The Australian Anthropological Society has today announced the creation of a new award to be named after inaugural recipient, Behrouz Boochani.
The Award is being created in honour of Mr Boochani, as recognition of his remarkable contribution to public understandings of contemporary Australian life.
The AAS seeks to emphasise the ways that Mr Boochani’s book, No Friend But The Mountains, delivers much needed social insight and analysis in the spirit of anthropology.
President of AAS, Associate Professor Jennifer Deger, said “Boochani has been an unwilling participant in a social system that is impossible to know from the outside.
“His insistent emphasis on what it takes to hold onto humanity in the face of systematised abuse, is both extraordinary and exemplary.
“Anthropology brings a sustained attention to questions of what it is to be human. It asks, under what circumstances do we become who we are? There is no sharper edge to who we are as nation than that shown by our treatment of those who come here seeking safety”, concluded Associate Professor Deger.
The Award, and $1000 prize money, will be presented to Mr Boochani at the national AAS conference in Canberra in December. The Award will then continue into the future, established in Mr Boochani’s name and in honour of his legacy.