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The Deterritorializing Language of Child Detainees

Self-harm or embodied graffiti?

Savannah College of Art and Design, aparr{at}scad.edu

The policy of mandatory detention for all asylum seekers who arrive in Australia without a valid visa regardless of age, religion, physical or mental health is uncompromising to say the least. The detention centres are harsh and alienating environments, where free and open communication is severely restricted, and in this context, children, in particular, suffer from a double silencing - unable to speak English, traumatized and often too young to speak for themselves. This article is concerned with how this silencing could be connected to a broader problem of representation. In order to understand how Australia, in the name of sovereignty, transcends its own colonial subjectivity through the systematic colonization of the experiences, bodies and histories of asylum seekers, the article draws on Spivak and Deleuze’s understanding of representation to examine the material and immaterial exploitation of child detainees.

Key Words: Deleuze • detention centres • deterritorialize • Spivak

Childhood, Vol. 12, No. 3, 281-299 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0907568205054923


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