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One sees these people on the footpath. We pass each other, eyes averted. In no time at all, these strangers become just another part of the multicultural peoplescape of this young Australia. They are not our first wave of immigrants.
We are a nation built on refugees and people looking for a new life, for a strong and free place to raise new generations. Indeed, most of us are strangers on this soil in one way or another, so we can be oddly incurious about each other. In the back of our minds, we know that there is a story behind every single one of us and that some of those stories are dramatic, nay heartrending. We have a bad record of knowing or caring. The survivors of the sorrows of post-war Eastern Europe flooded all around us and we just kept going, wondering how long it would take them to speak good English. The Vietnamese - we called them "Boatpeople" - arrived and enriched our world immensely. But we never really learned their stories of deprivation and pain. Not really. As much as we have been an open culture, we have also been a blasé culture. So it took an Englishwoman teaching English as a second language not just to wonder, but to care and to ask. To all of her students, Janice Madden swiftly became much more than a teacher. She became an ally. Their lives, their families, their adjustments and their future genuinely mattered to her - as did their stories. Similarly with her co-workers in the classroom: the Bilingual School Service Officers - themselves previously refugees and migrants - who provide language support for the students under the New Arrivals Program. Janice volunteered the days of her life to sit with them, to ask them, to listen, to ask more - to ask about the details of the worlds that moulded them and the politics which disenfranchised them - and to write their stories as solid and enlightening oral histories. There is none of the writer in these stories. She is vector - pure and beautiful. And these stories are what those strangers in the street are all about. If only everyone knew.

We are taken in this book through some of the most appalling events of the twentieth century in the footsteps of a number of remarkable people. Their stories are told beautifully but simply, allowing the nature of the experiences and the personal responses to speak with their own eloquence. The people portrayed are powerless to effect the great deeds which end tyranny, but their stories carry the message that oppression can only succeed if it destroys the spirit. Through indomitable will they not only survived terrible persecution, but carried through their ordeals the desire to aid current generations of refugees through education. Individually and collectively these are powerful and ultimately life-affirming stories which capture the best of the human spirit in its response to adversity.

The stories in Enter reveal the remarkable life experiences of immigrants to Australia from the world over, many of whom have fled dire situations in search of a better life. Each story in this book is intrinsically interesting and different, reflecting myriad encounters and incidents, but collectively they produce remarkable resonance. The stories encapsulate the enormous depths and dimensions within Australia's diverse population. Coming from all walks of life, we are a people with the wisdom of expansive life experiences, histories, languages, cultures and hopes for the future which contribute to Australia's richness. We are the world in one place, strengthened and blessed with different stories such as those chronicled here. Enter documents the recollections of ordinary people living remarkable lives. It is a book of hope, courage, strength, love, dignity, care and optimism. I commend the author and storytellers for their moving and inspiring accounts, and trust they motivate others to tell their stories.

This book, Enter, enthrals with its captivating insight into the essence of the refugee story. Through the eyes of the protagonists themselves, engrossing narratives unfold, of the trials and tribulations of those hapless souls, fleeing persecution and destitution, who have unwittingly been forced to forsake their previous lives. Such folk, who, escaping from unspeakable traumas, have, with the compassionate assistance of caring individuals - such as the author and many others in the community - managed to rebuild, or are in the process of rebuilding, a future for themselves and their families in a welcoming environment - Australia. In elucidating this healing process, Janice Madden masterfully debunks the cries of "the scourge of economic migration" from the hysterical Right. We, as a humane nation, have so much to give to those who, by whatever means, arrive in such circumstances on our shores, and who in turn have so much to contribute to our vibrant multicultural society.

I approached these stories, told by refugees and migrants who have experienced the worst aspects of mankind, with a certain amount of trepidation. Did I really want to read about the massacre of innocents, displaced people, families torn apart, and genocide? Didn't I already know of man's inhumanity to man? Hadn't I already vaguely heard of the Sudanese conflict, the Baha'i faith and Tatars? What more could I learn? Well apparently quite a lot. No one can read these simply-put yet moving stories without marvelling at the refugees' indomitable spirit, and their overwhelming passion for both family and education. Most breathtaking of all, though, is their desire to give something back to a world which has dealt with them so unfairly and so harshly. These people must not be defined as victims to be pitied, but as human beacons to be admired and emulated. We are all of us on a journey through life; take a step forward today by reading these remarkable stories.

Even memories deeply buried can be ignited by the senses. Janice has shown absolute compassion and respect for her colleagues in resurrecting these often harshest of memories in the written word; the same compassion and respect she shows every minute of every working day for her beloved students in Adelaide's New Arrivals Program.