Reneé Pettitt-Schipp – How Both Stories and Silence Speak

Reneé Pettitt-Schipp: Oral History and the Christmas Island Boat Tragedy – How Both Stories and Silence Speak

The Christmas Island Boat Tragedy on 15 December 2010 was the worst disaster in peacetime maritime history in more than a century with the violent deaths of fifty asylum seekers. Join 2018 WA Premier’s BookAward writer Reneé Pettitt-Schipp, who worked with asylum seekers in detention on Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, as she shares her first-hand experiences, as well as stories from those who witnessed what took place on this historic day.

Reneé Pettitt-Schipp’s work with asylum seekers in detention on Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands inspired her first collection of poetry, ‘The Sky Runs Right Through Us’. This collection was shortlisted for the Dorothy Hewett manuscript prize, the CHASS Australia Student Prize, as well as winning Postgraduate ‘Work of the Year’ in the 2019 Humanities Research Awards and the 2018 WA Premier’s Book Award for an Emerging Writer. Reneé now lives in WA’s Great Southern.

Bookings required.