Michael Green

Writer and producer

Manus Recording Project Collective

In Projects on

where are you today, 2020 [sound installation]. Every day throughout August, subscribers received a text message with a new ten-minute audio recording from Farhad Bandesh, Farhad Rahmati, Samad Abdul, Shamindan Kanapathi, Thanush Selvraj or Yasin Abdallah.

These men, seeking asylum by boat, were forcibly transferred to Manus Island by the Australian government nearly seven years ago. Now, they are held in hotels or detention centres in Port Moresby, Melbourne or Brisbane.

The site displayed some additional information: the number of kilometres between you and the person who made the recording, and the number of minutes, hours, or days that had elapsed since the recording was made. Listen to the recordings.

Design, build and conceptual support by Public Office. Commissioned and presented by Liquid Architecture. Supported by the City of Melbourne COVID-19 Arts Grants.

Mantra Hotel, Preston. Photo by Yasin Abdallah.

how are you today, 2018. A sound installation comprising an archive of 84 ten-minute field recordings by six men on Manus Island. Developed for the Eavesdropping exhibition at the Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne, with Samad Abdul, Farhad Bandesh, Behrouz Boochani, André Dao, Shamindan Kanapathi, Kazem Kazemi and Jon Tjhia. how are you today was subsequently exhibited at City Gallery, Wellington, and Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland. Listen to the recordings.

how are you today, 2018, at the Ian Potter Museum of Art.

Still Life

In Projects on

A series of first-person narratives about statelessness, together with still life images. A collaboration with writers André Dao and Nicole Curby and artist Sarah Walker. This project is also an academic collaboration with Associate Professor Jennifer Balint and Dr Ashley Barnwell, from the University of Melbourne, as well as the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness at the Melbourne Law School.

Forthcoming, 2021.

Imran is stateless

In Audio on

Imran fled violence in Myanmar – now he is in detention on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea, with no papers and no idea what will happen to him. A documentary for BBC World Service.  

Hosted by Academy Award-winning documentary film-maker Asif Kapadia (Amy, Senna, Diego Maradona), this is the fourth episode in a five-part series from BBC World Service in collaboration with Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute. Detours takes us off the main roads of our lives, following people who didn’t end up where they expected.

Producer: Elyse Blennerhassett and Michael Green

Listen now via BBC, 27 minutes.

A Stranger in Geneva

In Audio on

Abdul Aziz Muhamat is a young man from Darfur, in western Sudan. He’s been held in Australian immigration detention on Manus Island since 2013. But this is February 2019 and Aziz is allowed to fly to Geneva, Switzerland—for two weeks.

His reason for going is to accept the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders. It is a big night. His acceptance speech, Mandela like. But, the morning after is a different more complicated story.

Aziz is speaking to all the right people, making his case for himself and his friends back on Manus. They are listening. He is not sure, however, if they can do anything. He is also not sure what he should do. Should he stay or should he go?

A documentary for ABC Radio National, Earshot. Part two of a two-part series, along with Flight from Manus. Listen now, via ABC, 28 minutes.

Aziz at the award ceremony

Supervising Producer Lyn Gallacher, sound engineer Melissa May. Music composed by Hour House (Mark Leacy and Sam Kenna)

Flight from Manus

In Audio on

Abdul Aziz Muhamat is from Darfur, in Western Sudan. He’s been in Australian immigration detention on Manus Island since 2013. But surprisingly after six years he’s been given permission to visit Geneva for two weeks, because he’s been shortlisted for a major international award for human rights defenders. It’s an acknowledgment for what he’s done, resisting Australia’s offshore detention regime… but then he has to return to Manus Island. Back to the same situation he’s being celebrated for campaigning against. 

A documentary for ABC Radio National, Earshot. Part one of a two-part series, along with A Stranger in Geneva. Listen now, via ABC, 28 minutes.

I’m waiting in person at the airport in Geneva, Switzerland, hoping to catch a glimpse of Aziz as he comes into the arrivals hall.

Abdul Aziz Muhamat

Supervising Producer Lyn Gallacher, sound engineer Melissa May. Music composed by Hour House (Mark Leacy and Sam Kenna)