BY SARAH STEPHEN
Betty Dixon, a 73-year-old grandmother from Goulburn, NSW, is an indication of the growing diversity of the refugees' rights movement.
Dixon describes herself as an activist. She has visited Woomera detention centre three times and Baxter detention centre twice. She makes weekly visits to Villawood detention centre in Sydney, three hours' drive away. She phones and writes to a range of asylum seekers detained in Woomera, Baxter, Port Hedland and Villawood.
"My first visit to a detention centre was when I went to Villawood last March", Dixon told 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly. "It was a terrible shock, the fact that we had to queue for so long, the humiliation of being searched. You're almost treated as a criminal.
"As I came through the last door and looked through the wire fence of the visiting area, it was all rather unreal. On my first visit, I was rather nervous. I didn't know what I should speak about, whether the asylum seekers would understand me. I met mostly Iraqi people, some who had been in detention for three, three-and-a-half years."
Describing the emotion of the experience, she explained: "I used to dissolve into tears each time I left. But I've got that under control now."
Dixon helped found Goulburn Rural Australians for Refugees soon after the Tampa affair, which, she said, "really got me going". She and a small group of friends had a planning meeting to discuss ideas, then a public meeting to launch the group in March 2002. Eighty people came, and 40 of them signed up as members of the group.
Asked about her first political activity, Dixon described her involvement in the blockade against the Jabiluka uranium mine in Kakadu national park in 1998. She decided to go up to participate in the blockade after reading a call from the Australian Conservation Foundation for people to volunteer their time.
Dixon spent 10 days camping in a little tent. "I loved it", she said. "The young people up there inspired me."
She continues to be inspired by the young people taking up roles in the refugee-rights campaign, saying "they are intelligent, creative and committed".
"I also think 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly is an inspiration. I have been reading it for 18 months, and now all my family are 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ers. It's a good read. Ramsey and Haydar love their 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳s as well", referring to two asylum seekers she corresponds with, and has arranged to receive GLW each week.
Dixon explained she had some awareness of the plight of refugees before the Tampa incident, and used to go to rallies in Canberra organised by the Refugee Action Committee. She also went to see Denis Halliday, former UN humanitarian coordinator, speak about the effect of US sanctions on the people of Iraq. "We were so affected by the information that we formed a group called 'Save the children of Iraq', and were on the streets with petitions the next day."
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, February 26, 2003.
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