At Work Inside Our Detention Centres: A Guard’s Story

Since it is banned to take pictures inside the Australian detention centers, Sam Wallman and Nick Olle’s creative solution to represent the centers through comics prove the comics’ ability to represent not only marginalized groups but also marginalized political topics [1]. While most people believe that webcomics do not cover serious subjects such as oppression and are usually targeted towards a young audience, At Work Inside Our Detention Centres: A Guard’s Story’s goal is to educate adults about the poor situations of refugee camps in Australia. The webcomic demonstrates how webcomics can be used as a tool for educating adults [2]. In order to express oppression, the webcomic black and white sketches may present a disturbing illustration of the refugees’ mental health. This webcomic reflects the diverse purposes of webcomics as it shines a light on a topic that has been forced to be neglected by the press and giving a voice to the thousands who have been silenced.  

The webcomic expresses how employees of Serco, a British provider of public services who is currently in charge of Australian refugee camps, treat their detainees. Specifically, this panel likens the camp to a prisoner who is not officially named as such. The panel is a continuation of the previous panel in which the author explains how the detainees are just like prisoners but are not openly described as such and wear different clothes. Therefore, the panel paints the camp with a black brush to convey the oppression and difficulties practiced within it. Additionally, the white space in the comic represents the space between Asylum seekers and freedom and takes advantage of the digital multimodality [3]. While all different modes of communication failed to expose this political issue, webcomics succeeded as they allow for limitless subjects.

1. Kirkpatrick, Ellen, and Suzanne Scott. "Representation and Diversity in Comics Studies." Cinema Journal 55, no. 1 (2015): 120-24.

2. Gerde, Virginia W., and R. Spencer Foster. "X-Men Ethics: Using Comic Books to Teach Business Ethics." Journal of Business Ethics 77, no. 3 (2008): 245-58.

3. Lavender, Andy. "Digital Culture." In Mapping Intermediality in Performance, edited by Lavender Andy, Bay-Cheng Sarah, Kattenbelt Chiel, and Nelson Robin, 125-34. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2010.