Vulnerable Targets

This image of a young Vietnamese girl and other children suffering from the effects of napalm during the Vietnam War is one that truly brings home to the viewer the horrors of war and conflict. I remember being horrified the first time I saw this picture of the Napalm Girl. Witnessing the suffering of the most vulnerable in our society jolts within most of us an instinctual abhorrence, we know that what we are encountering is wrong and needs something to be done about it.

In striking contrast to the horror of the Napalm Girl is the haunting beauty of the Afghan Girl photo portrait. She is of the Hazara tribe, a group belonging to the many Shia minorities in Afghanistan. Her image was captured as she spent time in a refugee camp, seeking protection from the Taliban. When the viewer realises the context of this photo its initial impact changes. Her situation stirs in the viewer an awareness of how cruel and unjust life can be, how fragile people are. (Khaled Hosseini's best selling novel The Kite Runner considers the position of the Hazara tribe in Afghanii society).

In The Secret River the plight of another young, female victim is given voice by Grenville. She tells of an Aboriginal girl being kept as a pet by the despicable Smasher Sullivan. He has no regard for her humanity and mistreats and defiles in her in the basest of ways. It is shocking and uncomfortable for the reader to encounter but, as for many of these types of images and stories, necessary. Throughout history such voices have often been dismissed and ignored, enabling such misery to be perpetuated. The Creating and Presenting Area of Study offers an opportunity to strengthen the voices of the persecuted in our world. A fiction piece inspired by the Aboriginal girl could be extremely effective. Another approach could be to research a figure of interest and write a biography of their life.