mobilise our supporters. The Morrison government abandoned the legislation after Senator Jackie Lambie said she would block it in the Senate.
6 June 2021: Doctors at Christmas Island Hospital evacuate three-year-old Tharnicaa Nadesalingam to Perth with a suspected a blood infection caused by untreated pneumonia. For the next three weeks, Angela Fredericks, Bronwyn Dendle, Simone Cameron, Nic Dorward, Vashini Jayakumar, Aran Mylvaganam and I worked around the clock to mobilise supporters, coordinate rapid response events and manage intense media attention, while providing practical and emotional support to the family.
9 June 2021: A news.com.au online poll shows that readers overwhelmingly support the release of the Nadesalingam family from Christmas Island.
9 June 2021: Perth supporters form a chain of "human fairy lights" for Tharnicaa as she is treated at Perth Children's Hospital. I designed the event and worked with the Refugee Rights Action Network WA to ensure the tone communicated support for the healthcare workers treating Tharnicaa. The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre's Jana Favero played a key role in securing the support of peak medical bodies during Tharnicaa's hospitalisation.
11 June 2021: The New York Times reports on the impact of the Home to Bilo campaign after Tharnicaa's evacuation from Christmas Island.
11 June 2021: The Washington Post prints a full page story about the Home to Bilo campaign, including a photo of the "human fairy lights" at Perth Children's Hospital.
15 June 2021: After nine days of intense media coverage and a backbench revolt, Immigration Minister Alex Hawke lets the Nadesalingam family reunite in Perth.
16 June 2021: The tabloid West Australian carries a front page report on Kopika and Nades' arrival in Perth.
23 June 2021: The Department of Home Affairs grants three month bridging visas to all family members except Tharnicaa, preventing the family from leaving WA.
21 August 2021: The Age and Sydney Morning Herald publish a 5,000 word cover story on the Home to Bilo campaign in their Good Weekend magazine, reaching close to 800,000 readers.
25 August 2021: Perth musician Joe Leach's song "To Sleep at Night" premiere's on Home to Bilo's Facebook page, reaching 33,000 people. I added Angela's mobile phone footage of her visits to the family on Christmas Island and in Perth to Joe's professionally produced music video.
20 September 2021: 523,000 people watch ABC TV's Australian Story episode No place like home, featuring interviews with Priya, Nades and Home to Bilo campaign spokespeople. Nic Dorward's skill in prioritising and negotiating media access was essential to the success of the campaign.
21 September 2021: The Home to Bilo campaign places full page ads and billboards in multiple newspapers and sites in Queensland and NSW. Nic Dorward oversaw booking and design and I wrote the copy.
24 September 2021: The Courier Mail's page one report on Immigration Minister Alex Hawke's decision to grant 12 month bridging visas to all but one member of the Nadesalingam family coincides with another full page ad from the Home to Bilo campaign. The editorial describes Hawke's failure to grant a visa to Tharnicaa as "bizarre", "sneaky" and "heartless".
18 November 2021: Marie Claire magazine recognises Priya Nadesalingam and the "women of Biloela" in the 2021 Women of the Year edition.
5 March 2022: On the fourth anniversary of the Nadesalingam family's abduction from their Biloela home, hundreds of people participate in a "virtual group hug" with the family. I produced this livestreamed Zoom event, which reached 10,000 people on Facebook.
22 April 2022: Responding to a question from Bronwyn Dendle (left) Senator Murray Watt makes the ALP's commitment to bringing the Nadesalingam family home to Biloela clear, prompting cheers from Q&A's central QLD studio audience. I helped refine Bronwyn's question.
5 May 2022: Speaking on ABC TV's Q&A program, opposition leader Anthony Albanese affirms his commitment to allowing the Nadesalingam family to return to Biloela if elected Prime Minister.
12 May 2022: Independent candidates for Kooyong and North Sydney, Monique Ryan and Kylea Tink, and Greens candidate for Higgins, Sonya Semmens, join a livestreamed 7th birthday party for Kopika Nadesalingam. Nic Dorward negotiated the candidates' participation and I produced the Zoom event, which reached 10,000 people on Facebook.
19 May 2022: After Prime Minister Scott Morrison falsely claims his government cannot grant visas allowing the Nadesalindam to return to Biloela, Nic Doward and I co-write a rapid response media statement debunking Morrison's claim. My closely cropped video of Morrison's comments reached 340,000 people on Facebook.
20 May 2022: The Age publishes an election eve story headlined "PM 'misled' voters on Biloela family".
21 May 2022: Kopika and Tharnicaa Nadesalingam watch from community detention in Perth as the ABC's Antony Green calls the election for the ALP. Nic Dorward was in Biloela to support local organisers with media management on election day.
10 June 2022: The Nadesalingam family cross the tarmac at Thangool Aerodrome, near Biloela. I was honoured to join Angela Fredericks, Simone Cameron and Vashini Jayakumar on the final leg of the family's journey home to Biloela. Photo: Iain Murray
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