The Bone Sparrow

The Rohingya are an ethnic Muslim minority who once lived in the historical region of Rakhine in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. During British colonial rule in the 19th and 20th centuries, workers migrated from Bangladesh to Burma, dramatically increasing the population of Rohingya in Rakhine. When Burma became an independent nation in 1948, like most countries released from colonial oppression, the nation experienced a period of political instability and ethnic tension. Burma is a Buddhist country, and due to the Rohingya’s Muslim beliefs, the government saw the Rohingya’s presence as problematic and projected their governmental failures onto the Rohingya, making the ethnic minority a scapegoat in the ensuing political collapse. They were further caught in the crosshairs of conflicts between Bengalis and ethnic, Buddhist Burmese. The Burmese government then began instituting laws and policies that discriminated against Rohingya people. In 1982, the Burmese government passed the Nationality Act, which stripped the Rohingya of their citizenship based on ethnic criteria, leaving them effectively without a home.

Over the next decade, through various military-led campaigns, the Rohingya suffered violence and eventual displacement, as many fled the country after having lost their jobs and homes. The late 20th and early 21st centuries saw the worst violence against the Rohingya as the military forcefully and violently removed families from their homes. As a result, 2017 saw the largest immigration of Rohingya out of the country, displacing hundreds of thousands of people. The International Crimes Court would later investigate the crisis, and evidence of brutal crimes against men, women, and children led them to label the event as a genocide. Meanwhile, the asylum seekers fled to nearby countries, like Bangladesh, creating a staggering humanitarian crisis as the countries still struggle to provide aid for the displaced people. Refugees also fled elsewhere in Southeast Asia and even as far as Australia. The displacement led to overcrowded refugee camps with limited access to clean water, healthcare, adequate food, and education. Currently, the Rohingya remain the largest people group on the planet without a home state. Close to one million Rohingya have been displaced throughout various countries in Southeast Asia, and roughly 100,000 remain in immigration detention facilities. Repatriation into Myanmar isn’t possible due to the mass destruction of their villages, no guarantee of citizenship, and threats of future genocide (Jain, Kalpana. “The History of the Persecution of Myanmar's Rohingya.” The Conversation, 20 Sept. 2017).

Zana Fraillon is known for taking on human rights abuses in her books. After seeing a hand-drawn sketch of an angry sun from a boy living in an immigration detention center in Australia, Fraillon began to develop this fictional story of nine-year-old Subhi. Focusing on the events at Manus Regional Processing Center, an offshore detention center in Australia created as a holding facility for asylum seekers attempting to enter the country, Fraillon spent months combing through aerial photography, sketches from children, and interviews with refugees to piece together the puzzle of conditions inside the camps. As she began her research, Fraillon read a story about a pregnant female asylum seeker placed in a detention center after being labeled an “adverse risk assessment.”

Through more in-depth research, Fraillon discovered many detainees experience deteriorating mental health, yet many of their stories had been redacted from reports. In her narrative, Fraillon committed to telling their untold stories and exposing the deleterious effects of institutionalization on asylum seekers. Fraillon also committed to exposing the violence in these camps, as Eli’s storyline is based on a true account of 23-year-old Reza Barati’s murder in a riot at Manus Island. Though her subject matter is often bleak and tragic, Fraillon believes children’s literature is a good vehicle with which to explore human rights violations. Like young Subhi, children maintain optimism and can still envision a better future for themselves and other people around the world (Fraillon, Zana. “Zana Fraillon on Writing About Refugee Children: ‘Their Resilience Keeps Hope Alive.’” The Guardian, 15 Nov. 2016).