Reclaiming our stories: construction of narratives on queer and trans women's forced displacement and violence

Abstract

This research examines lived experiences of queer women seeking asylum in Australia due to persecution based on their sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation. Drawing on lived experiences of queer displacement of myself and nine other queer refugee women, the research recognises women's epistemic authority to narrative their lives. It highlights the unique challenges faced by queer women in displacement offering an intricate analysis of experiences of violence from countries of origin to Australia, the country of arrival. It problematises the perception of experience of queer displacement as a temporal category highlighting the experiences of the violence of the everyday, epistemic violence, dangers of visibility and impossibility of recognition within heteronormative refugee and often white queer spaces. Embedding itself in the conceptual frameworks of trauma and queer theories, the thesis investigates the interconnectedness of trauma, violence, and narratives in the lives of queer refugee women. It challenges the prevailing heteronormative and gender-blind narratives that dominate the discourse on asylum and displacement, offering critique on social discourses that produce normative categories of who counts as a refugee and who counts as a queer refugee. Applying the lens lived experience, the thesis offers a critical analysis of power structures and norms within the queer displacement discourse. It analyses the discourses on a number of levels from grassroots to the UN. The research coins the term 'testimonial scripts' to describe the imposition of the narrative orientation of a queer refugee story for it to appear intelligible, normative and non-threatening. In doing so, it offers both caution and guidance to all engaging with queer refugee stories explicating the operation of epistemic injustice against queer refugee women telling their stories. Finally, it focuses on how women can challenge and disrupt dominant narratives and power structures within the asylum and displacement discourse and what are the possibilities for recognition of the richness of these lived experiences. Ultimately, this research contributes to academic and practice scholarship while providing practical and policy-oriented insights for inclusive and comprehensive approaches to asylum and displacement, informed by the lived experiences of queer refugee women. Show more