Janet Galbraith is a poet and writer who works with writers and artists held in Australia’s immigration detention camps. They facilitate the group Writing Through Fences which is primarily made up of people detained. Writing Through Fences aims to create an arts community amongst those detained and to publish and exhibit their work to the wider community. They have been operating since 2013. Writing Through Fences is unfunded, their work with people detained is a full-time commitment. Janet has daily contact with writers and artists in on-shore and off-shore detention. You may have heard of some of the writers and artists they work with: Behrouz Boochani (Kurdish journalist and writer detained on Manus Island) and Eaten Fish (Iranian cartoonist detained on Manus Island). Over the past 12 months they have spent 6 months in Papua New Guinea working with and advocating for various people detained. They have published their own work in poetry journals in Australia, news outlets and journals. Their poetry collection re-membering was published by Walleah Press in 2013. They are needing funds to continue the work of advocating for writers and artists and in order to continue their own writing practice. They are currently working on a collection of their own poetry and a collection of poetry and art work by people held in immigration detention. They can offer you a monthly poem from the new collection of work they are currently developing and an exclusive update on the work of artists and writers who are refugees and asylum seekers contributing to the new collection of writing to be published by Writing Through Fences.
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