Australia's asking, who is Monga Khan?

My wife Julie and I were studying at the Glasgow School of Art in Scotland I think that is when I started thinking about national identity Because when I was overseas I suddenly became that Australian guy Adelaideborn artist Peter Drew says about the genesis of a project that has kept him busy since 2015That same year in 2013 Australias federal election was on Both major parties were promising to stop the boats that carry asylum seekers to Australia I thought the phrase was absurd to come from a nation of immigrants In Australia a majority of the population are descendants of immigrants It was an odd contradiction for a nation dependent on migrants adds Drew 37Australia has granted asylum to many refugees since 1945 when half a million Europeans were displaced by World War II Since then there have been periodic waves of asylum seekers from South East Asia and the Middle East with government policy and public opinion changing over the years But in 2013 Australia decided to resume its policy of transferring asylum seekers offshore Since July that year the country has transferred more than 3000 asylum seekers who travelled there by boat to detention camps in Papua New Guinea and NauruDrewrsquos crowdfunding campaign that started in 2015 involved putting up 3000 posters across the country that read Real Australians Seek Welcome PICRebecca MansellDrew returned home hoping to address the issue With help from friends he met one family at a time stuck in detention centres They made sketches and he transferred the images onto posters and roamed the streets to paste them By 2015 he launched a crowdfunding initiative Bold black capitals on a brown paper background began to appear on walls across Australian cities A total of 3000 posters were put up with help from volunteers and they all read Real Australians Seek Welcome I am not sure if emotions are the best way to address the issue Showing an emotion like compassion doesnt help you to counter fear of the outsider You have to use different tactics Drew thinksBut what the posters did do was trigger conversation And yet Drew was missing a representative face for the campaign In 2016 he found the face in Monga KhanBorn in British India in Batrohan village of Punjab Khan arrived in Australia in 1895 He worked as a foot hawker travelling between towns to sell goods Over a hundred years ago in 1916 he had his photograph taken so that he could apply for an exemption to the newlyintroduced White Australia Policy He wanted to be able to go back to India to see his family and still be welcomed in Australia to continue his job It was a powerful photograph that I found in the national archives He looked heroicMonga Khanrsquos poster in Cronulla a beachside suburb of SydneyIn the poster Drew designed Khan resplendent in a turban sits above a solitary wordmdashAUSSIE You look at him and think I want to meet him To think that he was walking the streets of Ballarat in Victoria it makes you wonder what an interesting place Australia was at the timeTo date Drew has pasted close to 5000 posters He takes out four months of the year to travel to various parts of Australia What makes this annual project interesting to people is that one man is on a slightly odd mission Drew laughs about himself adding It is physically impossible to carry 1000 posters at a time so at intervals I head back home collect them in turns and carry onStaying in youth hostels he uses their kitchens to cook up a pot of glue before hitting the streets early morning He says Sometimes a confrontation ensues The most typical thing I have been told is Khan is not a real Aussie But I tell them that he Khan lived in Australia worked here is even buried here So he is as much Aussie as anybody elseDrew spends three to four months every year sticking posters of immigrants in AustraliaAfter Khan Drew has celebrated others who arrived in Australia during the time of the White Australia Policy 19011958 including Ballkhoo Balooch Karachi Abdullah Khalik Karachi Shah Mahomed Khan India Bhugwan Singh India and sisters Dorothy Sym Choon and Glady Sym Choon China Drew says art has done its jobmdashsharing a point of view and letting the audience decide for themselves If some people want to be fearful and bigoted it is their choice Personally I prefer not to live like that So if I can make people less fearful and more accepting of immigrants my job is done hereThe Coronavirus pandemic has interestingly impacted immigration policies and the place migrants hold in societies India saw one of the worst intracountry migrations when lakhs of migrants who held jobs in cities lost their livelihoods overnight due to the national lockdown and had little choice but to head home to their villagesIn the absence of available transport and little government help they took to the streets with their families and luggage in tow some of them walking thousands of kilometres to their homes Drew says the story is the same across nations The pandemic has made borders stricter and immigration policies tougher This will continue for a while until people are ready to open their arms again for migrants he addsPeter DrewRefugees have been on the agenda in the US and UK elections this year too so Drew is positive about change He says although he realised his goal was an ambitious one given the size of the country he has received encouraging words from immigrants who believe someone is raising a voice for them They say it makes them feel welcome in the country The reactions surprise me because its tough to get a message across to someone you dont knowInspiring the art worldInspired by Drews initiative Minna Leunig a Melbournebased artist donated a reworked poster of Monga Khan which raised 510 at an auction with all the proceeds going to the Asylum Seeker Recourse Centre Although of India origin Khan is remembered as an Aussie legendView Peter Drews latest exhibition Flags 1 at the Peter Walker Gallery where he uses the Australian flag blended with images of people from the Australian National Archives to question perceptions of national identityhttpswwwpeterdrewartscom2020flagsKeep scrolling to read more newsCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest news