12 Nov 2015

Photography Project - Sakina Ewazi

From Afternoons, 1:31 pm on 12 November 2015

Sakina Ewazi was only five when she and her parents were rescued among 400 others by the Norwegian freighter Tampa from a sinking fishing vessel off Australia's coast.

It was their fourth attempt at fleeing Indonesia, each previous boat sank and they'd had to swim for their lives. New Zealand accepted more than 130 Tampa refugees, including Sakina and her parents.

Despite being so young, the memories are vivid in her mind. Now a visual arts student, Sakina is drawing on those terrifying childhood experiences for her photography project and telling her story for the first time at AUT's art and design festival.

She talks to Jesse Mulligan about her work.