The coffee paintings and cartoons in this gallery are by an asylum seeker from Burma named Mohammad who spent over 5 years in detention. He is a member of the Rohingya Muslim community from Burma.
The Rohingya people are a persecuted religious and ethnic minority who are excluded from citizenship by the Burmese government. In recent years they have been actively persecuted by the military regime and civilian organisations, including Buddhist monks, and have been refused protection in neighbouring Bangladesh. No less than Aung San Suu Kyi, the internationally feted democracy activist, Nobel Peace Prize winner and leader of Burma’s main opposition party has refused to accept the citizenship status and equal rights of the Rohingya people.
Most of the painting and cartoons on this page are bleak. Some are inspired by things found on the internet (facebook and email being one of the few ways detainees communicate with the world outside). A great number document the suffering of the Rohingya people. Some refer to the difficulties faced by asylum seekers in Australian detention centres, touching upon the high rates of depression, suicide and self-harm that occur amongst detainees. Yet despite the horrors, there is a sense of fortitude, resilience, and imagination in these works that is very inspiring.
Coffee paintings
Cartoons and other drawings
Back to gallery.