This poster series is simply awesome. Check it out www.crossbordersydney.org
“We don’t cross borders; borders cross us” is a 12 poster series organised by the Cross Border Collective. The objective of the posters is to invite an engaged audience to consider a series of propositions about the Australian border, labour, race and incarceration. The poster series aims to show that the Australian border is not a natural or inevitable thing. They explore the fact that the border is artificial, confront common assumptions about border-crossers, and consider how the border manages peoples’ movements to benefit industry and the state.
The process of collaboration in the production of the posters and the stories about their intention has been an important part of the project. The posters are a result of collaboration between the Cross Border Collective, individuals and groups active through art, politics and advocacy in resistance to the effects of the border on people’s lives. This includes individuals directly affected by border politics through their experiences of detention, their experiences as refugees, migrants and temporary workers, as well as those affected by border politics despite their Australian citizenship. Groups involved in collaboration include: Treaty Republic, the Indigenous Social Justice Association, Refugee Action Coalition, The Refugee Art Project, Scarlet Alliance Australian Sex Workers Association Migration Project, and prison and labour activist groups. The broad range of groups and individuals involved in the project reflects the many ways that the border shapes people’s lives. The process of initiating collaboration with campaigns and groups that don’t primarily see themselves as immersed in border politics was part of our broader intent to encourage conversations about the intersecting ways that the border shapes different arenas of social life. It is also about trying to find a political axis along which our commonality may form the basis for collective action.
