Against Erasure - Manus Island

Between 2001 and 2008, and again between 2013 and 2017, hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers were effectively imprisoned under Australian law, in an offshore processing centre at Lombrum Naval Base, on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea (PNG). In 2016, the PNG Supreme Court ordered the centre to be closed, as its existence breached the PNG constitution. The detention camp was dismantled in 2017. Today, it is overgrown with forest and jungle. Yet several men died there, due to homicide, self-harm, suicide, or untreated medical conditions. Many hundreds of others experienced pain and torture during their imprisonment. Working with an interdisciplinary, international research team, led by Claire Loughnan (Criminology) and Una McIlvenna (History) and the University of Melbourne Arts eLearning and eTeaching team, the project – Against Erasure – has developed a 3D, digital representation of the now dismantled site, drawing on archival materials, interviews with Behrouz Boochani, Google maps, images from Chauka Please Tell Us The Time, and recordings from The Messenger Project (Michael Green and Abdul Aziz). This is the first known 3D model of the detention centre, making a significant contribution to collective knowledge about the facility and the island on which it was based. Importantly, it will function as a historical reminder of, and testament to, the lives and suffering of those who were imprisoned there as an effect of Australian laws and policies.