In this recording we share a conversation with the award-winning journalist, scholar, writer, and advocate Behrouz Boochani. Swept up in Australia's "Pacific Solution" to migration and incarcerated for years in a detention center on Manus Island, Boochani authored No Friend But the Mountains, capturing his and other migrants' lives and experiences. Recently granted asylum in New Zealand, Mr. Boochani joined us with his translator Omid Tofighian.

Boochani is a co-director of the 2017 feature-length film Chauka, Please Tell Us The Time; and collaborator on Nazanin Sahamizadeh’s play Manus. His awards for journalism include the Amnesty International Australia 2017 Media Award, the Diaspora Symposium Social Justice Award, the Liberty Victoria 2018 Empty Chair Award, and the Anna Politkovskaya Award.

Boochani was a political prisoner incarcerated by the Australian government in Papua New Guinea for almost seven years before escaping to New Zealand in November 2019. He now resides in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Tofighian is an award-winning lecturer, researcher and community advocate, combining philosophy with interests in citizen media, popular culture, displacement and discrimination. He contributes to community arts and cultural projects and works with refugees, migrants and youth.