Canberra-based Piume Kaneshan, a 19-year-old Tamil from Sri Lanka, is the youngest of 39 refugees who walked and cycled thousands of kilometres across Australia last year. She explains what prompted her 640km trek from Melbourne to Canberra with 21 other women.

Like 10,000 other refugees who have lived in Australia for over a decade, Piume faces ongoing uncertainty because she was left out of the Albanese government’s announcement of 13 February 2023 which provided permanent pathways for 19,000 happy refugees.

In February 2024, hundreds of refugees and refugee supporters have joined the inaugural Big Walk 4 Refugees, smashing out a record 25 million step, 16,650 km, two-week virtual loop of Australia to arrive at Canberra 4 weeks ahead of schedule.

Powered by the notion that a “fair go” should be for all, walkers continue to pump out up to 3000km per day, now running virtual rings around Parliament House.

Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 video, so please download the video and watch from your desktop by clicking on this link instead. 

Watch Piume Kaneshan’s video message above or click here to open it in a new window. (Video from Barat Ali Batoor ASRC)